Author: Tumanian Talar

DECEMBER 2ND IS THE INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
Gita Elibekyan

"Radiolur"
02.12.2008 16:28

Today is December 2nd, the International Day for the Abolition
of Slavery.

It recalls the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of
the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic
in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others on
December 2nd, 1949.

According to different estimations, about 27 million people in the
world are in slavery today. Trafficking is considered the white
slavery of the 20th and the 21st centuries.

People in Armenia first spoke about white slavery in 2002, when
it became clear from the report submitted to the US Congress that
Armenia was included in the third-rank countries, which meant that
the phenomenon existed in the country, but the government was not
struggling against it.

"Today Armenian citizens undergo sexual exploitation in Turkey and
the United Arab Emirates and do forced labor in Russia," said Marina
Solakhyan, Coordinator of the UN Anti-Trafficking Programme. According
to her, we have no exact numbers, since the victims of trafficking
are ashamed or afraid of talking about it.

According to Marina Solakhyan, 92 victims of trafficking received
assistance between 2003 and 2006. It’s worth mentioning that according
to the 2005 report, Armenia was included in the list of second-rank
countries, and this means that=2 0the Government is already taking
measures to fight trafficking and people become more aware of how to
avoid it.

Billboard
November 29, 2008

COMMENTARY: THINK GLOBAL, HEAR LOCAL

ROBERT KASHER

The Increasingly Digital Music Business Needs To Break Down Borders

The mobile revolution has the potential to give music distributors a
new lease on life — as only they have the resources, connections and
marketing savvy to address the global market. Technology, not
government, is pushing a new global agenda based on the opportunities
presented by the digital world. And this needs to prompt us to build
the infrastructure to make that potential a reality.

Digital technology lets us access anything, from Sa Ding Ding’s latest
Chinese pop video to Iranian folk music and Ukrainian hip-hop. Jazz
fans in Tokyo can keep up with the latest releases from their
favorites in New York and Paris. Latin music has found a growing
market in India as Indian music has in Brazil, all because music that
previously was felt to be marginal now finds the interested on the
Internet.

This lets previously isolated cultural communities expand
dramatically. Armenian music, for example, is no longer trapped in its
geographic base in the Caucasus and a few concentrated pockets of
population around the world. It can reach the Armenian diaspora, a
market four to five times larger than the local one. Likewise, Jay-Z
fans in Dacca, Bangladesh, give his music a twist by mixing it with
local beats and vocals.

Despite these advances that are reshaping the tastes of listeners
around the world, we are burdened with a distribution and licensing
system that remains locked into geography. Latin America still lacks a
good digital and mobile distribution system in spite of the fact that
mobile adoption there covers almost 98% of the population.

Aside from piracy, we also lack consistent international structures to
handle the copyright and tax issues that a truly global marketplace
would create. How can we address the first issue without a global
consensus on the second?

We have structures in place in the international music community to
address these issues. But when we look at providing "global"
solutions, we invariably run through a series of international music
divisions that are jealously guarding their turf. If we can’t break
down the barriers within corporations, how can we address them across
countries?

Conferences and conventions bring together the players who can solve
these problems, but there are still too few forums for them to
communicate. Since the Internet lets so many artists create global fan
communities, promotion is far ahead of the law. By using viral
marketing and social networking, artists are breaking out of the legal
structures suited to the era of vinyl and establishing an ad hoc
infrastructure for the digital world.

With rare exceptions, individual artists lack the clout and resources
to adequately tap the opportunities that are opening for them. That’s
where an industry long battered by technology should be able to make a
stand for its survival — by opening itself to new ways of thinking
that define the world not in the narrow terms of geographical
territories but as an open series of communities that can transcend
old boundaries. ****

Robert Kasher is founder/leading executive of the Global Reader
service from MPS Mobile.

Armenia welcomes `Eastern Partnership’ initiative of Poland and Sweden

YEREVAN, November 27. /ARKA/. Armenia is welcoming `Eastern
Partnership’ initiative of Poland and Sweden, Armenian Deputy Foreign
Minister Arman Kirakosyan told journalists Thursday. The details of the
program have not been made available to the ministry yet, he said.

According to the Deputy Minister, `Eastern Partnership’ and `Black Sea
Synergy’ can give an impetus to cooperation in the region.

Kirakosyan pointed out that the two programs are considered a new
cooperation parameter in the communiqué signed by the Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan and the Chairman of the European Commission
Jose Manuel Barroso.

`The discussion on the programs will be completed in the European Union
soon, and we will be ready to study the opportunities they provide and
to continue the cooperation with the EU,’ Kirakosyan said.

Poland and Sweden submitted a plan of advanced partnership of the
European Union with the East European counties in Brussels. If
implemented, the plan will considerably change the EU policy toward the
countries that can join the EU in future, particularly Ukraine, Moldova
and possibly Belarus. `0′

PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria
Nov 27 2008

Gourgen Yeghazarian: Only A Legitimate Government in Armenia Can
Guarantee Artsakh Independence

YEREVAN — On November 24th, addressing the ‘Mirror’ press club,
former Deputy Minister of the National Security, Mr. Gourgen
Yeghazarian, member of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party’s Central
Committee in Armenia conveyed the Party’s belief that nothing was
gained by the recent discussion of the Artsakh situation initiated by
Serzh Sarkisian with Armenian political parties. He stated that the
discussion did not convey any key frameworks being reported in the
press and acted as a mere show for the international community by the
present regime to demonstrate that normalcy is currently prevalent in
Armenia.

In relation to the key frameworks addressed in the press,
Mr. Yeghazarian, specifically asked what exactly Serzh Sarkisian meant
when he stated that there will be a referendum for the issue at
hand. ‘The populace of Artsakh has had for over a decade already
informed the international community of its intention, a de-facto
referendum,’ he said. Mr. Yeghazarian also questioned how a referendum
would work in a peaceful manner, how is it possible to obtain peace
when Azerbaijan could flood Artsakh with 300 thousand Azeris to
counter the free will of the Artsakhzis. Mr Yeghazarian also addressed
to the press club exactly which borders Serzh Sarkisian entails will
be determined through the international negotiations with Azerbaijan,
when Armenia and Azerbaijan already have defined borders, as does
Artsakh. Lastly, he questioned the validity of the guarantees
Mr. Sarkisian expressed as to the people in Artsakh, when they already
have a democratically elected government, with an executive and a
legislative branch.

Mr. Yeghazarian stressed that in order to fully understand the scope
of the latest developments of the Artsakh issue, as well as the recent
invitation of political parties to ‘address’ these developments by the
current Armenian regime, one has to look back to the February 19
Presidential elections in Armenia, and the opposition to the
falsification of the elections by the Armenian people. He stated that
with the falsified election, Mr. Sarkisian does not have any
legitimacy within the country nor with the international community. He
noted that in order for there to be a peaceful internationally backed
resolution for the Artsakh issue with democratic principles of self
determination as guidelines, Armenia must establish itself as a truly
democratic country.

As for the reported Madrid peace accords, Mr. Yeghazarian stresses
that any accord which as a starting point nullifies the democratically
elected government as well as Artsakh’s armed forces should be a
nonstarter.

ASSUMING AS FACT

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
26 Nov 08
Armenia

Vatican assumes the Armenian Genocide as a fact.

"The Armenian Genocide is not an accusation; it is a reality. It is
not subject to any discussion. Of course, I have no idea as to what
Vatican can do for ameliorating the Armenian-Turkish relations. But
the Catholic Church first of all stands by those who are victims. For
us, it is a very important principle for clarifying our attitude,"
Cardinal Walter Casper announced.

GREETING OF HIS HOLINESS, ARAM I, CATHOLICOS OF CILICIA OF THE ARMENIANS

Vatican Radio
ticolo.asp?c=247804
Nov 26 2008
The Vatican

(26 Nov 08 – RV) His Holiness, Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia of the
Armenians greeted Pope Benedict XVI during the weekly General Audience
Wednesday morning. Below is the transcript and audio of His Holiness’
remarks…

Your Holiness, it gives me a profound spiritual joy to greet you once
again in the spirit of Christian love and fellowship. I would like
also to greet the faithful of the Church of God who have come here
from different parts of the world to get the blessing of Your Holiness.

This Saturday the Armenian Church is going to celebrate its
Founders. As Saint Peter and Saint Paul are the Founders of the Church
of Rome, Saints Thadddaeus and Bartholomew, the disciples of Christ
are Founders of the Armenian Church. Our two Churches have Apostolic
origin, but for centuries for our Churches, the apostolicity has
never been a sheer ideological legacy but a source of witness and
evangelism of diakonia and mission.

The world of today in which we are experiencing the decay of moral
values, the marginalization of spiritual values and Tradition I
believe that we should translate the apostolic origin of our Churches
to apostolic vocation.

And I greet the See of Your Holiness to involve the Churches in this
period of time where we are faced with tremendous problems and crises
in a process of re-evangelization.

I believe that we need re-evangelization of our Christian communities,
our families, our communities, this is a top priority, an evangelistic
priority to our churches.

Therefore, Your Holiness I would like to associate myself with
the missionary and evangelistic work of Your Holiness and on this
occasion I would like to make a special appeal to all the churches
of the world to join their efforts in a common evangelism in Europe,
in the Middle East and in different parts of the world.

Therefore, on this occasion, Your Holiness, I would like to extend to
you my best wishes. May God strengthen you physically and spiritually
to carry on your Pontifical mission in a world which is in dire need
of spiritual transformation. And may God Bless you all.

EU CONSIDERS ZONE FOR EX-SOVIET STATES

UPI
Nov. 24, 2008 at 9:03 PM

BRUSSELS, Nov. 24 (UPI) — The European Commission is set to propose
the creation of a European Economic Area to help six post-Soviet
countries move closer to the West, officials said.

The EU Observer reported Monday that the plan is aimed at recognizing
the European aspirations of Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"The conflict in Georgia in August 2008 and its broader repercussions
have resulted in increased awareness of the vulnerability of
Eastern partners," the draft commission communication on the Eastern
Partnership says. "There is a sense of urgency among member states
as to the need to enhance relations with our Eastern neighbors to
support them in drawing closer to the EU."

The newspaper reported the economic area is designed to send
"a clear and lasting political message of EU solidarity" and to
"produce benefits perceived and recognized by citizens of the partner
countries."

IMF FORECASTS STABILIZATION OF GLOBAL ECONOMY 2009-END

Focus News
Nov 24 2008
Bulgaria

Yerevan. Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan, International
Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Murilo Portugal said the
financial institution forecast that the first signs of stabilization
of the global economy would be noticed towards the end of 2009,
Interfax reports.

"Our evaluations say that the peak of the financial crisis – October –
has already passed," he said, adding the global financial crisis had
been in progress for 15 months now.

ARMENIA’S PARLIAMENT SPEAKER MEETS THE AMBASSADOR OF GEORGIA

armradio.am
20.11.2008 16:51

President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Hovik
Abrahamyan received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
of Georgia to Armenia Revaz Gachechiladze.

Mr. Abrahamyan highly appreciated the friendly relations between the
two countries, reconfirming the willingness to deepen and develop the
interparliamentary ties. The Parliament Speaker attached importance
to the restart of the activity of the intergovernmental cooperation
commission and invited the President of Georgian Parliament David
Backradze to pay an official visit to Armenia.

The President of the National Assembly expressed his concern over the
recent illegal actions in the courtyard of the St. Norashen Church
in Tbilisi, expressing confidence that the Georgian authorities will
certainly be consistent in punishing the guilty and preventing the
reoccurrence of such actions in the future.

Georgian Ambassador Revaz Gachechiladze congratulated Mr. Abrahamyan
on being elected to the post of President of the National Assembly,
expressing confidence that being an experienced and outstanding
politician, he will realize all his programs and will contribute to the
reinforcement of relations between the two countries and development
of interparliamentary ties. Mr. Gachechiladze conveyed the gratitude
of the Georgian people to the Armenian Parliament Speaker for the
balanced position of Armenia during the August conflict.

Turning to the desecration of the Armenian cemetery in the yard of St.

Norashen Church, the Ambassador informed that he has
conveyed the anxiety of the Armenian side to the Georgian
Government. Mr. Gachechiladze considers that the actions of individuals
should not cast a shadow on the relations between the two countries. He
assured the Armenian Parliament Speaker that his concerns will be
conveyed to the Georgian Government, which will spare no effort to
punish the guilty.

YEREVAN STEPPING BACK FROM MOSCOW COMMITMENTS

AzerNews Weekly
Nov 19 2008
Azerbaijan

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has said that Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh, an Azeri region under Armenian occupation, should be brought
into talks on settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

Sarkisian added, during an interview with a local public TV channel,
that any agreement to end a nearly two-decade-long dispute could be
reached only between Azerbaijan and the leader of the self-proclaimed
Upper Garabagh republic. He also said that a solution to the conflict
hinges on the recognition of the separatist entity as an independent
state.

The Azerbaijani government, however, has rebuffed the statement,
saying it blatantly contradicts the declaration recently signed by the
Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian presidents. The Foreign Ministry
spokesman, Khazar Ibrahim, noted that the document confirms that
Baku and Yerevan are the only sides in peace talks. Unlike Armenia,
Azerbaijan honors the conditions laid out in all documents it has
signed, including the Moscow declaration, he said.

Ibrahim reiterated Baku`s stance, saying granting any status to
Upper Garabagh was possible strictly within Azerbaijan`s territorial
integrity.

In an effort to quicken the peace process, Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev offered to hold a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders,
with Russia`s participation, following talks with Armenian President
Serzh Sarkisian in Yerevan on October 21. The Moscow-brokered
trilateral talks took place on November 2 and concluded with the
signing of the declaration. The paper urges further OSCE-mediated
dialog between the sides and joint efforts in bolstering stability
in the South Caucasus through a political settlement of the conflict
based upon principles of international law.

Analysts say tension and discord within Armenia are prompting President
Sarkisian to make such statements. At a time when the world community,
including the Azerbaijani public, has praised the Moscow declaration
as a step forward in reaching a solution to the Garabagh problem, the
attitude toward this document in Armenia is rather ambiguous. Many
there believe it favors Azerbaijan and that Russia has "sacrificed"
Armenia for the sake of its own interests. For this reason the Armenian
leader, from time to time, brings up the Garabagh status issue in a
bid to allay growing discontent at home. Sarkisian`s recent visit to
Upper Garabagh, as well as his seeking to discuss peace talks with
the leaders of the country`s political parties, apparently is a bid
to ease rumblings within his country.