Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

BAHCHALI: ARMENIANS GET US IN A TIGHT CORNER WITH THEIR PROTOCOLS

Aysor
March 2 2010
Armenia

Leader of Turkey’s Party of National Solidarity (National Movement
Party) Devlet Bahchali commented the process of ratification for
Armenia-Turkey protocols and the upcoming hearings at the U.S.

Congress on the Genocide Resolution, 1News Agency reports citing the
Turkish media.

"I urge the Turkish government to call off the Armenia-Turkey
protocols," said at the party’s session Devlet Bahchali.

"Armenians get us in a tight corner with their protocols, while the
White House makes use of it and keeps on blackmailing us," he added
and pointed that threatening to recognize the 1915 Genocide, the U.S.

administration wants to make Turkey’s government to pass the
Armenia-Turkey protocols.

ARMENIA-EU RELATIONS IN A CRUCIAL STAGE

Armradio.am
02.03.2010 13:11

The Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, received the
EU delegation headed by the Foreign Minister of Spain, Muguel Angel
Moratinos.

Greeting the guests, Edward Nalbandian congratulated Muguel Angel
Moratinos on assuming EU chairmanship.

Charactering the Armenia-EU relations, Minister Nalbandian stated:
"The Armenia-EU relations are at a crucial stage today. The European
Union is a reliable political and economic partner for Armenia. The
Eastern Partnership Program that kicked off last year opens broad
opportunities for expansion of cooperation in a number of spheres."

Minister Nalbandian attached importance to the further deepening
of the political dialogue between Armenia and the European Union,
the signing of a free trade agreement, the easing of visa regime and
the start of negotiations on an association agreement.

Minister Nalbandian and Moratnos talked about issues related to the
expansion of cooperation between Armenia and Spain. The Armenian
Foreign Minister informed that a decision had been taken to open an
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Madrid in 2010.

Minister Moratinor reiterated the EU support for the Armenian-Turkish
process and voiced hope that the parties would ratify the protocols
without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe and would
move forward.

The Armenian Foreign Minister informed his Spanish counterpart about
the latest developments in the negotiations on the Karabakh conflict
settlement.

TRAGIC WATERSHED OPENED BY AUTHORITIES WILL BE CLOSED BY ARMENIAN PEOPLE: LEVON TER-PETROSYAN

news.am
March 1 2010
Armenia

Tragic history’s watershed of March 1 was opened by authorities, but
will be closed by Armenian people, said ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan
at today’s rally.

According to him, "two years ago Armenian leadership planned and
carried out cold-blooded execution of peaceful demonstrators, as it
was the only way of retaining the power after the electoral fraud,"
Ter-Petrosyan stated adding that vote rigging is not discredited, as
otherwise thousands would not participate in anti-governmental actions.

First Armenian President is confident that tragic watershed of March
1 events can be closed only in case of finding and punishment of
those guilty of people’s death – employees of prosecutor’s office
and courts, participating in unlawful decisions on oppositionists’
pursuing. "Published secret decree of RA Defense minister as of
February 23 completely proved that the matter is about the coup
d’etat, staged by Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan. The day when
the mentioned document is used by international community to make
impeachable legitimacy of Serzh Sargsyan more vulnerable will come,"
Ter-Petrosyan declared.

STAR NETWORK OF SUPERMARKETS TO START LARGE-SCALE REDUCTION IN PRICES SINCE MARCH 1

ArmInfo
2010-02-27 13:56:00

ArmInfo. The largest retailer of Armenia, STAR company, will launch a
project "Large-scale reduction in prices" starting March 1. Under the
project, it is envisaged to reduce prices of over 5000 names of goods.

The press-service of STAR told ArmInfo that the decision on approval
of the project "Large-scale reduction in prices" was taken by the
STAR Board of Directors, Friday.

The STAR network, which has been functioning since 1998, has 13
supermarkets (12 in Yerevan, 1 in Hrazdan).

NEWS BRIEFS
AZERBAIJAN: INDONESIA AND FRANCE BECOME BAKU’S TOP TRADE PARTNERS

Italy, Indonesia and France now rank as Azerbaijan’s leading trade
partners, dislodging the United States and Russia from their perch as
the energy-rich Caucasus country’s main export markets, the Azerbaijan
Business Center (ABC) reported on February 22.

Some 42.8 percent of Azerbaijan’s exports (worth an estimated $612
million) went to Italy in January 2010, while 9.7 percent and 8.4
percent were directed to Indonesia and France, respectively, ABC
reported, citing the State Customs Department of Azerbaijan.

Less than 8.2 percent of all exports went to the Commonwealth of
Independent States, led by Russia, which alone was Azerbaijan’s
second-largest export market in 2009.

Russia, however, remained the main source for goods exported to
Azerbaijan, accounting for 20.5 percent of all Azerbaijani imports, or
some $75 million.

Crude oil, natural gas and petroleum products accounted for nearly 98
percent of Azerbaijan’s January exports.

Posted February 23, 2010 © Eurasianet

Czech Culture Minister refused to participate in Azeri event

27.02.2010 14:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ashot
Hovakimian visited a Czech village of Lidice, where the Azerbaijani
Embassy jointly with Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Azer-Czech union are
planning `to commemorate Khojalu events’.

Accompanied by Czech Armenians’ spiritual leader, archimandrite
Barsegh Pilavchian, Armenia club chairman Tigran Abrahamyan and Orer
magazine editor-in-chief Hakob Asatryan, Ambassador Hovakimian met
with the head of Lidice village administration and director of Lidice
Memorial.

The Armenian Ambassador told about what really happened in Khojalu and
produced the false photographs used by the Azeri propaganda machine to
mislead the international community.

Head of Lidice village administration Joseph Klima informed that the
Czech Minster of Culture refused to attend the Azeri event and assured
that the organizers, who tried to attract the villagers’ attention to
the event by promising an abundant dinner, will not be allowed to make
anti-Armenian statements.

The Nazi destroyed the village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia on June 10,
1942, killing every adult male and fifty-two women. All surviving
women and children were then deported to concentration camps, or if
found suitable to be `Germanized’, sent to the greater Reich. In 1945
The re-establishment of the village began soon after the liberation of
Czechoslovakia in May 1945. The place was later declared a national
cultural memorial. By the beginning of the 1950s, more than 100 houses
were built not far from the original site. Its Rose Garden became
symbolic of the continuity of life and was created with a donation of
29 000 rose bushes from 32 countries.

ANNIVERSARY OF ISAAK DUNAYEVSKY MARKED IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.02.2010 18:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 110th birth anniversary of composer Isaak Dunayevsky
was marked in Yerevan, on February 26. "Concert and theatrical
performance were held in Moscow House of Yerevan. Fragments from
different movies with his music were demonstrated and performed.

Armenian singers also participated, performing of Dunayevsky’s musical
compositions," Liana Azoyan, head of press service, Rossotrudnichestvo
representative office in Armenia, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

During the event, representatives of Russian Embassy in Armenia,
Rossotrudnichestvo as well as Hasmik Poghosyan, RA Minister of Culture
made a speech.

According to Liana Azoyan, Rossotrudnichestvo representative office in
Armenia is the organizer of the event. "This concert is only one of the
events to be held in Armenia. We are planning to organize another event
to commemorate Alexander Griboedov, in coming days," she mentioned.

Soviet composer Isaak Dunayevsky was born in Ukraine in 1900. He
began as a student of classical music. After the Russian Revolution,
he played with avant-garde forms but eventually settled into composing
popular music. His first big hit was the score for Makhno’s Escapades
(1927), a circus scenario that mocked the civil war anarchist leader of
a Ukrainian partisan band opposed to the Bolsheviks. Dunayevsky went on
to compose some twenty film scores, a dozen operettas, and music for
two ballets and about thirty dramas. His lasting legacy is the music
from the enormously popular musical films of the 1930s: Happy-Go-Lucky
Guys, Circus, Volga, Volga, and Radiant Road, all featuring the
singing star of the era, Lyubov Orlova, and directed by her husband,
Grigory Alexandrov. A fountain of melody, Dunayevsky wove elements
of folk song, Viennese operetta styles, and jazz into optimistic
declamatory tunes that captivated Soviet listeners for decades. The
lyrics of the most famous of these, "Vast Is My Native Land" (1936),
from the film Circus, celebrated the official image of Russia as a
great nation, filled with free and happy citizens. The Dunayevsky
mode was overshadowed somewhat during World War II, when more somber
and intimate songs prevailed. His postwar hit, the music for Kuban
Cossacks (1950), enhanced the propaganda value of that film, which
idealized the affluence of Cossacks and peasants on the collective
farms of the Kuban region. Dunayevsky died from heart attack in 1955.

AZERBAIJANI ARMY FULLY READY FOR WAR – VICE SPEAKER

news.az
Feb 26 2010
Azerbaijan

Ziyafet Asgarov If the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not settled
peacefully, the war will be inevitable, said Ziyafet Asgarov.

"The Azerbaijani army is not just ready for war, it is ready for it
on the high level", first vice speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament
Asgarov told reporters in Baku on Friday.

He also noted that the Azerbaijani side will continue efforts for the
international recognition of the Khojaly genocide. "Unfortunately,
the world community does not react to the genocide committed in the
late 20th century by Armenians before the eyes of the whole world,
but Azerbaijan will not lose heart and continue efforts for the
recognition of the genocide", the first vice speaker said.

Armenian armed forces invaded Azerbaijani Khojaly terminating hundreds
of civilians, killing 613, including 106 women and 63 children and
injuring 487 citizens on the night of February 26 of 1992. 1275 were
taken hostages, some 200 people went missing.

ADVOCATES CHAMBER CRITICIZES POLICE ACTIONS

/computer
08:39 pm | February 25, 2010

Social

The RA Chamber of Advocates released a statement today criticizing
an attempt by an investigator attached to the Erebuni Investigative
Division to seize a computer belonging to "Sretenka-Konsul" legal firm.

The Chamber received a complaint filed by attorney Ara Zohrabyan
regarding the illegal seizure of the computer containing the firm’s
legal documents.

The Chamber points out that Armenia has agreed to a number
of international treaties guaranteeing the inviolability of
"attorney-client" privilege and secrecy of consultations. It also
criticizes recent police efforts to prevent attorneys from contacting
clients who have been detained by law-enforcement.

SPELL-CHECKING IN ARMENIAN NO LONGER A PROBLEM

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.02.2010 GMT+04:00

"Armenian PowerSpell 2009" is currently the most complete
spell-checking package with the ability to check up to 570,000 words
and word forms.

With a bit of effort and sometimes money, users of popular
word-processing software Microsoft Word can now spell-check their
Armenian texts. Free of charge spell-checking alternatives are
being developed for Open Office, the cross-platform and open source
alternative to Microsoft’s office suite.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ For users of Microsoft Word 2007, the most obvious
choice is downloading the Armenian version of Microsoft Office Language
Interface Pack 2007, which includes Armenian spell-check and options
to change the interface language of MS Word into Armenian.

With a rather limited selection of words and word-forms, the
dictionary used in the spell-checker is far from being perfect, it
only supports Unicode Armenian texts and lacks any type of grammar
check whatsoever. On the other hand, it works seamlessly, is very
fast and convenient in use.

Microsofts’ Language Interface Pack has been around since last year,
and it has been downloaded several thousand times from Microsoft’s
website. Grigor Barseghyan, the director of Microsoft’s representative
office in Armenia estimates that the number of users of the software
is about 10 thousand.

"Spell-check is one of the main reasons why most people download the
Language Interface Pack," Mr. Barseghyan told PanArmenian.net. He
noted that the spell-checking option will be available in the upcoming
versions of Microsoft Office suite as well.

"Armenian PowerSpell 2009", the Armenian spellchecker with support of
both Unicode and legacy ANSI encodings, is currently the most complete
spell-checking package with the ability to check up to 570,000 words
and word forms. The program also provides basic grammar checking. An
added bonus is the fact that it works with all the latest versions of
Microsoft Word, unlike Microsoft’s Language Pack, which only supports
Office 2007.

The largest disadvantage of the program is the price – it comes with
a 7-day free trial period, after which the users will have to pay
9000 AMD (about $ 24 US) for a one-year license. It doesn’t support
"check-spelling as you type" functions of MS Word and slows down the
system a little bit.

The software has been around since last spring, and although they
are not advertising the software, its programmer, Arman Boshyan
told PanArmenian.net, that the PowerSpell sells very well, with most
publishing houses and media organizations acquiring licenses and the
number of programs’ users exceeding 10,000.

The free alternative for spell-checking in Armenian as part of the
Armenian localization of Open Office 1.1 was released back in 2004,
but the organization behind it, Union of Information Technology
Enterprises (UITE) discontinued the project due to lack of resources.

Derivatives of that initiative continue as of today as part of various
open source projects.

Aleksey Chalabyan, an IT consultant who has been putting his volunteer
time and effort into continuing the development of a spell-checker
for the latest versions of OpenOffice, says he only needs a little
bit of help by volunteers, preferably linguistics students, to clean
up the dictionary of over 45,000 words and submit the working code to
the open source project for free download for all who need it. The
beta version of the program works in Open Office Writer at least
as well as Microsoft’s spell-checker, and seems better at detecting
some mistakes, as the spell-checking algorithm also understands word
forms and word formation. Work on this open source spell-checker is
especially important, as it can potentially serve a range of other
software, like Mozilla’s Firefox web-browser, Thunderbird mail client,
a range of open source word processors and programs, ranging from
instant messengers to online editors.

Chalabyan is optimistic, and says it should be possible to finalize
the open source spell-checker in the nearest future.