Melikset Khachiyan finishes first at Metropolitan Chess tournament
15:51 23/03/2013 » SPORT
Armenian GM Melikset Khachiyan (U.S.) finished first at the 24th
Metropolitan Chess tournament in Los Angeles, scoring 6 points out of
9.
IMs Mackenzie Molner (U.S.) and Andranik Matikozian (Armenia) also
scored 6 points but they were behind Khachiyan on tie-break,
armchess.am reported.
Source: Panorama.am
Famous Russian TV personality to present initiative to include
Armenia’s Lake Sevan in UNESCO heritage list (VIDEO)
March 22, 2013 | 23:07
Well-known Russian television personality, `Terra Viva’ Environmental
Movement Director Nikolai Drozdov will introduce, in Armenia’s capital
city Yerevan, and initiative to include Armenia’s LakeSevan in the
UNESCO Natural World Heritage List.
The participants of this movement will visit Yerevan between April 1
and 4 to hold an international environmental telethon, and the
aforesaid initiative will be presented during the telethon, states the
message that is posted on Terra Viva official website.
LakeSevan is the largest high-mountain lake in Europe and in Asia, and
it is 1914 meters above sea level, the message also notes.
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Those at Yerevan’s Liberty Square are positive about Hovannisian’s
proposition to President Sargsyan
NEWS.AM
March 23, 2013 | 17:01
YEREVAN. – The wellness of Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party
Chairman, former FM Raffi Hovannisian – who is declared runner-up to the
winner, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result of the
presidential election that was conducted on February 18, but who
claims to be the real winner in the vote and who declared a hunger
strike on March 10 at capital city Yerevan’s Liberty Square – is very
good, Hovannisian himself told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
He added that there have been thousands of civic visits during the day
and this is very important for him.
To the query as to whether the Presidential Residence has responded to
his letter, Heritage’s leader responded that he has nothing more to
add.
Those that had gathered at Liberty Square, however, were positive
about Hovannisian’s propositions in connection with assuming eight
governmental posts in return for recognizing Sargsyan’s presidency.
The youth were noting that Hovannisian is working by the rules of
courtesy.
An elderly person, on the other hand, said he is skeptical that the
authorities will accept Raffi Hovannisian’s proposition, but,
separately, he suggested that Armenia’s political forces think about
increasing the birth rate in the country.
Ministry of Culture to finance restoration of Church of St. George
14:44, 23 March, 2013
YEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Ministry of Culture plans to
allocate finances for the restoration of Church of St. George. Works
are going to be carried out in frames of `Repair, Restoration and
Rehabilitation of Monuments’ program.
Church of St. George in Kotayq region was damaged on March 17, 2013
because of severe wind.
Armenian Church was built in 1870 and is a monument of national significance.
Virtually twice less Iranian tourists visit Armenia – newspaper
NEWS.AM
March 23, 2013 | 07:37
YEREVAN. – In line with preliminary unofficial assessments, the number
of Iranians that came to Armenia to celebrate their Nowruz (New Year;
on Thursday, March 21) holidays in the country is almost twice less
than the same indicators last year, Haykakan Zhamanak daily reports.
`In an interview with us, private individuals that provide services to
Iranian tourists presented such assessments.
Accordingly, in the case when private carriers were demanding $200
last year to bring the Iranian tourists from [Armenia’s] Meghri [city]
to [capital city] Yerevan, now our drivers can expect a mere $100-$120
for the same service. At the same time, this year our drivers have to
wait for a quite long time at the customs to collect the corresponding
number of `passengers.’
Last year, the number of Iranians [visiting Armenia] was so much that
those who provided rental detached homes were taking about $150 per
day from them. Now, however, the Iranians are renting two detached
homes for the same price.
To note, in the Nowruz days of last year, about 15,000 Iranian
tourists had visited Armenia,’ Haykakan Zhamanak writes.
ARMENIE-ECONOMIE
Les chaussures fabriquées en Arménie ont la côte en Russie
L’an dernier l’exportation des chaussures fabriquées en Arménie vers
la Russie a plus que doublé. Des 43 200 paires de chaussures exportées
en Russie en 2011, l’an dernier l’Arménie a exporté 93 100 paires pour
une valeur totale de 1,773 million de dollars. Hmayag Kevorkian le
directeur de la société « Rassi », explique cette hausse
exceptionnelle par la très forte demande du marché russe des
chaussures fabriquées en Arménie. Le montant total des exportations de
l’Arménie ont représenté la somme de 1,428 millions de dollars en 2012
dont 280 millions vers la Russie.
Krikor Amirzayan
samedi 23 mars 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com
REVUE DE PRESSE
Abdullah Öcalan évoque les Arméniens
Kurdes : lettre ouverte à la paix en Turquie
Le leader du PKK, Öcalan, a lancé hier un appel historique à mettre
fin à une guerre de trente ans. Mais les concessions d’Ankara restent
limitées. Par RAGIP DURAN Correspondant à Istanbul
La lettre de cinq pages d’Abdullah Öcalan, écrite dans sa cellule
d’Imrali, l’île de la mer de Marmara où il est incarcéré depuis 1999
pour une peine de prison à vie, est lue en kurde et en turc devant une
foule immense : un million de personnes massées dans une banlieue de
Diyarbakir, la « capitale » du Kurdistan de Turquie. Des mots forts
pour un moment historique, en ce jour de Newroz, le nouvel an kurde. «
Désormais, une nouvelle période commence. Il n’y aura plus d’armes
dans notre combat, il y aura de la politique démocratique. Il est
dorénavant temps pour les éléments armés de se retirer hors des
frontières », déclare dans son message le leader des rebelles du Parti
des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK), annonçant la fin de la lutte
armée, menée depuis 1984 pour la reconnaissance des droits des Kurdes,
si le processus de négociations entamé avec Ankara aboutit.
La « sale guerre » contre l’armée turque a fait quelque 45 000 morts
et plus d’un million de déplacés. Et le PKK reste considéré comme un
mouvement terroriste par les Européens et les Américains.
Mosaïque. La foule est hérissée de drapeaux kurdes et de photos d’«
Apo », comme ses partisans surnomment Öcalan. Une banderole proclame :
« Nous sommes prêts pour la paix et pour la guerre. » Dans sa lettre,
le leader kurde a adopté le ton d’un vieux sage. Il y évoque Moïse,
Jésus et Mahomet, s’adresse « aux peuples du Moyen-Orient et d’Asie
centrale ». Il parle de Kurdistan, mais pas de séparation : il en
appelle à « l’unité nationale » tout en rappelant que « l’Etat-nation
n’est plus valide » sous ses formes actuelles. Il dénonce « les
impérialistes qui ont divisé les peuples du Moyen-Orient », mais
assure ne pas rejeter « l’ensemble de l’héritage de l’Occident,
notamment les Lumières et la démocratie ». C’est un vrai politique qui
s’exprime dans cette lettre ouverte. Pendant ses presque quatorze ans
d’isolement carcéral, il a eu le temps de lire plus de 2 000 livres.
« Nous n’avons pas mis fin à notre lutte. Elle continue désormais avec
de nouveaux moyens », explique le leader kurde, qui évoque toute la
mosaïque des peuples de Turquie, « les Arméniens, les Turcomans, les
Arabes et les Assyriens », et rappelle que Kurdes et Turcs ont vécu
ensemble pendent plus de mille ans « sous le drapeau d’amitié de
l’islam ». « Nous lutterons contre ceux qui désirent nous diviser,
ceux qui veulent la guerre entre nous », écrit-il encore dans cette
lettre de prison. Mais il n’a pas précisé de calendrier pour le
retrait de ses combattants, dont le nombre est estimé à 5 000,
éparpillés entre le sud-est de la Turquie et les bases arrières du
mouvement, dans le nord de l’Irak.
« Terrorisme ». Hier, depuis les Pays-Bas où il est en visite
officielle, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, le Premier ministre
islamo-conservateur turc, a salué ce message, tout en déplorant
l’absence totale de drapeaux nationaux à Diyarbakir, « en
contradiction avec son contenu ». Les négociations entre le
gouvernement turc et Abdullah Öcalan avaient commencé à la fin de
l’automne, après que ce dernier était intervenu publiquement pour
mettre un terme à la grève de la faim de 800 détenus politiques
kurdes. Ce n’était pas la première prise de contact, mais cette fois,
l’Etat, au travers du patron des services secrets, Hakan Fidan, très
proche d’Erdogan, discutait directement avec le leader kurde et le
reconnaissait publiquement. Quelques mois plus tôt, le Premier
ministre évoquait un rétablissement de la peine de mort pour Öcalan…
Les gestes de bonne volonté se sont ensuite multipliés des deux côtés.
Le gouvernement a levé les mesures d’isolement carcéral visant le chef
des rebelles kurdes et le Parlement devrait voter une réforme
partielle de la loi antiterreur qui permettrait la remise en liberté
d’une petite partie des quelque 8 000 élus, avocats, journalistes,
intellectuels, militants arrêtés ces trois dernières années pour «
terrorisme », alors que les accrochages se multipliaient entre l’armée
et la guérilla, faisant plus de 1 000 morts en un an. « Aujourd’hui,
le chef terroriste est devenu une personnalité politique légitime qui
`uvre pour la paix », souligne Cengiz Çandar, éditorialiste au
quotidien Radikal et spécialiste du sujet.
Le tournant est réel, mais le processus de résolution de la question
kurde (cette minorité représente 20% de la population de la Turquie)
sera encore long. En tentant ce grand pari d’une paix kurde, Erdogan
veut à la fois renforcer son pouvoir à Ankara et le poids régional de
son pays (lire ci-contre). Mais, pour le moment, les concessions
offertes par le gouvernement en échange de cet adieu aux armes du PKK
restent bien limitées. D’abord sur le sort d’Öcalan lui-même. Ankara
refuse une amnistie générale et sa remise en liberté alors que le
mouvement kurde espère au moins obtenir son assignation à résidence.
Le gouvernement parle par ailleurs de droits culturels et d’une
décentralisation municipale. C’est peu, et certains parmi les Kurdes
sont surpris de la grande modération de leur leader charismatique qui,
dans sa lettre, n’a ni revendiqué l’autonomie pour les régions à
majorité kurdes ni lancé d’appel pour la libération des milliers de
militants détenus.
LIBERATION
samedi 23 mars 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com
SPORTS
L’Arménien David Safarian (66 kg) champion d’Europe de lutte libre
L’Arménien David Safarian (66 kg) a été sacré Champion d’Europe de
lutte libre lors des compétitions européenne de lutte qui se déroulent
à Tbilissi (Géorgie). En finale, David Safarian (Arménie) s’est imposé
2-0 (1-0, 1-0) face au Turc Yakoub Gor. Ce titre européen sera le seul
des représentants de l’Arménie lors de ce Championnat d’Europe.
Krikor Amirzayan
samedi 23 mars 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com
US PATENT ISSUED TO SER-MANUKYAN FAMILY HOLDINGS ON MARCH 19 FOR “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR A SPLIT TYPE WATER EXTRACTOR AND WATER DISPENSER” (ARMENIAN INVENTOR)
US Fed News
March 20, 2013 Wednesday 12:26 PM EST
ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 20 — United States Patent no. 8,398,733,
issued on March 19, was assigned to Ser-Manukyan Family Holdings
(Glendale, Calif.).
“Apparatus and method for a split type water extractor and water
dispenser” was invented by Zohrab Melikyan (Yerevan, Armenia).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark
Office: “A split type potable water extractor from ambient air and
water dispenser is invented, comprising separate water generating block
located outside a water use area and water dispensing block located
inside a water use area. The water generator block cycles refrigerant
through a condenser and an evaporator to create condensation by heat
exchange with ambient air circulated by an intake airflow system. The
condensate water is collected and purified in a cascade of bactericidal
loop to remove impurities. The purified water is pumped to a dispensing
apparatus that can be installed in the home or other area of water
use separate from the water generating block.
If any one of the functional parts or units of water generator is
disabled the water generator immediately stops operating to deliver
water to the tank of the dispensing apparatus.” The patent was filed
on July 2, 2010, under Application No. 12/830,158. *For further
information, including images, charts and tables, please visit:
CONNECTICUT: IN MEMORIAM: KARL TUREKIAN
US Official News
March 21, 2013 Thursday
Hartford
Yale University, The State of Connecticut has issued the following
press release:
Karl K. Turekian, a pioneering Yale geochemist who examined an
uncommonly broad range of topics in planetary science – including the
sediments of the deep seas, the hot springs of Yellowstone National
Park, meteorite strikes, and the composition of moon rocks – died
March 15 in Branford. He was 85. The cause was cancer.
Turekian joined the Yale faculty in 1956 as its first geochemist. Over
the next five decades, his trademark became the inventive use of trace
elements, natural radioactive elements, and radiogenic isotopes for
understanding processes of the Earth, its atmosphere, and oceans.
He shed light on acid rain, cosmic dust flux, sediment accumulation,
the global transport of metals through the atmosphere, the circulation
of Long Island Sound, the composition of the continental crust, and
the origin of the solar system, among other phenomena. His research
bolstered the idea that a giant meteorite strike led to the extinction
of the dinosaurs, and he advanced new methods for testing models of
atmospheric circulation and identifying art forgeries.
“Karl Turekian was at the forefront of expanding the scope of questions
that could be addressed by geochemistry and developing new techniques
to answer them,” said Bill Graustein, who studied under Turekian
and remained a close friend. “He consistently used his encyclopedic
knowledge of the study of the Earth to take techniques developed in
one area and apply them to unsolved problems in other areas.”
Along the way, Turekian mentored generations of scientists, both in
the laboratory and in free-flowing coffee hour chats that “launched
countless scientific careers and indeed set the course of geochemistry
that carries forward today,” said Jay Ague, the current chair of
Yale’s Department of Geology & Geophysics.
Turekian fondly recalled dozens of former students and fellow
researchers by name in a 2005 autobiographical piece published in
the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science. “My undergraduate
and graduate students brought excitement to my life at Yale then and
this has continued to the present day,” he wrote.
Born Oct. 25, 1927, Karl Karekin Turekian was raised in New Jersey and
the Bronx, the son of Armenian immigrants and genocide survivors. He
served in the U.S. Navy, received his bachelor’s degree from Wheaton
College in 1949, and then, in 1955, earned one of the first doctorates
in geochemistry awarded by Columbia University. He joined the Yale
faculty the next year and married his wife, Roxanne, in 1962.
Over a long career, Turekian – who at the time of his death was
Sterling Professor of Geology & Geophysics Emeritus, Yale’s highest
faculty rank – wrote hundreds of journal articles and five books,
including “Oceans,” “Man and the Ocean” (with Yale geologist B.J.
Skinner), “Chemistry of the Earth,” “Oceanography” (with C. Drake, J.
Imbrie and J. Knauss), and “Global Environmental Change.”
Turekian served in editorial positions of eight scholarly journals
and in a wide variety of administrative roles at Yale. He was chair
of the Department of Geology & Geophysics for most of the 1980s;
curator-in-charge of meteorites and planetary science at the Peabody
Museum of Natural History; director of the Center for the Study of
Global Change; and director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric
Studies.
A member of Yale’s Elizabethan Club, Turekian also was an executive
fellow at Yale’s Berkeley College.
He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among other learned
societies, and received many honors during his career. These included
the Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society, the Maurice Ewing
Medal of the American Geophysical Union and the Wollaston Medal of
The Geological Society of London, and, from the Yale College Phi
Beta Kappa chapter, the William Clyde DeVane Medal for distinguished
teaching and scholarship.
Turekian is survived by his wife, Roxanne; two children, Karla Ann
Turekian and Vaughan Charles Turekian; a daughter-in-law, Heather
Leigh Turekian; two grandchildren, Aleena Marie Turekian and Charles
(“Chip”) Henry Turekian; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. A
private graveside service will be held at Grove Street Cemetery in
New Haven. A celebration of his life will take place at a later date.
“The world has lost one of the greatest geoscientists who ever lived,”
said Ague. “His influence is so large it is impossible to measure.”