Author: Toneyan Mark

ARAM KHACHATURIAN MUSEUM TO HOST FAMOUS PIANIST HAYK MELIKYAN’S CONCERT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.10.2009 13:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On October 3, Aram Khachaturian museum in Yerevan
will host famous composer Hayk Melikyan’s concert. The program will
feature compositions by Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Skriabin,
Medtner, Shostakovich, Mosolov and Shchedrin.

The program will be presented by international contests and festivals’
laureate, famous pianist Hayk Melikyan.

Hayk Melikyan’s first piano professors were Irina Grishinskaya and
Alexander Gurgenov. Professor Gurgenov’s teaching follows the great
traditions of the Russian piano school, specifically that of Felix
Blumenfeld and Konstantin Igumnov.

>From his very first performances, Hayk Melikyan has attracted the
attention of the musical world by his great technical potential and
the original intellectual meaning he gives to the musical images.

NEW QUALITY STAFF

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15:06:02 – 30/09/2009

The initiative to establish relations with Turkey which of course
has challenges and dangers, though is to be commanded nevertheless
demands from Armenia serious changes of quality of governance, new
staff with new approaches corresponding to new measurements otherwise
Armenia will not be able to solve the current challenges and problems.

This idea was expressed by the chair of the Public Council Vazgen
Manukyan on September 30 during the meeting between Serge Sargsyan
and the public council. Serge Sargsyan responded to this question
with a very interesting stress. He noted "if we do not have enough
staff to communicate with Turkey, how we are going to communicate
with the U.S. or Europe which are much more powerful that Turkey".

Serge Sargsyan noted that many people naively think that we have many
good friends in the world who are going to point out our mistakes.

LIGHT SIDE OF THE ARK
Kathryn Edwards

Computerworld Australia
01 October, 2009 01:00

It’s time to Do Something! about paper usage by harnessing
technology. Planet Ark founder, Jon Dee on technology and the
environment.

What was your first job?

I actually created my own job. I was 17 [1981], at school and I got
to know the rocker band ‘Yes’. They needed someone to run their fan
club which was a semi-commercial operation, and so I agreed to do
that. I ended up becoming totally hopeless at school because I was
spending all my time organising their magazines and handling all the
fan enquiries and everything else.

The benefit was, as a 17-year-old, that I got to meet Pink Floyd,
Queen, Led Zeppelin and everyone else, so for the geeky kid in the
class it was kind of a promotion. As soon as I left school I carried
on in this position to pay the rent — the only thing is I flunked
my major exams! But since then I’ve either worked for myself or set
up my own organisation, so it was a very useful experience. It was
my first entrepreneurial activity.

While everyone was listening to Human League, I was listening to Pink
Floyd and nothing’s changed!

What was the inspiration behind the Do Something! campaign?

Pat Cash and I first met back in 1990. I had set up an organisation
called ‘Rock Aid Armenia’ to try and raise money for people who had
been affected by the Armenian earthquake. I was living in London at the
time so I called David Gilmore from Pink Floyd and said, "I’m going to
do a remake of Smoke on The Water. Will you be on it?" He said yes,
so I ended up with this line up of Queen, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple,
Black Sabbath — all on the one record.

Actually, in October I’m re-releasing the album globally on iTunes
for the 20th anniversary, and I’m getting some of them back together
to launch it in Armenia in October.

The record was a Top 40 hit in the UK and I ended up doing a remake
n and Roger Daltry from The Who all involved. Straight after that
Pat and I got very drunk one night and we decided to set up Planet
Ark. About a year and a half ago Pat and I felt that we had really
achieved what we wanted to achieve with Planet Ark. It’s a tremendous
success and continues to be so, but we wanted to back to doing what
we were doing when we first met. We started talking about the 20th
anniversary of Rock Aid Armenia and thought we should celebrate it in
some way. Then we started talking about all the other social issues;
Pat is very concerned about depression and mental illness and poverty
is a real issue for me. I just wanted to do something about it.

‘Do Something!’ struck me as a great name for an organisation
about getting people to go out there and do something. Listen to
people’s conversations in pubs, around the dinner table, around the
work environment — so often we ask, "Who’s gonna do something about
it?" and I thought, "What a great name for an organisation that covers
a variety of issues". So Pat and I decided that we would leave Planet
Ark, kind of reluctantly because it was our baby. But we thought
it was time to try something fresh and new, where we do our social
campaigning — as well as carry on with the environmental stuff —
and work a lot more closely with the business community. We’ve raised
close to $1 million since October [2008]. In terms of campaigning,
we’ve gotten off to a great start. It’s been a very exciting ride
over the last year.

How can we better use technology to save the environment?

The potential to significantly reduce our paper use is finally
here. We’ve reached the sweet spot. The cost of the equipment,
the ability to scan documents and recognise what characters are
on the paper, the backup and storage is now so much cheaper and
the bandwidth has increased. The Paper-Less Alliance is something
which I’ve dreamed up for years and I’ve followed the progress of
the hardware, the software and the whole infrastructure behind e are
at a tipping point, where there are plenty of examples of companies
that have put in place systems that have not just reduced the usage
of paper but have made them more efficient and a lot more productive.

What I decided to do in embarking on this Paper-Less Alliance was to
seek out the very best case studies, to show off the companies that
are achieving success and get them to share that with people. That
way, rather than start from scratch, companies could look to others
for inspiration and case studies that they could use in their own
organisation. We wanted to show that saving paper was about saving
money, but more importantly improving your company’s productivity,
efficiency and improving the bottom line in the process. The campaign
itself is not primarily driven on environmental issues; we are driving
it on efficiency and productivity and decreasing your bottom line
issues, and then pointing out that all of this also has a great
benefit to the environment.

What’s your preferred method of communication?

I’m really into electronic media. I’m addicted to Facebook. I’m a
‘Facebook-a-holic’! I’m also a big fan of Evernote. If I had to look
at the way I structure my life, I have a portable USB-powered scanner
and any paper I do get, I instantly scan it and the characters are
recognised on the page. If I end up writing something down on a napkin
while I’m at a restaurant, I can take a picture of it with my phone and
email it to my Evernote account, which syncs to my Evernote software
on my home computer and will read my handwriting. It’s about looking
at how we access information.

I did have a tablet PC but then I found that Vista was too clunky and
just kept falling over. I did too many presentations where Vista just
crashed and I just thought, "That’s it! I’m gonna use Mac".

What type of computer are you using now?

I’m using the MacBook Pro which I bought recently but I’m really
hanging out for the Mac tablet which is supposed to come out this
year. I’m looking forwa d to that because what I did enjoy about my
Windows tablet PCs was the interaction with the pen and hands. What
we’ve seen with the iPhone is what I believe is going to be the way we
interact in the future. Bringing out a tablet PC that has something
akin to the iPhone where you can use your fingers. And that’s when
we’ll see the death of the modern computer as we know it because
it will then become a more natural interface of how we are used to
handling documentation. The high-end monitors that allow you to use
your fingers to move things around are so much more intuitive than
the way we operate at the moment.

I’ve always been fascinated by tablet computing. I had the first
Panasonic tablet PC many, many years ago and I believe that’s the
future of computing. Once you’re able to hand-write notes effectively
and easily onto a screen where you can then manipulate your handwriting
and search — that is when I believe we’ll have the ability to change
the way we use our computers. And I think we’re already seeing at
the moment, all of the companies within the Paper-Less Alliance
campaign really understand that they can save a lot of money and
they’re starting to put a lot of processes in place, for example,
using electronic forms to replace paper. It’s a no-brainer from an
efficiency, productivity, and costs point of view. Electronic storage
is replacing paper-based storage. For example, the Australian National
Audits Office, who contributed to the new Web site, is saving $1.3
million per year by storing stuff electronically.

The Sydney office chairman of Deakins law firm, Nick Abrahams, has
written an opinion piece on our Web site saying that it’s not just
about money saving and accessing old files more quickly, it’s also
about more cost effective compliance.

And then there’s the issue of posting. Australia Post delivers 4.2
billion business related items every year. Now, a lot of that can
now be done electronically, so we’re calling on business as part
of this campaign. Of those 4.2 hat can be sent electronically. The
financial savings for business and the savings to the environment
from that would be enormous. You’re talking, many, many hundreds of
dollars, and you’re talking millions of tones of greenhouse gases
that we can eradicate. I’m really passionate about this dynamic
electronic alternative where you can search through every word on
the document. You can search through your hand-written notes on
restaurant napkins using free software now. Technology has changed
dramatically. The good thing is that rather than it just being me as a
ranting ‘greenie’ with a theory, now we’re seeing many companies saving
millions of dollars by going down this route. With this campaign, I’m
being an evangelist for the paper-free approach by getting together the
best case studies and the best role models, and share that information
with other companies so that they don’t have to learn from scratch.

Over the years, what’s been your most memorable tech moment?

I remember the first time I got my Panasonic Toughbook, I had a pen,
and I was able to handwrite notes on the screen and send an email to
somebody. I remember that whole thing of people ringing me up going
"How did you do that?" It was expensive — it cost me $10,000 —
but what I liked was that you could handwrite a note to somebody,
and it was so much more personal than just emailing them text. That
to me was a special moment. But the thing that was really the
‘eureka moment’ for me was seeing the World Wide Web for the very
first time. I launched the Planet Ark Web site back in 1996 and
it was so far advanced for its time. We had QuickTime videos of
all the television ads I had made with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman,
Dustin Hoffman and the like. We had a weekly podcast, but it wasn’t
called a podcast then, it was a weekly world environment news update,
playing in the earliest versions of the Real Player.

Before I set that up, I had been shown the Web and I thought, "This
is where it’s heading", where you’re going to have this interface of
multimedia, and whoever has the content, if they do it in the right
way, can really influence change. I find that very exciting.

What’s your focus then for the next 12 months?

Making sure that we build on the huge successes we’ve had in out
first year of Do Something! to get the maximum results possible. The
Paper-Less Alliance campaign really excites me. When I’m 65 and I look
back, the one thing I hope I can say then is that I helped contribute
to the switch from the old business approach of using paper, and to
drive the shift to a more paperless office. It has a lot of benefits
for businesses in terms of efficiency, productivity, compliance,
and improving th ottom line. It also will bring about a massive
environmental difference. So it’s one of those win/win projects. If
you’re a financial director and you don’t implement paper reduction
methods, your organisation needs a new financial director because
you’re not taking your responsibilities properly to maximise your
business’ bottom line.

This article originally appeared in Computerworld Australia’s
August/September print edition.

DIASPORA DOES NOT HAVE LOBBY IN ARMENIA

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14:35:24 – 30/09/2009

Active relations between Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora began
immediately after independence. Almost all the country’s leaders
publicly acknowledged the right of the Diaspora to participate
in the construction of the Armenian state in its domestic and
foreign policy. However, in Armenia, no one thought about how to
create mechanisms and institutions for the realization of this
right. Actually, someone probably thought, but only in order to
prevent the creation of such institutions.

In principle, the Armenian Diaspora is devoid of any opportunity to
participate in politics in Armenia. This was clearly evident when
it became clear that there are fundamental differences in positions
of the Diaspora and the Armenian authorities on the Armenian-Turkish
relations. But it is obvious that, in spite of the Pan-Armenian tour
of Serge Sargsyan, Diaspora is unlikely to influence the decisions
of the Armenian authorities, tuned to reconciliation with Turkey by
the huge concessions.

There are only a few planes where the participation of the Diaspora in
Armenian politics is possible. It is the All-Armenian Fund "Armenia",
through which the Diaspora can participate in economic and social
projects, is the Lins Fund – also is not engaged in political projects,
large lobbying organizations that are engaged in Armenian interests
in other countries, particularly in the United States. These are a
series of traditional Armenian parties represented in Armenia, but
funded from abroad. And it is the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs,
established a year ago. There are a couple of organizations and
institutions, through which communication takes place between the
Armenian authorities and the Diaspora.

However, none of them ensures the impact of the Diaspora in the
policy of the Armenian authorities, and not only in matters relating
to the state, but also the interests of most of the Diaspora. In
fact, the Diaspora has a lobby in many countries, but no lobby in
Armenia. There is no institution that could defend the interests
of the Diaspora in Armenia. This interest is entirely dependent on
the whims of government, on their likes and relations with certain
personalities. And not to repeat the well-known definition of "milk
cow", we can say that the Armenian authorities need the Diaspora only
for economic purposes.

In Armenia, there is not even television, funded by the
Diaspora. However, this is understandable – Diaspora has always tried
to bypass the internal political problems in Armenia, even if they
are related to fundamental democratic values. Images of Armenia and,
in particular, Artsakh Diaspora kept as an icon. Every day, wiping the
dust from it, it was perceived as something sacred. I never thought
about the fact that specific levers will be needed to defend their
interests.

And now, Serge Sargsyan decided to hear the opinion of the
Diaspora. Why? It is unlikely to change his decision. Moreover, the
Armenians throughout the world simply cannot influence the policy of
Armenia. Yes, Serge Sargsyan knows their opinions, they may even be
allowed to express negative opinions. But they cannot do anything,
if Serge Sargsyan does not change his position. This should be thought
about in right time. However, the Armenian society does not have levers
of influence on decision-making either. They can listen very carefully,
but will make their own way, and no one can do anything. And they
will show Hrant Vardanyan on TV, who says that his staff is praying
day and night for the border to be open.

ARMENIAN TAX ADMINISTRATION NEEDS TO BE SERIOUSLY REFORMED: PRIME MINISTER

ARKA
Sep 29, 2009

YEREVAN, September 29, /ARKA/. Armenian tax administration system needs
to be seriously reformed, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said today.

Speaking a seminar on the latest World Bank ‘Doing Business
2010′ report, the minister said: "We still have problems in tax
administration, particularly, paying taxes takes lot of time.’ He
added that introduction of electronic payment system is expected to
ease the problem.

"We have started introducing this system and expect technical
assistance from the World Bank, the International Financial Corporation
and USAID. We hope that this system, along with introduction of
risk-based tax administration, will raise significantly Armenia’s
rating in Doing Business next report,’ he said.

The premier admitted that there are serious problems in customs
services as well. He said working group was formed to monitor all
areas which are taken into account in making the Doing Business report.

"We have a clear schedule of measures and people responsible for
improving Armenia’s standing in Doing Business. We have simplified
the process of company registration, eliminated some unnecessary
requirements and as a result Armenia’s rating has moved up,’ he said.

In the Doing Business 2010 Armenia was on 43-rd position among
183 countries. In establishing businesses Armenia has improved its
performance and ranks 21st, in cross-border trade – 102nd place and in
obtaining a construction permission – 72nd, in registering property –
5th.

THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARTSAKH DIOCESE RECONSTITUTION CELEBRATED IN NKR

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2009-09-29 16:55
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

The 20th anniversary of reconstituting the Artsakh Diocese of the
Armenian Apostolic Church was celebrated in the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic.

Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II and leaders of some Dioceses
arrived in Artsakh to participate in the festivities.

The Supreme Patriarch held on September 26 a public liturgy in the
Gandzasar monastery. The Saint Mass and Patriarch’s Thanksgiving
Service were held on September 27 in the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral
in Shushi.

"Thanks to our strong faith, we could stand all the tests. With this
faith, our people created its free and independent life", Garegin II
noted during the festivities.

A closing festive event took place on September 28, with the
participation of the NKR top leadership, public representatives,
and guests.

In his speech, NKR President Bako Sahakian, in particular, noted:
"Faith has always been a reliable guarantee of all the victories
and confidence in the future for the Armenian people. In the crucial
periods, we could also overcome the seemingly insuperable hardships
greatly thanks to our strong belief. So it was at the modern stage of
our struggle – during the Artsakh Movement. The fact that the first
rally took place in Stepanakert on one of the most important20church
holidays – the Presentation of the Lord – is symbolic in itself. The
Armenians of Artsakh got the Supreme Being’s blessing for upholding
their just demand. The Artsakh Diocese’s reconstitution became the
first victory in our nationwide struggle".

Within the festivities, an exhibition – "Church’s Treasures" – was
opened in the Artsakh Museum of History and Local Lore. Books, photos,
and works of art by the Artsakh Diocese, reflecting the Diocese’s
activity, are exhibited in the Stepanakert Culture and Youth Palace.

SECRETARY GENERAL OF ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE SUPPORTS INITIATIVES IN ESTABLISHING GOOD- NEIGHBORLY RELATIONS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY

ArmInfo
2009-09-29 18:07:00

ArmInfo. Replying to ArmInfo correspondent’s question at a briefing at
the UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary General of the Organization
of the Islamic Conference Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said that being an
ethnic Turk himself, he supports the initiatives in establishing
good-neighborly relations between Armenia and Turkey.

He said that his neighbors in Istanbul are Armenians, therefore he
doesn’t think that this conflict must last too long. Time should solve
this problem, he added. He also stressed that the Organization of the
Islamic Conference supports the initiatives in establishing relations
between Turkey and Armenia.

2010 BUDGET DISCUSSED

hos15321.html
15:55:10 – 28/09/2009

Today, an extraordinary governmental session headed by the Armenian
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan took place. The government approved
the law draft on 2010 budget which will be introduced before the
parliament.

According to the document, the 2010 budget will sum 701, 1 billion
form the point of income, 884, 7 billion- expenditure, and 183,
0 billion- deficit.

The 2010 budget of the Armenian communities will be 82, 3 billion-
income and expenditure each.

The law draft proposes to approve the RA 2010 budget as 676, 6
billion-income, 859, 6 billion-expenditure, and 183 billion-deficit.

HERITAGE APPEALED TO UNIVERSITIES

lrahos15314.html
13:06:59 – 28/09/2009

The Head of the Heritage faction Styopa Safaryan on behalf of the
party and the faction made an appeal to the heads of 17 state and
interstate universities of Yerevan in connection with the Armenian and
Turkish protocols. With the letter addressed to the university heads,
the Heritage party asks them to organize meetings with the students
of the universities until October 10 to present their opinions and
to discuss the Armenian-Turkish protocols.

ARMROSGAZPROM EXTENDS "NO PREPAYMENT ACTION" TILL MARCH 1, 2010

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
28.09.2009 19:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In accordance with multiple requests made by
citizens, ArmRosgazprom CJSC extends "No prepayment action" till
March 1, 2010, company’s press service reported.

By paying 80% of contract-stipulated sum, those who applied for gas
supply till March 1, 2010, will be exempted from AMD 40 000 prepayment.