Author: Torgomian Varazdat

NO THREATS TO THE COOPERATION
Vardan Grigoryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
23 Oct 2008
Armenia

Russian President D. Medvedev’s two-day visit to Yerevan became the
successive manifestation of the Armenian-Russian leaders’ sincere
willingness of maintaining and extending the serious achievements in
both countries’ relations.

It is well-known that beginning the early 1990’s, the steady
progressive development of the Armenian-Russian relations continued,
irrespective of the shift of government in both states. Moreover,
the top figures of the two countries always played an important
role in the extension of those relations. Therefore, with the new
negotiations, Russian and Armenian new Presidents D. Medvedev and
S. Sargsyan reiterated their willingness to consistently extend the
Armenian-Russian ties, having inherited the rich traditions of the
mutual cooperation between the two states.

This is a strictly important and fundamental issue because before the
Russian President’s recent visit so many contradictory and conflicting
opinions were expressed in our reality in this connection that the
uninformed people were already under the impression that there had
started a deep crisis in the Armenian-Russian relations.

The most important result, as mentioned by the Russian President after
the talks, was "the mutual desire to develop the strategic partnership"
between Armenia and Russia.

And the evidence of such summary conclusion was the thorough discussion
of the whole palette of the bilateral relations. The Russian side
expressed special satisfaction with the strictly effective cooperation
between the two countries within the frameworks of the CIS and its
Collective Security Treaty and underlined Moscow’s serious willingness
to further extend such cooperation, especially in the frames of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization.

The next important issue discussed during the negotiations concerned
the further extension of the economic cooperation. The continuous
comparisons of the volumes of the Armenian-Russian political-military
cooperation have already led to a situation in which the Russian
investments and even the bilateral good circulation has surpassed or
come close to the boundary of one billion dollars, which is quite an
impressive sum for a small country like Armenia.

The broad cooperation between the two countries in the spheres of
education and culture is also obvious. In this respect, the Armenian
President attached a special importance to the activity of the
Armenian-Russian (Slavonic) University and the transmission of the
Russian "Kultura" (culture) TV Channel in Armenia.

During the talks held in Yerevan, both countries’ Presidents had
a thorough discussion over the various aspects of the situation
in the South Caucasus following the recent Russian-Georgian armed
conflict and, in that context, paid attention to the prospects of
the settlement of Karabakh issue. Undoubtedly, the chief intrigue of
the negotiations and the main motive of looking for a "black cat" in
the Armenian-Russian bilateral relations were "hidden" here. However,
what we heard from the Presidents was just two fundamental conclusions
and one proposal.

The first was the Armenian President’s special willingness to proceed
with the talks in the frameworks of the OSCE Minsk Group (based on
the Madrid principles) and the second was the RF President’s proposal
addressed to the Armenian and Azeri Presidents for organizing a
trilateral meeting in Moscow. A question arises as to what happened to
the ominous predictions heard in our reality prior to the talks. We
believe the issue should be touched upon by the authors of such
predictions. First of all, we mean L. Ter-Petrosyan.

The fact that Armenia attaches importance to the issue of proceeding
with the talks in the frameworks of the OSCE Minsk Group testifies
to our country’s unwillingness to make unilateral concessions to
Azerbaijan. As to Russia’s current initiative, it is also advantageous
to Armenia, first of all as a counterbalance to the trilateral meeting
recently organized by Turkey with the involvement of the Azeri,
Turkish and Armenian Foreign Ministers.

All the rest are simple fairytales and ordinary gossips that have
emerged for a very simple reason. The real "battle" over the Karabakh
issue is, as a matter of fact, taking place between Russia and the
United States vs. Armenia and Azerbaijan. Each side is trying to
impose its separate formula upon the parties. This increases Armenia
and Azerbaijan’s chances of making maneuvers between them because the
Minsk Group never coordinates everything in advance. What happens
is just the contrary: two of its key members simply "torpedo" each
another’s initiatives.

Therefore, there is no threat to the Armenian-Russian strategic
cooperation.

As to the Karabakh issue, a lot of things are expected to happen in
that regard.

THE UBYSSEY MARKS A CHECKERED PAST
Tom Hawthorn, [email protected]

Globe and Mail
October 22, 2008
Canada

Often criticized yet much admired, university newspaper celebrates
90 years of publication

VICTORIA — Any newspaper celebrating a birthday these days is cause
for celebration, even if the survivor is a "vile rag."

The Ubyssey student newspaper is 90 – "old enough to be John McCain’s
dad," as the paper noted in an editorial – but behaves like a cheeky
twentysomething.

For nine decades, the paper has upset, outraged, infuriated and,
on occasion, amused.

So much for the staff. Who knows what the readers have made of it?

To mark the occasion, a few dozen stalwarts gathered at a modest
party on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver
on the weekend. Cake was served. A Queen tribute band performed the
group’s bombastic songs, which means cheese was also on the menu.

Kellan Higgins, the 23-year-old co-ordinating editor, offered guests
a tour of the newsroom in the Student Union Building. In the old days,
the paper’s offices were located in a corner office on the top floor,
where the walls were papered with faded political posters. In the old,
old days, pubsters, as they were called, produced the rag from the
basement of Brock Hall.

As though suffering from the subterranean homesick blues, the
newspaper’s quarters are once again below ground in a windowless room.

"It’s depressing, because there’s no light," Mr. Higgins complains.

The proximity to the campus pub known as the Pit is offset by the
proximity to a campus pub that is known as a pit.

The Ubyssey missed a year of publication before being revived in a
referendum as an independent business funded by students. Eviction
followed autonomy.

The weekend party honoured 15 years of editorial freedom instead
of celebrating the paper’s rich history. Imagine the documentary
series Canada: A People’s History beginning with the patriation of
the Constitution in 1982, or the Bible opening not with Genesis but
the Resurrection. Backstory matters.

The 13 paid staff and 40 volunteers who produce the 24,000-circulation
tabloid twice weekly have little time to contemplate what came before.

"The newspaper’s very ‘now,’ " the editor said. "We’re doing this now."

Not that all are ignorant of the history.

"We have bound volumes going back to the sixties," he said,
emphasizing the decade as might an archaeologist speaking of the
Mesozoic era. "It’s cool looking through them."

The Ubyssey was Maoist in the late 1960s and Groucho Marxist in
its best years. Times have changed. The newspaper praised Stephen
Harper before endorsing Stephane Dion in the recent federal election,
a shocking display of responsibility.

For generations, the newspaper was a playground for students seeking
adventure. The Ubyssey produced poets (Earle Birney) and pundits
(Marcus Gee, Vaughn Palmer) and authors (Pierre Berton, Allan
Fotheringham) and radio hosts (Lister Sinclair, Norman DePoe) and
television reporters (Hilary Brown, Morley Safer, Joe Schlesinger)
and judges (Les Bewley, Nathan Nemetz) and senators (Pat Carney,
Ray Perrault) and a prime minister (John [Chick] Turner) and more
than a few dipsomaniacal newsroom hacks (guilty as charged).

It has less of a sterling record when it comes to producing academics,
a notable exception being former arts dean Patricia Marchak.

The inaugural edition rolled off the presses on Oct. 17, 1918. The
banner headline read, FRESHMAN RECEPTION. Other stories included the
summertime drowning of a popular student. The Ubyssey had a military
editor – the Armistice halting the Great War would not be reached
for another 25 days.

An editorial declared "the main aim of the paper is to print the news
while it is ‘hot.’ " For many years, the old papers were available
only in dusty bound volumes in the stacks of the campus library, or
on microfilm at such institutions as the National Library of Canada
in Ottawa.

Four years ago, the university library began a project of digitizing
the pages of the student newspaper. More than 37,000 pages were
scanned and made available online.

A reader can find much to admire in the pages. In the early days, the
Ubyssey argued for the hiring of a dean of women, supported the demands
for the building of a campus at Point Grey, and crusaded against the
brutality of fraternity hazing, which was banned on campus in 1924.

The newspaper defended the right of Canadian-born students of Japanese
descent to continue their studies after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In the 1950s, Mr. Fotheringham exposed the racist policies of some
fraternities. Keith Bradbury exposed the activities of the RCMP on
campus in the early 1960s.

While the commercial press timidly obeyed the dictates of Ottawa
during the October Crisis of 1970, the Ubyssey staff and other student
journalists risked arrest by publishing fuller accounts of events
in Quebec.

Irreverent by nature and often puerile in practice, the Ubyssey
was known for an annual hoax story (a classic being a Patty Hearst
sighting on campus in 1974), as well as a goon issue in which popular
magazines were parodied as Maclown’s, Torts Illustrated, Rolling
Clone and Scientific Armenian.

The newspaper generated much criticism. A letter writer in 1920 called
the Ubyssey "a glorified gutter newspaper." Crusty, upcountry newspaper
editor Margaret (Ma) Murray declared the paper "a filthy rag" in the
1960s when it published four photographs from Playboy magazine deemed
obscene by the local constabulary. She demanded it be closed down
"fer damshur."

Mr. Bewley, a jurist and former staffer, suggested the paper be
"drenched in Lysol." The most cutting criticism came courtesy of
humorist and former staffer Hymie Koshevoy, who once pronounced it
"drab."

It was back in 1955 when Rev. E.C. Pappert flipped through a copy
of the Ubyssey before declaring it to be "the vilest rag you can
imagine." The clergyman’s critique delighted the staff, which has
used the slur as a recruitment come-on to this very day.

Estimate Medical Employees’ Work Demanding Qualitative Care

NKR Government Information and Public Relations Department
October 21, 2008

Today, the NKR Prime Minister Ara Haroutyunyan has met with responsible
personnel of the health care sphere of the Republic. The Prime Minister
declared that it is foreseen to increase financial allotments to
the sphere from the NKR State Budget 2009 by 400 mln drams, which
will be completely aimed at increase of the salaries of the sphere’s
employees salaries on average 30 percent. The aim of the meeting was
to hear out opinions and proposals of the participants according to
whose calculations the Government will adopt appropriate resolution.

Before exchange of views, the Prime Minister A.Haroutyunyan has
attracted the meeting participants’ attention at a number of important
facts and occurrences. As a whole, he has considered the proceeding
of the reforms in the sphere unsatisfactory. The circumstance of
death-rate increase in the Republic, when in Karabakh considerably more
state financing per a person than in Armenia and numerous European
countries is carried out, arises particular anxiety. According
to the Premier’s words, for the population’s health protection and
rehabilitation it is necessary to have a complex programme and to make
it a reality. "The Government continues to invest more means into the
sphere, but there no desirable results up today"- A.Haroutyunyan
noted. He has attached importance to parallel increase of the
sphere’s financing and the efficiency of the reforms conducted. Both
the Government and the population must be satisfied with the work of
the system, he emphasized. For realization of new purposeful policy
in the sphere of health care A.Haroutyunyan has assigned the leaders
of the system with a task to create a working group and to draft a
new programme for the sphere’s development on the basis of studies
and proposals.Priority will be given to increase of the health care
services and exclusion of negative occurrences.

A number of heads of the sphere’s establishments present at the
meeting spoke with their proposals and considerations.

The NKR Minister of Finance S.Tevosyan and the Minister of Health
Care A.Khachatryan were present during exchange of views.

CITIZENS GET WATER ONCE A WEEK

A1+
[12:34 pm] 22 October, 2008

It is already a month citizens of Noyemberian get drinking water once
a week. The city gets water from a 58-km-long water-pipe drifting
from Mount Gidzsar. Since it hasn’t rained for months the amount of
water has considerably lessened.

The problem became so urgent that it was even shifted to the
political domain and gave rise to heated debates on the eve of local
elections. The two main candidates running for the mayor had promised
to tackle the issue though it was beyond a mayor’s jurisdiction.

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS "COULD HURT ARMENIA"

AZG Armenian Daily
18/10/2008

Armenia – Global Financial Crisis

The deepening global financial crisis poses no immediate threat to
Armenia’s banking sector but could potentially hold back its economic
growth, Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said on Thursday, according to
"Azatutyun" radio-station. Sarkisian argued that Armenian banks and
other finance institutions have sufficient liquidity to weather the
storm sending shockwaves through the world markets. "In that sense,
the reliability of our financial sector is extremely high and gives us
no reason to worry," he told a news conference. Sarkisian cautioned
at the same time that the crisis could ultimately hurt the Armenian
economy if it continues to deepen in the European Union and especially
Russia, Armenia’s main trading partners. A recession in Russia "could
immediately affect us" by slashing multimillion-dollar remittances
sent home by hundreds of thousands of Armenians working there, said
the former longtime governor of the Armenian Central Bank. According
to Sarkisian, the Armenian government believes the best way to reduce
the country’s dependence on the cash transfers is to "drastically
increase" lending to small and medium-sized businesses. "We have
a relevant understanding with the World Bank and need to attract
additional resources to neutralize possible negative effects," he
said without going into details.

PREMIER: ARMENIA’S INFLATION LOWEST IN CIS

ARKA
Oct 16, 2008

YEREVAN, October 16. /ARKA/. Armenia recorded the lowest inflation
rate in Commonwealth of Independent States, despite the rate was higher
than planned, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said on Thursday.

He said that no price decrease is expected in the fourth quarter,
since this is a season process.

"This season nature is due to the circumstance that trading is mostly
being carried out in this very period, and we have never managed to
overcome this tendency", he said.

Inflation rate in Armenia is planned at 4 (±1.5%) percent in the
2008 state budget.

In September, compared with December of 2007, 1.2% inflation was
recorded.

According to Armenian Central Bank’s latest forecast, 12-month
inflation in Armenia will be at 5.8% in the 4th Q 2008 and 3.5%
in the 3rd Q 2009.

In its forecast and monetary and credit policy for the 4th Q 2008,
the Central Bank says that bakery products are likely to go 20%
down, if things run as expected. This will lower inflation rate by
3 percentage points.

Besides, the Central Bank has taken into account gradually weakening
secondary impact from the outside on food inflation.

–Boundary_(ID_0gjeUQQ/vd5j50rvhfl5vg) —

NKR DELEGATION TO PARTICIPATE IN ROUND-TABLE ABOUT KARABAKH ISSUE IN BRUSSELS

AZG Armenian Daily
16/10/2008

Karabakh issue

NKR Deputy Foreign Minister Edward Atanesian and Head of Information
Department of NKR President’s Staff Davit Babayan left for Brussels
at the invitation of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU)
European branch

According to NKR MFA press service, they will participate in a
round-table about the EU policy on the created situation in Karabakh
and the region. They will also participate in several events and have
different meetings.

The round-table and other events aim at establishing a dialogue with
NKR representatives about the future of Karabakh in the framework of
EU foreign policy, "Armenpress" reported.

THERE ARE TOO MANY CELEBRITY TRAVELOGUES ON TV

guardian.co.uk
October 15 2008 13.24 BST
UK

There are too many celebrity travelogues on TVWhy can’t one learn
about a place without a famous face? I blame Andrew MarrComments
(12) Tonight on ITV1 Griff Rhys Jones is your tour guide to London
in Greatest Cities of the World. (He’s already done New York,
and Paris is next.) While on the spurious side, the tour itself
is not an entirely wasted trip, if only because it’s packed with
facts and figures: number of buses, miles of road, amount of bread
consumed using the capacity of the Royal Festival Hall as a unit of
measurement. You know, really useful stuff. My favourite fact is the
number of construction sites in London (88) as I often wonder if the
city will ever be finished. Apparently, it won’t.

At the same time as Griff goes crazy with his Oyster card, Paul Merton
is continuing his jaunt around India on Five. Last week, he got stoned
and watched men do odd things with their penises. (Why he had to go
to India for this and not simply pop to Soho, I don’t know.) Tonight,
he meets blind cricketers, eunuch racketeers and dancing policemen.

Add to these series Stephen Fry’s whistlestop tour of America ("There
goes Delaware …") and news that Jon Snow is driving from San Diego to
Seattle for Dispatches in search of "the new America" (and surely some
nice breakfasts) and you have a boom time for celebrity travelogues.

The Snow show will undoubtedly have journalistic merit – and
should surely be the first in a series called Snow Globe – but the
others? Fry’s is thoroughly unsatisfying, a dumbed-down-for-BBC1
piece of fluff that’s neither use nor ornament. Greatest Cities is
just random, from the choice of metropolises to the presence of Jones
himself. Merton’s show is the most interesting, but there’s still a
sense that its raison d’etre is to demonstrate that foreigners are
funny. Especially the brown ones.

All are part of the television trend that’s seen Joanna Lumley pop
to the Arctic and Robbie Coltrane take a tour of B-road Britain. Such
places simply aren’t interesting enough without a celebrity guide to
show us round. Regardless of whether they have any knowledge beyond
what the researchers have found out for them, and irrespective of
any connection to the place, a celebrity tour guide is now de rigueur.

Of course, it isn’t just travel. Increasingly, it seems difficult
for a documentary to be made without A Name attached. For this, blame
Andrew Marr and the success of his History of Britain. That opened a
floodgate for commissioners who decided that sticking a name in the
title would attract audiences as surely as Kate Moss covers shift
Grazias. Even those in factual TV aren’t immune to the glimmering
allure of celebrity or, rather, imagine that their audience can’t
cope with a canter through history (or whatever) without a well-known
face to accompany them. Now, when it’s someone who knows their stuff
– a Marr or Simon Schama or Bethany Hughes – that’s great. But some
random celeb with no investment in the subject? It’s an insult to the
audience and to the subject and, more often than not, the result is
a half-baked, half-hearted mess.

So, who would you like to send where next? Does the thought of
Jennifer Saunders in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh get you giddy? How
about Jodie Marsh in Iran? (That’s one for Virgin1, methinks.) Danny
Dyer in Somalia? Or how about my personal favourite – James Corden
in Siberia? (Only kidding: I love him after seeing his and Mathew
Horne’s performance for the Secret Policeman’s Ball.)

ARMENIANS FOR OBAMA LEADERS BRIEF SENIOR OBAMA CAMPAIGN ADVISOR ON NATIONWIDE EFFORTS

armradio.am
15.10.2008 10:30

Ramping up Armenians for Obama efforts in battleground states in the
critical last weeks of the presidential campaign season, activists
Nora Keomurjian and Karine Birazian updated Obama Presidential
Campaign Senior advisor Valerie Jarrett about the group’s nationwide
actions. The discussion took place a "Pennsylvania Women for Obama"
event held in the heart of downtown Philadelphia, which brought
together a select group of community women leaders and grassroots
activists from throughout the Keystone State.

Following the function, Birazian and Keomurjian had an opportunity
to speak with Jarrett on the work Armenians for Obama has been
doing throughout the region and stressed to her some of the recent
accomplishments by Armenians for Obama. During their discussion the
two activists provided Jarrett with a copy of The Atlantic magazine
article, "McCain’s Armenia Problem", along with a weekly report put
out by Armenians for Obama on its activities and accomplishments. "It
was truly an honor to meet with Valerie Jarrett. She was able
to connect with her audience on such a personal level and as an
Armenian-American woman I was touched by the deep interest she took in
our community’s efforts to elect Senator Obama our next President,"
said Nora Keomurjian. "She was genuinely impressed with our efforts
and was eager to learn more about Armenians for Obama and its work."

"As Armenian-Americans it is our responsibility to help elect
Senator Obama our next President because of his strong record on
Armenian issues," commented Birazian. "Valerie Jarrett understands
our community’s struggles and she respects the work that we
are doing. Compared to Senator McCain’s record and his campaigns
disingenuous attempts at outreach with our community, the choice for
this November is clear," stated Birazian.

U.S. CALL ON NATO MEMBER STATES TO ACCEPT GEORGIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.10.2008 18:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The United States is pushing NATO to put Georgia
on a formal track to alliance membership in December, U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday, despite concerns about the
country’s security after its war with Russia.

NATO has promised to grant both Georgia and Ukraine membership
eventually but declined in April to give either a formal membership
action plan, known as MAP.

"I urge our allies to support MAP for Georgia in December and to
support Georgia’s efforts in accomplishing needed reforms," Gates
told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers’ meeting
in Budapest.

Following the Georgia-Russia conflict in August, some allies want
to delay extending NATO membership to either Georgia or Ukraine,
according to U.S. officials.

But Washington has been at pains to show that Russian actions will
not change U.S. policy and U.S. officials say it should not affect
NATO policy either.

"We are unwavering in our support for Georgia’s sovereignty, its
independence and its territorial integrity," Gates said.

"We have sought a constructive relationship with Russia, but
unfortunately their behavior has undermined security in the region
and raised real concerns about their intentions. Russia’s invasion of
Georgia in my view has achieved, will achieve no strategic objective."

U.S. and Georgian officials will meet in late October to talk about how
Washington can help rebuild the Georgian military. Gates and Georgian
Defense Minister David Kezerashvili met in Budapest but did not discuss
specific weapons systems that Georgia might need, Reuters reports.