A1+
SERZH SARKISSIAN EXTENDS CONGRATULATION
[01:27 pm] 14 July, 2008
On July 14 Serzh Sarkissian visited the Embassy of France in Armenia
on the occasion of the National Holiday of France.
Armenia’s President congratulated the staff of the
Embassy. Underlining the high level of Armenian-French relations,
Serzh Sarkissian voiced confidence that the relations will continue
developing and expanding successfully.
JERUSALEM PATRIARCHATE COMPUTERIZES RECORDS
Arthur Hagopian
AZG Armenian Daily
10/07/2008
Diaspora
The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem has taken steps to computerize
and preserve the genealogical records of community members dating
back over a century and a half, rescuing them from oblivion and the
ravages of time and weather.
The data, spread over more than 220 musty pages of three ancient
"domars" (registers) maintained by the Patriarchate’s scriptorium, was
photographed by one of Jerusalem’s leading artists, Garo Nalbandian.
Patriarchate sources revealed that the pages had become brittle and
in several cases the running ink had made the painstaking handwritten
script almost illegible.
Enshrined on computer CD-ROMs, the registers, which are primarily lists
of the details of the births, marriages and deaths of the Armenian
community of the Old City over the past 170 years, will now be
permanently preserved for posterity within the Patriarchate archives.
The Patriarchate has also acceded to a request by the Kaghakatzi
Armenian Family Tree project, which assisted in the rescue effort,
to have a copy hosted on the project website,
The information will be accessible to members of the Kaghakatzi
community whose forebears appear in the registers.
The Project’s participation in the rescue operation is part of its
efforts to safeguard the history and culture of the members of the
unique Kaghakatzi ("native dwelling") community of the Old City.
These efforts have resulted in the compilation of a database listing
close to a hundred Kaghakatzi clans, covering more than 2400 names.But
only as far back as 1840.
What of those who went before?Armenians have been living in Jerusalem
even before the advent of Christianity – but documents or records
attesting to their presence in the Holy Land around that era are hard
to come by.
Even before Thaddeus and Bartholomew, the two apostles of Jesus
of Nazareth who according to tradition brought Christianity to a
heathen Armenia, a large number of the denizens of that rocky region
had already set up home in Jerusalem, the sleepy village that had
become a distant outpost of the empire carved out by Armenian emperor
Tigranes II some 150 years before the birth of Jesus.
Tigranes invaded Syria and Palestine, extending his empire from the
Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, and left behind sizeable garrisons
and colonies of Armenians to hold the fort and show the flag.
When in 301 AD King Tiridates adopted Christianity as Armenia’s state
religion, the epoch-making move gave added impetus to an enthusiastic
influx of Armenians eager to chase the lodestone of rejuvenation in
the new faith, in the city of the Christ.
The colonies endured and flourished. Caught up in the zeal of the
new religion, the Armenian pilgrims laid down streets and put up
houses, established churches and monasteries, and created mosaics and
institutions. Out of that exuberance emerged a whole new compound,
claiming over a quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem as its private
enclave.
In the middle of that enclave, the Armenians crafted a magnificent
church within a convent and there established the Holy See of St James,
with Abraham later becoming its first patriarch.
The pilgrims were lavish in their largesse to the church and the
Patriarchate soon became a major repository of Armenian treasures. The
Armenians gave free rein to their creative spirit, giving the city
its first printing press and photographic studio.
For over two millennia, the Patriarchate of St James has held and
added to its variegated treasures, mementos of the caravan of Armenians
who had lived, worked and died in the Old City of Jerusalem.
And during all that time, Patriarchate scribes continued to keep a
running commentary of the lives of the community and the congregation,
tracing their lineage, encrusting their names and memories into its
venerable domars. Although the genealogical records that have been
unearthed so far go back only as far as 1840, there is uncertainty
about the existence of any prior ones.
The current incumbent of the Holy See, Patriarch Torkom Manoogian,
has almost single handedly streamlined the laborious archival system
of the patriarchate of St James, propelling it into the IT age,
but despite all his heroic efforts, there is still much left to do.
His fondest dream is to computerize the whole range of the
Patriarchate’s extensive archives, a job too daunting to even
contemplate at the moment: a researcher could spend a lifetime
delving into the Patriarchate’s paper mountain, and still come short
of sorting everything out.
There are countless numbers of ancient records languishing in one
corner or other of the Patriarchate, but hardly anyone on the
Patriarchate staff can spare the time or effort to research or
catalogue or computerize them.
And few are qualified to undertake the job.
"It is true the patriarchate has more employees than there are
able bodied men and women in the community," Patriarchate sources
say. "But what it requires is someone of the calibre of Archbishop
Norayr Bogharian" (who spent years creating a definitive catalogue of
the thousands of illustrated Armenian manuscripts owned by St James).
In the meantime, the Kaghakatzi Armenian Family Tree project continues
to forge ahead with its mission, adding another batch of names to
the database of genealogical information it has compiled.
The number of names now stands at over 2400. And still counting.
"There are still many gaps left to fill," the organizers say. "We
need more information – we’ve barely scratched the surface. The
Kaghakatzis thrived on custom and tradition, on anecdotes and tall
tales, on escapades and adventure, on songs and jokes. On exquisite
cuisine. On Khoren the Jamgotch’s Sunday call to prayer. Our aim is to
elicit these reminiscences and memories, and preserve them. And out
there among Kaghakatzi descendants, there must still be truckloads
of old photographs, pleading to be brought back to life."
"A-avodyan lov3s e /akovm," Khoren would sing, as he pounded the
cobblestones lining the alleys of the Armenian Quarter. "In the
morning, light has dawned."
If the Kaghakatzi Armenian Family Tree project has its way, that
light will never wane.
A PALACE OF GOLD IS SOLD OFF FOR ITS MELT VALUE, BUT NOT THE THRONE
Jonathan Cheng
A1
July 7, 2008
HONG KONG — At $800 an ounce, the golden bathroom sink had to go. At
$1,000, say goodbye to the golden horse-drawn chariot. But don’t even
think about touching the golden toilet.
Global economic uncertainty over the past few years has pushed gold
prices into the stratosphere, and few people have felt that rise as
much as Hong Kong entrepreneur Lam Sai-wing has. He has spent the past
decade constructing a palace of gold, decked out in six tons of the
precious metal. In recent years, the palace has become an attraction
mainland Chinese tour groups couldn’t miss, and a boon for Mr. Lam’s
retail jewelry business, Hong Kong-listed Hang Fung Gold Technology.
Since gold prices hit four-digit territory earlier this year, Mr. Lam
has been taking apart his hall of gold as quickly as he once raced
to construct it. He is melting down golden chandeliers, armchairs
and armored knights and selling gold by the ton to fuel growth plans
that include hundreds of new retail outlets in mainland China. But
even with the selloff, one thing is certain: The toilet stays.
"I don’t care if gold hits $10,000 an ounce," Mr. Lam says. "I’m not
melting it down."
As far as Mr. Lam is concerned, the golden toilet is more than a
Guinness World Record-certified, 24-karat, fully functional flushable
throne.
Mr. Lam, a former goldsmith, came up with the toilet gimmick in 2001
as he was pushing his jewelry-manufacturing business into a fierce
retail market. The come-on worked so well that he quickly added ton
after ton to his glittering hall. At its peak, Mr. Lam’s collection
included a golden king-size bed, a 5-foot-8-inch-tall traditional
Chinese statue of the "Guan Yin" goddess of compassion, and the 12
animals of the Chinese zodiac. He named his 7,000-square-foot display
the Swisshorn Gold Palace.
Obsessed With Gold
As a boy growing up in Cultural Revolution-era China, Mr. Lam,
now 53 years old, was obsessed with gold. He says he found himself
transfixed with one sentence in Vladimir Lenin’s writing: "When we
are victorious on a world scale, I think we shall use gold for the
purpose of building public lavatories in the streets of some of the
largest cities of the world."
Lenin’s words alluded to a socialist utopia with no need for money, but
Mr. Lam read them as an indictment of the poverty-stricken existence
he found himself in. He rarely had meat to eat, and after he turned
7, Mr. Lam struggled to help his single mother and six siblings sell
bananas and peanuts.
"Life, it was tough," Mr. Lam said in a recent interview in his
gold-bedecked office, decorated with golden pillars and statuary.
At age 22, Mr. Lam escaped from his impoverished hometown of Chaozhou,
fleeing by foot for nearly a month before swimming across a river
to Hong Kong, he recalls. When he arrived, Mr. Lam looked up some
relatives and got himself an apprenticeship as a goldsmith. He soon
set up a small wholesale jewelry business.
When China began opening its economy in 1979, as part of a sweeping
reform movement, Mr. Lam was among the first to open a factory there,
a jewelry manufacturer of about 100 workers in the southern city of
Dongguan. By 1998, Mr. Lam was readying his company to go public,
and to launch a new retail venture.
"Building a gold toilet, I realized, was the perfect way for me to
put into reality something that has been in my head since I was 16
years old," he said. Besides, he added, gold prices were so low they
could only go up; buying gold at $200 an ounce would hedge against
inflation. "It would be like an investment, plus we could let people
see it for an admission fee, and we could use it to launch our brand,"
he says.
Smash Hit
Not everyone was on board with the plan. His board of directors balked
at the idea, and his friends called him crazy. But Mr. Lam had his way,
and construction — headed by Mr. Lam — began. The toilet became a
smash hit.
Mainland Chinese tours made it a highlight on their itinerary, and
before long, the hall was drawing as many as 100 tour groups every
day. The jewelry gift shop — the company’s first retail outlet —
reeled in about $100 million a year in sales for the company at its
peak, while sales of Hang Fung’s jewelry lines pushed company profit
to new highs by 2003. The attraction even drew Communist officials
from mainland China, fascinated that a capitalist haven like Hong
Kong could have realized Lenin’s dream without having first created
a socialist utopia.
"The first time I saw it, I thought, ‘How wonderful — how absolutely
wonderful,’" one recent visitor told a Taiwanese television crew as
he and others crowded around the toilet. "There’s just so much gold
everywhere. Never did I think I could see so much gold, not even in
my wildest dreams."
Competitors have set up gold showrooms of their own, but none as
flashy as Mr. Lam’s.
Tse Sui Luen, a high-end rival, has constructed its own showroom. The
place has a precision-timed tour modeled after a Disney World
attraction, introducing visitors to the company’s founder (a "sparkling
legend") before whisking them by a workshop of laborers fiddling with
custom jewelry under bright lights and into the gift shop. "You want to
keep it like a tourist attraction," says TSL’s chairman, Erwin Huang.
When gold hit $980 an ounce in March this year, Hang Fung unloaded a
ton of gold, and later slimmed down by two more tons, reaping about
$64 million in the process.
"This latest rise in prices has been incredible," Frank Wu, Mr. Lam’s
chief financial officer, said as workers hacked away at the furniture
downstairs. The price of gold came down from a March 18 peak of
$1,003.20 an ounce, to $848.90 on May 1. Since then, it has bounced
back yet again, to $925. This past week, it has been around $880.
If prices rebound, Mr. Wu says, the company will sell more. But not
the commode.
"The toilet and the Guan Yin statue are the most valuable
pieces," Mr. Lam says. "The Guan Yin is a goddess, and she is to be
worshipped. As for the toilet, that’s the cornerstone of our company,"
located though it is in the golden bathroom of the golden palace. "It’s
an icon. It will never be taken apart."
TER-PETROSIAN INITIATES NEW ACTIONS TO FORCE SERZH SARGSYAN PUNISH THOSE GUILTY FOR MARCH 1
NOYAN TAPAN
Ju ly 4
During the mass meeting of the Popular Movement, its leader, the first
president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian declared his intention to
make the movement more active to force the authorities to implement
democratic reforms and investigate the events of March 1st. Addressing
the gathering of some 20 thousand people near the Matenadaran hill
in downtown Yerevan, Ter-Petrosian, who was one of the presidential
candidates during the February 19 elections, said his movement will
undertake in July numerous actions all over the country to show the
authorities that the movement is decisive in its efforts to have
the political prisoners free and those guilty for the violence of
March 1st in Yerevan punished. According to Ter-Petrosian, the first
person guilty for the March 1st bloodshed is the then president
Robert Kocharian.
Ter-Petrosian also called Serzh Sargsyan to fire other officials who
are, according to him, to blame for the crimes of that day, namely the
current deputy prime minister Armen Gevorgian (in March he was the head
of the president’s staff), the current head of president’s staff Hovik
Abrahamian (who was then deputy prime minister), head of the National
Security Service Gorik Hakobian, Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepian
and the director of the Public TV and Radio Alexander Haroutiunian. The
first president said the next national meeting will be held on August
1st, "to sum up the first 100 days of presidency of Serzh Sargsyan
and to see if he fulfils the above mentioned demands. If no, the
Popular Movement will turn to demand early presidential elections,
Ter-Petrosian announced.
The meeting was followed by a rally in downtown Yerevan, which lasted
about two hours and ended at the Northern Avenue, where a sit-in strike
was started, one of the actions to be held before the August meeting.
S. OHANYAN HOSTED THE MILITARY ATTACHé OF THE GREECE IN ARMENIA
p;p=0&id=567&y=2008&m=07&d=07
04.0 7.08
On July 4, RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan received the Military
Attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Greece in Armenia, Brigade
General Atanasios Khandzivieris, on the occasion of completion of
his military diplomatic mission in Armenia.
At the beginning of the meeting Seyran Ohanyan expressed gratitude
to Mr.
Khandzivieris for expanding the bilateral military cooperation during
his tenure in office and wished him success in his future diplomatic
mission.
For his part, Atanasios Khandzivieris expressed his appreciation
for the high professional preparedness of the Armenian peacekeepers
carrying out mission in Kosovo within the Greek division.
Turning to the current state of military, military-technical and
military-educational cooperation in the framework of bilateral
relations, the parties stressed the necessity to deepen the cooperation
especially in the fields of military education and peacekeeping.
Speaking about the settlement of the Karabakh issue, the parties
attached importance to the peaceful resolution of the issue. Issues
of regional security and stability were also discussed.
At the end of the meeting the parties exchanged views on the reforms
implemented in the Armed Forces of our country.
–Boundary_(ID_M0Eq4T23QCK9q8MGpVAx9g)–
ARMENIA: PRESIDENT SARGSYAN RECEIVED OSCE MINSK GROUP
ISRIA DC
Monitor Pack
Today President Serzh Sargsyan received the Co-Chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk Group Bernard Fassier (France), Matthew Bryza (USA) and Yuri
Merzlyakov (Russia), as well as the Special Representative of the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasperzyk.
At the meeting discussed were issues related to the Madrid proposals
for the settlement of the NK conflict.
Serzh Sargsyan presented viewpoints and commentaries of the Armenian
side regarding the process of negotiations.
The Co-Chairs informed the President of Armenia on the meetings they
held in Baku with the leadership of Azerbaijan.
Today President Serzh Sargsyan visited the Artists Union’s
administrative center. At the newly renovated premise of the Union
the President of Armenia toured the exhibition dedicated to the 75th
Anniversary of the Artists Union.
Later, Serzh Sargsyan met with a group of members of the
Union. Congratulating them on the occasion of the Union’s Anniversary,
President Sargsyan said that with time the Union has become a center,
a podium where issues are being discussed, opinions expressed, and
ideas shared.
The Chairman of the Artists Union, Karen Aghamian, said that the
President’s visit was inspiring and speaks of the importance that
the Head of the State attaches to the arts and culture. "It is very
important because people feel that their work is being appreciated
and valued," K. Aghamian stressed.
Members of the Union discussed with the President a number of issues
pertaining to this artistic area.
100 DRIVERS FINED BY TRAFFIC POLICE IN YEREVAN IN JUNE
ARKA
July 1,2008
The Traffic Police fined 100 drivers in Yerevan in June this year,
the Director of Yerevan-Trans closed joint stock company Karen
Yedigarian said.
Drivers of 75 fixed-run taxies were fined for stopping beyond set
stops last month. Drivers of 25 personal cars were fined for parking
within the public transport area, Yedigarian reported.
The fines for the above infringements are 10,000 drams and 30,000 drams
(about $33 and $100) respectively.
Yedigarian stressed that Yerevan-Trans and the Traffic Police intend to
further tighten the control over the traffic in the capital’s streets,
make buses and fixed-run taxies stop only in the set places and other
cars not to park at public transport stops. He also said that the
municipality intends to establish another 49 stop pavilions in the
city by the end of this year.
MINISTER NALBANDIAN MEETS WITH THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CAUCASUS" DEPUTY GROUP OF THE BUNDESTAG
armradio.am
01.07.2008 18:02
On July 1 RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who is in Berlin for
an official visit, had a meeting with the Chairman of the "Caucasus"
Deputy Group of the Bundestag Stephen Reiche.
During the conversation the parties discussed the current state and
perspectives of parliamentary cooperation between Armenia and Germany,
the cooperation between the Armenian National Assembly and the German
Bundestag within international organizations.
Minister Nalbandian noted that parliamentary diplomacy is one of the
best forms of cooperation between states and welcomed the initiatives
of the Deputy Group of the Bundestag targeted at the further deepening
of Armenian-German relations.
Upon the request of the German MP, Minister Nalbandian presented
the approaches of the Armenian side on the normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations, as well as the perspectives of settlement
of the Karabakh conflict.
Stephen Reiche presented his views on ensuring peace and stability in
the Caucasian region. He reconfirmed the invitation to members of the
Armenia-Germany Interparliamentary Friendship Group of the National
Assembly to pay a visit to Germany in November of the current year.
The same day Minister Nalbandian left Berlin for Helsinki at the
invitation of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister
Alexander Stubb.
KHAZAR IBRAHIM: "IT IS AZERBAIJAN THAT WILL DECIDE WHICH WAY TO CHOOSE TO RESTORE ITS TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY"
Today.Az
June 30 2008
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani government voiced its position and noted that the conflict
can only be settled in the framework of territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan during the visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to Baku,
said spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Khazar Ibrahim
at a traditional briefing.
He said Azerbaijan’s position remains changeless.
"As for the ways of resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan
has always made statements, based on realities. Azerbaijan is a country
which is developing and this development influences all spheres.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated that during the military
parade. Azerbaijan will restore its territorial integrity and will
choose the way to it itself", said Ibrahim.
AZERBAIJAN HIGHLY APPRECIATING OSCE EFFORTS TO SOLVE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT" – VICE-SPEAKER
Trend News Agency
30.06.08 10:51
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan highly appreciates the attention and efforts of OSCE to
solve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," head of
Azerbaijan’s parliamentary delegation, Vice-Speaker of Azerbaijani
Parliament Bahar Muradova said to Trend News in Astana on 30 June.
"President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for
Cooperation & Security in Europe (OSCE PA) Mr. Lennmarker thinks
currently Baku and Yerevan have a ‘golden opportunity’ to solve the
conflict and we appreciate his view," Muradova said.
Speaking at the 17th session of the OSCE PA on 29 June, OSCE
PA President Goran Lennmarker stated that the two South Caucasus
countries have a ‘golden opportunity’ to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict which has been lasting for many years.
"For a range of years we have been striving to solve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. There is an interim decision and it
will positively affect the mutual relations between Azerbaijan
and Armenia. They have gained a golden opportunity to solve the
conflict. It is the very time to find a solution," Lennmarker said.
"Mr. Lennmarker thinks the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be solved
peacefully and we understand that. But in spite of all Azerbaijan’s
efforts, no results have yet been reached," Muradova said.
"We are glad to see Kazakhstan’s capital city hosting the next
OSCE meeting. That is not only an Asian area, but also a Muslim
country. Kazakhstanians are our brothers; they are a Turkic language
nation, which makes us double glad," she said.