Author: Tambiyan Samvel

"NATURE AND THEOLOGY" BOOK PUBLISHED

Noyan Tapan
Jun 05 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 5, NOYAN TAPAN. On the initiative of Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin, Sevan’s Vazgenian theological school and Yerevan
State University, a book "Nature and Theology" was published where
environmental protection principals are presented as well as the
viewpoint of the Christian Church on the fact that the ecological
crisis arose as a result of human activities.

The school supervisor Archamadrite Mkrtich Proshian mentioned at
the June 4 presentation of the book in Ashot Yerkat hall of Armenia
Marriott hotel that there are ecological problems set not only for the
Armenain nature and people but also for the mankind of the Planet. "Man
does not take enough care of the nature created by God in the case
when first of all man is responsible for environmental conservation,"
said Mkrtich Proshian.

In the words of bishop Pargev Martirosian, head of Armenian Apostolic
Church Artsakh diocese, mankind should have respect for all those
things God created and preserve nature. "Man can’t live only in his
own interest and in prejudice of others," mentioned His Holiness.

The co-author of the book, assistant supervisor of the Vazgen
theological school, clergyman Minas Martirosian informed that it
is already six years the course Green Theology has been taught
in the school. It includes ecology, environmental protection and
ecotheology. In his words, mankind is under the threat of two kinds
of interrelated crises: spiritual and ecological, and in order to
overcome them first of all one needs to clean oneself spiritually as
"the man who undergoes spiritual degration causes nature degration".

Archimandrite Vazgen Nanian, Supervisor of Gevorgian theological
Seminary, Archimandrite Mkrtich Proshian, Supervisor of Vazgenian
theological school, Aram Simonian, Rector of YSU, Konrad Reiser,
ex-Secretary General of World Church Council (WCC), WCC Armenian Round
Table Fund and YSU officials, representatives of other organizations
and environmental organizations were present at the ceremony.

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PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Cordoba Hosts Third Annual Inter-provincial Festival

AGBU Cordoba held its 3rd annual Armenian Inter-provincial Festival,
organized by the "Liga de Jovenes" (Youth League), at the AGBU center on
March 3, 2007. This event gathered together the far-flung members of the
Argentinean Armenian community. Representatives from Buenos Aires,
Corrientes, Mar del Plata, Misiones, Neuquen, and Rosario attended the
event.

During the festival, the participating youth spent the full day engaged
in various sports, including basketball, volleyball and soccer. They
built a sense of camaraderie and worked to build social connections
between communities that are geographically distant from one another.

As part of the large gathering, an evening of music featured three local
bands, Dzirani, "el Erepuni", and the Sergio Giovoglanian Band, that
performed an array of Armenian music.

The Festival succeeded in its objective of promoting Armenian culture,
forming new ties and friendships, and strengthening relationships among
Argentinean Armenians.

To conclude the festival, community representatives met the following
day to share their experiences, ideas, and projects with one another and
later attended a farewell lunch held at the city’s AGBU center.

For more information on AGBU and its worldwide chapters, please visit

"ARMENTEL" OFFERS NEW TARIFFS
By Ara Martirosian

AZG Armenian Daily
05/06/2007

Economy, Communications

On June 1 "Armentel" tendered an offer of re-balanced tariffs
of fixed telephone connection to the Public Services Regulatory
Commission. The latter will discuss the tender in 90 days period and
make a decision. General director of "Armentel" Oleg Briznyuk said
that "Armentel" might make its offer related to the re-balancing of
fixed telephone connection tariffs according to the requirements of
the acting license.

The tariffs will be based on the cost price. "There are tariffs that
will reduce by 5-6 times, others will rise or stay unchangeable. The
changes in "Armentel" tariffs will not make a transposition in prices
and there won’t be "an outburst in the market", said Oleg Briznyuk. He
also expressed his opinion on the new tariffs, which would not
virtually affect on the profit of the company. He also assured that
the same tariffs in Russia were much more higher than in Armenia.

The new tariffs have been published in the press, also in "Azg"
daily. Particularly, the international call prices will come down,
i.e. per minute tariff of telephone call to Russia will cost 90 AMD
instead of 140-192 AMD, to USA 90 AMD instead of 344 AMD, to Europe
from 90 to 344 AMD instead of the acting 344 AMD per minute tariff.

The local call costs will stay unchangeable: 360 minutes free of cost
call, 5 AMD per minute tariff from the 361st minute, and 9 AMD per
minute tariff from the 1001st minute.

Instead of these the subscribers’ payment will rise to 2040 AMD
for the resident subscribers, and to 4800 AMD for the business
subscribers instead of 1100 AMD. The abovementioned tariffs include
also value-added tax (VAT).

Sporting Life
June 2 2007

Kazakhstan 1 Armenia 2

Armenia registered their first win in six attempts of their Euro 2008
qualifying campaign as they beat Kazakhstan 2-1 in Almaty.

In a game between two struggling teams in Group A, it was the
visitors who showed more purpose going forward and they took their
reward with all three points.

Both Armenia’s goals came within 10 first-half minutes with Robert
Arzumanyan opening the scoring just after the half-hour mark before
Sargis Hovsepyan doubled the advantage from the penalty spot.

Ruslan Baltiyev then got a late goal back for Kazakhstan, also from
the spot.

After a slow start, Armenia finally got a sight of goal in the 21st
minute but Ararat Arakelian sent his shot wide from 25 yards.

Minutes later, they were ahead as Hamlet Mkhitaryan crossed for
Arzumanyan to fire in a left-footed shot from the edge of the area.

They doubled their lead six minute before the break after Aleksandr
Kuchma brought down Samvel Melkonyan inside the area and Hovsepyan
stepped up to blast a powerful penalty into the bottom left-hand
corner of the net.

Chances were hard to come by in the second half.

Five minutes in, Yeghishe Melikyan tried his luck with a free-kick
but it was easily dealt with by David Loria in the Kazakhstan goal.

The hosts had been non-existent as an attacking force but finally
registered a shot on goal in the 70th minute when Murat Tleshev let
fly from 20 yards, only to hit is straight at Armenia goalkeeper
Gevorg Kasparov.

However, the hosts would get on the scoresheet two minutes from time
when Baltiyev hit a penalty straight down the middle for what would
prove to be nothing more than a consolation goal.

RUSSIA’S INVESTMENT IN ARMENIA GROWS

RosBusinessConsulting Database
May 31, 2007 Thursday 9:21 AM EST

Russia’s investment in Armenia staged 3.5 times to $32.670m in the
first quarter of 2007, which is 23.9 percent of the total investment
amount in the republic’s economy. Armenia’s National Statistics Service
announced these figures today. Direct investments went up 15.5 times
to $23.464m. Therefore, Russia is Armenia’s second largest investor
(after Lebanon).

Most of Russia’s investment was allocated to Armenia’s
telecommunications and metallurgical industries: 66.46 percent and
20.8 percent respectively.

NEWS: WRITING TO CHANGE THE WORLD: STOWE LECTURE FOCUSES ON GENOCIDE
BY Howard McEwen

Cincinnati CityBeat, OH
June 1 2007

"So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great
war," Abraham Lincoln said to Cincinnati native Harriet Beecher Stowe,
author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the book that made real for many the
injustice of slavery.

Stowe’s words inspired a great change in the minds of many regarding
humans as chattel. The Mercantile Library honors her legacy next week
with its annual Harriet Beecher Stowe Lecture, "Writing to Change
the World."

Journalist Samantha Power, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her book,
A Problem from Hell ­ America and the Age of Genocide, will speak
on her work and travels through a country wiped clean of undesirable
and defenseless peoples.

"Because of her writing to change the world and because at the
Mercantile Library — which we consider the literary center of
Cincinnati — we see the need to continue the work Stowe did," says
Dale Brown, vice president of the library’s board of directors. "We
look for speakers who are writing for themselves to change the world
or writing about people who have changed the world."

Power’s book looked at the 20th century through the lens of genocide.

Her book ranged from the Ottoman Empire’s slaughter of a million
Armenians during the First World War to Saddam Hussein’s murder of
100,000 Kurds and the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo.

More recently, Power traveled to Darfur. Her New Yorker article on
this region of the east African nation of Sudan, "Dying in Darfur,"
won the 2005 National Magazine Award for best reporting.

The article opens with the story of a mother named Amina, whom she
met in a refugee camp in 2003. Amina and her husband were living a
semi-prosperous life as herders. They had six children.

Then one day the Sudanese Air Force bombed her village. Her husband
disappeared while traveling. Then came the janjaweed — mounted
marauders funded and semi-controlled by the Sudanese government. Her
oldest son, 10-year-old Mohammed, was killed while trying to defend
one of the community’s wells, the lifeline of this village that
clings to the edge of the Sahara desert. After the skirmish, Amina
found her son’s head. She couldn’t locate his body.

"I took my child’s head, and I buried him," Amina told Power.

Amina escaped with her remaining children to Chad, where she lives
in poverty as a refugee.

The Genocide Intervention Network estimates that 400,000 people have
been killed and 3.5 million have been displaced in Darfur. Power is
one of a few journalists informing the public about the 21st century’s
first genocide.

"Samantha Power is as responsible as anybody in what we know as
the tragedy in Darfur," says Albert Pyle, the Mercantile Library’s
executive director. "She was on the story early and stayed on it. She
writes to change minds, and that’s what we’re looking for."

The conflict began in 2003. In 2004 the three major networks aired
26 minutes of Darfur coverage, according to the Tyndall Report, which
monitors network news. In June 2005, Darfur came under heavier aerial
and ground attacks. During that time, the networks and 24/7 cable
news channel aired 126 segments on Sudan, compared to 485 segments
dedicated to Jennifer Wilbanks, who achieved Warholesque fame as the
"Runaway Bride."

Here’s the hard thing about understanding what’s happening in Darfur:
It doesn’t fit any preconceived media templates.

One template is that problems in the Muslim world are dominated by
religion — Jew versus Arab or Arab versus Christian. In the Sudan,
governing Arab Muslims and Sudan’s Christian minority have made peace.

The killing in Darfur is a race war. The Arab Muslim government of
Sudan is cleansing its Darfur region of the black or African Muslims
who occupy it. They are assisted by the Arab nomads, the janjaweed.

Another template is of strife between the Sunni and Shia sects. In
Sudan, most Muslims are Sunni, whether Arab or black.

A final media template is that U.S. involvement in the Middle East
and elsewhere is driven by corporate interests and oil reserves. The
Sudan has $2 billion in oil revenue. Chevron discovered the reserves
in the 1970s but has been unable to tap them because of U.S. trade
prohibitions until the civil war ends.

Although the media hasn’t helped, Pyle says it’s important that people
understand what is going on in Darfur.

"We all share a responsibility when genocide is in the offing,"
he says. "Everybody must know about it and what actions we must take.

This requires an informed citizenry."

Power’s lecture will be in the library’s reading room at 7 p.m. June
6. The cost is $20 for library members and $25 for all others.

Reservations are required and can be obtained by calling
513-621-0717. ©

–Boundary_(ID_b63eeCuFlFCXyJVlQYy9mQ)–

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL SAYS ELECTIONS WERE DETERMINED BY ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR

Panorama.am
20:14 31/05/2007

Experts of "Transparency International" organization conclude that the
parliamentary elections of May 12 were determined not only by bribing
but by the overwhelming atmosphere of fear, organization head Amalia
Kostanyan informed at the press-conference today. People were brought
to electoral districts by force, moreover the pre-electoral period
brought to institutionalization of political prisoners and bribing,
Amalia says. "Employees of many state and private companies were
ordered to vote for this or that party", – she stresses.

Amalya Kostanyan informs that "Transparency International" carried
out a phone poll among Armenian citizens in order to discover the
mentioned facts.

"Only 13,75% of 1018 respondents confessed in being suggested
5-10000 AMD for the vote", – she says. The poll showed that 38,9% of
respondents didn’t consider the elections "pure" and 28.9% found it
difficult to reply. And only 36,2% stated that elections were "fair".

TODAY IS THE INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY

ArmRadio.am
01.06.2007 11:55

Today is the International Children’s Day. On this occasion a number
of events are due in the republic. Festive arrangements will be held
in all marzes of Armenia.

Currently there are 8 state and 5 private children’s homes in
Armenia. The state is implementing the policy of returning the children
to families.

An exhibition of handmade works of children with mental disabilities
will be opened at Narekatsi Cultural Centre. The exhibition will be
on display by June 4th.

"Communication in bright childish colors" exhibition will be opened
at the Children’s Art Gallery of Yerevan. The authors of the items
– children aged 6-14 – pictured their conception of communication,
Internet, cell phones, etc.

Another exhibition will open in the UN Office in Yerevan. Works by
more than 400 children will be presented.

A concert dedicated to the International Children’s Day will be held
at the Liberty Square.

KOCHARIAN REAFFIRMS PLANS FOR NEW NUCLEAR PLANT
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 30 2007

President Robert Kocharian on Wednesday reaffirmed the Armenian
government’s ambitions plans for the construction over the next decade
of a new nuclear power station in place of the aging Metsamor plant.

Kocharian was quoted by his office as telling local and foreign
experts sitting on his advisory Council on Atomic Energy Security
that the project is "justified both in terms of energy security and
economically." No further details were reported.

The government took the first major step towards the project’s
implementation early last year when it pushed through parliament a bill
that allows private and foreign ownership or co-ownership of nuclear
facilities located in Armenia. Officials spoke of the would-be new
plant as the most viable alternative to Metsamor, which meets about
40 percent of the country’s electricity needs and is due to be closed
down by 2016.

The government is already making preparations for its decommissioning
which has long been sought by the United States and the European
Union. Kocharian told the council that the Armenian Ministry of
Energy will come up with a relevant plan of actions within two
months. According to the presidential press service, he discussed the
idea of replacing Metsamor by a similar facility at a separate meeting
with Adolf Berghoffer, a German nuclear scientist chairing the council.

Meeting with university students in Yerevan in late April, Kocharian
said the government is still ascertaining the necessary capacity and
cost of the new plant. "I think that as early as in 2012-2013 active
work will be implemented for a new nuclear power plant and the upgrade
of the current one," he said.

Putting the project into practice would cost Armenia at least $1
billion, a sum comparable to its government budget for this year.

Armenian officials hope that foreign investors will foot the bulk of
the bill.

So far only Russia has shown interest in financing the project. The
issue was on the agenda of a late April visit to Yerevan by Sergey
Kirienko, head of Russia’s Federal Agency on Atomic Energy (Rosatom).

Also, Deputy Energy Minister Areg Galstian told reporters on Tuesday
that the Russian-Armenian inter-governmental commission on economic
cooperation has set up a working group tasked with looking into the
matter. He cautioned that discussions are currently held "on the
conceptual level."

"It’s a long process and we have already embarked on it," said
Galstian.

U.S. reaction to Yerevan’s plans has been far more lukewarm.

"Especially given the geology here, the earthquake zone, it might
be better to come up with an alternative to a second nuclear power
plant," Tom Adams, a senior State Department official coordinating
U.S. economic assistance to former Soviet republics, said in May
2006. "Right now, we are leaning against that option," he added.

70% OF IFES SPECIALISTS POINTS OUT CORRECT ORGANIZATION OF ADMINISTRATION DURING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
May 30 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 30, NOYAN TAPAN. Preliminary data of the observation of
the parliamentary elections process in Armenia by the International
Foundation for Election Systems were presented at the discussion
organized on May 30.

As Kenesh Sainazarov, the Elections Coordinator of the IFES Armenian
branch mentioned, 6 working groups were founded to study the process
of the elections. They visited 62 polling stations of Yerevan and 5
marzes. Among the positive results fixed in those polling stations,
he separated correct organization of the administration (70%),
active participation of observers and confidents (78%), absence of
the necessity of presence of the police (90%) as well as the low
index of incorrectnesses of ballot-papers.

As a negative phenomenon, K. Sainazarov mentioned existence of posters
and other materials of the pre-electoral campaign fastened at 5 of
the 62 polling stations, absence of possibility of secret vote (20%),
vote of at the same time two voters at the vote cell (18%), fixing of
abuses of the post by members of the territorial electoral commissions
(22%) as well too small or too big territory given for the electoral
process (20%).

The goal of the program implemented by the IFES was also to estimate
works of the district electoral commissions, correspondence of
procedures with the RA Electoral Code as well as to present proposals
for the next stage of trainings.