Author: admin

ARMENIA: RESULTS OF 2009 SPORTS YEAR SUMMED UP

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.12.2009 18:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Sports and Concert Complex after Karen Demirchyan
hosted Friday a ceremony of awarding Armenian sportsmen and coaches
who brought medals from 2009 international competitions.

National Olympic Committee President Gagik Tsarukyan gave car presents
to weightlifters Arakel Mirzoyan, Tigran G. Martirosyan, Hripsime
Khurshudyan, boxer Andranik Hakobyan, wrestler Roman Amoyan and judo
athlete Hovhannes Davtyan. Weightlifting world champion Nazik Avdalyan
received an apartment in Yerevan.

Money awards were handed to the individual and chief coaches, as well
as to the top 135 sportsmen of the year.

NOC President Gagik Tsarukyan honored Basketball Federation President
Hrachya Rostomyan and Hatis club’s chief coach Gia Kazanchyan with
Hrant Shahinyan medal.

ARMENIA MUST NOT REPEAT SERBIA’S MISTAKES

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.12.2009 13:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On December 17, Russian State Duma held an
international conference entitled "21st century Balkans: geopolitical
and strategic changes". Russian-Armenian Collaboration head, Yuri
Navoyan also delivered a statement at the conference.

"Certain steps are undertaken to use Balkans’ experience in the
Caucasus," Navoyan stated, drawing parallels between situations with
Caucasus and Balkans.

At the same time, he noted that Armenia is currently subjected to
pressure, as rapprochement protocols, stipulating for Armenia’s
refusing from its historic rights, were imposed on the country.

Even ratification of protocols, which meet all of Turkey’s demands, is
linked to Armenia’s concessions in Karabakh conflict settlement, where
Armenia is persuaded against supporting its compatriots in Karabakh.

According to Yuri Navoyan, the situation resembles the 1995’s collapse
of Serbian Kraina in Croatia when the issue of protecting Serbian
compatriots in Croatia and Bosnia rose.

"With the collapse of Serbia’s Kraina, Balkans faced a new stage of
tragedy. Serbia’s turn came next," Yuri Navoyan noted.

Lessons from past have to be leaned, he noted. "We have to consider
the will of people and timely refuse obligations, which could entail
loss of regional stability," he stressed.

Dwelling on recent events in Serbia, experts noted Turkey’s important
role in strengthening of Muslim population in Serbia.

ANC CONSIDERS LYUDIMILA SARGSYAN-LED HNCHAK PARTY ITS PARTNER

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.12.2009 20:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian National Congress (ANC) voices concerns
over problems in Social Democrat Hnchak Party, as that may split up
the political force.

ANC is hopeful that Hnchakyans will be able to find acceptable decision
complying with law and party charter requirements. Before that, the
central pro-opposition force will consider Lyudimila Sargsyan-led
Hnchak party its partner. Sargsyan will continue her membership in ANC
central office, while Ararat Lazarian will represent the opposition
bloc, ANC press service reports.

PRESS RELEASE
17 December 2009

US Contacts: Lenna Garibyan,
[email protected], 617-304-4901
Armenia Contacts: Arman Arakelyan,
[email protected],
++374 10 563268, ++374 93 090616

"Our Dream Playground"
Fundraiser Exhibit

Aquatics Armenia charitable organization will hold a fundraiser exhibit
titled "Our Dream Playground" in Picasso Hall of Best Western Congress Hotel
at 12:00 (open until 18:00) on Saturday, December 19, (Address: 1 Italy
str., Yerevan). Paintings and drawings of children from Nor Nork and other art
centers will be exhibited. The drawings depict the "dream playgrounds"
aspired by the children.

Aquatics Armenia’s first project is a construction of a community playground
and basketball court in the third block of Nor Nork, which will be
available to all children of the community. Through fundraiser evens in US,
Aquatics Armenia successfully raised the main funds for the
implementation of the project. Attracting supplemental funding from Armenia
is essential at this stage. This fundraiser is open for foreign donors as
well, who can contribute through the Aquatics Armenia website at

Aqu atics Armenia was founded in 2007 in Boston, MA to plan, construct and
guide the implementation of aquatics-centered and community-based recreation
in Armenia & Artsakh to promote healthy living and contribute to improvement
of public health & general life conditions. Our purpose is to promote
inclusion in the broadest sense, improve lives of the families and the
communities.

For details visit our webpage at

ARISTOMENE VAROUDAKIS: ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION IN ARMENIA REQUIRES ERADICATION OF OLIGOPOLIES

NEWS.am
14:11 / 12/17/2009

Armenia’s economy needs diversifying, which is impossible without
putting an end to corruption in the customs and taxation system,
creating equal conditions for market competition and liquidating
oligopolies, Head of the WB office in Yerevan Aristomene Varoudakis
told a press conference.

He stressed that putting an end to oligopolies requires political will,
as many politicians are connected with the owners of oligopolies. The
eradication of oligopolies will create equal conditions for market
competition, Varoudakis said.

He stressed that the Government is taking certain steps, which is not
sufficient however. Specifically, the Government drafted a bill to
enhance the transparency of government officials’ incomes and expenses,
he said, pointing out that the adoption of the bill requires great
political will.

DECISION TO TURN SURB KHACH MONASTERY INTO ETHNOGRAPHY MUSEUM’S DEPARTMENT SUSPENDED

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.12.2009 16:17 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Surb Khach monastery will be functioning as Armenian
church, Anatoly Gritsenko, speaker of the Supreme Rada of the Crimea
said. According to him, the decision to turn the Surb Khach Church into
a department of the ethnography museum was made to better organize
its work. Although, that decision on turning Surb Khach Church into
ethnography museum’s department has been already suspended, he said.

"We have agreed with the Catholicos of All Armenians to return to the
issue of Surb Khach Church in a month to assess the situation and to
make a final solution. In any case the monastery will be functioning
as a church, " Anatoly Gritsenko said, Analitika.at.ua reported.

IJN: NO RELATIONS WITH TURKEY BASED ON LIE ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

NEWS.am
15:10 / 12/16/2009

Armenians are understandably distressed when they encounter statements
that distort or deny the facts of the Armenian Genocide, and feel
comforted when it is properly acknowledged, says Harut Sassounian,
Editor of the California Courier weekly.

While they are quick to castigate the deniers, they rarely take the
time to recognize those who speak the truth, he said.

In this context Sassounian refers to the Intermountain Jewish News
(IJN) and the commentator Burak Bekdil of Hurriyet Daily News.

IJN particularly writes: "We could use the word ‘diplomacy’ or
‘politics’ or ‘ignorance’ or ‘objectivity’ or ‘fairness.’ In truth,
there is only one word: lie. For many years, some national Jewish
organizations lied about the Armenian genocide, perpetrated by the
Ottoman Turks during WW I. These organizations said it didn’t happen,
or that it was a matter of ‘historical dispute.’

"…On the grounds that Israel had to maintain good relations with
Turkey, these national Jewish organizations-not to mention Israel
herself-accepted Turkey’s denial of the Armenian genocide, or said
it was ‘disputed.’ Good relations with Turkey could only be purchased
by acceptance of Turkey’s lying about the Armenian genocide, we were
told. It was disgraceful.

"…Lying about the Armenian genocide should not be part of the
currency of Israeli-or American Jewish-diplomacy with Turkey. Israel
and these national Jewish organizations should now see that, even
pragmatically, the lying did not help…

"Can you imagine anyone credibly claiming that the Warsaw Ghetto
revolt in 1943 shows that the Holocaust was just a ‘civil war’ between
the Jews and the Germans? That’s how ridiculous the ‘civil war’
characterization of the Turkish prosecution of the Armenian genocide
is coming to look…

Liberal Turkish commentator Burak Bekdil particularly says: ""First,
let’s make a list of the Turkish atrocities of the past century… For
a start, I shall also propose the Armenian genocide; war crimes against
Greeks during the War of Independence; pogroms and other violence
against Greeks, Armenians and Jews during the earlier years of the
Republic; the deaths of 40,000 Kurds… Kurdish atrocities [from]
1984 to 2002. Of course, these sorrowful events can be multiplied
endlessly… I would urge our pro-AKP liberals to pen a draft text in
recognition of a full list of Turkish atrocities in the 20th century,
decorated further with an official apology to the victims and their
relatives."

Armenian organizations should pay tribute to the persons for daring
to condemn their own leaders and expose their lies on the Armenian
Genocide, Sassounian concluded.

232 ACCOUNTANTS HAVE QUALIFICATION CERTIFICATES IN ARMENIA AS OF DECEMBER 16

NOYAN TAPAN
DECEMBER 16, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. 16 qualifying examinations for
accountants were conducted in 2009, as a result of which 112 applicants
out of 208 received an accountant’s qualification certificate.

NT was informed by the Information and PR Unit of the RA Ministry
of Finance that 232 accountants had qualification certificates in
Armenia as of December 16.
Content-Type: MESSAGE/RFC822; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-Description:

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
From: Mihran Keheyian <[email protected]>
Subject: 232 accountants have qualification certificates in Armenia as of
December 16

232 accountants have qualification certificates in Armenia as of December 16

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. 16 qualifying examinations for
accountants were conducted in 2009, as a result of which 112
applicants out of 208 received an accountant’s qualification
certificate.

NT was informed by the Information and PR Unit of the RA Ministry of
Finance that 232 accountants had qualification certificates in Armenia
as of December 16.

PROJECT ON CREATING ALL-ARMENIAN BANK IS IN THE ROUND OF REALIZATION

ARMENPRESS
DECEMBER 16, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS: Currently works are being undertaken
toward working out a business program on creation of All-Armenian
Bank. International experts are also involved in the process, and it
is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

Public relations department of the Armenian Central Bank reported
that after the adoption of the program and selection of the executive
director, the All-Armenian Bank will start its activity.

The process of selection of the executive director for this financial
establishment is not finished yet. A corresponding competition has
been announced with that aim.

The All-Armenian Bank will be created on the principle of state-private
cooperation within the "Armenian World" concept and in this respect
will be the first financial institute.

The goal of the establishment will be to finance such projects which
will form and use strong, competitive and knowledge-based potential of
the all-Armenian network. It will particularly finance all-Armenian
projects, maintaining two basic principles. The first one is not to
compete with trade banks: the bank will finance such projects which
the trade banks do not want or cannot finance. The second one is the
trade activity principle, which means that the bank will finance only
profitable projects.

Answering to the question of "Armenpress" news agency, Armenian prime
minister stated that the All-Armenian Bank is expected to start its
activity in already 2010.

RUSSIAN GAS SUPPLY TO ARMENIA RESTORED

armradio.am
15.12.2009 12:44

Russian gas supplies to Armenia were restored on Monday after being
severed for a day when bombs were found under a pipeline in the
volatile southern region of Ingushetia.

Armenia gets around 2 billion cubic metres of gas annually from
Russia, but customers were not affected, said Shushan Sardaryan,
a spokeswoman for ArmRosGazprom.

"The supply of gas to Armenia has now restarted," Shushan Sardaryan
told "Radiolur."

Russian police defused two bombs and searched the area for other
explosive devices, after the Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline was shut down
on Sunday.

Officials then worked to restore the flow of gas in the pipeline which
also serves customers in Russia’s North Ossetia and Ingushetia regions.