Author: Tavakalian Edgar

Hovnanian Enterprises Announces Second Quarter Fiscal 2005 Earnings
Release and Conference Call

RED BANK, N.J., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Hovnanian Enterprises,
Inc. (NYSE:HOV) a leading national homebuilder, will release earnings
for the second quarter ended April 30, 2005 after the close of the
New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, May 31, 2005. The Company will
webcast its second quarter earnings conference call at 11:00 a.m. (ET)
on Wednesday, June 1, 2005.

The conference call and accompanying slide presentation will be webcast
live through the “Investor Relations” section of Hovnanian Enterprises’
Web site at To listen to the live webcast,
a participant must have a multimedia computer with speakers and the
Windows Media Player plug-in installed. To download the software
prior to the event, participants should visit ,
click the conference call link located at the top of the “Investor
Relations” section, and follow the pre-event instructions. It is
suggested that participants access the webcast event page at least
five minutes before the live event. For those who are not available
to listen to the live webcast, an archive of the broadcast will be
available under the “Webcast” section of the investor news page on
the Hovnanian Web site at

The archive will be available for 12 months.

Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., founded in 1959 by Kevork S.

Hovnanian, Chairman, is headquartered in Red Bank, New Jersey.
The Company is one of the nation’s largest homebuilders with
operations in Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois,
Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
The Company’s homes are marketed and sold under the trade names K.

Hovnanian Homes, Goodman Homes, Matzel & Mumford, Diamond Homes,
Westminster Homes, Forecast Homes, Parkside Homes, Brighton Homes,
Parkwood Builders, Great Western Homes, Windward Homes, Cambridge
Homes and Town & Country Homes. As the developer of K. Hovnanian’s
Four Seasons communities, the Company is also one of the nation’s
largest builders of active adult homes.

Additional information on Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., including
a summary investment profile and the Company’s 2004 annual report,
can be accessed through the Investor Relations page of the Hovnanian
website at To be added to Hovnanian’s investor
e-mail or fax lists, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or sign up
at

SOURCE Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc.

05/17/2005 04:00 ET

ARMRUSGASPROM BREAKS AGREEMENT CAUSING EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO GREENHOUSE INDUSTRY OF GYUMRI

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The company ArmRusgasprom cut off in
January the gas supply to the greenhouse industry of Gyumri due to
its debt of 2.3 mln drams (about 5 thousand USD), as a result of
which the industry suffered losses of 61 mln drams. According to
chairman of the union “Pak Grunt” Poghos Gevorgian, vegetable seeds
were sown in the greenhouse in December, but the young growths were
completely destroyed in January when the gas supply was cut off. A
suit demanding compensation for the damage caused was filed against
the company. The agreement signed between the sides only envisages
fines against the unpaid debt. In the winter, the greenhouse paid
to ArmRusgasprom 2.8 mln drams from the total debt of 5.1 mln drams
owed for the consumed gas due to lack of money. P. Gevorgian told
NT correspondent that the greehouse is one of the most conscientious
subscribers of ArmRusgasprom and has paid a total of 45 mln drams in
the last four years. Gyumri greenhouse industry was set up in 2001
and initially covered an area of 1.5 thousand sq. meters. Later it
was extended to a 1-ha area by using loans and profits. However, the
greenhouse has to be dismanteled and its equipment sold because it is
unable to redeem the loans received. In particular, in 2004 alone,
a 66,000-dollar loan with a 3-year maturity was received from the
Eurasia Foundation. According to P.Gevorgian, the situation has a
negative impact on the attraction of foreign investments to the other
greehouses. For instance, several Iranian businessmen had an intention
to make investments in the 6-ha greenhouse of Ddmashen village. Yet
they changed their mind after learning the above mentioned facts.

ISSUES OF THE OLD TO BE DISCUSSED AT INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
By Gohar Gevorgian

AZG Armenian Daily #090, 19/05/2005

Society

Mutual Development and Solidarity (Strasburg), Armenian Associations
for Social Aid (Paris) and Mission Armenia benevolent NGOs have
organized a press conference and an international seminar dedicated
to the issues of the old people. The organizers of the seminar aim to
inform people who render aid and care to the old people in Armenia with
the leading experience of the French specialists. They will deliver
lectures on the changes connected with the old peoples’ organism, as
well as the physical and psychological peculiarities that have great
impact on their behavior. The participants will also be informed about
the new approaches for their care and other problems. The organizers
also represented “Practical Approaches for Treatment of the Old”
manual that was translated into Armenian.

PARADZHANOV EXHIBITION IN ST. PETERSBURG

22:27

MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti) – A Web site featuring museum exhibitions
in Russia () announced the opening of an art exhibition
on prominent Armenian filmmaker Sergei Paradzhanov (1924-1990) in
the St. Petersburg State Ethnography Museum on June 8.

The exhibition features 60 drawings, collages, hats, and dolls from
the Paradzhanov Museum in Yerevan.

Paradzhanov was born to an Armenian family in Tbilisi. He graduated
from the Cinematography Institute in Moscow. He was hailed as one
of the world’s best directors for his movies Shadows of Forgotten
Ancestors (1964) and Color of the Pomegranate (1969). He won over
30 awards at international film festivals, including Mar del Plata
(1964), Tel Aviv, Munich, Constantinople, and Moscow.

Paradzhanov wrote a number of interesting scripts that were rejected
by Communist Party leaders, while the filmmaker suffered under the
cruelty of the Soviet system. He was not allowed to shoot movies for
15 years. In 1973 he was arrested on fabricated charges and spent
five years in prison. Despite these circumstances, he continued to
create works of art. For example, he made figurines from bread and
sent them to his friends.

Famous cultural figures, including Lilya Brik, the wife of the
great proletarian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, campaigned for his early
release. Paradzhanov was set free a year earlier in 1977.

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:

MEDIA ALERT

May 18, 2005

CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Email: [email protected]

RE: The Washington Times Publishes Assembly “Letter to the Editor”

The Armenian Assembly of America would like to call your attention to
the attached “Letter to the Editor,” published today in The Washington
Times by the Assembly Board of Directors Chairman Anthony Barsamian.
The letter was written in response to Turkish Ambassador O. Faruk
Logoglu’s recently published commentary entitled, “To Reconcile Turks
and Armenians.”

The letter can also be accessed at the following link:

TURKEY SHOULD FACE FACTS

Dear Editor:

It is disingenuous at best for Turkey’s ambassador to the United
States to tout his government’s offer to establish a commission to
study the Armenian genocide (“To reconcile Turks and Armenians,”
Commentary, May 3). As the ambassador is well aware, more than 120
Holocaust and genocide scholars have declared the Armenian genocide
an incontestable fact. Furthermore, the International Center for
Transitional Justice recently released a legal study implicitly
supported by the Turkish government that declared “The Events, viewed
collectively, can thus be said to include all of the elements of the
crime of genocide as defined in the Convention, and legal scholars as
well as historians, politicians, journalists and other people would
be justified in continuing to so describe them.”

The scholars and lawyers have spoken. It is long past time for
Turkey to face the judgment of history.

ANTHONY BARSAMIAN
Chairman, Board of Directors
Armenian Assembly of America
Washington

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of
Armenian issues. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

NR#2005-050

ISSUES OF ARMENIA’S RATING ASSESSMENT BY INTERNATIONAL RATING
ORGANIZATIONS DISCUSSED WITH RA PRESIDENT

YEREVAN, MAY 13, NOYAN TAPAN. At the May 12 working meeting of RA
President Robert Kocharian and Minister of Economic Development Karen
Tchmaritian, the effects of the foreign currency rates fluctuations on
various branches of economy and measures to avoid shocks in this
sphere were discussed. According to the RA Presidential press service,
R. Kocarian and K. Tchmaritian also addressed the problems of tourism
development, in particular the necessity to create conditions for
turning Tsakhkadzor in a tourist center functioning throughout the
year. The sides also discussed issues related to economic development
forecasts, investment enviroment improvement, legislative initiatives
concerning economy, as well as the assessment of Armenia’s rating by
international rating organizations.

Poll shows 1.7 per cent of Armenians trust Azeri leader

Mediamax news agency
14 May 05

YEREVAN

Only 17 people of the [1,000] polled in Yerevan have said they have
confidence in the Azerbaijani president [Ilham Aliyev] and most of
them answered the question in a joking manner.

The chairman of the Armenian sociological association, Gevorg
Pogosyan, said this to Mediamax, commenting on the opinion poll
conducted in the three South Caucasus countries in April 2005. “No
matter how [they answered], they answered and we registered them,”
Pogosyan said.

The poll was held by the [US] Gallup International polling centre at
the initiative of the Georgian sociological company Gorbi in
cooperation with the Armenian sociological association and the
Azerbaijani company SIAR. The poll was held to find out whether
citizens in the three republics trust regional and world leaders.

Despite its joking manner, the fact that 1.7 per cent of the 1,000
polled in Armenia trust the Azerbaijani president implies that
Armenian society is democratic and tolerant. No one of those polled in
Azerbaijan said they have confidence in the Armenian president, which
indicates that Azerbaijan’s society is isolated and closed, Pogosyan
said.

Armenian foreign minister says constitutional reforms “number one issue”

Mediamax news agency
12 May 05

YEREVAN

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan today discussed with
rapporteurs of the PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe] Monitoring Committee the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict and prospects of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

Vardan Oskanyan said that he had also discussed with the rapporteurs
issues connected with the holding of a referendum in Armenia on
constitutional amendments.

Vardan Oskanyan described constitutional reforms as “the number one
issue” and expressed the hope that in the event of a positive outcome
of the referendum, Armenia will complete the process of fulfilment of
its commitments to the Council of Europe by the end of 2005.

Guerrilla News Network
May 9 2005

The Good News Roundup:
Hope for Armenian Migrant Workers

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia has seen a quarter of its
population emigrate as economic refugees. Armenian workers are often
badly abused by employers aware of their illegal status, but their
government is working to change that with a new labor migration bill.
IWPR reports, `The new legislation will seek to address two sides of
the problem: enabling agreements to be drawn up with employers abroad
to secure the best possible opportunities for migrant workers; and
secondly to ensure that Armenians working in other countries are
covered by labour rights and safety rules.’

Armenian president meets Moldovan, Greek counterparts in Moscow

Arminfo
9 May 05

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan met Moldovan President Vladimir
Voronin on 8 May within the framework of his working visit to Moscow.

The presidents discussed a wide range of issues concerning bilateral
relations, the presidential press service has told Arminfo news
agency. They also touched upon the process of reforms in the CIS.

After the CIS leaders’ working meeting, Robert Kocharyan met Greek
President Karolos Papoulias. The sides expressed satisfaction with the
established warm and friendly relations between the two states and
confirmed their readiness to expand these ties.

Papoulias invited Robert Kocharyan to Greece.