Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

ARMENIAN SPORTSMEN ENSURE 19 TRIP TICKETS TO OLYMPIC GAMES IN BEIJING

arminfo
2008-04-29 20:19:00

ArmInfo. Armenian sportsmen ensured 19 trip tickets to the forthcoming
Olympic Games in Beijing, however, the complete team of the sportsmen
is not determined yet, President of the National Olympic Committee
of Armenia Gagik Tsarukyan told ArmInfo correspondent.

According to him, the team of the sportsmen who will represent Armenia
at the Olympic Games in Beijing will include weightlifters, boxers,
judoists, wrestlers and shots. "Our sportsmen will take part in three
large competitions, and we expect these competitions to bring Armenia 5
more Olympic trip tickets", Tsarukyan said. He added that the sportsmen
are ready gain victory in China, a country with 1.5 bln population, "to
raise the state flag of Armenia, a country with 1.5 mln population".

WE STRONGLY CONDEMN ATTACK ON TURKISH FLAG IN ARMENIA, BAGIS

Turkish Press
April 29 2008

ERZURUM – A high ranking official of the ruling Justice & Development
(AK) Party said Sunday "the AK Party strongly condemns the recent
attack on the Turkish flag in Armenia".

Speaking at an AK Party meeting in eastern province of Erzurum,
Deputy Chairman of the AK Party Egemen Bagis said that "as long as
the Armenians act in such a disrespectful manner, they are destined
to live in hunger and poverty in their corner".

"We strongly condemn the tramping of the Turkish flag in Armenia. The
government of Armenia must arrest all responsible for the attack. If
the Armenian government gives its consent to the attack on the Turkish
flag, then they would be proving that they deserve to remain in the
situation they live in," Bagis also said.

ARTICLE 1609: LABOR GROUP FORMED

Panorama.am
21:04 25/04/2008

Today a labor group has been created by president’s order. The mission
of the labor group is to coordinate the implementation of proposals
mentioned in the PACE article 1609 which concerns the democratic
institutions of Armenia. The decree was signed in the result of
special discussion held at Serzh Sargsyan’s.

According to the public relations department of the president’s
administration, the labor group is headed by the chairman of the
president’s administration Hovik Abrahamyan. NA deputies, president’s
advisor, deputy ministers, deputy chief prosecutor, president of
public and Radio Company are included in the labor group.

POPE CALLS FOR HUMAN VALUES PROTECTION IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.04.2008 13:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Pope Benedict XVI called on Catholic priests in
the South Caucasus "to protect the values of family and human life
against the mentality filled into the society during communist rule."

Receiving prelates serving in Catholic parishes in Azerbaijan, Armenia
and Georgia, The Pope said that "after the USSR decline the people
living there still experience hardships."

"There are poor and homeless people, refugees," he said. "However,
despite the 20th century events, Catholicism was preserved in the
Caucasus," he added, ITAR-TASS reports.

ARMENIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER HOSTS HUNGARIAN DELEGATION

ARKA
April 25, 2008

YEREVAN, April 25. /ARKA/. Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham
Gharibjanyan has received Hungarian delegation headed by Agnes Vada,
Secretary of State of Hungarian Defense Ministry.

Press office of Armenian Foreign Ministry says, the Armenian minister
and his Hungarian guests spoke about current political and economic
relations and outlined cooperation prospects.

Gharibjanyan briefed the Hungarian delegation on Armenia’s foreign
policy and relations with its neighbors. The delegation will leave
Armenia on April 27.

BEELINE COMPANY MAIN SPONSOR OF OLYMPIC TEAM OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
April 25, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 25, a sponsorship agreement
was signed between Armentel CJSC (which provides telecommunication
service with the Beeline trade mark) and the National Olympic Committee
of Armenia. Gagik Tsarukian, the Chairman of the National Olympic
Committee of Armenia, and Genady Kalgashkin, the acting Director
General of the Beeline company signed the agreement. A memorandum of
cooperation was also signed between Armen Grigorian, the RA Minister
of Sport and Youth Affairs, and Dmitry Pleskonos, the Chairman of
the Board of Directors of the Beeline company.

The agreement and the memorandum are aimed at assisting the preparation
of the olympic team of Armenia for the Beijing Olympic Games.

VAHRAM ATANESYAN: IF WE CONTINUE THE SAME WAY, WE WILL NOT SUCCEED

KarabakhOpen
23-04-2008 17:55:10

Recently they have started criticizing the information policy over
the past decade as insufficient in the context of settlement of the
Karabakh issue.

The speaker of the Armenian parliament Tigran Torosyan also confessed
it, who said the stance of NKR was not conveyed to the international
community sufficiently. We had a talk with the chair of the NKR
National Assembly Committee of Foreign Relations Vahram Atanesyan
who thinks that the information policy is a component of the national
security doctrine from which propaganda should stem.

"It is difficult to conduct a sufficient information policy unless
there is a doctrine. I do not think that the shortcomings of the past
years are possible to correct through a situational solution. In other
words, any state conducts a policy and conveys it to its public and the
international community. Unfortunately, there is no unified national
doctrine on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. At any rate,
both in the years of the armed conflict and the ceasefire attempts
were made to reach a situational solution," said Vahram Atanesyan.

With regard to the foreign policy he said first the model was
adopted that Armenia accepts what Nagorno-Karabakh accepts, and
if Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan reach agreement on the status,
Armenia does not reject it, which was the approach of the first
president of Armenia till the end of his tenure. "Naturally, the
entire external state propaganda was directed at the fulfillment of
this idea, which the opposition criticized. In 1998-2008 Armenia was
the main negotiator, and the state propaganda was that the sides may
reach a solution which will satisfy them and Nagorno-Karabakh. Today
in order to change the focus and make a new emphasis it is necessary
to sum up the experience of the past years, both the achievements
and shortcomings and finally decide whether we have our idea of the
solution of this problem to convey to the world. If we have a common
idea of settlement or non-settlement of the issue, the vectors of the
propaganda, both internal and external, should stem from it. Otherwise,
we cannot convey the problem to the world in one way and to our public
in another way," said the Member of Parliament.

According to him, in order to work out a common approach, a
powerful public consensus is necessary. The NKR political forces,
NGOs, the society should agree to the option of solution which we
can reach. "Unfortunately, my impression is that there is no such
consensus in the society. If there is no consensus, each political
force, each class of the society has its idea of the solution of the
problem and carries out their propaganda, which causes controversy
of stances. Certainly, there must be a spectrum, it is natural, but
eventually it must lead to the main goal: what do we offer to the
international community, which is our approach to the settlement of
the problem?" says the chair of the Committee of Foreign Relations.

The member of parliament thinks it is time that more and more people
started speaking about the settlement of the issue and international
recognition of NKR. Otherwise, what was in the past years continues,
it seems that only a few people are speaking about this problem,
which is not sufficient. Vahram Atanesyan thinks we must admit that
the children who were sitting on the shoulders of their fathers
and brothers during the February demonstrations of 1988 are already
grown up and may have an idea of the settlement of the issue which
is different from that of the previous generation.

According to the member of parliament, the solution is to work out
a national security doctrine, adopt it as a law and be guided by
it. "The executive should work out the doctrine. In the context of
the recent discussions we have prepared a draft conclusion of the
factions of the parliament which recommend the executive to work
out the national security doctrine and present it to the National
Assembly. As a situational solution we recommend the government to
set up a special working group for strategic studies and information,
which deals with setting up media, such as an internet resource,
newspaper, radio station, independent television. It is necessary
to recruit a team to do this work, which is the most important. Do
we have 4 or 5 specialists in NKR who can do this work? I do not
underestimate our intellectual potential but I cannot see them. If
we are going to do what we have done so far, we will not succeed. We
need professionals," Vahram Atanesyan said.

CONSTRUCTION GROWS BY 22.9% IN ARMENIA IN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2008 ON SAME PERIOD OF LAST YEAR

Noyan Tapan
April 22, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, NOYAN TAPAN. Construction work of 18 bln 312.4
mln drams (over 59 mln USD), including building and assembly work
of 13 bln 722 mln drams, was done in Armenia in January-February
2008. Construction grew by 22.9%, building and assembly work – by 15.3%
in comparable prices as compared with January-February 2007.

According to the RA National Statistical Service, 4% of construction
was carried out at the expense of the state budget, 0.4% –
communities, 2% – the World Bank, 5.5% – humanitarian aid, 65% –
private organizations, 23.1% – with resources of the population.

INVESTIGATION OF THE CASE OF THE MILL AND BREAD FACTORY CONTINUES

KarabakhOpen
19-04-2008 16:55:26

During his press conference on April 17 NKR Prosecutor General Arshavir
Gharamyan told about some scandalous cases.

According to him, charges have been brought against the ex-director
of the bread factory of Stepanakert Grisha Hairapetyan for
embezzlement. The investigation is not over. Several months ago the
plan of investigation was made, and now investigation is carried out
in accordance with this plan, said the prosecutor general. He said
soon the investigation will be over, and the case will go for trial.

The prosecutor also told about the case of the ex-director of the Mill
Ararat Hairyan who is charged with embezzlement of 117 million drams.

"He was in custody for 6-7 months, afterwards he was released on bail
but the investigation is not over," said Arshavit Gharamyan.

The prosecutor general said a number of workers of the Mill and the
Bread Factory have turned to them for legal consultation which helped
them get compensation.

And during the recent meeting of government the land in the territory
of a factory in Stepanakert earlier privatized by one of the former
owners of the Bread Factory Movses Sahakyan was expropriated because
of breach of contract, and the land of 522 sq m was sold to a certain
Grigoryan to set up a factory of furniture.

EDITORIAL: We must never forget Armenian Genocide

Burbank Leader, CA
April 19 2008

On the face of it, the Armenian Genocide is about Armenians. But it
must serve as a lesson to all mankind, so that the tragic events of
the past never become the fate of new generations.

The annual Week of Remembrance, starting Sunday, offers a chance to
solemnly look back.

It is a week devoted to remembering the Armenian Genocide, when the
Ottoman-Turkish Empire killed 1.5 million Armenians.

For many, it is just history — easy to bury in the days when
it happened, more than 90 years ago in a land far away from the
neighborhoods of Glendale and Burbank. But this must not happen.

It is that kind of attitude that allows such things to occur again. It
is that attitude that Adolf Hitler counted on when planning the
extermination of millions of Jews. "Who today still speaks of the
massacre of the Armenians?" he asked. advertisement

Well, we all must.

That was in 1939, only 24 years after the genocide.

Genocide survivors are becoming fewer and farther between and taking
with them the memories, which as terrible as they may be, give us a
vital link to history and the lessons that we can learn from it.

With war and genocide ravaging nations all around the world today,
we can’t let documented examples of war’s consequences die with the
people who lived through it.

Because when the memories go, we miss out on the knowledge that can
turn killing into peace, and help us better understand those with
whom we work and live.

Hitler wanted us to forget the Armenian Genocide, and the Turkish
government denies it happened.

But we must speak of the massacre, especially in a political climate
in the United States, where recognizing the atrocities committed
against Armenians is a political issue that gets talked about but
never officially done for political reasons.

Thankfully, there are places like Glendale and Burbank, where Armenians
and many others work to remind the world that they have a story to
tell about a terrible time in their nation’s history.

All of next week, that story will be told through a series of events
in Glendale and Burbank.

Whether you attend all the events, or just find one that speaks to you,
it is crucial that we put these atrocities in the light and understand
what man is capable of, and what can happen if we forget.

It should be taught in school as the Holocaust is, but since it
isn’t we all must raise a social consciousness about it and the other
atrocities of mankind, such as the genocide in Darfur.

Only by doing this can we hope to prevent such slaughter and mayhem
in the future.

So take time this week to reflect on the Armenian Genocide. But
remember, it’s really about all human beings.

That’s a thought that should unite us all in remembrance, so that we
can look forward to an even better community.