IN JANUARY-NOVEMBER, 2004, AVERAGE NONTHLY PRICE INCREASE OF
TENEMENT-HOUSES IN YEREVAN MADE 2%
YEREVAN, January 5 (Noyan Tapan). In January-November, 2004, 9,165
transactions with respect to real estate were implemented in Armenia,
which exceeds by 30.4% the index for the same period in 2003.
According to the information provided to NT by Information Service of
the Real Estate Land-Survey State Committee, sales and purchases made
89.3%, donations – 10.4%, and exchanges – 0.3% of the 3,729 alienation
transactions with respect to real estate. In January-November, 2004,
the number of real estate alienation transactions grew by 18.9% as
compared to the same period of 2003. 42.7% of real estate alienation
transactions was implemented in Yerevan, 43.7% of which – with respect
to tenement-houses’ apartments. In November, 2004, 62.9% of the 1.332
real estate sale and purchase transactions registered in Yerevan were
those implemented with respect to tenement-houses, which decreased by
4.1% as compared with the same period of 2003 and by 5.4% as compared
with October, 2004. In January-November, 2004, the minimum and maximum
prices of 1 square meter of tenement-houses’ apartments in Yerevan
communities made: in the center (except for the Northern Avenue) –
$350-970, in Arabkir – $250-560, in Kanaker-Zeytun – $130-330, in
New-Nork – $115-250, in Avan – $120-230, in Erebuni – $120-300, in
Shengavit – $120-270, in Davidashen – $130-350, in Ajapniak – $120-300
and in Nubarashen – $70-120. In January-November, 2004, the monthly
increase in an average market price of 1 square meter of
tenement-houses’ apartments in Yerevan made 2%.

USAID TO FINANCE PROGRAM ON HEATING 15 SCHOOLS OF ARMENIA
YEREVAN, January 5 (Noyan Tapan). Starting from February, the program
to instal local heating systems in 15 schools of the country will be
implemented with funds of the Armenian office of the USAID. According
to Sos Kocharian, RA Deputy Minister of Urban Development, about 600
thousand dollars will be allocated for the program implementation. In
case of success, funds are likely to be allocated to construct heating
systems for 15 more schools. S. Kocharian also stated that in 2003, a
USAID-funded pilot program on restoration of the heating systems in 8
schools of Armenia was implemented.

STARTING FROM JUNE, PROGRAM WITH 1.5 MILLION EUROS’ BUGDET TO BE
IMPLEMENTED IN AGRICULTURAL SPHERE OF ARMENIA WITH FINANCIAL
PARTICIPATION OF NETHERLANDS
YEREVAN, January 5 (Noyan Tapan). By the Dutch government’s “Eastern
European and Central Asian Countires Cooperation and Marketing
Program” (PSOM), it is envisaged to start from June the implementation
of a 2-year program with a budget of about 1.5 million euros in
Armenia’s agricultural sphere. According to Koryun Hovakimian,
executive director of the Armenian-Dutch Agroproject center, by late
March the Armenian side will have submitted to the Dutch government
3-4 programs, one of which will be selected and implemented. According
to K. Hovakimian, by one of the programs developed, it is proposed to
organize production of mushrooms, while by another – that of soya
beans, which will be subsequently used in butter and fodder production.
Programs on manufacturing metallic tins for tinned products, as well
as on establishing the Agroservice center in Lori marz have been
developed as well. The financial participation of the Dutch government
in the program will make 50%, whereas the other half will be invested
by the Armenian company involved in the program or by its partner – a
Dutch company. In recent years 7 programs were implemented in Armenia
with funds of the government of the Netherlands. In particular, a
plant for milk procession and production of the Dutch cheese was built
in Tashir, a hydroponic greenhouse – in the village of Darakert
(Ararat marz), an up-to-date potato warehouse with a capacity of 1,500
tons – in Shirak marz, as well as one of the workshops of the mixed
fodder plant in Yerevan was repaired.

NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WOMEN INCREASES BY 1.6% IN ARMENIA COMPARED WITH
8 MONTHS OF 2003
YEREVAN, October 5 (Noyan Tapan). In January-August 2004 the average
number of economically active population of Armenia made 1233.4
thousand people, 90.5% or 1116.3 thousand out of them were engaged in
economy and 9.5% or 117.1 thousand were unemployed. The latters were
registered in RA Employment Service agency of RA Ministry of Labor and
Social Issues and received the status of unemployed. According to the
data of RA National Statistical Service, as of late August 97.6% or
144.1 thousand out of the people looking for a job and registered in
the agency were unemployed and 78.6% or 113.3 thousand out of them
were given the status of unemployed. From the beginning of the year
5.4 thousand people got a job and 52.8% of them were women. 79
thousand or 69.8% of the unemployed officially registered in 2004
August were women. This index increased by 1.6% compared with the same
period of 2003.

azcentral.com
Time traveler . . . business runners . . . capital idea
Jan. 8, 2005 12:00 AM
Capitalizing on a visit
Arizona will play a role in the spread of capitalism to former communist
lands when the state hosts two professors from Yerevan State Institute of
Economics in Armenia.
The instructors from the former Soviet territory will be here in late
February to learn about free markets and how economics is taught in Arizona.
“We have sent some of our teachers to Eastern Europe, including Lithuania,
Russia and the Czech Republic,” said Amy Willis, executive director of the
Arizona Council on Economic Education. “But this is the first time we’ve
hosted anyone.”
The council has planned a busy itinerary for the two professors, Tsinovar
Karapetyan and Arpenik Muradyan, who instruct other teachers about
economics. They will visit public schools, Arizona State University, the
state Department of Education, the state Capitol and Bank of America. They
also have voiced a special desire.
“They’ve requested to go to a mall,” Willis said.

New York Daily News, NY
Jan 8 2005
Merry Christmas, old calendar says

Viken Markarian and his brother Vasken were given money, clothing and
gift bags on Dec. 25, and later that day, the family sat down to a
turkey dinner with all the traditional trimmings.
But, strictly speaking, they were not celebrating Christmas. Their
Christmas was two days ago – and there were no presents.
Viken, 19, and Vasken, 14, and their parents, who live in Jackson
Heights, Queens, are Armenian. They celebrate Christmas on Jan. 6, a
date dictated by the old Julian calendar.
“It sounds crazy to some of my friends,” Viken said after services
Wednesday night at the St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, on the East
Side of Manhattan. “But, it’s our way.”
The calendar that set Dec. 25 as Christmas is called the Gregorian
calendar because it was adopted during the reign of Pope Gregory XIII
in the late 16th century. It replaced the Julian calendar, named for
Julius Caesar, which incorrectly gave each year an extra 11-1/2
minutes and thus made the dates for Easter and other important
Christian holidays increasingly inaccurate.
Most of the Christian world quickly adopted the Gregorian calendar,
but some ethnic or national Orthodox churches, as well as the
Armenian Church of America, still honor the old Julian calendar for
traditional liturgical reasons – after all, they argue, it was the
one in use when most Christian dogma was formulated.
“At least we’re not the only ones out of step,” one usher at St.
Vartan said. “Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Romanians, you name it – their
Christmas is Jan. 6, too.”
Still, contemporary cultural influences are so strong that even
old-calendar Christians who do not celebrate Dec. 25 as the birth
date of Jesus often exchange gifts on that day. In some cases, there
are gifts on Jan. 6, although this is by no means established
tradition.
“We’ve already had our Christmas,” Vasken said. “We’re not going to
get anything else.” But Jan. 6 is still a special day for the
Armenian community.
There are about 1 million members of the Armenian Church of America
in the United States and Canada, with metropolitan New York home to
the largest single community. This does not include members of the
Armenian Catholic Church, which is allied with Rome and observes
Christmas on Dec. 25.
“For us, Christmas is not exclusively a religious holiday,” said the
Rev. Mardiros Chevian, dean (administrator) of St. Vartan for the
past dozen years. “It’s also a family and community holiday.”
It was Chevian who led the liturgically elaborate Christmas Eve
services Wednesday, while his superior, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian,
spiritual leader of Armenians living everywhere in the United States
except California, Washington, Arizona and Nevada, celebrated the
Christmas Day service Thursday that traditionally ends with the
triumphant proclamation “Christ is born and revealed.”
At the Christmas Eve service, 40 robed teenagers read scriptural
passages before Chevian, a Rhode Islander who was ordained 20 years
ago at St. Vartan, led the hour-long Mass, assisted by six deacons
and a choir singing in Armenian.
After the service, Chevian said that it was impossible for the
congregation – or himself – to ignore the traditional trappings of
the “other Christian” denomination that celebrated Dec. 25.
“Look at that,” he said, pointing to a tall, impressively decorated
Christmas tree standing outside the main entrance to the sanctuary.
“It’s not Armenian, but we recognize the reality of where we are.”
There also were heaps of poinsettias around the altar, another
seasonal touch with no basis in Armenian tradition.
He also displayed a letter he had written to school superintendents
or principals, asking them to allow their Armenian students to skip
classes on Jan. 6 to observe the Christmas holiday. “They usually
excuse our students,” Chevian said. “New Yorkers know about other
people’s holidays.”
In turn, St. Vartan frequently plays host to non-Armenian tour
groups, many of them from public schools. About 100 are scheduled to
visit in the next week or so. “We’ll show them around and tell them
some stories, then give them some Armenian pastry,” Chevian said.
How about exchanges of greetings?
“No problem,” Viken said. “They say, ‘Merry Christmas.’ We say,
‘Shnorhavor soorp dznoont.'”

Burbank Leader , CA
LATimes.com
Jan 8 2005
‘An opportunity to remember the past’
By Rima Shah, The Leader
This year’s Armenian Christmas bore special poignancy, one of the
most important leaders in the Armenian Church said Thursday in a
holiday ceremony.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, primate of the Armenian Church of North
Western Diocese, presided over the ceremony at the Western Diocese
Headquarters in Burbank.
The primate is the most important position in the Western Diocese and
the second most important position in the world, said Matthew Ash,
youth director of the Western Diocese.
The ceremony, besides celebrating the birth of Christ, also
commemorated the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
The genocide is normally observed on April 24, but reflecting on it
on Christmas Day has a special meaning, Ash said.
“There is going to be an opportunity to remember the past,” Ash said.
“It is also an opportunity to celebrate life and to celebrate the
fact that there are strong thriving communities throughout the world
who have survived the effects of the genocide.”
The ceremony included blessing the Armenian stone crosses, which are
an important part of the Armenian church and are blessed at special
events.
Youth from about 30 parishes of the Western Diocese who attended the
ceremony will each carry a stone cross back to their respective
parishes.
Derderian plans to visit the diocese’s parishes until April 24 to
consecrate and install the stones.
The future was also celebrated at Glendale Memorial Hospital when a
baby was born at 5:10 a.m. Thursday.
“It’s like a gift for me,” said Anna Sarukhanyan, the girl’s mother,
who sat at the hospital bed holding the newborn. She will name her
daughter Mary or Elizabeth.
Glendale Memorial Hospital workers distributed Armenian sweet bread
called, “gatta,” to the patients in the hospital to celebrate
Armenian Christmas.
“This is the fifth year I am doing this,” said Vazrik Abtekian, who
works at physician services in the hospital. “It’s kind of tradition.
The sweet bread signifies the whole celebration of happiness.”

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Jan 8 2005
RFE/RL Caucasus Services Launch New Regional Discussion Program

(Washington/Prague–January 7, 2005) The Armenian, Azerbaijani and
Georgian broadcast services of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) are launching a new jointly produced, regional program
designed to help bridge the divisions that exist among the several
nations living in the South Caucasus.
The 20-minute program will be heard as part of RFE/RL’s regular
programming every Saturday at 6:00PM (local time) on Georgian State
Radio and at 5:15PM and 11:15PM (local time) on Azerbaijan’s
Teleradio network, and on Sunday evenings at 7:00PM on Armenian State
Radio. The broadcasts will be available on RFE/RL’s local private
affiliates as well as on the Internet and via shortwave and
direct-to-home satellite broadcast (see for more
schedule information).
Every other week, the program will be made up of a live roundtable,
moderated from Prague, but conducted either from RFE/RL’s studios in
Tbilisi, Georgia or via phone with guests located in each of the
three capitals — Tbilisi, Yerevan, Armenia and Baku, Azerbaijan.
Programs for those weeks when a roundtable will not be broadcast
(including the first broadcast January 8) will be prerecorded by
local journalists in Tbilisi, Yerevan and Baku and packaged by RFE/RL
editors in Prague. Editorial control of the program will remain with
RFE/RL.
According to RFE/RL Associate Director of Broadcasting Nenad Pejic,
the topics addressed on the program will “concentrate on the future
and on issues that citizens in the region share as common problems,”
in an effort to counteract the general practice in the Caucasus of
using mass media to perpetuate negative images of adversaries and to
promote one-dimensional views of the various conflicts that divide
the residents of all three countries. “Our aim is to engage
communities in a dialogue that will show how much they share rather
than repeat how much divides them,” Pejic said. As a result, while
not shying away from sensitive political issues such as the region’s
foreign policy orientation, upcoming programs will address such
issues of broad concern in all three countries as health care reform,
education reform, energy and pipeline policy, and transport and
communications issues.
The new program is being produced in cooperation with the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the
German Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GTZ, German
Technical Cooperation).
RFE/RL’s Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Services broadcast a
combined 12 hours of programming a day to the South Caucasus,
produced in Prague and in local bureaus in Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi
and transmitted to listeners via satellite, shortwave and AM, FM, UKV
and cable signals provided by local affiliate stations. Programming
aired by all three services is also available via the Internet, at
and at the respective service websites:
, , and

Boston Globe
Jan 8 2005
Sharkay Kletjian; oversaw growth of cleaning company
By Gloria Negri, Globe Staff |
As the daughter of immigrants, Sharkay (Gumushian) Kletjian worked
hard to fulfill her own American dream and helped hundreds of other
immigrants to achieve theirs.
“Mrs. K set an example with her own hard work,” said John Feitor of
Medford, a native of Portugal who started out as a cleaner with Mrs.
Kletjian’s UNICCO janitorial and maintenance service company and
retired as its executive senior vice president. “She was my anchor,
my motivator.”
Mrs. Kletjian, who worked with her husband in UNICCO soon after he
founded it in 1949 and continued to run it after his death in 1969,
died Tuesday at Massachusetts General Hospital of kidney failure. She
was 84 and lived in North Falmouth and Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Born in Istanbul, Mrs. Kletjian was 3 months old when her parents
fled the Armenian genocide in Turkey, came to this country, and
settled in Somerville. Her father, Sempad, was a tailor. Her mother,
Vasganous (Torissian), was a housewife. Mrs. Kletjian was the oldest
of their four children. She was voted outstanding Latin student at
Somerville High School and graduated in 1938 with a full scholarship
to the former Burdett School of Business where she studied accounting
and bookkeeping.
She graduated from Burdett in 1940 and that same year married Herbert
Kletjian, whose family had also fled the Armenian genocide. Mr.
Kletjian had left school in the eighth grade to go to work and was a
candy mixer at the Necco candy company in Cambridge, said their son,
Robert T. of Andover. “Dad decided with a friend to make extra money
by washing windows and cleaning floors,” he said. The two men worked
together for a time and then Mr. Kletjian bought out his partner.
In the early days, UNICCO, the acronym for University Cleaning
Company, was located in Central Square, Cambridge, with a very small
staff. Robert recalled that his father would go out during the day
dressed in a suit to recruit clients and then go out on cleaning jobs
at night. Eventually, Mrs. Kletjian joined her husband in the office
to do the bookkeeping.
The couple’s three sons, now executives of the company, started out
scrubbing floors and doing other janitorial services. “My father
worked us harder and paid us less than other employees,” Robert said,
“and my mother fully endorsed what he did.”
When Mr. Kletjian died in 1969 at the age of 48, Mrs. Kletjian and
her sons took charge.
“She was instrumental in growing the company into what it has
become,” Robert said. “She ran all the backroom operations and was
treasurer through the mid-1990s.”
On its website, UNICCO, now based in the Auburndale village of
Newton, describes itself as “one of North America’s largest
facilities outsourcing companies with over $700 million in annual
sales, with 1,000 customers and 19,000 employees.” The company has
about 20 field offices around the country and in Canada, Robert said.
Many immigrants, unable to speak English when they arrived, were
given their first job at UNICCO and some rose to supervisory
positions. John Correia of Arlington was one of them. He started out
doing janitorial work and now heads UNICCO’s New England Division.
“When I arrived from Brazil, UNICCO was my first job in 1980,”
Correia said. “Mrs. K related to immigrants well and understood the
challenge of uprooting that we faced. She took a motherly interest in
us. She had the rule: Everyone had to speak English in front of her.
If we made a mistake, she corrected us, but always with a smile and
in a friendly way.”
Feitor recalled arriving in the United States in 1970 without work or
a word of English.
“She always taught me to say, ‘Yes, I can’ when I thought I
couldn’t,” Feitor said. “She talked to me like I was her own son. She
screamed at me like I was one of them. When I came to this country I
had dreams I did not think I could fulfill. I saw a star very far
away. It was success. Mrs. K helped me reach that star.”
Besides her son, Mrs. Kletjian leaves two other sons, Steven C. of
Osterville, and Richard J. of Hingham; a daughter, Dianne of
Hamilton; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at at 11 a.m. today at Holy Trinity
Armenian Apostolic Church in Cambridge. Burial will be at Forest
Hills Cemetery in Boston.

IRNA, Iran
January 8, 2005 Saturday 5:26 PM EST
Armenian minister stresses expansion of bilateral ties
Armenian Minister of Education and Science Sergo Yeritsen stressed
the need for offering facilities to Iranian students and solving
their problems.
Making the remarks while talking to reporters in Yerevan on Friday on
the threshold of his visit to Iran, he described bilateral ties as
good and expanding.
Referring to the presence of about 1,200 Iranian students in
Armenia`s universities, he stressed the need for solving their
problems.
He is to visit Iran from January 15-19.