Author: Nadirian Emma

16.4% RISE IN AVERAGE MONTHLY WAGES IN ARMENIA IN JAN-MAR

/ARKA/
April 20, 2009
YEREVAN

This January-March, the average monthly wages reached 97,899 AMD – an
increase of 16.4% as compared with the corresponding period last year.

The RA Statistical Service reports that the average monthly wages
in government-financed organizations reached 80,682 AMD – an annual
increase of 18.1%. On the other hand, this March the average monthly
wages decreased by 1.2% as compared with this February.

The average monthly wages in privately-owned organizations reached
123,501 AMD – an annual; increase of 13.1%, and an increase of 10.1%
as compared with February.

An increase of 4.4% in the nominal monthly wages was registered in
Armenia this March as compared with this February.

APRIL – MONTH TO LIVE, DIE AND WIN

Panorama.am
16:24 20/04/2009

"April has been a fatal month for the Armenians. April has been the
month to live, to die and to win," Hranush Hakobian the Minister
of Diaspora started her speech in the international conference
dedicated to the 100 anniversary of Adana massacre. The Armenian
Genocide Museum-Institute organizes an international conference to
commemorate the victims of Adana massacre by the Ottoman Empire
in 1909. The historians from Armenia, Italy, Hungary, Austria,
France, USA and Sweden will make reports during the conference. "Our
scientists write and speak about Adana massacre but many Armenians
and the international society is unaware of the real facts linking
Adana with the Genocide," said H. Hakobian.

Country profile: Azerbaijan
Facts and statistics on Azerbaijan including history, population,
politics, geography, economy, religion and climate
The Guardian,
Saturday 18 April 2009 Article history
Map of Azerbaijan. Source: Graphic

Potted history of the country: Fought over by Mongols, Ottomans and
Persians, by the 18th century Azerbaijan was a collection of Muslim
khanates. A century later Russia absorbed the country into its empire
and by 1900 Azerbaijan was supplying half of the world’s oil. It gained
independence in 1991. War with Armenia over the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh region soon followed.

At a glance Location: Eastern South Caucasus, on the Caspian Sea
Neighbours: Armenia, Georgia Size: 33,400 square miles Population:
8,238,672 (91st) Density: 246.7 people per square mile Capital city:
Baku (population 1,893,300) Head of state: President ?Ã?lham Heydar oglu
Aliyev
Head of government: Prime minister Artur Tahir oglu Rasizade
Currency: Manat Time zone: Azerbaijan Standard Time (+4 hours)
International dialling code: +994 Website: president.az Data correct on
Saturday 18 April 2009 Political pressure points: President Ilham
Aliyev, who succeeded his father in a dubious election in 2003, has
crushed most dissent. Opposition members are frequently detained.
Armenia remains a sworn enemy 15 years after the war, and the risk of
renewed conflict is a constant threat.

Population mix: Azeris 90.6%, Lazs 2.2%, Russians 1.8% and Armenians
1.5%, unspecified numbers of Talish, Avars, Turks, Tatars, Ukrainians,
Sakhurs, Georgians, Kurds, Tats, Jews, Udins

Religious make-up: Muslim 96%

Main languages: Azerbaijani

Living national icons: Rustam Ibragimbekov (Oscar-nominated
screenwriter), Aziza Mustafa Zadeh (jazz singer), Alim Qasimov (folk
singer), Chingiz Abdullayev (novelist), Tahir Salahov (artist),
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (chess)

Azerbaijan on a map. Source: Graphic Landscape and climate: The
Caucasus mountains are a formidable northern frontier with Russia.
Their slopes are covered in forests that give way to orchards, and
farms used for intense cultivation of cotton and grain. Its eastern
border is the Caspian sea. Summer can be hot, winters mild.

Highest point: Bazarduzu Dagi 4,485 metres

Area covered by water: 193 square miles

Healthcare and disease: State spending on healthcare is among the
lowest of former Soviet states. One-quarter of its people do not have
access to safe water. Mortality rates from TB are 10 times the European
average. Malaria deaths, which spiked in the 1990s, have largely been
contained, but a danger remains.

Average life expectancy (m/f): 69/75

Average number of children per mother: 1.7

Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births: 82

Infant deaths per 1,000 births: 89

Adult HIV/Aids rate: 0.1%

Doctors per 1,000 head of population: 3.6

Adult literacy rate: 98.8% (m 99.5%/f 98.2%)

Economic outlook: Azerbaijan’
s economy grew rapidly from 2006-08 on the
back of increasing oil exports from huge reserves in the Caspian, but
falling commodity prices will stunt future growth.

Main industries: Petroleum and natural gas, steel, iron ore, cement and
textiles

Key crops/livestock: Wheat, rice barley maize, sheep, chickens

Key exports: Vegetable products, minerals, chemical industrial products

GDP: ?£10,138m (78th)

GDP per head: ?£1,195

Unemployment rate: 0.8%

Proportion of global carbon emissions: 0.14%

Most popular tourist attractions: Baku’s Unesco world heritage listed
old city.

Local recommendation: Krasnaya Sloboda, a settlement in the foothills
of the Caucasus, home to a community rumoured to be descendants of one
of the lost tribes of Israel.

Traditional dish: Yarpag dolmasi (vine leaves stuffed with mince)

Foreign tourist visitors per year: 1,177,277

Media freedom index (ranked out of 173): 150

Did you know … Caviar was once so abundant here that British troops
stationed at Baku in 1919 were fed it as cheap rations.

National anthem:
Thousands of lives have been sacrificed
Your bosom has become a battlefield
Every devoted soldier
Has become a hero

?· Information correct on date of first publication, Saturday 18 April
2009.

MARK ARAX TO HEADLINE GLENDALE GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION

cle=41611_4/18/2009_1
Friday, April 17, 2009

Author and journalist Mark Arax, whose new book "West of the West"
is receiving high praise from literary critics, will be delivering the
keynote address on April 24 in Glendale to commemorate the 1915-1918
Armenian Genocide.

On April 23, Arax will appear at the Barnes & Noble at the Americana to
read from his new book, which is rich in Armenian themes, including
the psychological toll of Turkey’s continued refusal to admit to
the crime of genocide. The next day, the former Los Angeles Times
writer will gather with a throng of Armenians at the Alex Theater in
Glendale to remember the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide,
a crime that Turkey still refuses to recognize.

"I feel greatly honored to be asked by the city and the Armenian
community to give this address," Arax said. "In a strange way, the
Armenian Genocide, as a matter of history, is more alive today than
it has ever been. Armenian political groups, writers, film makers
and students are largely to credit. But ironically, it is Turkey’s
continued campaign of denial that has helped keep it very much alive."

Arax’s new book, which officially hits the bookstores this week,
begins with his own grandfather’s journey out of the Armenian genocide
and ends with his father’s murder in Fresno, finally solved after 30
years. In between are ten stories–including "The Legend of Zankou"
and "Confessions of an Armenian Moonshiner," that dig deeply and
eloquently into California and America, in a new century.

Critics are comparing the stories in "West of the West: Dreamers,
Believers, Builders and Killers in the Golden State" to the great
social portraits written by William Saroyan and Joan Didion. Publishers
Weekly gave Arax’s new collection its highest rating:

"These swift, penetrating essays from former Los Angeles Times writer
Arax take measure of contemporary California with a sure and supple
hand. For Arax, a third-generation Californian of Armenian heritage,
the state’s outr? reputation and self-representation are a complex
dance of myth and memory that includes his own family lore and
personal history.

"It is partly this personal connection, running subtly but consistently
throughout, that pushes the collection past mere reportage to a
high literary enterprise that beautifully integrates the private and
idiosyncratic with the sweep of great historical forces."

The Los Angeles Times, in an April 19 main Sunday review, praised
Arax’s "intimate dramas" shaped by the "intense subtleties of his
writing."

"He goes at events with the fierce bulldog tenacity that is one of
his trademarks as a writer," The Times noted. "Charged and highly
moving stuff."

Arax is considered one of the nation’s finest journalists. For twenty
years, his stories at the Los Angles Times exposed human rights abuses
and official cover-up in California prisons and changed state laws that
govern air quality and the treatment of farm workers in the fields.

His two previous books have garnered high praise from critics for
their literary and investigative qualities.

His first book, In My Father’s Name, is a stirring memoir that weaves
together the history of his Armenian family and hometown of Fresno
with his decades-long search to find the men who murdered his father
in 1972.

His second book, the bestselling The King of California tells the
epic story of the Boswell farming family and the building of a secret
American empire in the heart of California . Named one of the top ten
books of the year by the L.A. Times and the San Francisco Chronicle,
The King of California won a 2004 California Book Award and the 2005
William Saroyan International Writing Prize.

Arax left the L.A. Times in 2007 after the paper’s managing
editor decided to censor his story on the denial of the Armenian
Genocide. The editor said Arax could not write the story because he
is an Armenian. After a public fight, in which tens of thousands of
Armenians nationwide protested to the paper in letters and phone calls,
Arax was forced to leave the Times. The managing editor who censored
Arax’s story was then fired.

He is the senior policy director for the California Senate Majority
leaders and is teaching literary nonfiction part-time at Claremont
McKenna.

UKRAINE INTERESTED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIFACETED RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

armradio.am
15.04.2009 18:40

On April 15 the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian received
the Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Olexander Kupishin.

Greeting the guest, Minister Nalbandian attached importance to the
further development of relations between Armenia and Ukraine, noting
that a great potential existed for the deepening of collaboration
between the two countries.

Deputy Foreign Minister Olexander Kupishin said Ukraine was
interested in the development of multifaceted relations with
Armenia. He underlined that the political dialogue between the
countries would contribute to the intensification of cooperation in
different directions.

During the meeting reference was made to a number of regional and
international issues.

RAFFLES HOTEL: COCKTAIL OF ARTISTIC TALENTS
Dominic Walsh

The Times
April 16, 2009
UK

Raffles Hotel will forever be associated with the Singapore Sling, a
gin-based cocktail that was invented in the hotel’s Long Bar shortly
before the First World War. But it was as a tiffin house that the
hotel started its life in 1887, when the four Sarkies brothers of
Armenia, proprietors of the Eastern & Oriental hotel in Penang,
decided to launch a business in Singapore.

The brothers named the hotel after Sir Stamford Raffles, who colonised
Singapore 68 years earlier, and as the beach-side property was expanded
beyond its original ten rooms it soon became a haven for Europeans
seeking some of the comforts of home.

The hotel’s billiards room was reputedly where the last wild tiger
in Singapore was shot in 1902, although the official history claims
the tiger had escaped from a nearby "native show".

Somerset Maugham made the first of his visits to Raffles in 1921,
reputedly turning titbits of gossip he overheard at dinner parties
into some of his best-loved stories. In 1930 Noel Coward arrived at
the hotel and played Captain Stanhope in Journey’s End at the Victoria
Theatre near by.

In the postwar years Liz Taylor and Ava Gardner were among the
patrons but the hotel was a shadow of its former self. In 1989,
after designation as a national monument by Singapore’s Gove rnment,
it closed for refurbishment. The restoration of the hotel in French
Renaissance style brought accusations that it had become a caricature
of its former self. The redesign did put Raffles back among the great
hotels and in 2006 the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh stayed there
during a state visit.

AZERBAIJAN’S DANGEROUS DANCE WITH RUSSIA
by Lale Sariibrahimoglu

Today’s Zaman
April 14 2009
Turkey

As Armenia and Turkey come close to normalizing ties, which will not
only contribute to the stability of the volatile South Caucasus but
also to relations between Ankara and Yerevan, Azerbaijan has taken a
last minute stance that can only be perceived as an act of sabotage
supported by Russia.

Turkish diplomatic sources are of the view that Russia was behind
the last-minute snag created by Azerbaijan over Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement. Russia has long benefited from the Azerbaijani-Armenian
and Armenian-Turkish dispute. That dispute, however, has a serious
potential to negatively affect ties between NATO allies Turkey and the
US, too, because the US Congress has already made several attempts
in the past decade to recognize the events of 1915 that took place
during Ottoman Turkish rule as genocide of Armenians.

During his April 6-7 visit to Turkey, US President Barack Obama
reiterated his election campaign pledge to recognize the events of
1915 as a genocide of Armenians, but stated that the US will not
prevent Armenian-Turkish relations to progress. This was widely read
as a message that Obama will not use the word "genocide" during his
April 24 speech if he makes one. April 24 is regarded as the day mass
killings of Armenians began in 1915.

There is a strong belief that if Obama had the intention of using
the word "genocide" during his April speech, he would not have
visited Ankara.

Turkey strongly denies genocide allegations and has warned the US
for decades that if its Congress passes a resolution to this end and
if a US president utters the word "genocide," it will irreparably
damage relations between the two allies, which need each other in
this volatile region of the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans
and the eastern Mediterranean.

But finally, Turkey, which has done nothing for decades apart from
denying genocide allegations, came up with a proposal to Armenia
in 2005 to set up a committee of historians to investigate the 1915
events while broadening its package of proposals to begin relations
with its northeastern neighbour, Armenia.

That package includes a solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh dispute,
an Azerbaijani territory with a predominantly Armenian population,
an opening of the border between Turkey and Armenia that Turkey
closed in 1993 after the Azerbaijani-Armenian dispute over Nagornyy
Karabakh broke out, an opening of diplomatic ties with Armenia as well
as the start of deliberations among historians of both countries on
the genocide allegations.

However, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s last-minute refusal
to participate in the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC)
meeting held in Istanbul last week, it has become clear that Baku
protests Ankara-Yerevan rapprochement before progress is made on
Nagornyy Karabakh. Armenian-Turkish relations have once again been
hijacked by the Baku-Yerevan dispute.

A former Turkish ambassador to the US who also served as the Turkish
ambassador in Baku, Faruk Logoglu, is of the belief that although
the Armenian-Turkish package of solutions will be beneficial for the
whole region, Turkey has neglected the public diplomacy aspect of
the rapprochement.

"Turkish decision makers should have informed the parties in Parliament
about the steps taken on improving ties with Armenia while the Turkish
public should also have been informed to a certain extent," Logoglu
said last Sunday during a roundtable discussion hosted by CNNTurk.

However, the question is whether the Aliyev administration in Baku
really cares about public diplomacy and hence the reaction seen from
his people.

Instead, Aliyev has apparently used his state-controlled media, which
published last week anti-rapprochement stories citing the unresolved
status of the Nagornyy Karabakh dispute, creating a last-minute snag
to prevent a breakthrough in Armenian-Turkish relations.

Murat Mercan, a deputy from the ruling Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) and head of the parliamentary Foreign Relations
Committee, noted on the same program that Turkey informed Baku about
all bilateral talks that have taken place between Turkey and Armenia
formally and informally over the past several years. Mercan’s remarks
raised question marks over the sincerity of Aliyev’s decision to not
attend the Istanbul gathering. He did not cite any reason for his
absence from the event.

The reaction from Azerbaijan, which has already begun supplying gas to
the European markets via Turkey, bypassing Russia, has forced Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to state on April 9 that the
absence of a resolution between Armenia and Azerbaijan concerning the
Nagornyy Karabakh dispute stands as an obstacle to ongoing negotiations
for a normalization of ties between Armenia and Turkey.

This past week’s developments indicate that behind Aliyev’s negative
stance, fuelling its own media and the public against Armenian-Turkish
progress in relations, has been Russia, which has several benefits
in sabotaging the arrival of stability in the Caucasus.

The implementation of the package long negotiated between Turkey
and Armenia, with Azerbaijan being informed of almost all steps,
has now been jeopardized by both Azerbaijan and Russia.

The US has been of the strong belief that implementing the
Armenian-Turkish package soon will give US President Obama
ammunition to fire back at Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House
of Representatives, and her supporters in their attempts to pass a
resolution describing the 1915 events as a genocide of Armenians.

Instead of conditioning the normalization of Turkish-Armenian
relations on Nagornyy Karabakh, Turkey should unveil and implement the
package. Such a policy will mark a big step in solving the Nagornyy
Karabakh dispute.

AZERBAIJAN CENSUS BEGINS TODAY

APA
April 13 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev – APA-ECONOMICS. Population census has begun
across Azerbaijan on April 13 and will last until April 22, said the
State Statistical Committee.

"We have started preparation since 2006. 24,000 people have been hired
and trained to conduct the census. We have set up 19 000 enumeration
stations across the country and we appointed one instructor per 5
canvassers, also called listers or enumerators, and 7 instructors form
an enumeration station. There will be coordination between canvassers
and instructors. Every station will count about 17 000 to 18 000
people. Each station will have 35 canvassers and each canvasser will
count 450 people on average," he added.

Foreign nationals will be counted with the help of embassies and
consulates.

"Those who have not been at home for more than a year will not be
counted. Information about people who have not been home for less
than a year will be updated on the knowledge of their neighbors and
acquaintances," said the Committee.

The census questionnaire contains 35 questions – 29 private questions
(about work, employment, etc.), and 6 about housing conditions.

The government has allocated AZN 8 million for the census.

After the 10-day census, census papers will be submitted to the State
Statistical Committee within a month as from the second half of May.

The data will be entered into the computer database and 10 booklets on
various regions of the country and 1 booklet on the entire country will
be published. The census process is slated for completion in mid-2010.

The Committee is unable to count how many people live in Azerbaijan’s
Nagorno Karabakh that is under illegal occupation of Armenia.

"So, in our census we will consider the number as equal to the
results of the 1989 census which counted 120 000 Azerbaijani-citizen
Armenians living in Nagorno Karabakh since it is impossible to specify
these data".

The population census is held every 10 years. According to the
latest official data by the State Statistics Committee, Azerbaijan’s
population reached 8.753 million as at April 1, 2009.

Armenian president due in Tehran on Monday

Tehran, April 12, IRNA – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan heading a
high profile delegation is to pay an official two-day visit to Iran as
of Monday to confer with high ranking Iranian officials on expansion of
mutual relations.

The Armenian president is to meet the Supreme Leader of the Islamic
Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a
number of other high-ranking officials.

He is also expected to meet Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and Secretary
of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili.

Prior to his departure, the Armenian president said his country pursues
implementation of Iran-Armenia joint projects.

Speaking to reporters in Yerevan, he said the current global economic
meltdown left no impact on the joint projects being implemented by the
two countries.

During his stay, the draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on
railroad cooperation is expected to be finalized by the two presidents.

SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN VISITS NORK RETIREMENT HOME

National Assembly of RA
April 10 2009
Armenia

On the occasion of the Day of Maternity and Beauty the Speaker
of the National Assembly Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan on April 7 visited
Nork Old People’s Home, congratulated women residents, wishing them
health and welfare: "You are very important for us, for our country,
for our families, and for the second time I get convinced that here
exists a firm and united family. On behalf of the deputies of the
National Assembly and on my behalf I congratulate you on the occasion
of the Day of Maternity and Beauty. I wish you health, happiness and
realization of your aims and desires."

Speaker of the National Assembly Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan met with the
couples of the retirement home, gave flowers to the oldest women of
the old people’s home. The residents of the retirement home expressed
their gratitude with songs and dancing.