Author: Zargarian Hambik

MOVIES: FROM A SURVIVOR TO THE SCREAMERS

Los Angeles Times, CA
Dec 6 2006

For System of a Down, a documentary on the Armenian genocide began
with their own history.

To understand the new documentary "Screamers," you have to understand,
first, about the 97-year-old man who lives in an Armenian old
folk’s home in Mission Hills. His name is Stepan Haytayan; he is the
grandfather of Serj Tankian, the lead singer of System of a Down,
one of the world’s most critically acclaimed rock bands.

Haytayan is a survivor of the first genocide of the 20th century –
the extermination by Turks of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians
– which was the granddaddy, if you will, of all modern genocides,
cited sometimes by historians as direct inspiration for Adolf Hitler
and indirectly for Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, and the murderers of
Rwanda and Darfur. This is the inescapable reality that informs the
music and activism of System of a Down, a Los Angeles band whose
four Armenian American members are all grandchildren of genocide
survivors. Haytayan’s moving accounts of the destruction visited on
his family and Tankian’s tender interactions with his frail grandfather
lend a hopeful poignancy to the film, helping balance both the images
of human annihilation and the band’s hard-edged vibe.

The film’s title has a double meaning: "Screamers" refers both to
the band’s propulsive musical style and, as used by Harvard professor
Samantha Power, who is interviewed in the film, to people who force
the world to acknowledge atrocities that it would often rather ignore.

System of a Down is well known for its activism – using its
performances to educate fans, appearing at annual demonstrations
in front of the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles and supporting a
congressional resolution to officially designate as genocide the
atrocities visited upon Armenians around 1915 in the waning days of
the Ottoman Empire. In their concerts, Tankian also demands onstage
that the Turkish government acknowledge that what happened was genocide
(which it has so far refused to do).

The movie comes at a time when these events, nearly a century old,
are back in focus on the global stage, as Turkey attempts to gain
admission to the European Union. In October, the French National
Assembly passed a measure making it a crime to deny that Armenians had
suffered a "genocide." Also in October, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk,
who had been charged with "public denigrating of Turkish identity"
for publicly discussing the massacre of Armenians, won the Nobel
Prize for literature.

It was the band’s outspoken stance that inspired a pair of veteran
filmmakers – producer Peter McAlevey and director Carla Garapedian –
to approach the group about making "Screamers," which opens Friday
in Glendale, Woodland Hills, Santa Monica and Irvine. To get to the
band, however, the filmmakers had to penetrate the powerful force
field that screens rock stars from unwanted intrusions – the layers
of managers, publicists and other representatives that make it hard
to be heard by them. It was not until McAlevey got the pitch into the
hands of Lindsay Chase, assistant to Rick Rubin, the legendary music
producer who heads the group’s label, American Recordings, that he
and Garapedian got the band’s attention – mostly, they said, because
Chase understood that Tankian would probably want to be involved.

"If this movie ends up doing anything – changes a couple of peoples’
minds, helps inspire a new generation of activists," McAlevey said,
"it’s all owed to an assistant."

The documentary makes the case – using concert footage, interviews,
historical photographs and a rocking soundtrack with seven of the
band’s best-known songs, including their No. 1 hit "B.Y.O.B." – that
all genocides of the last 100 years were known about by governments
and individuals who could have stopped the carnage but chose not
to, usually for reasons of political expedience. One subplot of the
movie involves attempts by Tankian and his bandmate, drummer John
Dolmayan, to confront House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who
is responsible for keeping the Armenian genocide resolution bottled
up in committee. When they do meet him, quite by accident in the
Capitol rotunda, his brushoff is a classic.

McAlevey and Garapedian had a different direction in mind when
they conceived the project. McAlevey ("Radio Flyer," "Naked Movie")
initially suggested to Garapedian ("Children of the Secret State,"
"Iran Undercover") that they might want to consider a documentary about
the Armenian genocide using System of a Down. She thought it might be a
powerful way to tell the story of how Armenian plaintiffs successfully
fought to recover benefits for policies written before 1915 by New
York Life Insurance Co. (Garapedian’s uncle was a plaintiff; attorney
Mark Geragos was a lead attorney in the lawsuit, which was settled
on behalf of the beneficiaries for $20 million in January 2004.)

But when Garapedian, a former BBC news anchor who grew up in Los
Angeles, met with Tankian in April 2005, the singer had other ideas.

"My concern was that I wanted to be a part of a modern story of denial,
of hypocrisy in today’s world," said the 39-year-old Tankian, who is
surprisingly soft-spoken, "and she agreed that would be more the focus
and the theme of the film." Tankian, who called from his car last
week on his way to see his grandfather, was getting ready to leave
L.A. for New Zealand, where he is hoping to establish residency in
order to buy coastal property and build a recording studio. "I think
Carla is very ballsy, quite a direct filmmaker. She gets down to the
core of it. She is a truth teller. She is a screamer herself."

Garapedian first encountered System of a Down in 2004 at the Greek
Theatre, when she was working a table set up by the Armenian Film
Foundation. "I saw Serj Tankian walk by," she said. "He has this way of
walking – he sort of floats along…. He has this amazing profile and
this shock of hair. He waved a little like the queen, and I thought,
‘Who is this person?’ "

She read up on him, listened to the music and started to worry. "I
said, ‘Oh, my God, what am I going to do? I don’t understand this
music.’ I would turn it down when they were screaming, then I would
hear these crazy lyrics and Serj’s voice, which has a certain Armenian
quality to it, like a church liturgy, and I was very taken in."

They met to discuss the film in London in April 2005. "He said, ‘We
will let you film us on tour if you can get the money together for the
film,’ " said Garapedian, 45, who won an Emmy for "Behind the Veil,"
her film on Afghan women. "They had never allowed anyone to film their
performances. They want their songs to speak for themselves. They
don’t really want to be seen only as a political band."

Tankian’s bandmates had to be persuaded, particularly guitarist Daron
Malakian. "I tried to get the band involved," Tankian said. "Everyone
has their own concern about how things are rendered, but everyone
supported it." As for the disruptions of a film crew, he added,
"It was pretty basic. We were doing what we had to do whether there
was a camera rolling or not."

The film’s budget, less than $1 million, was provided by BBC
Television and a private benefactor, Raffy Manoukian, a London-based
philanthropist. The BBC will air the film in March. The marketing
budget, naturally, is minimal. Although McAlevey and Garapedian are
fairly certain the Armenian community will come out in support, they
are worried about getting the word out to a wider audience. Which is
why they plan to rendezvous on Friday at a Kinko’s on the Westside.

They will copy a bunch of fliers for the movie, then hit Santa Monica’s
Third Street Promenade, targeting younger people with a simple pitch:
"Come see a System of a Down movie!"

ARF AND SERGE SARGSYAN DISAGREE ON KARABAKH RECOGNITION
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 6 2006

The ploughmen of the National Security Strategy of Armenia led
by Serge Sargsyan, the secretary of the Council of Security under
the president of Armenia and the minister of defense of Armenia,
are aspiring to creating a document which is supposed to guide all
the officials of the Armenian government, Serge Sargsyan says. In
other words, when a public official expresses a stance somewhere,
he or she must be guided by this strategy, be it a stance on internal
or external policies. The authors of this document, and experts and
officials who worked on it and the head of the taskforce assure that
a great number of experts were involved in drafting the document, and
it is a product of collective mind. This implies that the strategy
should at least express the common stance of the present government
on the objectives and directions of the national security of Armenia,
otherwise, one wing of the government or another would be against the
document. Nobody was against. This shows that there is real agreement
inside the government or the document is not important for anyone,
and they just raised a finger for it, or yet the statements that the
document is the result of collective work are false.

The first of the three options was rejected in the parliament. There
is no agreement in the government, and it became clear from the words
of the minister of defense. Serge Sargsyan announced at the rostrum
of the National Assembly that for Armenia that the recognition of the
independence of Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaijan is more important than
by the international community. The problem is not if the defense
minister is right. The problem is that several days ago Armen
Rustamyan, member of the Supreme Body of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun,
chair of the Committee of External Relations of the National Assembly
stated that if Azerbaijan does not accept the self-determination of
Karabakh, we should leave Azerbaijan and focus on the international
recognition. In other words, it is obvious that the disagreement
between the ARF Dashnaktsutyun in power and Serge Sargsyan in power
on a problem of the present and future of national security such as
the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. Serge Sargsyan thinks that the
recognition by Azerbaijan is primary, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun thinks
we should leave Azerbaijan and reach international recognition. On
the surface level these approaches may have something in common but
in depth these approaches are contrary. Perhaps, the ARFD could have
said that it is possible to make Azerbaijan recognize through the
recognition by the international community. Or Serge Sargsyan could
say that in order to solve the primary problem of recognition by
Azerbaijan it is necessary to reach international recognition. But
it would be a simplification of the problem. If the recognition
by Azerbaijan is primary, it means it is necessary to reach a
compromise rapidly and sign a peace agreement, otherwise Azerbaijan
will refuse to recognize. If the prime problem is the recognition
by the international community, the compromise should involve the
international community. It is self-evident that a compromise with
Azerbaijan and a compromise with the international community cannot be
the same. In other words, it implies almost fundamental differences
in policy. Consequently, it is evident that Serge Sargsyan and the
ARF Dashnaktsutyun have quite different approaches towards this,
and the question occurs whose approach has been laid at the basis of
the National Security Strategy and who should be obliged to accept
the other’s standpoint in public speeches. If both are laid at the
basis, the strategy is a waste of paper, especially considering that
the Ilyichevsk-Poti ferry is not sailing regularly.

OSKANIAN AND MAMEDIAROV DIDN’T MEET
By Nana Petrosian

AZG Armenian Daily #233
06/12/2006

Yesterday, RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian didn’t meet with Elmar
Mamediarov, Azeri Foreign Minister, within the framework of the
annual sitting of the OSCE Ministerial Council. At the same time,
Mamediarov stated about his meeting with his Armenian counterpart
in Brussels. RFE/RL informed that yesterday, it was envisaged that
Vartan Oskanian will meet with the OSCE Minks Group Co-Chairs, while
no separate meeting with Mamediarov was envisaged.

The settlement of "frozen conflicts," as well as the issues directed to
increase of the effectiveness of the OSCE activities were included in
the agenda of the annual sitting of the OSCE Ministerial Council. Karel
de Gucht, the OSCE Chairman in Office, Foreign Minister of Belgium,
stated in his opening speech:" I call for all of you to get advantage
of opportunity that the OSCE Ministerial Council created and contribute
to the settlement of the frozen conflicts."

Holding his speech in the sitting, RA Foreign Minister touched upon the
Nagorno Karabakh issue. "The recent meeting between the Armenian and
the Azeri Presidents let us hope that the agreement may be achieved
even around the principles that the sides still have contradictions
about. We know that the long lasting settlement may be secured only
through preserving the safety and the status of the Nagorno Karabakh
people.

By discussing the principles, the negotiating sides tried to secure the
right of Nagorno Karabakh people for self-determination, annihilating
the war aftermaths at the same time," he said.

Afterwards, Vartan Oskanian touched upon the determination of the
Nagorno Karabakh people for applying democratization principles. In
particular, he stated that in few days a constitutional referendum will
be held in Nagorno Karabakh. He added that that would be a bog mistake
for the international community to ignore the democratic aspiration.

NON-FOOD COMMODITY PRICES DECLINE BY 0.9% IN ARMENIA IN NOVEMBER 2006

Noyan Tapan
Dec 04 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. In November 2006, a 0.9% price fall
was registerted in the Armenian non-food commodity market, which was
mainly conditioned by a 7.3% and 3.8% fall in the prices of gasoline
and diesel fuel respectively. According to the RA National Statistical
Service, a 0.1-0.3% fall in the prices of detergents, jewelry and
textiles was registered in November 2006. In the period under review,
prices of furniture, cultural goods, kitchen utensils, horticultural
goods, stationery, clothing, cosmetics grew by 0.1-2.9%. Prices of
non-food commodities in the 6 other commodity groups under review
remained at the previous month’s level.

THE TURKISH TRAIN CRASH; CHARLEMAGNE

The Economist
December 2, 2006
U.S. Edition

A partial suspension of Turkey’s EU membership talks

How to salvage something from the wreckage

MELANCHOLY is Istanbul’s defining characteristic, writes Orhan Pamuk,
Turkey’s Nobel prize-winning novelist. And melancholy has now descended
on the country’s relationship with Europe. "Almost everyone I know
has lost heart," says Soli Ozel, a political scientist at Istanbul’s
Bilgi University who wants Turkey to join the European Union.

His disenchantment is justified. Turkey’s membership talks are
on the edge of collapse. The EU gave the Turks until December 6th
to open their ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus (ie, the
Greek-Cypriot republic). Turkey refuses to do this unless the Europeans
lift what amounts to their trade embargo on the (Turkish-Cypriot)
north. The current Finnish presidency of the EU has failed to find
a compromise. So the only questions now are how many "chapters" in
the negotiations will be suspended-this week the European Commission
suggested eight out of 35, all related to trade and the internal
market-and whether the suspension is handled with enough delicacy by
both sides to let them be reopened easily in a couple of years’ time.

It was always going to be difficult to get Turkey into the EU. On top
of complications arising from its poverty, its mostly Muslim culture
and its mistreatment of the Kurds, it would be the largest member,
with the most votes in the Council of Ministers and the most seats
in the European Parliament. Even so, the accession talks have been
unnecessarily fraught.

During the past year Turkey and the EU have squabbled bitterly over
Cyprus, over clauses in the Turkish penal code that limit free speech
and over a French proposal to make it an offence to deny the Armenian
genocide of 1915. These may be real issues, but they have not affected
Turkey’s Western orientation, as embodied in its NATO membership and
its impressive reform programme. The economy is growing by 6-7% a year;
Turkey was the first Muslim country to send peacekeepers to Lebanon.

All this suggests that the quarrel is to do as much with the Europeans
as with the Turks. In 2005 European political leaders agreed to
negotiate Turkish accession in good faith, but it is not clear that all
are doing so. Unwilling to admit that they want to keep Turkey out,
France, Austria and Cyprus are making demands that seem designed to
induce the Turks to walk away.

Now another insidious argument is being aired. Negotiations with
Turkey are not merely failing; they are damaging the country’s
Westernisation. Because of the disputes, Turkish support for joining
the EU, which stood as high as two-thirds in 2004, has fallen to only
one-third now. Three-quarters of Turks believe the EU will never
let their country in. Better, say some, to suspend the talks now,
before these squabbles do more harm.

Some add that it will make little difference. The painstaking work
of bringing Turkish law into line with EU law has more or less stopped.

Talks on suspended chapters cannot restart soon because, over the
next 18 months, three elections will get in the way (presidential and
parliamentary ones in Turkey; a presidential election in Cyprus). So,
the siren voices argue, Turkey would do better to give up now and
settle for a privileged partnership instead (this is what Germany’s
Angela Merkel wants). Turkey’s Westernisation need not be halted,
just diverted: it began in the dying years of the Ottoman empire,
long before the EU was dreamt of, and is thus independent of it. For
the Turks, EU membership is not a matter of identity; it is a matter
of choice.

But it is a good choice-and the consequence of abandoning it could be
more serious than the Europeans realise. The EU goal helps to stabilise
several shaky elements in Turkey. For the moderate Islamist government,
it offers protection against military intervention. For the army, it
guarantees secularism. For business, it entrenches market reform. For
Kurds, it promises minority rights. Turkey would not suddenly become
like Iran if its membership bid failed. But any of these elements
might wobble-and the risk of a clash between the army and Islamists
would rise.

Nor is Turkey about to join the axis of evil. But unlike previous
applicants, it has options other than the EU: bad ones, perhaps, but
alternatives nonetheless. It could flirt with Russia or Iran (as a
former army chief has suggested). Or it could become pro-Western in
the way that, say, Egypt is.

For the EU, a rejection of Turkish membership would represent a huge
lost opportunity. Europe’s foreign policy, and its hopes of global
significance, would suffer a catastrophic loss of credibility if
it were seen to be blackballing a moderate Muslim country that has
NATO’s second-largest army. The EU’s reputation in the Muslim world,
which is watching the membership talks with Turkey closely, would sink,
perhaps even below America’s.

At home, a failure of the talks would send a message to Europe’s 15m
Muslims: that you have no place in Europe. There are some 3m Turks
in Germany. What is the government going to tell them? "You do not
belong here. Please do not riot"? The Germans, who have more at stake
than anybody else, have been breathtakingly insouciant about the
consequences of a failure of Turkey’s membership bid. In many ways
Ms Merkel’s ambivalence has done more to damage Turkey’s prospects
than the more obvious hostility of France and Cyprus.

If it is bad policy to freeze the negotiations, and impossible to
continue them, what is the alternative? At their summit later this
month, the EU’s leaders will rule on the plan to suspend talks on
eight chapters and, unusually, to keep other chapters open until Turkey
allows access from Cyprus. This may send a negative signal to Turkey
but, given the doubts of many EU members, it may be the best that can
be agreed on. The Europeans, however, should put no new obstacles in
the way of reopening talks and also exert far more pressure on the
Greek-Cypriots to settle the Cyprus problem. Hitting the pause button
may be inevitable. But the pause must not turn into an indefinite stop.

THREE FAITHS SHARE ADJOINING SITES IN ISTANBUL NEIGHBORHOOD
By Miguel Angel Rivera

Voice of America
Dec 4 2006

One of the themes of Pope Benedict’s visit to Turkey last week was to
strengthen the bonds between the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern
Orthodox Christians. But he also began his pilgrimage by expressing
sympathy for the pressures felt by religious minorities within the
Muslim world.

And he is expected to sharpen his calls for what the Vatican calls
"reciprocity" — the idea that Muslim demands for greater respect
in the West must be matched by increased tolerance and freedom for
Christians in Muslim countries.

Turkey itself is 90 percent Muslim. But in parts of the large cities,
there are pockets of people of different faiths, living together
peacefully. VOA’s Miguel Angel Rivera looks at the relationships
between three houses of worship that share adjacent sites in one
Istanbul neighborhood.

Kuzguncuk, is an ancient part of Istanbul, the only city in the world
that lies in two continents; Asia and Europe. For hundreds of years it
has been inhabited by Muslims, Jews, and Christians; Turks, Armenians
and Greeks. Kuzguncuk lies on the Asian side of the Bosporus Strait.

There is a church, a mosque, and a synagogue, right beside each
other. The priest of the Armenian Orthodox Church, using a key made
in 1835, opens the doors to a Christian world within a Muslim one.

The priest is one of a few who come from another part of Istanbul to
serve the faithful. And when he says faithful, he is referring to
Jews and Muslims, as well as Christians, who enter this holy place
to pray. "There is no difference between us. Muslims come in here
to light a candle. Yes, Muslims come to pray here. They light the
candle and they pray. There is no difference. There is only one God
and different paths to that God."

The church leader, Mehmet Biraz, says cooperating on every level is
vital for offsetting the religious negativity he finds in politics.

He says ties with others are still strong. "We have good relations
with the neighborhood. We are buying things from this area because we
want the local merchants to benefit from our trade. In the political
world there is the appearance that religions have problems among
themselves. But at the people level, we have no problems among
ourselves."

One woman has lived in front of the church and mosque for 20 years
says, "Very beautiful… We live in peace here. Everybody loves each
other. This mosque on this side, and the synagogue on the other,
being so close to each other, shows that Turks really accept different
religions and cultures."

It is a fresh late morning, after a rain, and faithful Turks await
the arrival of the imam or hoja, the religious leader to direct them
in midday prayers, and prepare to pray with ritual cleansing.

The land the mosque sits on was a gift — from the Armenian Orthodox
Church.

For hundreds of years, the Ottoman Empire promoted religious
tolerance. Modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal, also known as
Ataturk, rejected tying his new government to Islam, even prohibiting
the use of traditional clothing in favor of western wear. Religious
tolerance was also his government’s policy.

A resident, Mahmut Uslu, says, "We have good relationships with our
neighbors the Armenians and the Greeks. They come to our funerals. We
go to their funerals. The Armenian Church is older than ours.

Ataturk’s new republic had an open door policy to all religions. You
can come to our home. Religion is important, not what religion you
belong to."

Imam Aydin Vantan has led prayers in the Kuzguncuk mosque for years.

"We are all very close, like the flesh and fingernail. We are all
together. Nobody can separate us, Christians, Jews, and Turks."

There are more than 22,000 Jews in Turkey. Most of them live in
Istanbul. There was an influx into the Ottoman Empire during the last
years of the fifteenth century, after Jews and Muslims were expelled
from Spain during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella..

Jews held senior positions in the sultan’s government. Rabbi Cenk
Misraji is the highest-ranking Jewish leader in Asian Turkey. "From
the moment of our arrival more than 500 years ago, there has been
great religious tolerance in Turkey. We have been able to follow our
religion, and open our synagogues wherever we desired. We were free
to follow our traditions, practices and Jewish customs."

There have been some glaring exceptions to the general tolerance of
Turkish society. The Christian Armenians say they were the victims
of Ottoman genocide in 1915, when thousands died. The Turks deny the
accusation. Turks and Kurds — fellow Muslims — have battled each
other for years in parts of the country where the Kurds are found.

And there have been terrorist attacks against Jewish targets, most
recently in 2003.

But in this neighborhood, there is a different story.

Here a Muslim, in a gesture of brotherhood, designed, constructed, and
donated a small park with its delicate fountain in front of the doors
of the synagogue, behind, and adjoining, the mosque and the church.

Panorama.am

20:05 01/12/06

PARTNERSHIP FOR OPEN SOCIETY INITIATIVE LAUNCHES DISCUSSION

About 60 public organizations and government
representatives participated in a discussion organized
by Partnership for Open Society imitative. All the
comparisons between Armenia and Europe brought to the
idea that Armenia is far from Europe.

The participants discussed seven topics, among them
human rights and basic freedoms; mass media and
freedom of speech, formation of information society;
combat against corruption; reforms in judicial system;
reforms in social system and comparison of the EU new
neighborhood plan with Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia.

Avet Ishkhanyan, head of Helsinki Committee of
Armenia, pointed out that violations of property
rights are among the basic violations of human rights
in Armenia. He pointed out that the law on alienation
of property for public and state needs has many errors
and does not comply with the international norms.

President of Yerevan Press Club, Boris Navasardyan,
complained about the composition of the National
Committee on TV and Radio. According to the
constitution, 50% of the committee is appointed by the
president of the republic and the remaining 50% is
appointed by the parliament where the issues are
solved by the ruling coalition. It turns out that all
political and public entities are not equally
represented in the committee. `This is against
European democratic norms,’ Navasardyan said.

Varujan Oktanyan, vice president of the Armenian
representation of Transparency International, said
Armenia ensures corresponding legal field but in real
life corruption risks are not down but go up.
/Panorama.am/

US: Kerkorian offloads more GM shares
1 December 2006| Source: just-auto.com editorial team

Dissenting _GM_ ()
sh areholder Kirk Kerkorian is offloading more GM shares. His Tracinda
Corp said Thursday it will sell the shares today (Dec 1) in a private
transaction for US$28.75 each, or a total of US$402.5m.

The move reduces Kerkorian’s holdings to 28m shares, or 4.95%, half of
what it was about a week ago.

Kerkorian, 89, was GM’s second-largest shareholder with 56m shares;
now he will be its fifth-largest shareholder – if he has not fully
relinquished his GM position yet..

The stake may well be lower than that. The Wall Street Journal,
quoting an unnamed source, reported in its online edition Friday that
Tracinda subsequently sold its remaining 28 million GM shares – taking
the stake to zero. The newspaper reported that the shares were sold to
Bank of America, a key lender to Kerkorian.

That report remains unconfirmed. But by reducing his stake to less
than 5%, Tracinda no longer faced disclosure requirements for
intentions on GM. Kerkorian would therefore be able to sell off his
remaining shares without filing with the SEC.

Analysts say that Kerkorian was unhappy with the outcome of GM’s
discussions with Renault-Nissan over GM joining the alliance – the
talks broke up amid disagreement over compensation for GM for the
considerable volume benefits it would bring the alliance.

Kerkorian was instrumental in bouncing GM’s management into the talks
in the summer. But GM’s fortunes subsequently improved and the
management was able to claim that the existing restructuring plan is
on track.

The Messenger, Georgia
Dec 1 2006

Armenian businessmen look for partnerships in Georgia

Tbilisi hosted the Georgia-Armenia Business Forum ‘Women and
Business’ in November 28-29.
The delegation of Armenian businesswomen was lead by Chairman of the
Business Chamber of Armenia Martin Sarkisyan. Armenian companies
producing cosmetics, clothes for women, men, child clothes and
sporting outfits, as well as handmade jewellery presented their
products at the forum. Producers and distributors of food products
also took part in the forum.

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 1 2006

RAMKAVAR PARTY OF ARMENIA DOES NOT ALLOW ARA ABRAHAMYAN TO LOSE THEIR
EMBLEM

The Ramkavar Party of Armenia called Ara Abrahamyan not to use the
symbols of the political party.

To the chair of the Union of Armenians of Russia Ara Abrahamyan

Although you have stated to the Armenian media that you are not using
the emblem and the name of the Liberal Democratic (Ramkavar Azatakan)
Party of Armenia, the sign on the office of the Azg Daily owned by
you bears the emblem of the Ramkavar Azatakan Party and the phrase
`Ramkavar Azatakan’. We are sure that the name `Ramkavar Azatakan’
and the emblem are not found in the bylaws of the Union of Armenians
of Russia and the Azg Daily. Moreover, the republic administration of
the Ramkavar Party of Armenia did not authorize any person outside
the political party to use our emblem.

We give you two days, and if you fail to replace the sign of the Azg
Daily within two days, we will `erase’ the emblem of the Ramkavar
Azatakan Party from the office of the Azg Daily.

We have to take this step, first, because of your speeches, second,
none of the shareholders of the Azg Daily is member of the Ramkavar
Azatakan Party.

Arthur Gevorgyan
Secretary