Author: Tvankchian Parkev

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT VISITS TWO YEREVAN FACILITIES CONSTRUCTED WITH FUNDS OF LINCY FOUNDATION

Noyan Tapan
April 22, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The two-sided linking of
Heratsi-"Saralanj" transport node’s tunnel, which is being constructed
with funds of the Lincy Foundation, was done in the presence of the
Armenian president Serge Sargsian on April 22. The transport node
is being built under the Restoration of Yerevan Streets program. The
tunnel is 180 meter in length.

It is envisaged putting it in operation in mid August.

According to Edward Bezoyan, director of the Lincy Foundation "Road
Construction Programs" Implementation Office, roads of the total
lenghth of 83 km were built and repaired in Shirak and Aragatsotn
marzes under the road construction program, which was implemented with
Lincy Foundation’s funds and completed last year. The total cost of
the program made 16 million dollars.

The 20.9 million-dollar program "Restoration of Yerevan Streets"
includes three important highways: Tigran the Great Avenue was put
into operation in November 2007, while restoration of Komitas Avenue
will finish this summer.

E. Bezoyan said that Heratsi-"Saralanj" higway is part of a small rig
road (linking Heratsi and Avetisian Streets) that bypasses downtown
Yerevan.

There will be three big transport structures there, three of which
have been almost completed. The construction cost of the higway is 6
billion drams (over 19.35 mln uSD), that of the tunnel is 1 billion
drams. The water pipe supplying water to the center of Yerevan is
being repaired in parallel with construction of the highway.

Serge Sargsian also visited school No 56, which was in accident
condition and is now being reconstructed with funds of the Lincy
Foundation. The "School Construction" Programs Implementation Office
director Hrayr Sargsian said that this 20 million-dollar program
is being implemented in Yerevan and 5 marzes (10 schools are being
reconstructed, including 5 schools in marzes). 80% of the work has
been done, and it is planned to finish the reconstruction work in
September. In the words of H. Sargsian, the schools are reconstructed
with the aim of bringing them into line with requirements of 12-year
educational system. The schools will have local heating systems and
will be provided with equipment.

"TOTAL" REJECTION LEADS TO BEING REJECTED

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on April 19, 2008
Armenia

"Of course, it would be desirable for the political forces of our
country to enter into a dialogue with one another. But if one of
the parties is ready for a dialogue while the other persistently
refuses any format of dialogue, I don’t think this should become a
supreme goal, and one will have do his best for having a dialogue
with everybody.

If they don’t want a dialogue, it’s their problem. It is up to each
political force to determine its own place and role in the life of the
country and society. If someone has decided that his place and role
is to assume the posture of an offended party and reject everything,
let him do so. The one who resorts to total rejection is, as a rule,
rejected at the end," Spartak Seyranyan finds.

FIGHT ERUPTS IN JERUSALEM CHURCH

BBC NEWS
iddle_east/7357496.stm
2008/04/20 15:18:13 GMT

Israeli police had to break up a fist fight that erupted between Greek
and Armenian Orthodox clergymen at one of Christianity’s holiest sites.

The scuffles broke out at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
on Orthodox Palm Sunday.

Brawls are not uncommon at the church, which is uneasily shared by
various Christian denominations.

In this case, witnesses say an Armenian priest forcibly ejected a
Greek priest from an area near the tomb of Jesus.

They say the attacker felt the Greek priest had spent too long at
the tomb.

When police arrived to break up the fight, some were reportedly beaten
back by worshippers using palm fronds.

Two Armenians were detained by police, prompting supporters to stage
a rally in protest outside the police station.

Rivalry between the six different churches which grudgingly share
the Holy Sepulchre dates back to the aftermath of the crusades, and
to the great schism between Eastern and Western Christianity in the
11th Century.

Each denomination controls, and jealously guards, its own section of
the labyrinthine site.

ARMAN YEREMIAN FIRST AMONG ARMENIAN SPORTSMEN TO GAIN TITLE OF EUROPE CHAMPION IN TAEKWONDO

Noyan Tapan
April 14, 2008

ROME, APRIL 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Europe Taekwondo Championship finished on
April 13 in the capital city of Italy, Rome. Arman Yeremian (78 kg,
Yerevan) distinguished himself among Armenian sportsmen by confident
performances. He held 5 victorious fights, took the first place and
was the first among the Armenian sportsmen to gain the title of the
champion in that kind of sport.

TENTH ARMENIAN DIES AFTER VIOLENT RIOTS IN MARCH

Reuters
April 14 2008
UK

YEREVAN, April 14 (Reuters) – A tenth person has died of wounds
sustained when protesters clashed with police in the Armenian capital
last month, a health ministry spokeswoman said on Monday.

The 29-year-old man’s death on Friday brings to eight the number of
protesters killed in street battles on March 1 between demonstrators
armed with iron bars and stones and police wielding batons and firing
rubber bullets.

Two members of security forces also died. The health ministry
spokeswoman said the protester had died from wounds to his back or
neck from a heavy object.

She said 265 people were injured in the fighting and three more
protesters were still in a serious condition in hospital.

On Saturday the police said a member of the security forces had also
died on Friday from a gunshot wound to the neck sustained during the
March clashes.

Security forces accused demonstrators of carrying and using firearms.

The demonstrators, who accuse President Serzh Sarksyan of fixing a
Feb. 19 election, have denied this. (Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian;
Writing by James Kilner in Moscow; Editing by Michael Winfrey)

PRESS RELEASE
Date: April 14, 2008
Armenian International Policy Research Group
50 Nalbandyan Street, Suite 16
Yerevan 0010, Armenia
Phone/Fax: (+374 10) 528 723
Contact: Mher Baghramyan
Email: [email protected]
Web:

The Armenian International Policy Research Group (AIPRG) will hold its
Annual Conference on the economy of Armenia on May 17-18, 2008, at the
World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC.

After more than a decade of transition from a planned to market-based
economy, Armenia undertook important reforms and experienced high
rates of economic growth in recent years. In order to sustain this
growth and ensure further economic development, the country will need
to design and implement second-generation reforms based on lessons
learned during this transition and aimed at: (i) solidifying the
achievements of the transition period; (ii) ensuring a fair and level
playing field for private sector development; (iii) choosing strategic
directions for the country’s export-oriented branches of the economy;
and (iv) laying foundations for future development by strengthening
institutions and modernizing social sectors, especially public
education.

The conference proceedings will address many aspects of the
competitiveness of the Armenian economy. These include the strength
of the Armenian Dram, trends in productivity, market structure and
competition, the role of foreign aid, tourism and IT sectors, market
reforms, the role of the diaspora, and education.

The official language of the conference is English. The conference is
supported by the Government of Armenia and sponsored by the World
Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the US Agency for
International Development (USAID).

Herald Sun (Australia)
April 12, 2008 Saturday
1 – FIRST Edition

A wedding with sparkle

by LILLIAN FRANK

WEDDINGS are always special, but when the bride is dripping in
diamonds woven into her gown, it creates an extra special memory.

Sesil Bahar and Sasoon Arzadian were married at the Armenian
Apostolic Church in Surrey Hills followed by a reception at Crown
Palladium.

Father of the bride Anton, founder of Anton’s jewellery, made an
exquisite heart-shaped diamond ring with a matching wedding band for
his daughter.

It was a big wedding, with 400 guests, before the couple set off for
their honeymoon in the US.

TURKEY WANTS GENOCIDE DISCUSSION QUASHED

Jewish Telegraphic Agency
8034.html
April 11 2008
NY

Turkey wants Israel to cancel a planned Knesset discussion on the
Armenian genocide.

The chairman of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee, Hasan Murat Mercan, has asked the Prime Minister’s Office
to to cancel the discussion, Ha’aretz reported.

The Armenian genocide was the main issue raised by Mercan, who headed
a parliamentary delegation to Israel this week. Mercan also talked
with the Israelis about Iran, the Palestinians and Syria.

"The Armenian issue is very sensitive for Turkey," the delegation
told Yoram Turbowicz and Shalom Turgeman, two senior aides to Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert. "We would prefer if this discussion would not
take place at this time in the Israeli Parliament because it may harm
the relations between the two countries."

Turbowicz said the Israeli government has no interest in hurting
its relations with Turkey, "but there are subjects and parliamentary
initiatives that are not related to the government."

WILL TURKEY MAKE ANY CHANGES IN ARTICLE 301 BECAUSE OF THE PROSPECT OF THE EU INTEGRATION?

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.04.2008 GMT+04:00

Mentioning the Armenian Genocide, as well as the Genocides of the
Pontiac Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds, and which is not less important,
in the "disrespect" to the founder of the modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk are in one word described as "Insult to Turkishness".

The leading party of Turkey Justice and Development has come up with
a suggestion to changing the 301 Article of the Turkish Penal Code,
according to which those who are accused of "insult to Turkishness",
are sentenced to a 3-year imprisonment. In the revised version of
expression "insult to Turkishness" is changed into "insult to the
Turkish Nation", and the maximum period of imprisonment is 2 years
instead of 3, which gives the chance of changing the imprisonment
with conditional release.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ One of the terms of the Article, which presupposes
a bigger penalty in case the convicted has committed the given crime
within the borders of Turkey, has been completely excluded from the
Article. Another major amendment is that from now to start a criminal
case the permission of the President of the country is needed. While
gathering evidence the Office of Public Prosecutor must be guided
by the appropriate decisions of the European Court of Human Rights
and the European Convention of Human Rights. The accusation must be
based on the appearance of the convicted on the whole, and not on
the separate words and expression only.

Article 301 perhaps is one of the very few ones in the existing
legislations in the in the entire world, which is strongly against
the freedom of speech. Bill of Rights, which respects the freedom and
speech and says that a human may say whatever he thinks is right to
say, may be considered the opposition of Article 301. But Article 301,
in some sense, is exceptional, since those who insult the nation will
be sentenced to imprisonment, while this is the nation which refuses
the Armenian Genocide, as well as the Genocides of the Pontiac Greeks,
Assyrians, and Kurds.

Europe is seriously concerned with the existence of Article 301 in
Turkey. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis
published the article "the modern democratic needs and the progress
should be protected by progressive measure" in Turkish magazines
Turkish Daily News and Radikal on April 1.

The main issue discussed in the article is the problem of freedom
and speech and Article 301. The Secretary General reminded that the
laureate the Nobel Prize writer Orhan Pamuk and the Editor-in-Chief
of the Armenian-Turkish magazine "Agos" Hrant Dink have been brought
to criminal responsibility.

"The role of the Council of Europe is to help the member countries
to help to fulfill their responsibilities in the sphere of human
rights and democratic standards adopted by Europe. I think that the
Turkish society and the democracy are mature enough to flourish without
Article 301 and other restrictions of freedom. I also think that this
is the best way to protect the inheritance of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
the founder of modern Turkey. He understood himself that the modern
democratic needs and progress may not be reached by out-dated methods,"
writes Terry Davis.

With Article 301 many writers and historians, who make comments on
mass killings in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, are being chased. The
annual report of the European Commission, published in November, calls
on Ankara to respect the freedom of speech and says that many people
were chased in 2006 and 2005." European Commissioner for Enlargement,
Ollie Rehn advised the EU not to continue the negotiations with Turkey
in the sphere of human rights unless Article 301 is amended.

He also emphasized that Article 301 has a negative influence on the
Armenian – Turkish relationship.

Meanwhile, several Turkish lawyers think that amendments suggested
by the government, carry "redecorating" character and they are not
sufficient for Turkey to become a European country. As the lawyer
of the family of Hrant Dink thinks, the amendments aren’t of very
serious character. "Even if we change the Article, we cannot change
the phenomenon of racism and discrimination. I think that neither
the Turkish Nation, nor the Turkish government need this Article,
"he mentioned. Another lawyer thinks that in the revised version of
the Article only words are changed, the sense it contains is still
the same.

It is quite possible that the amendments are realized.

In this case one question rises: will Orhan Pamuk, Taner Akcam and
many others be able to come back to their motherland without any fear
of being imprisoned, or simply shot like Hrant Dink?

CONFERENCE ON THE GENOCIDE OF ARMENIANS

KarabakhOpen
11-04-2008 10:53:54

Yesterday Artsakh State University kicked off a scientific conference
"West Armenia, Past and Present", devoted to the 93rd anniversary of
the Genocide of Armenians.

Scholars from Armenia, Syria and France take part in this conference
organized by the Center of Armenian Studies at Artsakh State
University, the Museum of History of Artsakh, the Armenian Assembly of
West Armenia, and the RAA, an organization studying Armenian monuments.

The speakers noted that the purpose of the conference is not only
to discuss the Genocide but also to present the current state of
West Armenia.

Samvel Karapetyan, archeologist, demonstrated the activities of his
organization through photos and DVD.