SMBAT MARGARIAN RECEIVES SILVER MEDAL IN EUROPEAN YOUTH WEIGNTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP
Noyan Tapan
Aug 29 2007
YEREVAN, AUGUST 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The European Youth Weightlifting
Championship started in the city of Pavia in Italy on August
28. Armenian representative Smbat Margarian (50kg) took second place
with a score of 197kg (82kg +115kg) in the biathlon and was awarded
with a silver medal.
CITIZENS OF RUSSIA, ARMENIA AND UKRAINE DETAINED FOR ILLEGAL CROSSING OF BORDER
Prime News Agency, Georgia
Aug 27 2007
Tbilisi. August 27 (Prime-News) – The employees of the Border Guard
Police detained the citizens of Russia, Armenia and Ukraine accused
of illegal crossing of border.
Prime-News was told at the Border Guard Police that the Georgian border
guards arrested two citizens of Armenia and a citizen of Ukraine at
the Tsiteli Khidi and Sarpi Checkpoints of the Border Police Tsiteli
khidi and Batumi Offices. During the passport control the border
guards discovered the suspects had entered Georgia without Official
Border control, through "Adler" and "Nizhniy Zaramag".
The border guards arrested a citizen of the Russian Federation at the
Sameba Checkpoint of the Border Police Akhalcikhe Office on August 25,
2007. During the passport control the border guards discovered the
suspect had crossed the State Border of Georgia illegally, without
official border control – through "Nizhniy Zaramag".
Preliminary investigation is ongoing on the above-mentioned facts.
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS UNDER SUBORDINATION OF YEREVAN MUNICIPALITY DECREASED BY 3 IN NEW SCHOOL YEAR
Noyan Tapan
Aug 27 2007
YEREVAN, AUGUST 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The number of institutions providing
general education operating under the subordination of the municipality
of Yerevan has decreased by 3 in the 2007-2008 school year, making
202. This information was provided by Kamo Areyan, the Deputy Head
of the Yerevan municipality, at the press conference held on August
27. He mentioned that School 1 in Nubarashen and School 10 after
Petros Durian in Arabkir will operate as social centres for Children’s
care and protection under the subordination of the RA Ministry of
Labour and Social Issues. And special School 5, for the purpose of
the investment of the system of inclusive education, will operate as
a testing scientific republican centre for children, who need special
education. The latter will operate under the subordination of the RA
Ministry of Education and Science.
K. Areyan also mentioned that the system of inclusive education is
invested in 9 schools of Yerevan, where about 250 pupils, who are in
need of conditions for special education, study.
SUNDAY TELEGRAM (Massachusetts)
August 21, 2007 Tuesday
ADL’s ax sharpened genocide dispute;
Armenians laud effort of ex-director
by Bronislaus B. Kush, Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER
Local Armenian-Americans are rallying around the former New England
director of the Anti-Defamation League, who was fired last week after
he said the prominent human rights organization should acknowledge
the slaughter by Ottoman Turks of up to 1.5 million Armenians between
1915 and 1923 as a "genocide."
Andrew H. Tarsy, who served over the past two years as the ADL’s
regional chief, was axed after he told national director Abraham H.
Foxman that the organization should rethink its position on the
killings.
Armenians, academics and many countries have recognized the
systematic massacre as genocide.
The Turkish government, however, refuses to do so, and the ADL’s
national leadership has also avoided labeling the purge as such,
fearing reprisals against Turkish Jews and not wanting to upset
relations between Israel and Turkey, one of the few Muslim nations
with warm diplomatic ties to the Jewish state.
"He (Tarsy) deserves our full support," said George Aghjayan,
chairman of the Armenian National Committee of Central Massachusetts.
The issue began simmering a few weeks ago when elected officials in
Watertown decided to pull out of an antibigotry program after they
learned that it was sponsored by the ADL.
Watertown is home to about 8,000 Armenian-Americans.
The ADL’s stance has upset Armenians for years and tensions ratcheted
up when the organization’s leadership decided not to support pending
congressional legislation that would acknowledge the deaths as
genocide.
Mr. Tarsy reportedly had been struggling with the ADL’s position for
weeks and told Mr. Foxman last Thursday that the organization’s view
was "morally indefensible."
U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, said the legislation, House
Resolution 106, has been proposed every congressional session since
he was elected.
However, he said some lawmakers and the Bush administration are
blocking the resolution out of fear of upsetting Turkey, a key
strategic ally of the United States.
"I find it shameful that the U.S. won’t take a position on this
issue," said Mr. McGovern, one of 226 co-sponsors of the legislation.
"Everybody who cares about human rights should sign on. Truth is
truth and it has to be acknowledged, no matter how painful."
Todd Gutnick, a spokesman for the national ADL, said advertisements
outlining the organization’s position will appear this week in the
Boston Globe, the Boston Jewish Advocate, and smaller daily and
weekly newspapers in Waltham, Newton, Somerville and other eastern
Massachusetts communities.
An "Open Letter to the New England Community" has also been posted on
the ADL Web site ().
Critics of the ADL warned the organization stands to lose thousands
of dollars in donations if it does not change its mind on the issue.
They noted that several prominent Jewish leaders in the Boston area
have come out against the ADL because of its stance.
In the message posted on the Internet, the ADL said it has
acknowledged and never denied the "massacre" and added that it has
urged the Turkish government to "confront its history."
But it said that it views legislative efforts outside of Turkey to be
counterproductive to having that nation come to grips with its past
"The Jewish community in Turkey has clearly expressed to us and other
major Jewish American organizations its concerns about the impact of
congressional action on them and we cannot ignore those concerns,"
the posting said. "We are also keenly aware that Turkey is a key
strategic ally and friend of the United States and a staunch friend
of Israel and that, in the struggle between Islamic extremists and
moderate Islam, Turkey is the most critical country in the world."
Mr. Aghjayan, however, said it’s important that the massacre be
labeled as a genocide so that similar atrocities won’t occur in the
future.
Mr. Tarsy could not be reached yesterday for comment.
About 5,000 Armenian-Americans live in Central Massachusetts. Many
who survived the Ottoman assault settled in Worcester.
The controversy: Whether to call the deaths of 1.5 million people
genocide.
CATHOLICOS DELIVERS BEST WISHES TO VIENNA GROUP PARTICIPATING IN PAN ARMENIAN GAMES
Panorama.am
15:41 22/08/2007
Today the Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin B received about sixty
young people who arrived from Vienna on the occasion of fourth Pan
Armenian Games.
St. Echmiadzin information system reports say Garegin B rendered his
blessings and best wishes to the members of the group while welcoming
the representatives of the Vienna community. The Catholicos recalled
his years of education and spiritual service in Vienna and underscored
the important role of the Church outside the community life.
"Love your Church, be close to the Armenian Church, live with
the Church! This Church is the pledge of our eternity and national
existence," Catholicos of All Armenian said speaking the young people
into keeping to our national-spiritual values, Armenian language and
the Faith.
STATIONARY TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION RESTORED IN CENTER OF YEREVAN
ARKA News Agency
Aug 20 2007
Armenia
YEREVAN, August 20. /ARKA/. The stationary telephone communication in
the center of Yerevan damaged due to interruptions in energy supply
has been restored, the Press Service of ArmenTel Company reported.
On August 20 at 3:15pm local time the "Fifth" automatic switching
center of ArmenTel was found in "restart" mode due to voltage
oscillations. As a result, some of the numbers of stationary telephone
communication of the Armenian capital were disconnected.
"Restart" mode was completed at 4:20pm and the communication of the
disconnected numbers was restored, ArmenTel’s Press Service reported.
ArmenTel apologizes for the inconvenience caused to its subscribers.
ArmenTel CJSC holds the monopoly in the stationary telephone
communication and is one of the two mobile communication operators in
Armenia. 100% of the company’s shares are owned by Russian Vimpelkom
(Bi Line trademark). By the end of 2006, the company had 608,500
users of stationary communication and 452,000 mobile subscribers.
BÝA, Turkey
Aug 18 2007
Dink Murder Planner’s Lawyer a Suspect Himself
Fuat Turgut, the defence lawyer of suspect Yasin Hayal in the murder
trial of journalist Hrant Dink, is himself accused of making death
threats. If convicted, he would face debarment.
bia news center
10 Aðustos 2007, Cuma
Fuat Turgut, the lawyer representing suspect Yasin Hayal in the Hrant
Dink murder trial, has himself become the subject of a criminal
complaint. He has been accused of threatening a fellow lawyer with
death.
Following the complaint of Izmir Bar Association lawyer Ismail Hakki
Kücük, a case has been opened against Fuat Turgut at an Izmir
magistrate criminal court. Kücük had filed a complaint at the Izmir
Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on 15 December 2005.
Kücük had been representing a wholesale shoe dealer, Mustaf Özvardar,
and Turgut was representing one Fethi Takes who had debts with
Özvardar. Kücük claims to have been threatened with death by both
Takes and his lawyer, Turgut.
Özvardar had gone to Kücük’s office and said, "You are telling me to
‘come and kill me’. If you want interest on this file, your children
will become orphans."
At the first hearing of the Hrant Dink murder trial at the Besiktas
court (Istanbul), Fuat Turgut had created tension. He had taunted the
Dink family and had accused the joint attorneys of "treachery". He
had shouted, "Look how many Armenians there are. You are all
Armenian, you all have Armenian passports."
Should Turgut be punished, the Izmir Bar Association would bar him
from his profession. (NK/EÜ/AG)
PAPERBACKS
Daily Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 18/08/2007
UK
Philip Wormack, Ed Lake, Benjamin Barch, Sameer Rahim, Jo Caird,
Simon Baker and Naomi Booth review the latest paperbacks
The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze Penguin, £12.99
Far from the invincible bulldozer of enduring myth, the Germany
that confronted the world in 1939 was a shambles. Hamstrung by
an unproductive farming sector and facing materials shortages, it
resorted to blitzkrieg-style campaigns because it could not have
coped with a long war.
But why fight at all? Adam Tooze lays bare the economic imperatives
that shaped Hitler’s ideology, and reveals how America came to replace
the USSR at the heart of Nazi demonology.
Fearing that, without large internal markets to rival those of the US,
Germany would be beggared by the advance of American-style capitalism,
Hitler gambled the spoils of unfought battles on a series of risky
campaigns.
The pursuit of lebensraum was understood as a struggle for
existence: the rising stakes only reinforced this impression. It
is incredible that there should be anything left to say about the
Second World War. But Tooze’s book is incredible: a coherent and
eerie reconstruction of the Reich’s strategic logic. EL
The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen Harper Perrenial, £8.99
Jonathan Franzen grew up in middle-class, 1960s America, a loser
longing to escape the suburbs. He spends the first part of this wryly
amusing memoir lurching from one social embarrassment to another.
Never quite the rebel he wanted to be, he is afraid to hang out
with the cool kids, but doesn’t want to be "social death". Franzen’s
cadenced prose realises perfectly his fraught relationship with his
family and his account of his failed marriage is poignant and honest.
Discussions of Hermann Hesse, Charlie Brown and birdwatching provide
light relief. PW
The Tribes Triumphant by Charles Glass Harper Perrenial, £8.99
Charles Glass is an American descended from Irish and Lebanese
Catholics. A keen awareness of tribalism has driven his reporting from
the Middle East over the past 30 years. Here he travels to Jordan,
Israel, the Occupied Territories, Syria and finally Lebanon – where
he escaped from Hizbollah 20 years ago.
Glass meets some fascinating people: Armenians living in Jerusalem;
Palestinians who educated themselves in Israeli jails; revisionist
Israeli historians. The most moving moment in this fluently written
account is when Glass meets an Iraqi Jewish novelist pining for
Baghdad.SR
Over by Margaret Forster Vintage, £7.99
Three years after the death of her daughter Miranda, Louise begins
to write about how the tragedy has affected her family. An inquest
ruled that there was no one to blame for the sailing accident in which
Miranda died, but her father, Don, will not accept this conclusion
and wants retribution.
Margaret Forster’s prose rings true when describing human
relationships.
Louise finds answers through her struggles with her writing, a process
that is interesting to follow.
There are, however, moments when her self-analysis becomes wearing,
making this gentle novel hard work. JC
In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce Abacus, £8.99
In 1991, India’s reserves were less than $1 billion. By 2006, they
were $140 billion and growing. In this impressively researched book,
Edward Luce examines the revival of a country that was sophisticated
when much of Europe was hunter-gathering, and that may yet rise to
the top of the global order.
He shows the downside of India: famine, corruption, murder trials that
can take up to 15 years. But he also portrays an adventurous country,
conscious of its past but keen to thrive in today’s economic and
technological environments. An informative and entertaining read. SB
Selling Olga by Louisa Waugh Phoenix, £8.99
Louisa Waugh’s investigation into the fastest-growing form of organised
crime traces the journeys of her trafficked subjects backwards from
Sheffield massage parlours and Morecambe Bay to poverty in Albania,
Moldova and China.
Waugh examines UN and Nato peacekeepers’ use of trafficked women
in Bosnia and Kosovo, but also criticises the reporting that has
created the sex-slave cliché of "victim porn": trafficking is about
the forced labour of migrants from many backgrounds.
However, nearly all her stories have the same narrow focus on female
victimhood that she attacks. NB
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez Penguin,
£7.99
The greatest delight of this novella is how well it reads: Gabriel
GarcÃa Márquez’s lucid and colourful language makes for a captivating
story.
An ageing journalist, desperate for a final night of passion before his
90th birthday, declares that "I have never gone to bed with a woman
I didn’t pay." He then divulges the details of his erotic past. The
memories fade, though, when he finally falls in love and realises he
must face death.
The tale is set in a timeless period that soaks up the fantastic
chaos of South American cosmopolitanism. BB
–Boundary_(ID_NwHkSOEuoSvlKTazInRShA)–
KIM KARDASHIAN’S BIG FAT ARMENIAN BUTT
Gawker, NY
ians-big-fat-armenian-butt-289660.php
Aug 14 2007
Urinatee Kim Kardashian wants you to know that not only is her ass
real, it’s genetic:
"Everyone now says I have a fake butt or butt implant," the sizzling
pseudo-celeb, who made an infamous sex tape with rapper Ray J, tells
King magazine. "I’m Armenian; you should see all the women in my
family. The women have bigger breasts and bigger butts. That’s how I
was born. I can’t help it. I’m not gonna fight it. I definitely need
to work out more and tone up, but I’m proud of my body."
Good lord. No wonder the Turks tried to genocide these people out
of existence. If we lived in a world full of enormous-titted women
roaming the streets with impunity, how would we ever get through a
work day with half a thought in our already tiny, petty little brain?
There’d be too many gigantic asses to think about.
EU TO ALLOCATE 15MLN FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORMS IN ARMENIA
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 13 2007
YEREVAN, August 13. /ARKA/. The European Union (EU) is to allocate
~@15mln for reforms of Armenia’s education system. Head of the
Department of Specialized Secondary Education, RA Ministry of Education
and Science, Samvel Pipoyan reported that the funds will be directed
to the introduction of a distant learning system in Armenia, which
will allow applicants to take online exams. Some of the funds will
be directed to the renovation of educational establishments, he said.
According to Pipoyan, the pilot system of distance training will be
introduced in the Tavush and Kotayk regions. He pointed out that the
system is aimed at the rehabilitation of professional education in
remote regions, which will allow applicants from socially vulnerable
families to receive an education.
Pipoyan also pointed out the necessity for professional classification
in the country. He said that a preliminary document, employment
classifier, is currently in effect in Armenia. Pipoyan reported that
this document was drawn up by the RA Ministry of Labor and contains a
list of 10,000 professions, including astrology and sorcery.