ARMENIAN WRITERS PRAY EVERY DAY FOR THEIR BOOKS TO BE SOLD
Panorama.am
14:34 27/06/06
“Our society is oligarchic and materialistic and the role of writers is
more like a free-will suicide,” poet Davit HOVHANNES told a discussion
at Hayeli club today. Nobody needs what the writers produce, he said.
The other guest of the debate – publicist Perj ZEITUNTSIAN also is
sorry that there is no demand for creative art. He says sometimes the
writer takes the books to bookshops on his own and has only a small
part of 500 copies sold. “This is a moral degradation.
If nobody waits for what you write – it is awful,” he said. In
his words, Armenian writers have only to pray that their books be
sol.

CONSUMER ASSOCIATIONS AGAIN FAIL TO SOLVE CONCRETE ISSUES IN WATER MANAGEMENT
Panorama.am
15:14 27/06/06
Public organizations protecting consumer rights have been expressing
their discontent with the recent rise of water fee saying it is
illegal. They continue messaging their dissatisfaction up to today
but it is too late to change anything since the public regulatory
committee has already approved the fee without any estimates based
on only contract obligations. The decision of the committee may be
appealed only 6 months after the decision is made.
Today also Consumer Association has called a discussion inviting
organizations in the field of water management – public services
regulatory committee, General Dez O, water committee and public
organizations. According to association chairman Armen Poghosyan,
the main topics of the discussion are water supply schedules and water
safety. He mentioned that about 20% of population does not receive the
minimal 4 hour supply of water and that victims of low quality water
who suffered in 2003 have not been compensated until today. “We are
not so interested who is to be blamed but how protected consumers are
from similar situations,” the head of association said. They have sent
an open letter to the prime minister on the issues mentioned above.
However Poghosyan was gladly accepting the “rosy” statements made by
water supply organizations saying that water system is undergoing
unprecedented reforms based on contract obligations. They said all
the issues raised have been involved in the contract and will be
viewed as priorities in the coming ten years.
Once against the Consumer Association failed to take up concrete
steps in improving the situation.
Moreover, the representatives of power structure managed to win this
“advocacy” war.
Who knows, may be that was the aim of this discussion?

SELECTION COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL ANTHEM RECEIVED ON PROPOSAL ONLY
Panorama.am
15:16 27/06/06
The selection committee of the Armenian national anthem has received no
more proposals besides the one submitted by Robert Amirkhanyan. The
committee will accept proposals by August 1. A committee member,
poet Davit HOHVHANNES thinks that there will be no miracles and a
new text and music of the national anthem will not be suggested. Perz
Zeituntsian, on the other hand, thinks that Aram Khachatryan’s music
is a valuable piece of art and is worth to be selected as a national
anthem. “If you find any other music that will be better that Aram
Khachatryan’s, I will be for it with both hands,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PROGRESSIVE PARTY LEADER SPECULATES ON PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Panorama.am
15:17 27/06/06
“At night I saw a dream that Prosperous Armenia Party have not passed
parliamentary elections,” Tigran Urikhanyan from Armenian progressive
party told his dream to reporters at Pastark Club today. Speaking
about parliamentary elections T. Urikhanyan expressed his assurance
that defense minister Serz Sargsyan will not join any party. He also
did not exclude that the minister may go to parliament on Republican
Party list. The leader of the progressive party does not know yet
which party they will join to form a union.
He is, however, sure that no out-of -parliament force will enter the
National Assembly without unifying with some other party.

FORMER FM SPEAKS ON INTERNAL POLITICS OF ARMENIA
Panorama.am
15:53 27/06/06
Alexander Arzumanyan, former foreign minister of Armenia and a member
of All Armenian National Movement was invited today to Pastark Club
to talk about Armenia’s present-day inter-political developments.
The former minister noted that whatever happens today in Armenia
and Nagorno Karabakh is reflected in the foreign policy. Moreover,
A. Arzumanyan is sure that Armenia is isolated from the regional
country and they talk with us with “threatenings.”
Among such the former minister noted OSCE Minsk Group newly elected
co-chairman Mathew Braizay. “The same Braizay says that the Armenian
president can visit Washington only if he implements the same
democratic reforms as Ilham Aliev does. This is an unprecedented blow
in the face,” A. Arzumanyan said.

WWII VETERANS WAITING FOR THEIR VOUCHERS TO TRAVEL
Panorama.am
16:32 27/06/06
While our public officials spend their vacations abroad, the veterans
of WWII are deprived of this opportunity. The ministry of employment
and social affairs has been distributing vouchers with which such
people can travel in NIS once in a year. Though summer is in its midst,
these vouchers have not reached Yerevan from Kiev. The responsible
person on elders at the minister Anahit Georgyan said that they are
waiting for the vouchers day by day. These tickets are valid for 5
years. First class disabled get them free of charge and others pay 50 %
of the cost.
This year, according to Anahit Gevorgyan, only 1000 vouchers are
ordered against 3000 last year. “There are 8-9 thousand people eligible
for this benefit in the republic. The experience shows that only 20
% use the chance since they are over 80 years old. Each year we get
less vouchers,” A. Gevorgyan says.

“INTERNAL AND INDIVIDUAL ACTS OF EMPLOYERS” PUBLISHED IN YEREVAN
Panorama.am
16:41 27/06/06
A manual titled “Internal and individual acts of employers” has been
published in Yerevan. The manual contains abstracts from Labor Code
of Armenia.
Contracts are drafted for 43 specializations. June 21 was the
anniversary of the Labor Code of Armenia.
According to the law, all employers were responsible to conclude
contracts with their employees during that time.
In the opinion of one of co-authors of the manual, drafting contracts
has become necessary in Armenia with the adoption of the labor
code. “Everything is done here according to custom whereas the contract
should regulate the responsibilities of the employee,” Poghosyan says.
It should be reminded that this is the second book on the subject. 2
more books are expected to come.

ARMENIAN PATRIARCH KAREKIN DEFENDS ARMENIAN CLAIMS IN TURKEY
By Melike Duransoy, JTW
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
June 27 2007
* Karekin II: “Ankara should recognise the Armenian massacre”
* Armenian Patriarch Karekin Defends Armenian Claims in Turkey. Turks
say that if a Turkish man defends Turkish ideas on the histoical
claims in Armenia he or she would face very rude attitudes
* Karekin II conducted a service on Sunday in the central church of
the Turkish Armenian Patriarchy, Istanbul
* NATO PA Vice-president, Turkish diplomat Vahit Erdem had been
deprived of the office car and guard and he was considered as ‘enemy’
because of his statements on the historical Armenian claims
ISTANBUL (JTW)- Armenian General Patriarch Karekin II, currently on
a visit to Turkey, on Sunday said that Ankara should recognise the
so-called Armenian genocide of 1915.
Speaking at a press conference after conducting a mass in an Armenian
church in Istanbul, Karekin II said the allegations of genocide against
the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian community had been studied for 90 years
by academics and there is no for any discussion or any more study on
the issue.
“For our people the genocide is not an issue of research,” he said.
“This is an incident that has happened and its has to be recognised.”
Turkey has not accepted the Armenian allegations since the
establishment of the modern republic. Turks argue that more
than 520,000 Turkish people were massacred by the armed Armenian
groups during the First World War and there was no genocide or any
state-sponsored massacre against Armenians.
Karekin II said that Armenia was very willing to develop relations
with Turkey and stressed that if the two countries worked together
constructive solutions could be found to the problem.
In response to Turkey giving high points to Armenia in the Eurovision
Song Contest, Karekin II said that this should be seen as a positive
step.
Turkish Armenian experts however argues that Karekin II is lucky
because he was speaking in a ‘democratic country’. Dr. Nilgun Gulcan
for instance told the JTW that no Turkish could defend Turkish
perspective in Armenia.
Dr. Gulcan further says:
“You may find any pro-Armenian book in Turkish bookstores and you
can freely defend the Armenian or any other perspectives in Turkey.
Almost all ‘genocide’ literature have been translated Turkish
language. We clearly understood what the Armenians think about the
1915 Events. But Armenians have no idea about Turkish perspective.
They do not listen. They think that, if they listen to the Turks,
they would commit a great sin. You have to risk your life to defend
Turkish perspective in Armenia. No Turk defending Turkish perspective
could go to Armenia. A Turkish historian was in Armenia last year
and spent months in an Armenian prison. And Turkish MP and NATO PA
Vice-president Vahit Erdem faced difficulties in yerevan when he said
that there was no genocide at all.”
Turkish prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan offered to establish a common
commission to discuss the historical disputes between the Turks and
Armenians, however Arzmenia rejected the offer and declared “there
is nothing to be discussed”.
According to Dr. Sedat laciner from Ankara-based Turkish
think tank USAK, the Armenian approach regarding the past is
“shut-up-and-accept-it” policy. “They do not listen to what you say.
They try to order Turkish people to accept what they think. This is
not the best way to develop any co-operation” Dr. Laciner says.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS GEORGIA
The Messenger, Georgia
June 27 2007
On June 27 the Armenian Foreign Minister, Vardan Oskanyan, will pay
an official visit to Georgia, the news agency Black Sea Press reports.
As ArmInfo was told with reference to the press-service of the Foreign
Ministry of Armenia, during the visit meetings with President of
Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, Foreign Affairs Minister Gela Bezhuashvili
and Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze are planned.
The delegation headed by Oskanyan will return to Yerevan on June 28.

ARMENIA DOES NOT COMPLY WITH RESOLUTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, ALIYEV
Democracy Azerbaijan
Ïðaâî Âûaîða, Azerbaijan
June 27 2007
“The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and all other
international issues should be settled only within some framework.
This problem cannot be solved in accordance with anybody’s desire,
in particular, if this desire does not reflect the reality and is
beyond the framework of the international law”, said President Ilham
Aliyev in his speech at the graduation ceremony at Heydar Aliyev High
Military School.
“International law applies to all countries. If international rules,
norms of behavior, decisions of international organizations are
not observed and the decisions do not result in taking measures,
it will break all international rules of behavior since the world
is governed in accordance with some rules. All countries are members
of the United Nations and UN is the world’s major organization. This
organization has adopted four resolutions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict, which openly state that armed occupation forces should
unconditionally leave the occupied territories” he continued.
“Unfortunately, Armenia disregards this and does not comply with
these resolutions. In this case, we no longer count on international
mechanisms of settlement”, President Ilham Aliyev added.
–Boundary_(ID_QYacdVcji7hEta9Y2J6WiA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress