MR HAKOBYAN’S PROJECTS…
Cognac-World
13 octobre 2008
France
A close associate of J. Mardikian, the Armenian entrepreneur
H. Hakobyan, who has a project for a fish farm to produce caviar along
with cognac, has made redundant all the personnel at the château de
Châtenay in Cognac. However, he has promised that he will be a net
creator of jobs in the long term.
–Boundary_(ID_6f5r2ut9y/ixN6sfMvEbgw)–
WB MANAGING DIRECTOR ADMIRES ARMENIA’S CONSISTENCY IN IMPLEMENTING WB PROGRAMS
ARKA
Oct 13, 2008
YEREVAN, October 13. /ARKA/. At her meeting with RA Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan, WB Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, expressed
her admiration over Armenia’s consistency in implementing WB programs.
Diana Mnatsakanyan, Press Secretary of the RA Premier, reported that
since 1992, when the World Bank (WB) established cooperation with
Armenia, it has issued $1.1bln credits under 52 programs. Until 2006,
Armenia received soft credits from the International Development
Association (IDA) – credits were issued for 40 years, at an annual
interest rate of 0.75%, with a grace period of ten years.
Since January 1, 2006, Armenia has been receiving credits in the
terms of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(IBRD) form middle-income countries.
The WB Managing Director also pointed out Armenian partners’ valuable
experience in implementing reforms.
The RA Premier laid emphasis on the existing problems and future
partnership. He pointed out that, along with the new programs, Armenia
also plans to meet new challenges, particularly a program of tax and
customs reforms.
The WB Managing Director shared the opinion that reforms in the
aforementioned fields are painful for all the concerned parties,
which, however, does not mean they are not necessary for forming
civil society based on democratic principles.
Ngozi Okonj o-Iweala stressed the necessity of tax and customs reforms
for the reduction of corruption risks and social integration.
The RA Premier is on a working visit to Washington, USA, to take
part in an annual forum of the World Bank (WB) and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Armenian delegation includes Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsyan,
Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan, RA Presidential Economic Advisor
Vahram Nersisyants, Head of the RA Government Staff David Sargsyan,
Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Artur Javadyan, RA
Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan, RA Ambassador to the USA
Tatul Margaryan and other officials.
istockAnalyst.com (press release), OR
Russian Military Bases Remain in Armenia – Defense Minister
Sunday, October 12, 2008 8:54 PM
(Source: Daily News Bulletin; Moscow – English)YEREVAN. Oct 12
(Interfax) –
Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian has praised military
cooperation with Russia at the Sunday opening of a series of meetings
of young people with Armenian politicians initiated by the Alliance
youth organization. "Armenian-Russian relations were also
discussed. I think very highly of them because Russia is our strategic
partner and the defense aspect of our relations, the
military-technical cooperation are at a very high level and they are
advancing," he said.
After the meeting Ohanian told Interfax that he was satisfied with the
dialogue and attached great importance to the patriotic upbringing of
the generation on which Armenia’s future is going to depend.
He said he did not share the opinion that the need for Russian
military bases is going to disappear with the improvement of
Armenian-Turkish relations. "We have not thought in that direction
because Russian-Turkish relations are also advancing. I think Russian
military bases will remain here as long as it is necessary," he said
adding that all security understandings reached in the framework of
the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) had been
implemented.
(c) 2008 Daily News Bulletin; Moscow – English. Provided by ProQuest
LLC. All rights Reserved.
IT’S (STILL) FOREIGN POLICY, STUPID
by By Daniel McGroarty
The Monitor (McAllen, Texas)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service
September 24, 2008 Wednesday
With Wall Street in meltdown and Main Street bracing for the bailout
bill, pundits have hammered out a new conventional wisdom: the 2008
race for the White House will be all about the economy. James Carville,
mastermind of the Clinton campaign _ Bill’s ’92 victory, not Hillary’s
’08 flame-out _ must regret not trademarking his famous phrase:
"It’s the economy, stupid."
And the organizers of the presidential debates _ with the first
coming Friday night in Mississippi _ must be kicking themselves for
flip-flopping this year’s topics, swapping "foreign policy" for Debate
No. 1 and pushing "the economy" to the third and final matchup in
mid-October. That decision, announced without fanfare in the third
week of August, was a reaction to Russia’s invasion of Georgia. Now
that the credit crisis has pushed Georgia out of the news cycle,
the change of topics is looking oddly out of sync.
But Sens. Obama and McCain needn’t worry they’ll have nothing to talk
about. Iraq, Afghanistan and al-Qaeda are the givens. The challenge
is that the larger global dynamic is changing by the day.
Consider the flashpoints _ some known, others new and rising:
Resurgent Russia. Judging by the TV news and daily headlines,
Georgia seems to be an old story. The real question, however,
is whether Georgia was merely Act I in the reclaiming of Russia’s
empire, with a lively regional game of "Who’s Next?" being fed by
both Russian rhetoric and actions. In the Moscow media, Russian
analysts speculate about a "new iron curtain" cutting Ukraine
in two; President Dmitry Medvedev presents a new doctrine that
includes protection for Russian ethnics _ perking ears in Estonia
(25 percent ethnic Russian), Latvia (30 percent ethnic Russian) and
in Ukraine (10 million ethnic Russians). Russia warns the Poles and
Czechs that signing on as hosts for a U.S. missile defense system _
aimed at the not-so-distant threat of missiles launched from Iran
_ will result in Prague and Warsaw becoming targets for Russian
nuclear weapons. Russia’s warning notwithstanding, Romania floats
the possibility of joining the U.S. missile defense network. How
to shore up Georgia, and backstop Russia’s nervous neighbors from,
well … Stettin in the Baltics to Bucharest and the Black Sea.
Farther north, speculation now focuses on the possibility of bringing
Finland into NATO, with traditionally neutral Sweden taking note. In
the Cold War, once the worry was the "Finlandization" of Europe;
now that we’re discussing the "NATOization" of Finland, what might
Russia do? For now, that’s an open _ and ominous _ question.
Southern Exposure? Forget Charlie Gibson and Gov. Sarah Palin’s set-to
about the Bush Doctrine. Remember the Monroe Doctrine, declaring
the Americas to be thenceforth free from European meddling back in
1823? Now, with Russian bombers landing in Venezuela, Bolivia inking a
multi-billion dollar energy deal with Russia’s Gazprom, and Nicaragua
rushing to recognize Russia’s annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia
_ can it be long until Daniel Ortega names Tskhinvali as Managua’s
sister city? _ the United States has to factor for Russian intelligence
operatives fomenting anti-yanqui sentiment on America’s southern flank.
Friendly fire? Even potentially positive international trends strain
our ability to embrace new realities. Take Turkey, for instance, made
all the more critical in the wake of Russia’s Georgian grab. Long
a member of NATO, Turkey remains an outsider to the European Union,
as members of the EU club have been happy to foot-drag on admitting
a Moslem-majority nation projected to reach 100 million by 2050. Now,
in the wake of Georgia, Turkey has new leverage as a bulwark against
Russia hegemony.
But a more prominent Turkey triggers its own new concerns. The Kurds
in northern Iraq _ easily the United States’ strongest Iraqi ally
in that nation’s most stable region _ stoke Turkish fears that a
rising Kurdistan will fuel calls by Turkey’s Kurdish minority for
autonomy or even independence. Will the United States find itself in
the middle of Turkish-Kurdish conflict? Meanwhile, fear of Russia has
sparked Turkey’s interest in strengthening its link to resource-rich
Azerbaijan _ but in between lies Armenia, where memories of Turkey’s
1915 slaughter remain raw _ even as the Armenians and Azeris face off
on the status of ethnic-Armenians in central Azerbaijan. Is there a
possibility for deft U.S. leadership to bring Turks, Kurds, Azeris
and Armenians under one big tent? Only if a new commander in chief
has the policy-bandwidth to make it a priority.
Spin the globe from country to country, and it’s enough to induce a
bad case of foreign policy vertigo: a kaleidoscope of 19 countries and
four continents in this article alone _ and we haven’t even ventured
east of the Ural Mountains or south to Islamabad, scene of the terror
attack on the Marriott hotel.
Yes, health insurance and home mortgages, the credit crisis, the
state of our cities, our schools, our bridges and borders: they all
matter. But beyond America’s borders is a world of change that simply
won’t wait. We’re engaged in a great geo-political game of Risk,
unfolding real-time.
So as we ready ourselves for Friday night at the fights, maybe the
debate organizers got it right after all: "It’s (still) foreign
policy, stupid."
___
ABOUT THE WRITER
Daniel McGroarty, a former White House speechwriter, is principal
of Carmot Strategic Group, an international business consultancy in
Washington. Readers may write to him at Carmot, 1701 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20006.
ASTROPHYSICS: STUDIES FROM N.D. MELIKIAN AND CO-RESEARCHERS UPDATE CURRENT DATA ON ASTROPHYSICS
Science Letter
September 30, 2008
"Spectra of five condensations in the Herbig-Haro object HH 448 are
presented for the first time. The emission line intensities indicate a
low degree of ionization, 3-5%, with an electron density of 10(3)-10(4)
cm(-3)," scientists in Armenia report (see also Astrophysics).
"The relative intensities of the emission lines of the individual
condensations show that their physical properties differ. We classify
the two stars closest to HH 448 as main sequence dwarfs which are, most
likely, not coupled to HH 448," wrote N.D. Melikian and colleagues.
The researchers concluded: "The absorption in the region of HH 448
is at least 4(m).3."
Melikian and colleagues published their study in Astrophysics (Spectral
observations of HH 448. Astrophysics, 2008;51(2):189-196).
For more information, contact N.D. Melikian, VA Ambartsumyan Byurakan
Astrophysics Observ, Byurakan, Armenia.
Publisher contact information for the journal Astrophysics is:
Springer, Plenum Publishers, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013, USA.
SPEAKER OF ARMENIA’S PARLIAMENT RECEIVES CONGRATULATIONS
armradio.am
09.10.2008 17:55
Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Hovik
Abrahamyan continues receiving congratulations.
Believing that the Armenian-Chinese parliamentary ties and cooperation
are part of the friendly relations between the two peoples, President
of the Standing Committee of the All-China Assembly of People’s
Representatives of the People’s Republic of China U Bango expressed
willingness to deepen the contacts and have a positive contribution
in all spheres of development of interstate cooperation.
President of the Seim of the Republic of Latvia Gundars Daudze
congratulated Hovik Abrahamyan, expressing hope that the his tenure in
office will become a period of public achievements and the relations
between the legislative bodies of the Republic of Armenia and the
Republic of Latvia will further reinforce.
President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Jose Leylo noted in his
congratulatory message that the Armenian delegation is one of the most
active ones at the Parliamentary Assembly and he highly appreciates
the contribution of the delegation to the Assembly’s activity. Having
visited Armenia last year, Mr. Leylo had the opportunity to get the
view of Armenia’s role in the region and perspectives.
CBA CHAIRMAN TO TAKE PART IN ANNUAL MEETINGS OF WORLD BANK AND IMF
Noyan Tapan
Oc t 8, 2008
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The chairman of the Central Bank of
Armenia (CBA) Arthur Javadian and the deputy chairman Vatche Gabrielian
left for Washington on October 8 in order to participate in the 2008
annual meeting of the boards of directors of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group.
According to the CBA PR Service, they will take part in the
plenary sittngs of the IMF and WB boards of directors, sittings of
the Development Committee, and the meeting of the IMF Netherland’s
subgroup of countries.
istockAnalyst.com (press release), OR
Medvedev-Sarkozy Plan Must B Fulfilled – U.S. Diplomat
Thursday, October 02, 2008 6:57 PM
(Source: Daily News Bulletin; Moscow – English)BAKU. Oct 2 (Interfax)
– It is important that the peace plan worked out by the presidents
Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Nicolas Sarkozy of France be fulfilled,
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said. The U.S. is
calling on Russia to observe the truce reached with Sarkozy’s
mediation, Negroponte told a press conference in Baku on Thursday.
Russia’s actions in Georgia are not justified, Negroponte also
said. He said the U.S. and its European partners have clearly said
that they support the territorial integrity, sovereignty and
independence of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.
The U.S. in this situation wants the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be
resolved in a peaceful manner more than ever, Negroponte said, adding
that resolving the conflict will strengthen peace and stability in the
region and will boost the security of Azerbaijan.
AZERBAIJAN’S MILITARY DOCTRINE TO MAKE NO MENTION OF TURKEY?
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.10.2008 19:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As of today, resumption of hostilities by Azerbaijan
is ruled out, according to an Armenian political scientist.
"The Azeri warlike rhetoric stopped abruptly, mostly due to Georgia’s
failure to implement the scenario of Srpska Krajina in the South
Caucasus. The attempt to ‘unfreeze’ Nagorno Karabakh was foiled and
I want to thank Saakashvili for it," Alexander Iskandaryan, director
of Caucasus Institute said during a round table discussion today.
"I would like to mention that Azerbaijan developed a military doctrine
which envisaged implementation of a defense policy jointly with
Turkey. But this doctrine wasn’t passed. Some sources say that Turkey
will not be mentioned in the Azeri military doctrine at all," he said.
"Baku feels extremely awkward in the light of developing Turkey-Russia
relationship. Besides, much depends on Yerevan-Ankara interaction and
internal processes in Turkey. So, I can conclude that resumption of
Baku’s bellicose rhetoric depends on two factors: Armenia’s foreign
policy and Turkey’s domestic affairs," Mr. Iskandaryan said.
TOP DOG AWARDS HONOR DISTINGUISHED FRESNO STATE ALUMNI
KSEE
Oct 2, 2008 at 1:52 PM EDT
CA
Some of California State University, Fresno’s most-accomplished alumni
will be in the spotlight Oct. 10 for the annual Top Dog Alumni Awards
Gala at the Save Mart Center.
Nat DiBuduo (Class of 1972), president of Allied Grape Growers, will
receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award and Dr. Arnold Gazarian and
Dianne Gazarian will receive the Arthur Safstrom Service Award for
their many contributions to the university.
DiBuduo has been an active volunteer since he attended Fresno State
and was elected student vice president. His alma mater has been one of
the biggest beneficiaries of DiBuduo’s community service, including
membership on the boards of the Ag One Foundation and Fresno State
Alumni Association. And DiBuduo counts more than 50 relatives who
have attended Fresno State since the 1940s.
The Gazarians’ philanthropy has included gifts to Fresno State’s
Smittcamp Alumni House, the Friends of the Madden Library, the
President’s Fund and the Craig School of Business to establish the
Arnold and Dianne Gazarian Real Estate Center. They also provided
incentives to attract others’ gifts for the Haig and Isabel Berberian
Endowed Chair in Armenian Studies. Arnold Gazarian is an alumnus of
Fresno State.
Their generosity doesn’t stop on campus. The Gazarians are benefactors
of the Berberian Community Hospice Patient Services Center and Homeless
and Transitional Living Center in Modesto.
Top Dog Outstanding Alumni Awards will be presented the same evening
to the following, who represent the university’s colleges, schools
and divisions:
College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology – Dr. Robert C. Cannell
(1986), who is the supply chain director for McDonald’s USA (NYSE:
MCD), responsible for the quality and safety of the restaurant chain’s
beef and pork.
College of Arts and Humanities – Brad Lewis (1980), a Pixar Animation
Studios producer, whose "Ratatouille" received Oscar, Golden Globe,
Grammy and Clio awards. Pixar is a division of the Walt Disney
Co. (NYSE: DIS).
Athletics – Kerri Donis (1991), a Bulldog softball star who played
for two national titles and now is deputy chief for the Fresno Fire
Department.
Craig School of Business – Steve Heinrichs (1968), managing partner of
Bulldog Capital Partners, a venture fund that invests in new business
ideas and companies with potential to contribute to the central San
Joaquin Valley economy.
Kremen School of Education and Human Development – Darlene Spano
(1969), an elementary school teacher in Fresno for 32 years, who
embraced computer technology early and helped her students and teaching
colleagues learn.
College of Engineering – Dr. Vida Ilderem (1982), vice president of
physical and digital realization research at Motorola Laboratories,
the applied research arm of Motorola (NYSE: MOT).
Division of Graduate Studies – Mabelle Selland (1950, 1972), whose
community service includes preservation of the old Administration
Building at Fresno City College, the Veterans Memorial Auditorium
restoration and active participation in numerous organizations.
College of Health and Human Services – Pamela A. Loewen (1966), who
has followed a career in military and public health nursing with
extensive service to the university’s Department of Nursing as it
celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Henry Madden Library – Kendall Manock (1951), an attorney who has
been instrumental in obtaining materials for the Library’s Central
Valley Political Archive and on many other library initiatives.
College of Science and Mathematics – Dr. Roy James Shlemon (1958),
who has a consulting geological practice focusing on sites for
nuclear power plants and waste facilities, large dams and residential
developments throughout the world.
College of Social Sciences – Thomas L. Williams (1970), chairman and
CEO of Universal Parks & Resorts, part of the NBC Universal division
of GE (NYSE: GE).
Division of Student Affairs – Ambassador Phillip V. Sanchez (1957,
1972), retired as a newspaper publisher after government service
including two ambassadorships and directing the War on Poverty as
the nation’s highest-ranking Latino government official.
The Top Dog Alumni Awards ceremony begins at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 10 with
a no-host reception, followed by dinner at 6:30 and the presentation
at 7:30. Fresno County Superior Court Judge Robert Oliver (1966)
will emcee the event.
Tickets to the gala are $100 each and sponsorship options ranging
from $500 to $5,000 are available through Sept. 8.