Author: Vardanian Garo

DELEGATION HEADED BY THE ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER LEAVES FOR KAZAKHSTAN

ARMENPRESS
MAY 21, 2009
YEREVAN

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian leaved today for Kazakhstan to
take part in the session of CIS Prime Ministers scheduled for May 22
in Astana. Delegation which is headed by the Armenian Prime Minister
involves the Davit Sargsian, head of the staff of Armenian Government,
Hasmik Poghisian, Armenian Culture Minister, Deputy Foreign Minister
Shavarsh Kocharian, Armenian Ambassador to Belarus Oleg Yesaian,
Plenipotentiary representative of Armenia in the CIS Economic
Council-affiliated Assembly of Economic Issues Artak Vardanian and
other officials.

During the session of CIS Prime Ministers discussions will be launched
on 18 documents. The most important issue of the session agenda is
the Strategy of socio-economic development of CIS states by 2020,
in which the aims and tasks of CIS states on the economic integration
are brought forward and main directions of cooperation in the economic
sphere are indicated. The document key objectives are to give a new
impetus to the development of CIS economies, to ensure a sustainable
and balanced economic growth, economic security as well as to increase
the life level of the population.

CIS Prime Ministers will also review the plan of actions of the
first 2009-2011 round of this strategy. It was framed taking into
consideration the world financial-economic crisis and aims at ensuring
coordinated cooperation of CIS states in the economic sphere, as well
as creation of realistic conditions for the economic development. The
Prime Ministers will also discuss the program of works of creation
of a joint system of registration of citizens of a third state and
people without citizenship in the CIS territory.

Refer will also be made to the preparatory works for extended
celebration of the 65th anniversary of victory in World War II and
social issues of the veterans of war. During the session discussions
will be held round the program of events of 2009-2010 cooperation of
the CIS states in the humanitarian sphere. The Prime Ministers will
refer to a number of issues of financial sphere as well as decide
the place and date of conduction of the next session.

OSCE MG COCHAIRMEN TO VISIT REGION AGAIN TILL LATE MAY

ArmInfo
2009-05-21 11:42:00

ArmInfo. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandyan, being in
Brussels with a working visit, met OSCE MG French Cochairman Bernard
Fassier on May 20.

As the Foreign Ministry press service reports, the parties discussed
the negotiation process on Nagorno Karabakh settlement.

B. Fassier introduced the results of his meetings in Baku to
E. Nalbandyan.

He also said the OSCE MG cochairmen will visit the region again till
late May to prepare the meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents to be more likely held in Saint Petersburg.

To note, besides Baku and Yerevan, Bernard Fassier also visited Turkey
where he discussed the Nagorno Karabakh problem during his meetings.

Film Review: The Army of Crime (L’Armee du Crime)

Dir. Robert Guediguian. France, 2009. 139 min.

ScreenDaily.com
18 May, 2009

By Dan Fainaru

Timed for release at a point when France is battling issues of
xenophobia, The Army Of Crime chronicles the famous `Red Poster’ case in
wartime France when a group of foreign partisans defied French apathy to
form their own resistance against the Nazis. The story has been told
before in Frank Cassenti’s 1976 L’Affiche Rouge, but Guediguian takes a
different approach here. Well-intentioned though it is, The Army of
Crime’s excessive running time is an impediment, and its academic take
means it will probably ultimately work better on the small screen.

With a large cast of name actors including Ariane Ascaride and
Jean-Pierre Darroussin (both Guediguian veterans) and Virginie Ledoyen,
coupled with a strong technical team, this handsome production should
also perform well for StudioCanal on DVD. Certainly, its theme deserves
all the attention it can get.

Exiled Armenian poet Missak Manouchian (Abkarian), living in occupied
Paris with his wife, Melinee (Ledoyen), takes charge of an underground
resistance unit determined to fight the Nazi occupiers. Though a
pacifist at heart, he feels impelled tot take action with a group of
mostly young hotheads from all parts of the world, barely out of their
teens. The Germans rely on the French police to quell the insurgents at
first, but after the murder of a high-ranking general they ramp up the
pressure and Manouchian and his people are caught and tortured.

Their case is put on the famous `Red Poster’ distributed throughout
France in which they are denounced as `The Army of Crime’. Needless to
say, they are put on trial and found guilty without exception. Execution
awaits.

Guediguian sticks to an episodic format throughout The Army of Crime,
from the overlong introduction presenting his sprawling cast of
characters, down to their final demise. This constant jumping from one
mini-plot to another makes any kind of attachment to the characters
difficult to achieve. He stays close to the actual events of the time,
and if there is some minor retouching of the chronology, it does not
affect the film’s overall impact.

Guediguian deals competently with several running themes, chief amongst
them being the multi-ethnic nature of Manouchian’s group, which included
Jews, Poles, Italians, Spaniards and of course Armenians. He also
touches on the Val d’hiver mass arrests of Jews who were later deported
from Drancy to Auschwitz, and the French co-operation with the Nazis.

Despite or maybe because of the cast’s size it’s difficult to assess
individual performances. In fact, Guediguian tries to throw so much into
the pot there’s not enough time to shake the audience out of their every
day lives. They will look, understand what it’s all about but never, for
one second, forget they are in a movie house and the people up there are
actors.

Production companies:
Agat Films
StudioCanal
France 3 Cinema

Producers:
Dominique Barneaud
Marc Bordure
Robert Guediguian

International Sales:
StudioCanal
(33) 1 71 35 08 85

Screenplay:
Robert Guediguian
Serge Le Peron
Gilles Taurand

Cinematography:
Pierre Milon

Production Design:
Michel Vandestien

Editing:
Bernard Sasia

Music:
Alexandre Desplat

Main Cast:
Simon Abkarian
Virginie Ledoyen
Robinson Stevenin
Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet
Ariane Ascaride
Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Olga Legrand
Pierre Niney
Adrien Jolivet
Ivan Franek
Mirza Halilovic
Horatiu Malaele
Lola Naymark

le

Haykakan Zhamanak, Armenia
May 11 2009

Will the border open, or will the trap close?

The issue of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations is in fact
connected not only with the regional and geopolitical life, but also
with the political life and the situation in Armenia. At present it is
vital for the power of [Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan. No matter
how hard representatives of the current authorities try, they simply
cannot report any concrete result of Sargsyan’s one year of term in
office. Armenia has faced only regression, decline and depression in
the past year in all spheres of the public life without exclusion. If
anyone sees progress in any sphere, it is his own problem. However,
the reality is dull.

[Passage omitted: Pashinyan writes that no grounds for positive change
have been created in the past year in Armenia.]

At present, under these conditions, the opening of Armenian-Turkish
border would be the only concrete event which will allow Sargsyan’s
government to fill in the empty list of positive actions. This is the
reason why Sargsyan’s administration has held its breath and waits
whether the opening of the border will finally occur. Incidentally,
the word "to wait" describes the whole essence of the situation of the
Armenian authorities, because Sargsyan’s administration has been
de-facto deprived of an opportunity to influence the process of
opening Armenian-Turkish border after the well-known invitation to
[Turkish President Abdullah] Gul, and at present has the status of an
observer. To put it more correctly – in the status of someone who is
entrapped. Sargsyan has already entered the process of normalization
of Armenian-Turkish relations and did this self-forgetfully, without
taking niceties into account, in order to run away from domestic
political problems.

[Passage omitted: Pashinyan says that Sargsyan now cannot reverse the
process and Turkey understands this and may delay the process, getting
benefits and creating a hard situation for Armenia.]

US President Barack Obama’s phone call (during his visit to Turkey) to
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev witnessed about this. It seemed
that before making this call, the US president did not connect the
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations with Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations. However, we learnt from official reports that the US
president "stated" that the long-lasting discord between Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Turkey would be solved quickly and peacefully.

The first question to ask is the following: why the US president
discusses the issue of Armenian-Turkish relations with the leader of a
third country and, how is Azerbaijan linked to the discord between
Armenia and Turkey. The link, is of course, clear, however the sense
of the current stage of Armenian-Turkish relations was that these
relations will be settled without conditions and preconditions being
linked to Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. This issue is already being
bypassed by the US president as well, and now Armenia turns out to be
in a double diplomatic trap. Not only that Turkey meddled in the
Karabakh negotiation process, now Azerbaijan is dealing with the
redetermining Armenian-Turkish relations. The impression is that
during this whole period Turkey and Azerbaijan have been passing the
ball to each other, showing some contradictions and discords; discords
which may not exist in fact, or are a show only. It is possible that
there is only a preliminary developed scenario. The lack of such a
scenario might be proved only by opening of Armenian-Turkish
border. One cannot totally exclude the probability of this, however it
is hard to believe that such a thing will take place in the near
future. However the tragedy is that if the border does not open it
will be almost impossible to force Turkey out of the cause of the
Karabakh settlement – and to deprive Azerbaijan of levers to influence
Armenian-Turkish relations. Thus, Armenia will find itself in a
laughable and helpless condition yet another time. This prospect is
simply up in the air, and one only has to hope that the
Armenian-Turkish border will open – independently from the
negotiations on Karabakh settlement. Otherwise, Armenia will become a
subject of diplomats’ laugh. On the other hand, a sober political
analysis shows that the probability of opening the border is
decreasing with time, and one can pin hopes on fortune only. If Turkey
uses the closure of the border for intervening in the Karabakh
settlement and as a new support in its relations with the USA, why it
should open the border?

Journal Of Turkish Journal
May 16 2009

Borders Between Turkey and Armenia Could Be Opened If Invasion To
Karabakh Ended – Erdogan

Saturday, 16 May 2009

Police arrested 33 members of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood over
the past two days, including several senior officials, police said
Friday.

The arrests were the latest chapter in the government’s long-running
crackdown against Egypt’s largest opposition group.

Thirteen Brotherhood members, including an official from the group’s
leadership council, were arrested on Thursday in Cairo and several
other locations on suspicion of engaging in banned political activity,
said police and members of the group.

Leading Brotherhood member Essam el-Erian said the crackdown, which
also targeted two prominent businessmen and two media advisers for the
group’s leader, was one of the most significant in the past two years.

On Friday, authorities arrested 20 Brotherhood members in Egypt’s
northeast Sharqiya province after they held a demonstration marking
the anniversary of the dispersal of hundreds of thousands of Arabs
during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, said a police official. He
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk
to the media.

The Brotherhood was banned in 1954 but is somewhat tolerated by the
state. Its candidates were allowed to run for parliament in 2005 as
independents and won 20 percent of the seats in a surprise victory,
making them Egypt’s largest opposition bloc.

Since then, authorities have cracked down on the group, arresting
hundreds of members, including the group’s top financier in December
2006. He was later sentenced to seven years in prison by a military
court.

The Brotherhood’s deputy leader, Mohammed Habib, said the recent
arrests were part of the government’s strategy "to prevent (the group)
from having a role in Egypt’s political life."

The Bush administration periodically expressed concern about political
repression in Egypt but never applied real pressure on its close Arab
ally to change its behavior.

The latest wave of arrests comes about three weeks before President
Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech addressed to the Muslim
world in Cairo. The Obama administration has already hinted it won’t
hinge its relationship with Egypt on human rights and democracy
demands.

But El-Erian said he thought the Egyptian government was "in a state
of panic" about the possibility that US outreach to Islamic
hard-liners like Iran could eventually extend to the Brotherhood. The
US has not held official discussions with the Brotherhood in the past,
although several American lawmakers have met with members of the group
who serve in parliament.

The 13 Brotherhood members who were arrested Thursday will be detained
for 15 days pending investigation, said the police official. They were
arrested on suspicion of belonging to a banned group and planning to
revive its activities, he said.

Saturday, 16 May 2009

GOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE FORMED ON OCCASION OF HENRIK IGITYAN DEATH

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.05.2009 19:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A governmental committee was formed on occasion of
Henrik Igityan’s death. The committee will be headed by Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan, reported the information center of the RA government.

Armenian art critic and founder of the National Center of Aesthetics
Henrik Igityan died at 77 after a lingering disease on May 10.

Henrik Igityan was a man who saved art and helped young talents to
survive in the years of Soviet reaction. Particularly, thanks to his
persistency in 1972 the museum of the contemporary art was opened in
Yerevan, while the art vanguard of 20-ies and 30-ies was hidden in
Moscow’s storerooms.

Graduate of the Yerevan Institute of foreign languages (1951-1956)
and thereinafter Leningrad Institute of Architecture and Sculpture
(1958–1963), he worked and then headed Armenia’s National Art Gallery,
he was a deputy of the Supreme Court of Armenian SSR and Supreme Court
of the USSR (1989-1991).Till his very last days, he directed the Museum
of Contemporary Art and the National center of aesthetics of Armenia.

RUSSIA TO SELL THE FIRST Superjet AIRPLANE TO ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
May 11, 2009

KOMSOMOLSK, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS: The first Sukhoi Superjet 100 civil
plane will be sold to the "Armavia" company, the head of the public
relations department of the "Sukhoi civil airplanes" company Olga
Kayukova told journalists.

According to Kayukova the Armenian company has been selected for the
clearness of the general appearance of the ordered airplane. "The
choice depends upon a number of factors. The configuration is
decided by the client. How simple the configuration is, the easier
the constructed plane will be", – she added.

The first Sukhoi Superjet 100 airplane was presented to the public
26 September 2007 in the Komsomolsk plant. Here on 19 May 2008 it
successfully made its first flight.

All the planes of Sukhoi Superjet 100 family correspond to the world
tendencies of construction of ecologically clean planes, juxtapose the
practical flexibility of regional planes with opportunities of highway
airplanes and have improved technical and practical characteristics
which make the Superjet 100 compatible for the global market.

ARMENIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER LEAVES FOR MADRID

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.05.2009 12:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s minister of foreign affaires Edward
Nalbandian will be in Madrid between May 12 and 13. The foreign
minister will take part in the 119th session of Council Committee of
Ministers of the Council of Europe, press office of the Ministry of
foreign affaires reports.

Czech News Agency
May 7, 2009 Thursday

OSCE’S MINSK GROUP OPTIMISTIC AFTER ARMENIAN-AZERI PRAGUE TALKS

Prague, May 7 (CTK) – The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – France,
Russia and the United States – have expressed a cautious optimism
after today’s Prague meeting of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and
his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev. Relations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan have been very tense for a long time due to the dormant
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It was agreed in Prague today that the two
countries’ presidents could meet again in Saint-Petersburg in June.

According to the diplomats from the countries mediating the talks,
this alone is a success. U.S. representative in the OSCE Minsk Group
Matthew Bryza said he was glad that the two presidents had conducted a
constructive dialogue. They were able to bring their differing views
on the fundamental principles of the conflict closer and to basically
agree on the main ideas that they intended to discuss in Prague, he
said. However, Bryza declined to elaborate on what precisely the two
presidents agreed at their meeting in Prague’s residence of the
U.S. ambassador. The negotiators will discuss the details of a
possible agreement with their partners from both countries in dispute
in the next weeks, Bryza said. Neither Aliyev nor Sargsyan turned up
at a press conference regardless of their original plans. Bryza’s
Russian colleague Yuri Merzyakov added that under a tentative
agreement, the Saint-Petersburg meeting would be held at the the
beginning of June. "By then we will meet the two countries’ foreign
ministers and will most probably go to the region to prepare the
meeting," Merzyakov said. French representative in the Minsk Group,
Bernard Fassier, added that representatives of the group countries
still had much work ahead of them. He said that on the basis of what
the group representatives heard from the two presidents today there
were certain expectations that a certain progress could be achieved in
the next months. The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to promote
a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia
over Nagorno-Karabakh. Since the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in
1994, representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan
have been holding peace talks on the region’s disputed status mediated
by the OSCE Minsk Group. vv/dr/ms

FIRST MEETING OF THE NGO POLITICAL GENERATION CHANGE CLUB IN PARLIAMENT

National Assembly of RA
May 8 2009
Armenia

On May 7 on the initiative of a group of politicians and young
people the meeting of the NGO Political Generation Change Club was
held, having on the agenda the issue of approving the declaration
on establishing Political Generation Change Club. Deputies of the
National Assembly, members of NGOs and representatives of media
participated in the meeting.

Mr. Viktor Mnatsakanyan, Chief Adviser of the President of the National
Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan read the
address of the President of the National Assembly to the participants
of the founding assembly of the Club of Political Generation Change:

"Welcome to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia! I greet
your initiative of creating a direct and immediate link between the
active people, who are involved in politics.

You create a new unit, a tool for self-organization of the society. The
National Assembly and me with all my capabilities are ready to promote
the establishment of such independent units and will make all efforts
for it.

Your declared idea, the exchange of experience being accumulated
through generations, is a good and honest one. That street supposes
a two-way movement if the older generation passes its experience to
the young people, then in response to that they expect new ideas,
initiatives and thoughts.

The Armenian community is faithful to traditions. Since our childhood
we have been fed respect towards the elders, who bear knowledge and
experience. Our parents have brought up us in that way. However,
it doesn’t mean that young people should step aside and wait for the
elders to make decisions.

Every citizen, and the young people, first of all, should be
involved in all political processes. Moreover, in active politics
the encouragement of the access of the young generation should be
the elders’ prior problem.

We should work together for the future citizen’s upbringing. And the
citizens of our dreamed Armenia are formed today, may be in this hall.

We, together, must find answers and solutions for the challenges
facing us, using the experience of the older generation and the young
people’s inspiration.

I wish success the Club of the Political Generation Change. I am
confident that it will have its contribution in the strengthening of
our independent statehood and development of our country."

Chairman of the NGO National league of Young Democrats Mr. Koryun
Grigoryan presented the main provisions of the declaration, the goals
and tasks, main principles of the activity of the club, calling upon
the young people to join the initiative and expand the possibilities
of participating in the social-political life and building the future
of the motherland.

Chairman of the Alliance of National Democrats Mr. Arshak Sadoyan
highlighted the initiative with respect to the fulfillment of the
ideas of the political figures of the elder generation with the forces
of the younger generation. He noted that public discussions will be
organized, and opposite views will be presented. He believes that
the idea of the club is a fluent generation change.

Greeting the creation of the club the deputy of the National Assembly
Mrs. Larisa Alaverdyan proposed editing amendments in the provisions
of the declaration. She in convinced that it should be fixed in the
declaration that among the post-Soviet countries the best conditions
and prerequisites are created in Armenia with respect to the exchange
of thoughts and opposition’s expressing opinions. She separated
from each other the notions of physical and ideological generation
change. Highlighting this initiative the writer, publicist Mr. Meruzhan
Ter-Gulanyan believes that the youth should be enthusiastic and
inspired, wish to fulfill the goals of the older generation, for
the implementation of which faith towards the future of the country
is important.

Head of RPA faction Mr. Galust Sahakyan welcomed the initiative and
ensured that he would support the participants. In his opinion the
goal is not to prepare political figures, as the political figures
become as they are on the way of their political activity, simply as
many tribunes of expressing opinions we have, as many reasonable steps
would be, and the society would be ready for the challenges. According
to him, the politics cannot be subjected into generation change:
that is a process, and it should have its followers. In the opinion
of the head of RPA faction, we should try not to make the ideology
younger but make the youth bearers of ideology. In his assessment,
there is not the ideology of liberalism or free thinking among the
young people, but also the ideology of re-thinking of the national
values, which will give new quality to our society.

Mr. Manuk Stepanyan, artist, candidate of historical sciences,
Mr. Aramayis Gevorgyan, Chairman of the Youth Parliament, secretary of
the United Liberal National Party (MIAK) Party Ms. Naira Karapetyan
and other young public figures welcomed the initiative, hoping that
as a result of the meetings it will be possible to awake the civil
initiative among the young people.

Chairman of the Alliance of National Democrats Mr. Arshak Sadoyan
thanked those present for the participation and interesting discussion
and expressed hope that the participant young people of the club will
be active and initiative.