Author: nina hovnanian

68 PASSENGERS ARRIVE BY DAMASCUS- QAMISHLI -YEREVAN FLIGHT

April 17, 2013 – 19:53 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Damascus- Qamishli -Yerevan flights will henceforth
operate on a regular basis, the manager of Syrian Airlines Yerevan
office said.

In conversation with a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, Svetlana Hovhannisyan
said 68 passengers arrived, 12 departed by the first flight.

The flights will operate every Tuesday, 03:10 am, with one-way ticket
price set at AMD 165 000, with two-way ticket to cost AMD 245 000.

Syrian Airlines operated Damascus- Latakia-Yerevan flights following
the suspension of flights to Aleppo, with the last flight scheduled
for February 5. According to Ms. Hovhannisyan, no information was
provided as to the flights to Aleppo and Latakia.

ARTHUR PINAJIAN AT THE ZORAYAN MUSEUM

“The unlikely discovery that
has rocked the art world.”

-ABC’s “Good Morning America” 03/10/13

May 1 – 3, 2013
A special evening honoring
ARTHUR PINAJIAN
(1914-1999)
over 50 oil paintings
No. 4687. Untitled, 1960. Oil on canvas, 29 x 40 inche

“He can be ranked among the best artists of his era.”

“He pursued his goals in isolation with the single-minded focus of a
Gauguin or Cezanne.”

-Professor William Innes Homer

Untitled, 24″x30″ oil on canvas

OPENING RECEPTION
WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013
7:00 P.M. – 10:00 pm

EXHIBIT RUNS THROUGH MAY 3, 2013
THURSDAY & FRIDAY 1:00 – 9:00 P.M.

Under the Patronage of Diocesan Benefactors
Mr. & Mrs. Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian

AT
ZORAYAN MUSEUM
3325 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91504
(818) 558-7474

Please contact Linda Stepanian, Director of Stephanie’s Gallery and
Representative of the Pinajian Estate Collection at
(818) 790-4905
[email protected]

IMPORTANT LINKS:

New York Times

ABC NEWS

HUFFPOST ARTS & CULTURE

LOS ANGELES TIMES-VALLEY SUN
,0,6543964.story

Rediscovered
MASTERS

“THE UNLIKELY DISCOVERY THAT HAS ROCKED THE ART WORLD”
Burbank, CA: A special art exhibition, “The Pinajian Discovery,”
will open on Wednesday, May 1st and run through Friday, May 3rd at the
Zorayan Museum in the Cathedral of the Western Diocese of the Armenian
Church. The paintings have been selected from artist’s estate
collection by Linda Stepanian, Director of Stephanie’s Art Gallery, in
cooperation with the Zorayan Museum Committee.

In 2010 Stepanian featured the first Pinajian exhibition at the
Zorayan Museum to much acclaim. Then in March 2013 the Pinajian
extraordinary story exploded when the collection made its debut New
York City. National and international press reports about the
discoveryof Arthur Pinajian – an important artist whose life’s work
had been relegated to the garbage but rescued just in time – resulted
in a media blitz. On ABC’s “Good Morning America” it was featured as
“the unlikely discovery that has rocked the art world.”

Hundreds of other news outlets around the globe ran the story,
including a major piece byThe New York Times

and Los Angeles Times-Valley Sun
,0,6543964.story

Art historians nationwide are still expressing astonishment that works
of such caliber could have remained completely unknown. Many major
private collectors have already purchased the paintings and at least
six are headed to museums through Stephanie’s Gallery. Art historian
Peter Hastings Falk, curator of the collection, explains that the
artist was a hermit his entire life. After Pinajian’s death in 1999,
five decades of accumulated artwork were found stacked up in the
one-car garage and attic of the Bellport, Long Island, cottage he
shared with his sister. He had left instructions for his collection to
be discarded in the town dump. At the last moment an artist cousin
refused to let the garbage truck haul away the paintings. Instead,
Professor William Innes Homer [1929-2012], then dean of American art
historians, was asked to examine the life’s work of the unknown artist
and was stunned by what he found: a large body of extraordinary
abstract landscape and figurative paintings by a highly gifted artist
who was completely unknown in his lifetime. Homer urged Falk to head
the project. Soon a team of art historians was conducting research
into the life and art of Arthur Pinajian.

As a boy growing up in an Armenian community in West Hoboken, N.J.,
Pinajian was a completely self-trained cartoonist. During the Great
Depression he became one of the pioneers in a new medium: the comic
book. In 1940 he created “Madam Fatal,” the first cross-dressing
superhero, for Crack Comics. After World War II, he enrolled at the
Art Students League in Woodstock, N.Y. Although he knew a number of
the New York Abstract Expressionists, such as Franz Kline and Philip
Guston, he was largely reclusive. For 22 years his life revolved
around Woodstock while he passionately pursued his painting. His
admirable poetic color combinations are linked to the tonalities of
his better-known fellow Armenian, Arshile Gorky [ca.1904-1948]. Late
in life, he moved with his sister to Bellport. There, in a tiny
bedroom-studio he strived for visual and spiritual conclusions
regarding flatness and color that parallel the goals of the Abstract
Expressionists.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 128-page hardcover book with essays
by art historians Falk,
Richard J. Boyle, and the late William Innes Homer; art critic John
Perreault; conservator Jonathan Sherman; bestselling author Lawrence
E. Joseph, owner of the collection; and, Pinajian’s artist-cousin,
Peter Najarian. The collective essays present one of the most
compelling discoveries in the history of 20th-century American art.

Dr. Homer writes: “Even though Pinajian was a creative force to be
reckoned with, during his lifetime he rarely exhibited or sold his
paintings. Instead, he pursued his goals in isolation with the
single-minded focus of a Gauguin or Cezanne, refusing to give up in
the face of public indifference. In his later years he could be
compared to a lone researcher in a laboratory pursuing knowledge for
its own sake. His exhaustive diaries and art notes make it clear that
he dedicated all of his days to his art. He was passionate and
unequivocally committed.”

An Intriguing Literary Connection
It is interesting to note the astonishing resemblance between Pinajian
and the hero in Kurt Vonnegut’s Bluebeard: The Autobiography of Rabo
Karabekian, a 1987 novel about an eccentric painter. Both Pinajian and
Karabekian, a.k.a. Bluebeard, were Armenian-Americans, raised by
parents who survived the 1915 Turkish genocide of approximately one
million men, women and children who then made their way to the United
States where they raised their families during the Great Depression.

Both men then served with the United States Army during World War II
in the European theater, each earning a host of ribbons and medals,
including the Bronze Star. After the war, both abandoned their careers
as illustrators for higher artistic pursuits, joined the Art Students
League in New York, and hung out with the Abstract Expressionists at
the Cedar Tavern in Greenwich Village. Both eventually moved to Long
Island’s East End near the ocean, where they kept their paintings
tightly locked away in a garage.

“Ultimately Pinajian’s work reflects the soul of a flawed, yet
brilliant, artistic genius. When he hits the mark, especially in his
abstractions, he can be ranked among the best artists of his era . . .

His life is, above all, a model for those who feel that they must
follow their calling despite a lack of public acceptance,” concluded
Dr. Homer.

ABOUT PETER HASTINGS FALK AND REDISCOVERED MASTERS

“Call me the Peter Finch of the art world,” says Peter Hastings Falk,
referring to the actor’s memorable rant “I’m as mad as hell and I’m
not going to take it any more!” in the film Network. “I’m angry that
art history and the art market have proven to be ruthlessly forgetful.

With Rediscovered Masters my mission is to illuminate excellent late
career artists and those deceased who, for various reasons, have not
expanded or sustained the exposure they deserve. No one embodies this
more than Arthur Pinajian.”

According to Falk, Rediscovered Masters will provide a singular and
valuable service for exhibition planners, connecting museum curators,
gallerists, historians and critics with important, gifted artists
about whom tastemakers might not be aware. Admission is by invitation
only. Once an artist is admitted they are represented online with a
thematic exhibition, a critical biography and other essays. Artists
are identified through an Art Advisory Board composed of a cadre of
museum directors and curators, art gallery owners, and other art
professionals. The Senior Advisor is Peter Selz, former Curator of
Paintings at The Museum of Modern Art and founder of the Berkeley Art
Museum.

Opening eyes while fighting ageism, Rediscovered Masters expands upon
Falk’s 37 years of identifying and promoting excellent late-career
artists and artist estate collections. Falk is author and publisher
of what has long been regarded as the most exhaustive biographical
dictionary on American art, Who Was Who in American Art, a
three-volume opus that won the Wittenborn Award for the Best Art
Reference Book published in North America, awarded by the Art
Libraries Society. Falk also pioneered the documentation of art
auction prices with his massive annual Art Price Index International
and that data is now online at Artprice.com, the leader in art market
information.

Location:
The Zorayan Museum at the Cathedral of the Western Diocese of The
Armenian Church
3325 N. Glenoaks Blvd.

Burbank, CA 91504
(818) 558-7474

Hours:
Wednesday May 1, 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Thursday and Friday 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

Contact:
Linda Stepanian, Director of Stephanie’s Gallery and Representative of
the Pinajian Estate Collection at
[email protected]; (818) 790-4905
stephaniesartgallery.com
(High-resolution jpeg images are available upon request.)

STEPHANIE’S ART GALLERY, INC
466 Foothill Blvd.

La Canada, CA 91011
(818) 790-4905

AUTHORITIES DID NOT CREATE EQUAL CONDITIONS FOR ELECTION CONTESTANTS”

Wednesday,
April 17

The authorities did not create equal conditions for the contestants in
the May 5 elections to Yerevan Council of Elders, Vahagn Khachatrian,
who tops the list of candidates of Armenian National Congress (HAK)
Party, said at the meeting with reporters today.

In his words, an atmosphere of fear is more perceptible during these
elections than at presidential elections. “We have an opportunity to
win because people got tired of these authorities,” V. Khachatrian
noted, adding that opposition forces should gain a victory in the
political struggle.

He assured reporters that they ready to cooperate with other
opposition forces not only during the pre-election period, but also
after the elections.

TODAY, 16:30

Aysor.am

EUROPE MUST HELP GEORGIA AND ARMENIA, OR RUSSIA WILL – THE GUARDIAN

16:50 ~U 17.04.13

Publisher Sigrid Rausing travelled to Georgia and Armenia and shared
with her impressions in the article in The Guardian presented below:

I recently travelled to Georgia and Armenia to meet human rights
groups. After two days in Georgia we drove east, the hilly landscape
gradually turning mountainous, sheep and cattle tended by shepherds
in littered, post-Soviet villages. For a long time the road followed a
small river, plastic trash snagging on rocks and branches. This could
have been a landscape of extraordinary beauty; instead it was depleted
and scarred by nearly a century of bad or indifferent governance.

Crossing the border into Armenia, the river was still there, the
litter now older, almost indistinguishable from the brown water and
grey rock. There were remnants of the Soviet state – giant concrete
chutes channelling water from the steep mountains, occasional blocks
of flats now, like the rubbish, taking on the colour of the dark
earth. In one valley ruins from the earthquake in 1988 stood like
archaeological remains.

Every village we drove through was half abandoned – the falling down
houses haphazardly mended with metal sheets or planks of wood. Whole
families move if they can, otherwise women and children remain while
the men join the migrant labour force in Russia, sending meagre
remittances home. I know there were children in these villages,
because occasionally laundry – the only colour in this bleak world –
hung from wires, drying in the still dusk. We saw no people, and no
shops. We saw no other cars.

In Britain we sometimes forget the harsh reality behind the talk of
human rights in transitional states. Human rights language is the same
the world over, bland and institutional. Thus in Georgia many groups
talked about “prison reform”. The issue in fact was the widespread use
of torture, revealed when secret footage was released of detainees
raped with broom handles or burned with cigarettes, guards looking
on, indifferent to the screams. The victims were ordinary criminals;
this was part of police and prison routine. After the release of the
footage, thousands of people took to the streets, the minister for
corrections had to resign; 16 out of 17 prison directors were fired.

Some claim the footage was staged; no one, however, disputes that
those things went on.

Other groups talked about “corruption” and “transparency”. Here is one
case: an Armenian shopkeeper is visited by tax officials, demanding
a bribe. He refuses, and takes them to court. Several years and many
court cases later he wins his case, but by now the same tax officials
have so terrorised his suppliers that he can’t stay in business.

In Armenia campaigners talked about “hospital reform”. Many people with
learning disabilities rather than mental illness are institutionalised
in mental hospitals. Even if you are let out, once in the system you
can be committed at any time in the future by a doctor’s order.

The human rights activists (some former dissidents) we met steadfastly
rely on, and believe in, the European court of human rights in
Strasbourg, despite the fact that tens of thousands of cases are
languishing there in a seemingly permanent backlog. It’s all they have.

European solidarity is an empty concept to most British people,
at least judging from the media. But democracy and the rule of law
on the margins of Europe matter to all of us. Georgia and Armenia,
and 14 other nations, are in talks with the EU under the European
neighbourhood policy. It offers a degree of economic integration
in return for a commitment to democracy and human rights, the rule
of law, market economy principles and sustainable development. Free
trade for good governance – it’s a win-win deal.

In Georgia and Armenia, however, so long after the fall of the Soviet
Union, the state is still weak – and occasionally thuggish – the
economies are largely oligarchical, and there is a lack of watchdog
institutes – that function is almost entirely given over to civil
society. As in all former Soviet republics, there is a history of
institutional brutality and indifference lingering on in the army,
the prisons, hospitals and orphanages.

And yet people in Yerevan, the capital, talked hopefully of an
Armenian spring. Serge Sarkisian, the president (and Putin ally), won
a second term in the recent election, but not with anything like the
Soviet-style 90% majority pollsters had suggested. Significant numbers
of ballot papers had been spoiled. (The fact that one candidate,
a former dissident, was shot and wounded in January may have
contributed to voter disaffection.) The main opposition candidate,
the American-born Raffi Hovannisian (37% of the vote), held a shadow
swearing-in ceremony on 9 April.

In this region, as in any other, individuals come and go, and
sometimes, as we have seen in Georgia, good people turn bad. European
integration is the best bet for good governance. The alternative
for Armenia is Russia, where NGOs receiving foreign funding are now
required to register as “foreign agents”. European trade agreements
and human rights requirements must be better than that, for them and
for us.

Armenian News – Tert.am

PARLIAMENTARIAN: “BAREV YEREVAN” BLOC WILL WIN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS WITHOUT VOTER BRIBERY AND ELECTION RIGGING

Wednesday, April 17, 15:15

“Barev, Yerevan” (“Hello, Yerevan”) bloc has no intention to bribe
voters and falsify the upcoming elections to the Elders’ Council
of Yerevan, parliamentarian from Heritage opposition party Zaruhi
Postanjyan told media, Wednesday.

She said that the parties bribing voters are unable to do anything
else. “This time they will not manage to buy votes, because the
citizens have become more conscientious and bribes insult them,”
she said. Postanjyan said that it is immoral taking advantage of the
heavy social economic situation in the country and using the votes
of citizens under pretence of charity.

Earlier, Mass Media reported that under pretence of charity Orinats
Yerkir Party distributes condensed milk and honey to bribe voters.

Reportedly, Prosperous Armenia has provided free of charge buses for
Avan- Ararat Cinema route. Secretary of the party Tigran Urikhanyan
did not refute the reports and said kidding that Gagik Tsarukyan Fund
has been engaged in charity for already 250 years.

Zaruhi Postanyan highly appreciated the chances of the bloc for
victory in the upcoming elections and said that the bloc will get
majority of seats in the Elders’ Council. She said that the incidents
of April 9 and the high rating of Raffi Hovannisian cannot affect
the results of the elections, because this will be the choice of the
Yerevan citizens. “We will bring Yerevan back to the citizens. And
the conscientious citizens will give their votes to us,” she said.

Prosperous Armenia, Orinats Yerkir, the Republican Party of Armenia,
the Armenian National Congress, ARFD, Mission and Barev Yerevan will
run for 65 seats in Yerevan’s Elders Council on May 5. The election
campaign kicked off on Apr 7.

PATRICK DEVEDJIAN DEMANDS £120,000 DAMAGES FOR CLAIMS HE HAD RELATIONS WITH FIRST LADY

15:35 17.04.2013

A former French government minister is demanding £120,000 in damages
over ‘salacious’ claims he had an extra-marital affair with First
Lady Valerie Trierweiler, the Daily Mail reports.

Patrick Devedjian denies being Ms Trierweiler’s lover nine years ago.

The allegations emerged in a biography of the First Lady called The
Troublemaker, which says she was having affairs with both Devidjian
and Francois Hollande while married to Denis Trierweiler in 2004.

President Hollande’s 47-year-old girlfriend also denies the claims
and she too is suing the book’s authors.

Devidjian’s lawyer Dan Hazan said his married 68-year-old client –
a minister under President Nicolas Sarkozy – was demanding damages
for defaming his character.

Mr Hazan added: ‘The authors transformed a salacious rumour into fact
purely to boost sales.

‘There is not a scrap of evidence that this supposed relationship
existed.’

The book – by TV journalists Christophe Jakubyszyn and Alix
Bouilhaguet – claims both Devidjian and Hollande knew they were
‘sharing’ Ms Trierweiler.

But when Mr Devidjian refused her demands to leave his wife, she
chose her affair with Mr Hollande over him, before finally divorcing
her husband in 2010, the book says.

Ms Trierweiler is demanding £35,000 in damages for invasion of privacy
and will launch a separate action for defamation at a later hearing.

Miss Trierweiler also recently sued a French magazine for publishing
photos of her in her bikini while on holiday with Mr Hollande last
summer – but was awarded only the ‘minimum’ £5,000 in damages.

ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH WILL REDUCE TO 4 PERCENT – IMF

April 18, 2013 | 15:47

International Monetary Fund forecasts 4 percent economic growth for
Armenia during 2013-14.

“Growth in Armenia will moderate to about 4 percent during 2013-14
compared with more than 7 percent in 2012, as a return to more normal
weather conditions, a slowdown in credit expansion, and a continuation
of fiscal consolidation bring the economy back toward trend growth,”
reads World Economic Outlook 2013.

Real GDP will make 4.3 and 4.1 percent in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

The annual movement in consumer prices for the mentioned years will
reach 4.2 and 4.0 percent respectively. The deficit will reduce from
10.6 percent to 9.6 and 8.2 percent. The unemployment rate will fall
to 18.5 and 18.0 percent as compared to 19 percent in 2012.

In the Caucasus and central Asia, growth is projected to remain near 6
percent during 2013-14, well in excess of the CIS regional aggregate.

Growth will continue to be underpinned by healthy remittance flows
from Russia and high commodity (energy and minerals) prices.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

SIX ARMENIANS WITH TOTAL FORTUNE OF $10 BILLION ARE AMONG 200 WEALTHIEST RUSSIANS

YEREVAN, April 18. /ARKA/. Six businessmen of Armenian origin – Samvel
Karapetyan, Danil Khachaturov, brothers Nikolai and Sergei Sarkisov,
Albert Avdolyan and Ruben Vardanyan are among the 200 wealthiest
business people in Russia in 2013, according to the Russian edition of
Forbes Magazine. Their total wealth is estimated at about $ 10 billion

According to the magazine, Samvel Karapetyan, the owner of Tashir
Group, is the 29th Russian wealthiest businessman with a total capital
of $3.8 billion, up from $2.2 billion last year. Samvel Karapetyan
is on the 353rd position in the list of the richest people in the
world by Forbes magazine in 2013.

He is followed by CEO of Rosgosstrakh insurance company Danil
Khachaturov, who finished 43rd. His fortune is estimated at $2.4
billion, $0.4 billion up from 2012..

Vice-president of RESO-Garantia insurance company Nikolai Sarkisov
with a total fortune of $1.35- $0.15 billion up from 2012 – is on
the 78th position. His younger brother Sergey Sarkisov, who is the
chairman of the Board of Directors of the company with the same amount
of capital is on the 79th position.

Director of the Supervisory Board of Wooden Fish Agency (representing
the interests of Telconet in Russia) Albert Avdolyan with a total
fortune of $0.7 billion is on 143rd position and co-director of
Sberbank CIB Ruben Vardanyan has $0.5 billion coming 193rd.

The richest man in Russia in 2013 is the co-owner of Metalloinvest
Alisher Usmanov with a fortune of $17.6 billion, down from $18.1
billion in 2012. -0-

168 HOURS: POLICE DISMISSALS TO CONTINUE

10:40 18/04/2013 ” DAILY PRESS

168 Hours daily reports that police dismissals will continue. Police
Chief Vladimir Gasparyan is going to dismiss Commander of Police
Troops, Deputy Chief of Police, major-general Levon Yeranosyan and
head of Shirak regional department of Armenian police, colonel Karen
Babakekhyan, who has friendly relations with former Yerevan Police
Chief Nerses Nazaryan.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIA’S ACTING FM TO REPLACE CHARLES AZNAVOUR AS AMBASSADOR? – NEWSPAPER

April 18, 2013 | 06:31

YEREVAN. – Even though Armenia’s Acting Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian is trying to deny the news about his probable dismissal,
Zhoghovurd daily’s sources inform that this matter is seriously
discussed, moreover, at his own wish, the daily reports.

“It is likely that he will be appointed Armenia’s Ambassador to
Switzerland, but with a special status. Also, Nalbandian will
coordinate the activities of Armenia’s ambassadors in European
countries. According to Zhoghovurd, well-known singer Charles Aznavour
asked [Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan to relieve him of his duties
as Armenia’s Ambassador to Switzerland.

It is likely that Acting EC [that is, Education and Science] Minister
Armen Ashotyan likewise will be dismissed [and] be appointed Armenia’s
Ambassador to France. [And] the name of [current Acting Diaspora
Minister] Hranush Hakobyan is discussed as likely candidate as EC
Minister. And, in her stead, Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute
Director Hayk Demoyan will become Diaspora Minister,” Zhoghovurd
writes.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am