Author: Nalbandian Eduard

SHEVKET SHAYDULIN APPOINTED AS GENERAL DIRECTOR OF SOUTH CAUCASUS RAILROAD

ARKA
Dec 12, 2008

YEREVAN, December 12. /ARKA/. Shevket Shaydulin has been appointed as
General Director of the South Caucasus Railroad company, the company’s
press service reported.

The decision to dismiss Alexander Kuznetsov from the general director
post and appoint Shaydulin was adopted at the sitting of Board of
Director of Russian Railways open joint stock company in Moscow on
December 9.

Shaydulin was Director of Sverdlov Railroad in 2004-2007 and Advisor
to President of the Russian Railways in 2007-2008.

South Caucasus Railroad fully owned by the Russian Railways is the
operator of the Armenian Railways under a 30-year concession agreement
signed on February 13 2008.

The Armenian Railways Company is in charge of 805 km of Armenia’s
1,125-km-long railways. Since 2001, the company has been operating at
a profit. 3mln tons of cargoes were transported through the Armenian
Railways in 2007 against 2.7mln tons in 2006.

ARMENIAN INTELLECTUALS SEND ‘GENOCIDE’ LETTER TO GUL

Today’s Zaman
Dec 12 2008
Turkey

A group of Armenian intellectuals have urged President Abdullah Gul to
recognize Armenian allegations of genocide, suggesting that such a move
would remove "a burden of history" resting on the shoulders of Turks.

The letter, signed by around 300 intellectuals according to Armenian
news reports, praised Gul for breaking a Turkish foreign policy taboo
by visiting Armenia to watch a soccer game in early September between
the national soccer teams of the two countries in the World Cup. The
visit paved the way for contacts between Turkey and Armenia, which
have had no formal ties since 1993.

The visit "proved that normalization of neighbor relations demand bold
and realistic action. It specifically refers to the Armenian Genocide
issue, which has divided the two nations since 1915," the letter was
quoted as saying in a report by earlier this week.

"Mr. President, it is an outrageous crime against the humanity which
has no time limitation. Its recognition is not a demand of the Armenian
people but a just expectation of the international community. The
Armenian Genocide is a crime against the values of modern civilization,
a crime that can’t be questioned. We all should accept that the
Ottoman Empire is guilty of the massacre of the Armenian people,
and modern-day Turkey bears hereditary responsibility for what they
consider a monumental crime against humanity. Present-day Turkish
diplomacy and propaganda machine can’t cover this dark page of
history," the letter continued.

"The historic memory of our nations is deep and restless. Your
generation of Turkish leaders must accept the undeniable truth
and recognize the fact of the Armenian Genocide. Recognition of
this indisputable fact is first of all essential for the Turkish
people. Relieving this burden of history, they can turn this dark
page and launch a sincere dialogue for true reconciliation," it
said. "Your visit to Armenia inspires hope for a new and realistic
political course in Turkey. However, these efforts can fail of your
state doesn’t take action to put an end to the current policy of the
Armenian Genocide denial."

The move from the Armenian intellectuals came days after a group
of Turkish intellectuals apologized for the "great disaster that
Ottoman Armenians suffered in 1915." A petition initiated by a group
of intellectuals, including professors Baskın Oran and Ahmet İnsel
and journalists Ali Bayramoglu and Cengiz Aktar, personally apologizes
for the events.

Turkey severed its diplomatic ties with Armenia and closed its border
in 1993 in protest of the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh
in Azerbaijan. Ankara says the normalization of its relations with
Armenia depends on Armenia’s withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh and an
end to Yerevan’s support for the Armenian diaspora’s efforts to win
international recognition for claims that Armenians were subjected to
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. But Gul’s September visit
broke the ice between the two countries. Officials have had talks on
the possible normalization of relations since that historic visit.

–Boundary_(ID_uaKMxIXHii3Xeiqjw1T7kw)–

FORMER PARTICIPANTS SING FOR PEACE
by Jarmo Siim

EuroVision
s?id=1623
Dec 10 2008
Switzerland

Boaz, Sirusho and Jelena TomaÅ¡eviÄ~G will record a song about
peace, written by themselves and the Nobel Peace Prize winner and
the incumbent Israeli president Shimon Perez.

The Head of Press of the Israeli delegation Elad Weissman told
Eurovision.tv the video of the song will be filmed today where a
famous ballerina Rona-Lee will also participate. The song will be
included in Boaz’s new album to be released in late January.

Boaz told the fan portal Esctoday.com: "With my two friends here,
Sirusho and Jelena, I truly believe that we can make a change with
our music and art. I hope we can make a change with this song. It
is an example of how the young people can make the difference and
influence others with their hopes and dreams."

Boaz represented Israel at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, Sirusho
did the same for Armenia and Jelena TomaÅ¡eviÄ~G for Serbia, all
achieving places in the top 10.

–Boundary_(ID_hraxxEMI21jWYAf/qTnSSA)–

FALL IN PRICES RECORDED IN ARMENIA’S FOOD MARKET IN PERIOD BEFORE NEW YEAR

Noyan Tapan

Dec 10, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. Some cases of a price fall were
recorded in Armenia’s food market in the period before New Year,
the chairman of the RA State Commission for Protection of Economic
Competition Ashot Shahnazarian told reporters on December 10. According
to him, there has been a fall in prices of foodstuffs in supermarkets
which is a positive phenomenon. "We have achieved this thanks to joint
work. The economic entities have also realized that it is advantageous
to work in this way," A. Shahnazarian noted.

In his words, a tendency of inflation has been observed only in
the egg market, with the price of an egg increasing from 55 to 60
drams. A. Shahnazarian assured those present that the Commission will
follow the fluctuations of prices in the egg market, and in case of
revealing a continuous inflation, it will initiate proceedings.

As regards the prices of dried fruit and nuts, A. Shahnazarian said
that it is difficult to control this market because it is a free
market without any economic entities that have a dominating position.

NA CHAIRMAN: "IMPROVE LIFE BY RULE OF LAW"

Panorama.am
16:38 10/12/2008

Today it is the international day of defending human rights. In
this regard the Chairman of National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan sent
a message which says: "In 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the
declaration of human rights.

Since December 10, 1950 Human Rights’ day is celebrated. During the
last 60 years the world is changed, and the people are also changed,
but our imaginations about human rights have been unchanged since
the antic times of Greek history."

The Chairman says that after the independence, the Constitution of
Armenia has defined the human rights and its basic liberties. After
Constitutional reforms Ombudsman office has been established in
Armenia. The NA Spokesman says that the National Assembly will keep
an eye on rule of law of human rights and mentioned that to improve
life rule of law is of great importance.

UW FB: SARKISIAN WENT AFTER HUSKY JOB ‘FULL FLEDGED’
By John Boyle

HeraldNet
20081209/SPORTS/712099914/1093/SPORTS06
Dec 9 2008
WA

SEATTLE — Had Steve Sarkisian been more adept at hitting a slider,
Washington almost certainly would have introduced a different football
coach Monday.

Sarkisian, who Monday was announced as Tyrone Willingham’s successor
at Washington, first went to college at USC as a baseball player
after graduating from Southern California’s West Torrance High School.

But as a freshman at USC, Sarkisian quickly discovered that hitting
college pitching was a little more difficult that it was at the high
school level.

"They didn’t throw [sliders] in high school," he said. "I was a pretty
good hitter in high school."

Sarkisian transferred to El Camino Junior College where he played
baseball for a season and football for two years, and eventually
ended up as the quarterback at Brigham Young University. That set
Sarkisian down a path that eventually led to becoming a football
coach, and being introduced to Husky fans as the next head coach at
Washington while his wife, Stephanie, and their three kids looked on.

After BYU, Sarkisian and Stephanie, who met through mutual friends
as seniors in high school — she went to rival Torrance High — were
married right before he began his three-year career in the Canadian
Football league. Stephanie Sarkisian said she likes to tell people
they went on a five-month honeymoon to Saskatchewan.

Sarkisian spent time working as a substitute teacher during his CFL
offseasons, then decided to look into coaching when his playing career
ended. He ended up getting his first coaching job back at El Camino
coaching quarterbacks in 2000, and the following year was able to
get a job at USC as a graduate assistant.

"I was a little bit into the dotcom world for a little bit and coaching
junior college football, and I knew right then that I wanted to be a
football coach," he said. "(Pete Carroll’s) first year (at USC), I got
an opportunity to be a graduate assistant, and bit the bullet a little
bit financially to do it, and from that moment I’ve never looked back."

Sarkisian continued coaching at USC under Carroll until he joined
the Raiders for a season as the team’s quarterbacks coach. Sarkisian
returned to USC in 2005, then was a candidate for the Raiders’ head
coaching job two seasons ago before he turned Oakland down. Given a
chance to pursue the Washington job, however, Sarkisian wasn’t going
to back away from another head coaching opportunity.

"When I was growing up, this was Rose Bowls, this was conference
championships, this was national championships, and that’s all I ever
knew it as," said Sarkisian, the youngest of seven children born to
an Armenian father and an Irish Catholic mother. "Where this program
was the last few years, I knew it was capable of much more than that,
so when this opportunity arose, I knew it was something I wanted to
get on as quickly as possible. . . It was a no brainer to me. I did
everything in my power to try to go get this job. I went after this
thing full fledged. I wanted to be here more so than anywhere else
in the world. Fortunately for me, it worked out."

Based on first impressions anyway, Washington’s new head coach will
be a lot different than his predecessor. Sarkisian won over the fans
quickly during Monday’s press conference — though his 3-year-old son
Brady, who wore a purple No. 10 jersey, and 6-year-old daughter Ashley,
who wore a UW cheerleading outfit, nearly stole the spotlight from
dad as they played on stage next to the podium — in part because he
mentioned his desire to open practices to fans, boosters and media, a
drastically different approach than the one taken by Tyrone Willingham.

An open, more relaxed program would be in line with what Sarkisian
knows from his time coaching at USC. And While Sarkisian has learned
a lot under Carroll and will draw obvious comparisons to his former
boss, he stressed that he is a different coach than Carroll.

"There’s obviously a lot I learned, his style, and there’s other things
I took from other people, but I am my own person," Sarkisian said. "I’m
not going to be Pete Carroll. I’m going to be Steve Sarkisian to the
best of my ability, and hopefully that’s good enough to get it back
to where we need to be."

And where Sarkisian thinks the Huskies need to be is back at the top
of the Pac-10, even if that means going through his former team to
get there.

"I owe him dearly," Sarkisian said of Carroll. "But that doesn’t mean
I don’t want to go out and beat him in our third game next season."

If he can succeed in that, Husky fans will certainly be glad that
Sarkisian couldn’t hit a slider 16 years ago.

OPEN LETTER TO GUL: TURKISH PEOPLE NEED RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.12.2008 13:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian intellectuals sent an open letter to
Turkish President Abdullah Gul. The letter says in part,

"Dear Mr. President,

Your recent meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan proved
that normalization of neighbor relations demand bold and realistic
action. It specifically refers to the Armenian Genocide issue, which
has divided the two nations since 1915.

Mr. President, it is an outrageous crime against the humanity which has
no time limitation. Its recognition is not a demand of the Armenian
people but a just expectation of the international community. The
Armenian Genocide is a crime against the values of modern civilization,
a crime that can’t be questioned.

We all should accept that the Ottoman Empire is guilty of the massacre
of the Armenian people. Present-day Turkish diplomacy and propaganda
machine can’t cover this dark page of history.

The historic memory of our nations is deep and restless. Recognition
of the indisputable fact of the Armenian Genocide is first of all
essential for the Turkish people. Relieving this burden of history,
they can turn this dark page and launch a sincere dialogue for true
reconciliation.

Your visit to Armenia inspires hope for a new and realistic political
course in Turkey. However, these efforts can fail of your state
doesn’t take action to put an end to the current policy of the Armenian
Genocide denial."

"EASTERN PARTNERSHIP" AT A REASONABLE PRICE

RIA Novosti
17:49 | 08/ 12/ 2008

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) – Brussels
has offered its eastern neighbors, or Russia’s western neighbors, a
chance to establish new relations. The new Eastern Partnership (EaP)
program, whose final draft has been distributed to European capitals,
is to be adopted (no doubt, it will be adopted) at the forthcoming
EU summit in Brussels on December 11-12.

The new "belt of EU friends" at Russia’s eastern and southern borders
would include Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and
Belarus.

The new partnership is expressed with a strange pseudo-math
formula "27+5(6)," where the sixth member is Belarus, or rather
its President Alexander Lukashenko. Brussels is prepared to develop
only "conditionally" friendly ties with that country – until Minsk
demonstrates true eagerness to accept western democratic values.

Brussels makes no secret of the fact that it is the developments
in the Caucasus and Mikheil Saakashvili’s actions that fostered the
drafting of the program. His unpredictability rendered the European
Neighborhood Policy, which the EU has pursued since 2004, archaic. It
is going to be replaced with the Eastern Partnership (EaP).

In political terms, the program’s emergence indicates that NATO and
the EU will coordinate their political lines. After the alliance
refused to give Ukraine and Georgia the Membership Action Plan at its
latest ministerial meeting, it was necessary to somehow encourage
Viktor Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili; hence the acceleration
of the Eastern Partnership, which Poland and Sweden pushed for most
vigorously.

However, the EU decided against a commitment to give Poland, Georgia,
Moldova and the others access to Greater Europe. They were only
promised Association Agreements; no pledges were made to admit those
states to the EU.

In fact, the program points to two simple facts: a) Europe has lost
its "transit patience" – it is sick and tired of Kiev’s constant
machinations with the gas supplied to Europe through Ukraine, which
is actually gas larceny, and b) it wishes to finally ensure the
diversification of gas supplies.

The first EaP summit has been planned for April. Almost simultaneously,
Brussels is going to convene a sort of conference to raise investments
to modernize the entire Ukrainian gas pipeline system. In addition,
Brussels intends to offer Ukraine and Moldova full membership in the
European Energy Community. So far, along with Georgia, they have only
observer status.

The European Energy Community was established by the Athens Energy
Community Treaty of 2005. It brought together the EU, Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and
now Kosovo. The treaty regulates the energy (electricity, gas, oil)
trade and transit system in the listed countries. Full membership in
the European Energy Community will impose strict transit obligations
on Ukraine.

Brussels also intends to sign a memorandum of understanding
with Azerbaijan and Armenia. After the Caucasian war, Brussels’
eagerness to develop relations, as a German diplomat put it, with
"serious people in the Caucasus (Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev)
instead of revolutionary romantics (Mikheil Saakashvili), has only
become stronger." It should be noted that Azerbaijan is considered
an alternative gas supply source for Europe.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not
necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

MASTER-EDUCATORS FROM BRITISH EMBASSY
Editorial

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
04 Dec 08
Armenia

In the mid-XVII century, the English theatre underwent reforms and
thoroughly changed its image. King Charles II allowed females to appear
on stage, at the same time forbidding men to play in women’s roles.

The royal decision completely changed the life of Ned Kenaston, a
star of the London theatre who was famous for his female roles. The
bi-sexual actor who was peerless in the role of Desdemona and aroused
lust among the representatives of both sexes was actually dismissed
from the theatre. But Ned did not put up with the situation and
tried to prove that he was a universal actor, and it was easier for
him to act as a man rather than a woman. Alas, all the attempts fell
flat. Once infatuated with the play, Kenaston immediately turned into
a woman.

The same is the situation with the British Embassy in Armenia. Like
any other embassy in any other part of the world, this embassy too, is
disallowed to interfere in the domestic affairs of the hosting country.

After each scandal (which have become common to the British over
the recent years; let’s recall at least the year 2007), the embassy
declares that that it does not absolutely deal with such matters. But
once the British diplomats become infatuated with the game, they find
themselves in the focus of the internal political developments.

Furthermore, the coincidences we see are very interesting (and
naturally, quite accidental).

For instance, on November 26, 11: 00 a.m. Deputy Ambassador Gedeon
Durehurst and employee of the British embassy Nayira Soultanyan
visited Zhiraryr Sefilyan’s office situated on the first floor of
building 51, Nikol Douman street. At the time of the visit, there
were several freedom fighters there.

Shutting themselves up in Zh. Sefilyan’s study, G. Durehurst and
N. Soultanyan were talking over some matters for about an hour.

After the Deputy Ambassador left, Zh. Sefilyan and several members of
"Miatsum" (unification) initiative went to Yerablour (around 13:00)
and started the hunger strike, demanding that the authorities make
no concession in the Karabakh peace talks.

And do we have the right to assume that the Deputy Ambassador of
Great Britain guides the activities of an organization whose main
objective is the struggle against the authorities. But in that case,
there arises the following question: with what purpose does he guide
the activities of that organization? Why is destabilization in our
country advantageous to the Embassy?

Or, has the British Embassy decided to restore in the Armenian
world the old and kind tradition of master-educators and has this
time recruited Zh. Sefilyan as its apprentice? Let’s note that this
source of upbringing faded away and died together with the collapse
of the Soviet power.

In those days, an unmanageable teenager would be admitted to the
factory as an apprentice turner (not by his own will, of course). And
who was the first person to take charge of him? Of course, the
master-educator who later became like father for him. Moving away his
apprentice from the street, the master would teach him how to open a
small hole on the machine tool, so as the youngster would fall out
of the habit of wandering around with brass-knuckles and smashing
street lamps.

And generally, a small person entering the complicated world of
the adults is from early ages patronized by nurses and mistresses,
class-teachers and the party committee, kung fu trainers and police
departments dealing with juvenile offences. Catching the young person
by the hand and imbuing him with the spirit of collectivism, they
would show him his way to the mature life.

Everything was being done to make him a mature person as quickly as
possible, get his honestly earned first salary, buy presents for his
mom and sister and last but not the least, not to misbehave.

So, the British Embassy is doing a good job by revitalizing the
institute of upbringing. But the master-educators there are very
strange people. Instead of making the teenagers drop the bad habits,
they teach them ones.

CONTACTS BETWEEN PARLIAMENTS OF ARMENIA AND ITALY HAVE GREAT DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL

Noyan Tapan

Dec 3, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The contacts between the parliaments
of Armenia and Italy have great development potential. RA NA Speaker
Hovik Abrahamian said on December 3, receiving Ambassador of Italy
to Armenia Massimo Lavezzo Cassinelli. He invited the Chairmen of
Italian parliament’s two chambers, Senate and Camera, to Armenia
on an official visit, expressing confidence that the development of
interparliamentary relations will also contribute to strengthening of
trade and economic and scientific-cultural contacts between the two
countries. H. Abrahamian also proposed discussing the possibility of
signing an interparliamentary cooperation agreement or a memorandum
during the visit.

According to the RA NA Speaker, European Union member country Italy can
greatly contribute to Armenia’s integration to Europe. Touching upon
Renco Italian company’s activity in Armenia, H. Abrahamian attached
importance to entrance of other Italian enterprises to Armenia and
said that Armenia’s tax sphere is favorable for investments and
development of foreigners’ business.

According to the report provided to Noyan Tapan by the RA NA Public
Relations Department, expressing gratitude for inviting the Chairmen
of Senate and Camera to Armenia on an official visit, Massimo Lavezzo
Cassinelli committed himself to convey the invitation and to clarify
visit’s terms.