Author: Torgomian Varazdat

DAYS OF BULGARIAN CULTURE TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.03.2009 16:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan met his
visiting colleague Milen Keremedchiev on Mar. 16 in Yerevan. The
discussion focused on wide spectrum of issues including strengthening
of Armenian-Bulgarian collaboration, overcoming financial crisis
consequences, as well as Bulgarian FM’s views on stabilization of
Armenian-Turkish relations.

Arman Kirakosyah and Milen Keremedchiev stressed the high level of
political dialogue between Yerevan and Sophia, as well as the active
economical cooperation. The parties emphasized that specific steps
are being undertaken to intensify cultural connections.

Bulgarian Culture days are due in Yerevan on May 29-Jun. 6, RA Ministry
of Foreign Affairs news service reported.

GAGIK MINASIAN: THERE IS NO IMPERATIVE NECESSITY TO REVIEW STATE BUDGET NOW

Noyan Tapan

M arch 16, 2009

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian government has already
put forward an initiative to adopt by-laws and make some legislative
amendments in order to mitigate the consequences of the global
financial and economic crisis and the depreciation of the national
currency – the dram. The prime minister and some government members
also recently conducted consultations with the parliamentary factions
of the coalition parties in this direction, the chairman of the
National Assembly Standing Committee on Financial, Credit and Budget
Issues Gagik Minasian announced at Hayatsk Club on March 12.

In his words, there is "no imperative necessity" to review the state
budget now. He said that the Armenian law on budget system allows
the government to transfer some expenditures to a later period,
in particular the 4th quarter.

"We expect quite a hard situation in terms of budgetary revenue
collection, but we are not going to reduce the social programs,"
he stated. As regards budgetary revenues, G. Minasian pointed out
the availability of quite serious reserves, in particular a sum of
77 billion drams accumulated and not spent in the previous years
will allow increasing the deficit up to 3% and ensuring budgetary
expenditures.

Speaking about the return to a floating exchange rate policy on March
3, G. Minasian said that the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) does not
intervene any more to keep the exchange rate of the dram, but it tries
to intervene sometimes to reduce sharp fluctuations. According to
him, "the exchange rate of the dram against the dollar is currently
stable, and all in all, the CBA’s interventions amount to zero". In
his opinion, the price fluctuations in the commodity market as a
result of the 20% depreciation of the dram have already stopped, and
the prices have become stable. It was also mentioned that henceforth
the possible fluctuations of the dram/dollar exchange rate will be
conditioned by fluctuations in the international market of the dollar.

FROM RUSSIAN TO LAUREL HIGHLANDS, WITH LOVE
by Les Harvath

Tribune-Review (Greensburg, PA)
March 15, 2009 Sunday

When exchange student Natasha Mkhitaryan returns to her home in Russia
in May, she promises to tell her friends about everything she liked
during her yearlong stay at Laurel Highlands High School.

That list includes her host family, playing on the girls’ soccer and
basketball teams, hanging out with her new friends, going to the movies
and bowling, she said. And, of course, the total Mustangs’ environment.

"I like everything that I’ve found in the United States and at
Laurel Highlands," Mkhitaryan said in fluent and precise English,
spiced with her native accent. "Everything is so different to what I
am used to in Russia. I may never have this opportunity again. This
is a different lifestyle and my stay has given me the chance to be
living independent of my family. It has been good to experience high
school in the U.S. and have a chance to see things with my own eyes."

But she also will tell her friends about the one facet she hasn’t
liked about her stay.

"I’ve gained about 15 pounds already," she said, laughing. "I like
everything about the U.S. — school, soccer, basketball — except I’ve
gained 15 pounds and I don’t like that. All exchange students gain
weight when they are here in the U.S. because all the food is so good."

To celebrate International Family Week, she made
a vanilla-and-strawberry Armenian cake, which she described as
"delicious and a family favorite back home in Armenia."

Even though her home is in Russia, Mkhitaryan was born in Armenia.

Armenian is one of the six languages she speaks, including Russian,
English, Spanish and Kalmyk, the native tongue of her adopted Russian
region.

"I speak Armenian at home," she said. "My father wants us to speak
it at home so we don’t forget it."

In Russia, Mkhitaryan attended the top-rated school in her
republic. After their seventh-grade year, students must pass an
entrance exam to gain admission to the school, which focuses on
mathematics, history and law, biology and chemistry, and literature,
Russian and English classes. After spending two years studying
history and law, her career ambitions turned to becoming a lawyer,
and she would like to return to the United States to practice law.

Laurel Highlands’ girls soccer coach, Al Dubois, met Mkhitaryan at the
beginning of the season last fall and was impressed with her "great
attitude and hard work." "She worked very hard with the team and all
the girls loved her. She is one of the sweetest kids I’ve ever met."

Mkhitaryan’s soccer experience in Russia was recreational and not
affiliated with her high school. She played on the junior varsity
team this year.

"Her skills developed as the season went on," Dubois said, "and she
became an excellent defender. I’m impressed with her attitude about
everything. She is dedicated and I am proud of how our girls took to
her and made her feel at home."

LH girls basketball coach Mark John echoed Dubois’ sentiments.

"Natasha’s personality made it easy for our other players to become
friends with her. She didn’t come here with extensive basketball
experience and her playing time was limited to the junior varsity,
but she was happy to be a part of the team. She never missed practice
and always worked hard. She is a determined and enthusiastic young
girl. Even though she didn’t play, she was upbeat the entire season."

Originally scheduled to remain in the States until June, transportation
logistics, she explained, will instead see her return to Russia near
the end of May.

With her host family, Mkhitaryan has visited Williamsburg, Va., and
in March will be traveling to Washington again with her host family.

Boston Globe, MA
March 10 2009

George Keverian: Power, personality, wit

By Michael Goldman
March 10, 2009

AT LEAST once a month at the State House, someone would ask me if I
knew how former House speaker George Keverian was doing. These
inquiries were always sincere, yet laced with a certain sadness that a
power, personality, wit, and intelligence as large as George’s could
just fade away with nary a sound.

Sadly, this was a choice George made himself, for reasons he kept to
himself. Phone calls from old friends, colleagues, and staff often
went unanswered, invitations to breakfast or lunch ignored.

It wasn’t that George totally disappeared. On the smaller stage of
Everett life and politics, his shadow always loomed large. Up to his
sudden death last week, he remained Everett’s favorite son.

But it was in the halls of the State House where George Keverian made
his mark. He knew more about the boundaries of all 160 House Districts
than did any other member. His personality and wit made him the most
desired politician to host or address local political events. And he
remains the only one to engineer and implement a campaign that toppled
a powerful sitting House speaker.

George rarely crossed the State House’s thresholds after his loss for
state treasurer in the 1990 Democratic primary. When he did
occasionally emerge from his self-imposed Boston isolation, such as
his spectacular appearance at a gala event honoring former governor
Michael Dukakis a half decade ago, the brilliance and ferocity of his
wit was once again on display. As one former Dukakis staffer mused
last week, "Mike Dukakis was never more liked or likable than when
under the withering wit of Keverian. In the most devastatingly
humorous manner, every Michael tick or mannerism was fair game, and
every Dukakis idiosyncrasy seemed to become a winning asset."

Anyone lucky enough to have known him, of course, has their favorite
"George" story.

The year I worked for him during the speaker’s battle in 1984, he sent
me every story he could find about someone who had died while
running. "Nobody ever died sitting on the couch," he claimed, "and
it’s the exercise that’s killing these people. Seriously, show me a
single story where someone died just sitting on a couch, minding their
own business."

The truth was that George, known by many for his constant struggles
with his weight, was a champion runner in high school, a little known
fact of which he was quite proud.

And then there was George, the guy known to be tight with the penny,
but who loved poker and always carried more than a little cash with
him.

One day I asked him why he always seemed so well heeled. Without
missing a beat he responded, "I figure someday someone is going to try
and rob me. I figure if they get a lot of money, they’ll be so happy,
they’ll run away as fast as they can. They’ll be happy, and I’ll be
fine. Worth every cent, don’t you think?"

That was George – always thinking.

Finally, there was the call I got from George while we were both in
Atlanta during the 1988 Democratic convention. George, who had a fear
of flying, was at a facility that specialized in helping folks
overcome their phobia by putting them in the pilot seat of a simulated
flight taking off from then National Airport in Washington. The idea
was to show how safe and simple flying really was.

Keverian called my hotel room and left the following message:
"Michael, Charlie (Charlie Flaherty, then the House majority leader)
is going to be ‘sooo’ happy. I’m dead." Click.

It turned out that during the simulated takeoff, with George at the
controls, the plane had smashed into the Washington Monument, killing
all on board, the first, and as far as I know, the only time this had
ever occurred.

Only George.

Those who mourn George today share the bond of understanding that they
knew a gentle, sensitive man touched by the Gods with greatness and
yet bedeviled by never fully understanding what his intelligence, his
gracefulness under pressure, his humor and his friendship meant to
others.

Michael Goldman, senior consultant with the Government Insight Group
in Boston, served as political consultant during Keverian’s successful
battle for House speaker in 1984.

_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/10/george_keverian_ power_personality_wit/

A1+

People are ill after March 1
[08:17 pm] 12 March, 2009

ACNIS Presents New Monograph on the Psychology of Comparative Change

Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) today
convened a special roundtable to present the findings of a new
monograph entitled `One Year Later: The Psychology of Comparative
Change in Armenia and the US.’

Welcoming the participants and attendees, ACNIS Director Richard
Giragosian explained that `one year after the tragic events of March
1, 2008, Armenia remains challenged by the lingering effects of an
unresolved post-election crisis,’ but noted that `the underlying
causes of Armenia’s post-election crisis include several unresolved
problems, ranging from widening socio-economic disparities to a
pronounced political polarization.’

The ACNIS Director went to say that the monograph revealed `an
interesting parallel in the psychology of comparative change in
Armenia and the United States, driven in both countries by an
awakening of the people, as a population no longer satisfied with
apathy or inactivity, and seeking an agenda for change.’

The day’s first speaker, ACNIS Research Coordinator Syuzanna
Barseghian, presented the monograph’s findings entitled `The Logic of
the Presidential Election of 2008: The Change of the Public
Perceptions.’ According to Barseghian, Armenia’s 2008 presidential
elections were distinct because, this time, apathy did not accompany
the entire pre- and post-election process. And during the
post-election phase, there was a civic and psychological process
which the authorities tried to define as an `appropriation of state
power’ and a `coup’ attempt, whereas the opposition called it a
`people’s movement. `Yet the greatest concern is the disappointment
that could emerge among the masses who have awakened from apathy, and
this disappointment is dangerous for the whole society. It is
therefore necessary to learn lessons from such developments,’
Barseghian noted. `The social tension and the polarization of the
political field as well as the absence of discourse and the state of
intolerance, all of which are the results of the 2008 presidential
elections, inevitably will bring about a need to increase the
societal factor and the citizens’ role in the political processes, a
change in public perceptions, and a demand for a `new opposition.”

In her turn, ACNIS analyst Armine Ghazarian spoke on the monograph’s
findings under the heading `The Psychological Peculiarities of the
Presidential Election Period.’ As indicated by Ghazarian, the events
that occurred in Armenia in the past one year, and those that are
still taking place, have brought about a social and psychological
decline and have created public tension. As a result, we now face
growing psychological problems, such as frustration, depression and
discomfort, psychological and emotional strains and responses, as
well as stress and resultant reactions. `All this has led to the
adoption of a variety of psychological defense mechanisms:
aggression, ousting, denial, rationalization, etc. And it is a
troubling fact that a long time is still needed to triumph over such
reactions and related behavior so that they do not become fixed
character traits, or affect the mentality and psychological
characteristics of the Armenian people,’ Ghazarian argued.

ACNIS Director presented the last presentation, `The Psychology of
Change in the US: The Obama Experience,’ with an analysis of `the
American candidate of change,’ President Barack Obama, who was `able
to mobilize and inspire the American voters by offering something new
and promising real change.’ He went on to stress that despite the
similarity between the American and Armenian political context of a
need for change, there were several key differences, including: the
fact that in US politics, votes count and are protected, and the
reality of two different political systems.

Giragosian explained that `while in Armenia, the political system is a
`top-down’ and closed structure, with power concentrated in the
presidency, in the US, the power of the political system rests on a
system of `checks and balances’ that promotes a healthy and positive
competition between the three branches of government. He then pointed
to the separation of business & politics and the role of the
`opposition’ as important lessons for Armenia, saying that `Armenia
needs to recognize that the fact that a dynamic and active opposition
is a sign of a healthy and vibrant democracy, and is not a threat to
the state or the system.’

The formal deliberations were then followed by questions, answers, and
a lively exchange among many leading Armenian analysts and experts, as
well as several officials.

Yerevan Park in the heart of Paris

armradio.am
13.03.2009 12:18

The Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, and the Mayor of
Paris, Bertran Delanoe, opened the Yerevan Park in the center of Paris.

The ceremony was attended by Charles Aznavour, Minister of State
responsible for the French civil service André Santini, Senators and
Deputies of the National Assembly, statesmen and politicians, mayors,
diplomats, businessmen, culture workers, hundreds of French Armenian
pupils.

Mayor Bertran Delanoe said in his opening speech that the opening of
the Yerevan Park in the heart of Paris is a recurrent evidence of
friendly and warm relations, mutual sympathy and respect between the
Armenian and French peoples, and a unique gift of Paris to Yerevan, its
sister city, to Armenia and its people.

Edward Nalbandian assessed the opening of the Yerevan Park as another
symbol of time-tested friendship between the Armenian and French
peoples.

Technology Business Journal
March 10, 2009

MATERIALS SCIENCE;
Findings from Yerevan State University provide new insights into
materials science

According to a study from Yerevan, Armenia, "The early growth of
calcium hydroxide (CH) crystals in cement solution is investigated by
soft X-ray transmission microscopy imaging. Aquantitative analysis of
the successively recorded images of the hydration process enabled to
evaluate the supersaturation ratio of solution, growth rates, both
kinetic and diffusion coefficients, and concentrations of solute
molecules at {10 (1) over bar0} and {0001} facets of the CH crystals."

"It is concluded that the difference in obtained concentrations of
solute molecules at these facets may be associated with solubility
anisotropy of crystallographic facets of the CH. The interfacial
energy of the CH nuclei in aqueous solution is evaluated to be 0.114
J/m(2) that by an order of magnitude is smaller than the average free
surface energy of this phase," wrote V.S. Harutyunyan and colleagues,
Yerevan State University.

The researchers concluded: "The proposed theoretical approach is
universal and, in potential, may be applied to any precipitating phase
in a supersaturated solution."

Harutyunyan and colleagues published their study in the Journal of
Materials Science (Investigation of early growth of calcium hydroxide
crystals in cement solution by soft X-ray transmission
microscopy. Journal of Materials Science, 2009;44(4):962-969).

For more information, contact V.S. Harutyunyan, Yerevan State
University, Dept. of Solid State Physics, Yerevan 375049, Armenia.

Publisher contact information for the Journal of Materials Science is:
Springer, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013, USA.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Memorial plaque to Regina Ghazaryan, who saved Charents’
manuscripts, inaugurated in Yerevan
13.03.2009 18:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ When the great Armenian poet Eghishe Charents was
taken in prison, when his house was surrounded by KGB and his works of
recent years were doomed to destruction, a young artist Regina
Ghazaryan managed to save and preserve writer’s manuscripts. On Mar
13, at 112th anniversary of Charents a memorial plaque was inaugurated
on the house that sheltered Regina Ghazaryan.

”Any Armenian would have tried to save the master’s works,” Regina
Ghazaryan wrote in her memoirs. ”Charents warned his wife Isabella
that only Regina could be trusted with his manuscripts,” Karine
Khorasanyan, the relative of Regina Ghazaryan reminisced.

Regina Ghazaryan managed to save Charents’ manuscripts of 1935-1937,
including `Requiem to Komitas’, `The Nameless’, `Songs of Autumn’,
`Navzike’. According ”Many of his works were buried underground and
25% of them lost beyond repair. But the museum still keeps the bags
with the dust, which is all that remains from the manuscripts.”
Charents Museum Director Lilit Hakobayan said.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Reserve fund to cover state budget deficit in 2009
12.03.2009 17:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `In the end of 2009 we’ll face some difficulties in
covering the budget, but the crediting of social programs won’t be
cancelled,’ the Chairman of Parliamentary Commission for Finance,
Crediting, Budget and Economy, Member of RA Republican Party Gagik
Minasyan told a news conference on Mar. 12.

According to Minasyan, the Armenian Government will undertake all
necessary steps to overcome the financial crisis, as well as promote
creation of new job opportunities in more perspective spheres. He
specified that realization of social expenditures can be postponed
till the last quarter of 2009, when the budget is filled with new
proceeds.

As for state revenues, the reserve fund, now totaling AMD 77billion,
will allow decreasing the budget deficit to 3%. The Parliamentary
Commission Chairman added that 2007 reserve fund allowed to fully
cover the expenditures for 2008. `Much was spent on exchange rate
control in the first months of 2009, yet the expenditures were
necessary for timely introduction of the floating exchange rate
policy.’ According to Gagik Minasyan’s forecast, by the end of the
year state expenditures will be compensated by the revenue secured
from shadow economy control.

US Fed News
March 9, 2009 Monday 4:21 PM EST

APO TOROSYAN EXHIBIT OPENS MARCH 5 AT LAWTON GALLERY

GREEN BAY, Wis., March 3 — The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
issued the following news release:

The Lawton Gallery will host "Immigration Stories and the Staff of
Life: An Installation by Apo Torosyan" March 5-April 2. An opening
reception of the artist’s work will be held March 5, 4:30-6:30 p.m.,
with a gallery talk by the artist at 5 p.m. The exhibit, in
conjunction with the campus-wide theme, "Waging War and Waging Peace,"
is connected to the artist’s Armenian heritage and the genocide of his
ancestors at the beginning of the 20th century in Turkey. It also
addresses issues fundamental to the global community as well as
encouraging the viewer to reflect upon their own stories and
experiences of movement and resettlement.
more information please contact:
Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- [email protected]