Author: Chakrian Hovsep

ROMANIA NEVER SAW RUSSIA AT THE SUMMIT
by Vladimir Soloviov
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Source: Kommersant, June 6, 2006, p. 10
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
June 6, 2006 Tuesday

Black Sea Forum For Dialog and Partnership summit held in Romania;
A summit of the Black Sea Forum For Dialog and Partnership took place
in Bucharest yesterday. The national leaders of Romania, Armenia, and
four GUAM countries met to discuss common problems. Russia pointedly
ignored an invitation to the summit.

The Black Sea Forum For Dialog and Partnership summit was organized
on Romania’s initiative. Official Bucharest went to great pains to
prepare everything. Who would be representing Russia at the forum:
that was the main point of suspense until yesterday. Romanian President
Trayan Besesku met with journalists from the participating countries
(those he assumed would participate) to speak about the importance
of the forum.

He apparently wanted the Kremlin to know how strongly Romania wanted
to see Russia as a participant. Besesku said he had sent an invitation
to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin long ago. “It would be all
right even if Russia is represented by someone else,” Besesku told
journalists. “As long as its representatives are here among us. The
regional structures of which Russia is not a member stand to lose a
great deal.”

No wonder the Romanian leader was so persistent in inviting Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had declared several months ago that
the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation is doing just
fine with the problems of the region and that there was no need for
a parallel structure. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was particularly
critical of the forum initiative. “We are fairly skeptical about the
abstract forums with an unclear agenda undertaking to encompass the
Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Baltic Sea on the basis of some unnatural
criteria that have nothing to do with what is really important,” he
said. To cut a long story short, Moscow assigned Russian Ambassador
in Bucharest Alexander Tolkach to the forum.

The presidents of the GUAM countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan,
Moldova) and their Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian went to
the capital of Romania. Turkey sent a state minister, Bulgaria its
foreign minister.

As soon as they met, the presidents began talking of their own
problems. Moldovan leader Vladimir Voronin recalled the unresolved
conflict with Tiraspol and demanded that the forum’s communique should
include a provision on separatism. Jack Crouch, National Security
Advisor to the US President, reassured Voronin that official Washington
supports the territorial integrity of Moldova and withdrawal of the
Russian troops from its territory.

President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine proposed an energy dialogue
covering the three seas (Black, Caspian, and Baltic) as a means
of boosting regional energy security. President Ilham Aliyev of
Azerbaijan and President Robert Kocharian of Armenia discussed the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the day before the forum.

Independent Romanian observers are ironic on the subject of the whole
undertaking. Their comments brand the forum as “Romanian mini-vacation”
for GUAM leaders. Many of them maintain that such forums are just a
waste of time without Russia.

PAN-ARMENIAN FUN – 7 DAYS, 7 NIGHTS

Panorama.am
17:28 07/06/06

Pan-Armenian traditional festival “One Nation, One Culture” will launch
in the republic on June 23. The symbols of the festival – Narek and
Nare, already are distributing invitation letters in the streets of
Yerevan. They also provide information about the festival. “We should
think about how to strengthen ties with Diaspora instead of thinking
what Diaspora should do for us,” Vigen SARGSYAN, president adviser
told a press conference today.

HEALTH CARE TARGET PROGRAMS BEING REALIZED IN NKR
>From an interview with Azat Artsakh newspaper

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
June 7 2006

NKR Health Minister Zoya Lazaryan’s interview

In 2006 the Nagorno Karabakh Republic /NKR/ state budget has allocated
1 milliard 560 million drams for health care system, which is 350
million drams more as compared with last year.

According to the NKR Health Minister Zoya Lazaryan, 11 491
dram has been provided for an inhabitant versus 9 894 drams in
2005. The Minister remarked increasing financing was mainly aimed
at the ambulatory services. “The health care system’s strategy is
determined by the fact that most people employ ambulatory services”,
Zoya Lazaryan said. She informed in 2005 324 thousand patients had
employed ambulatory services, which surpassed the level of 2004 by
40 %, while only 13 thousand people had employed stationary services.

In the Minister’s words, since January 1, 2006 the system employees’
wages have been raised, making 51 thousand drams for doctors, 32
thousand and nearly 24 thousand for medium and junior medical staff
correspondingly.

The goals of 2006 are determined by the implementation of the target
programs. Five aim programs have been elaborated: first ambulatory
aid to population; ensuring hygienic epidemic security; protection
of mother and child health; struggle against illnesses of social
dependence. State order includes all the five target programs.

Medical aid provided to socially hard -up groups, as well as first
medical aid is rendered free of charge.

In line with the NKR government decision, the separate groups of
population may employ medical aid free of charge. Besides, both in
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh ambulatory treatment is free of charge.

Any consultation held by a doctor is free of charge, if the district
doctor’s permit is available. In case a citizen applies to a doctor of
narrow specialization without a permit, he must pay according to rate.

In the ambulatory treatment system separate groups of population
are furnished with drugs free of charge. In 2006 the list has been
enlarged. If in 2005 free drugs for 300 drams were calculated for an
inhabitant, current year the amount has been increased to 400 drams.

Some modifications have been made in the issue as well – if only
children up to three years old could use free drugs, current year
drugs are available for the children up to seven years old free
of charge. Solitary unemployed retirees can also use fifty-percent
discount. Besides, the state purchases drugs and provides it to the
polyclinics for ambulatory patients. They are mainly delivered to those
suffering from sugar diabetes, epilepsy, bronchial asthma and cancer.

There is one more innovation. Children’s hospitals and polyclinics have
always served children up to 15, however, according to the new rules
they will serve children up to 18 years old. At children’s hospitals
special attention should be paid to medical service of boys under
the age of conscription.

The weakest link of the health care system is rural medial points.

First medical aid is not always available for a villager, as a result
of which he has to get to the capital city – Stepanakert. Doctors
are available at a few villages only, where ambulatory service is
properly implemented.

It is the first time the Republic state budget has allocated funds to
improve rural population’s medical service. Twice a year a group of
doctors will necessarily leave for regions to examine the population.

Schedules will be made for each populated locality, so the inhabitants
will be informed of the doctors’ visit beforehand.

WATER MONOPOLISTS WERE REVEALED

A1+
[04:12 pm] 07 June, 2006

The companies providing the residents of Armenia with drinking water
have different tariffs for one cubic meter of water. For example, the
company “Yerevan Water Pipeline” sells one cubic meter of water for
80 AMD, “Shirak Water Pipeline” – for 76 AMD and “Lori Water Pipeline”
– for 91 AMD.

Ashot Shahnazaryan, the head of the RA Economic Competition Protection
State Committee who was presiding over the usual session of the
Committee wondered how the tariff was formed. The representatives
of the companies providing people with water gave no answer to that
question.

The committee has carried out investigations and found out that the
above mentioned four companies are monopolists in their regions,
that’s to say, they do not have competitors. But the companies who
have cleared out the areas of their activity are facing a problem. A
number of villages have been left out of the planning and are not
provided with water by any company.

Each of the companies tries to explain away saying that they are not
in charge of these villages.

Nevertheless, all of them were asked to solve the problem as soon
as possible.

MELKONIAN TO DISPLAY LATEST WORKS IN TEHRAN

Mehr News Agency, Tehran
June 6 2006

TEHRAN, June 6 (MNA) – An exhibition of paintings by Sirak Melkonian
is to open at the Mah Gallery in Tehran on June 9, the student news
agency ISNA reported here on Tuesday.

Melkonian is to display several paintings and drawings printed
on canvas.

His works reveal the painter’s perception of art over the past
30 years.

Melkonian is one of the main members of the group of painters and
sculptors, which was founded in the 1960s by Marco Grigorian and
Masud Arabshahi and came to life with Melkonian, Abdorreza Daryabeigi,
Morteza Momayyez, Faramarz Pilaram, and Gholamhossein Nami.

The group, the first center that introduced the conceptual art in Iran,
was dissolved in 1977, prompting Melkonian to leave the country and
live in Toronto, Canada.

Melkonian has participated in the biennials of Venice and Paris,
and other exhibitions in France, Armenia, Europe, the United States,
and Iran.

He is also scheduled to review the 1960s painters’ works at the
Iranian Artists Forum on June 12.

SERIOUS PROGRESS NOT ACHIEVED IN TALKS OF AZERI, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS IN BUCHAREST – AZERI FM
Author: R.Abdullayev

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
June 6 2006

It is impossible to state on the achievement of a tremendous progress
in a meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Bucharest
and at present there is necessity for coordinating the positions
of both conflict sides, Elmar Mammadyarov, the Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister, told journalists on 6 June.

On 6-7 June the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will hold additional meeting
in Bucharest, which will define the necessity for next round of talks
of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents.

“There is still hope for the peaceable resolution of the conflict
and we are eager to continue efforts in this direction,” Mammadyarov
underscored. “Work for bringing closer the positions of the conflict
is continuing. The issue on the withdrawal of the Armenian troops from
the occupied territory of Azerbaijan and repatriation of refugees is
under consideration,” the Azerbaijani FM stressed.

Moreover, Mammadyarov noted that Azerbaijan does not rule out possible
application of Triest model in the issue on economic autonomy.

“However, the issue on autonomy concerns not only the Armenia. But
also the Azerbaijani communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh,” said the
Azerbaijani Minister, noting that the issue on referendum found its
exact implication in the Constitution of Azerbaijan.

With respect to rotation of the US Ambassador Steven Mann, the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chair, Mammadyarov noted that the new diplomat was
still to be renamed and the issue will be resolved in the nearest two
months. “I can only state that the United States is really keen on
rapid resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict,” Mammadyarov
underlined.

MINA GROUP’S FIRST JCK SHOW
By Jeff Miller
Diamonds.net, NY
June 6 2006

(Rapaport…June 5, 2006) Michel Minassian, president of the Mina
Group Inc., of Beverly Hills, California, has a 40-year history in
the custom luxury jewelry market.

The time was right for transitioning into a new product set, according
to Minassian, which is why he made the decision to exhibit for his
first time at the 15th annual JCK Las Vegas Show June 3-7, 2006. As
part of Mina Group’s expansion plan the company introduced a switch
–from exclusively selling gold jewelry– to using diamonds in platinum
and white gold settings.

“My main target business is fancy colors and solitaire rings,”
Minassian said.

After having successfully built a wholesale clientele-base in the
Middle East, the Mina Group now targets growth in the United States.

Rapaport News caught up with Minassian at the JCK Las Vegas Show’s
second day, June 4.

Mina Group’s elaborate rings and brooches only include natural color
diamonds, according to Minassian. “Everything is GIA certified too,”
he said. Minassian conceptualizes the designs upon client requests
and then works with his in-house designer to create the goods.

Minassian is originally from Armenia. Culturally, with his clientele,
it is most important to develop relationships built upon trust he
said. “Trust is key to doing business in the Middle East,” he said
while explaining four decades of success from that region. From his
observations of buyers in the United States, he notes their decision
to purchase is based more upon negotiating price points.

For his first JCK Show, Minassian displayed diamond jewelry creations
including a 10.07 carat radiant cut fancy intense yellow ring set in
18 karat yellow gold and platinum; and a 4.58 carat fancy yellow ring
[pictured top] with six pear-shaped diamonds set in 18 karat yellow
gold and platinum.

Mina Group also showed Rapaport a diamond necklace in 14 karat white
gold with pave diamonds (approximately 6.65 carats) plus 5.20 carat
rounds. Two of Mina Group’s brooches, one of which he called the flower
shape [pictured right,] used approximately 6 carats of diamonds and
blue sapphires set in 18 karat yellow and white gold. A second brooch
Mina Group showcased used approximately 4 carats of sapphires plus
turquoise stones set in 18 karat white gold.

Mina Group targets the high-end market with price points beginning
at $25,000. Minassian said he had very high expectations for the show
to develop new relationships in the United States.

Hero’s house reborn: Armenians’ savior lived in Lancaster
By Karen Nugent

WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
Jun 6, 2006

LANCASTER – Most historic homes in town bear some marker naming the original
owner.

And most of those owners had highbrow Brahmin names such as Thayer and
Wilder, along with those of early Yankee settlers – Rowlandson, Prescott,
Damon and Rice.

The name `Bogigian’ is decidedly different.

But Hagop Bogigian, a once-poor Armenian immigrant, had connections, the
first being Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Eventually, his friendship with the
poet allowed Mr. Bogigian, an Oriental carpet importer, to build a hugely
successful business in Cambridge and Boston that gave him enough money to
build a summer home in Lancaster.

Not that Mr. Bogigian was a summerhome type of guy.

Besides saving hundreds of fellow Armenians from the Turkish genocide in the
early 1900s, the lifelong humanitarian went on to dedicate much of his life
to helping widows (his own mother was widowed when he was only 4) and
children, and to educating women.

`He was very unusual for his time,’ said Jeanne A. Blauner, the current
owner of the circa-1907 mansion at 509 Neck Road.

As the 100th anniversary of the house approaches next year, and with an
effort under way to have it listed in the state and national historic
registers, Ms. Blauner has decided to open it up for tea and refreshments
from 9 to 11 a.m. June 17. Admission will be free.

There will be an exhibit and presentation on the history of the house and
Mr. Bogigian’s personal story. His grand-nephew, Hagop Martin Deranian, a
Worcester dentist, is expected to be there, along with members of the
Lancaster Historical Commission.

Dr. Deranian is the author of `Worcester Is America: The Story of
Worcester’s Armenians.’

He paid to have a historic marker honoring Mr. Bogigian placed in front of
the house in 2002, which was dedicated by the Lancaster Historical
Commission. Dr. Deranian at the time said his great-uncle crossed the
Atlantic 87 times in the course of his business and humanitarian activities.

Several years ago, a publication by Old Sturbridge Village had a section on
Mr. Bogigian written by Mildred Tymeson Petrie, a Worcester historian and
author. In it, Ms. Petrie says Mr. Bogigian, then an `importer of Oriental
goods’ opened his first shop in Harvard Square in 1878 with three rugs
hanging in the window.

Longfellow, who lived nearby on Brattle Street in Cambridge, spotted the
rugs and promptly bought one for his home. He also referred then-Harvard
College president Charles Eliot Norton to the shop, who also bought a rug.

Needless to say, Mr. Bogigian’s business took off, and he later moved to an
even better location in Boston, near the Statehouse. There were more rich
customers buying rugs from that locale, eventually allowing Mr. Bogigian to
buy an 18-room house overlooking a reservoir in Framingham, and the 88-acre
lot in Lancaster, which included a pond, orchard and rose gardens.

Meanwhile, he married the former Helen J. Carrington in 1887, whom his
grandnephew described as a Connecticut Yankee. They did not have any
children.

Both husband and wife died in 1931, and much of the land was sold off, Ms.
Blauner said, noting that it was a six-family apartment house in terrible
shape when she bought it in 1999. It has since been renovated and divided up
into six condominiums. At one point, it was a nursing home, and before that,
in World War II, a family built a makeshift soup factory behind the house.

Ms. Blauner had no idea of the significance of the house when she bought it,
but she said people kept asking her about it.

After a while, she went to the Lancaster Historical Commission office and
began researching it, with the help of Joan Richards, the commission’s
coordinator.

`I called my parents, and I told them I thought I bought a dilapidated
six-family, but I really bought a historical mansion,’ she said with a
laugh.

The original house is thought to date from the early 1800s as part of the
old Damon farm. Ms. Blauner said it sat closer to Neck Road, but Mr.
Bogigian, who bought the property in 1905, moved it back and had it set on
the new foundation, and then built around it. Part of his addition included
his rug gallery and two more bedrooms, she said.

According to Ms. Richards, Mr. Bogigian, who was born in 1856 in Kharpoot,
Turkey, saved Armenians from the Turkish massacre by paying for their
passage to the United States and helping them get settled here. He also
intervened with officials at Ellis Island to prevent them from being
deported to Turkey, and contacted President Grover Cleveland and the
American Red Cross to help raise money for displaced Armenians.

Later, he gave money to Mount Holyoke College and Wilson College in
Pennsylvania to be used for the education of young Armenian women.

After he moved to town permanently from Framingham, Ms. Richards said, he
contributed heavily to town projects.

Ms. Blauner said she and previous owners and tenants all felt a certain
positive aura in the house – perhaps leftover karma from Mr. Bogigian.

`It’s a good house. This is a happy place,’ she said.

Photo: The Bogigian house, a circa-1907 mansion at 509 Neck Road in
Lancaster, is being considered for state and national registers of historic
places. (T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR)

rticle?AID=/20060606/NEWS/606060414/1116

Chicago Tribune
Distributed by Knight/Ridder Tribune News Service
June 1, 2006 Thursday

Walter H. Vartan: 1907 – 2006Armenian genocide survivor

by Mitch Dudek, Chicago Tribune

Jun. 1–Walter H. Vartan was 8 years old in 1915 when a Turkish Army
officer announced from the center of his small hometown that all
residents had to gather their valuables and form a line.

The line, filled with Turks of Armenian descent, was ordered to begin
a four-week march through mountainous terrain during a genocidal
campaign launched by the Turkish government to rid the region of
Armenian Christians during World War I. About 1.5 million Armenians
died from forced marches and other atrocities.

Mr. Vartan lost a brother, a sister and his mother as a result of the
roundup and march. But he also gained an appreciation for the
fragility of life and a sense of how easily things could be taken
away, his son Gibby Vartan said.

“When I was 8 years old, I was running around worried about being
late to school. When my father was 8 years old, he was worrying about
whether or not he would see the light of the next day,” he said.

Mr. Vartan overcame this difficult start and lived a long and
prosperous life as a businessman in the Chicago area. He also was a
Golden Gloves champion in his youth and became a friend of Mayor
Richard J. Daley.

Mr. Vartan, 99, of the Lakeview neighborhood died Sunday, May 28, of
heart failure in the Midwest Palliative and Hospice Care Center in
Skokie.

His life began with tragedy. At the start of the march he and his
family were forced to make in 1915, Mr. Vartan’s brother Garabed, 16,
was rounded up with the rest of the men from his hometown of Harpoot
who were of fighting age. His sister Elizabeth, 14, was also taken.
The two were never heard from again, Gibby Vartan said.

Mr. Vartan’s father, Hagop, had immigrated to the United States a few
years earlier to earn money to send back to his family. His other
sister, Agnes, was forced into service in the home of a Turkish
officer, but she survived, Gibby Vartan said.

Mr. Vartan walked for four weeks with his mother, grandmother and two
brothers under the constant gaze of armed guards.

They were to march from Harpoot to Aleppo, Syria, where they would
reach the safety of refugee camps run by the French Foreign Legion.
Many people died of starvation or exposure, or at the hands of
Turkish soldiers.

One night, Mr. Vartan sneaked away from the camp with his brothers
Leo and Victor in search of food. But a Turkish soldier caught them,
Gibby Vartan recalled his father saying.

The soldier ordered two of the brothers to stand one in front of the
other, so he could shoot them with one bullet.

Before the soldier was about to pull the trigger, Mr. Vartan’s
grandmother, who noticed the missing boys and went to look for them,
appeared and appealed to the soldier to spare the lives of the boys
in exchange for money. The soldier accepted, and the march continued
the next day.

After a month of marching, the family made it to Aleppo. But upon
their arrival, his mother died from malnutrition, Gibby Vartan said.

Mr. Vartan and his surviving relatives traveled to Marseille, France,
and from there to Boston, where Mr. Vartan was reunited in about 1915
with his father, who worked in a shoe factory, Gibby Vartan said.

Mr. Vartan lived and worked in Boston, where he met his future wife,
Irene, before his family moved to Chicago about 1920 for better
economic opportunities. Mr. Vartan attended Lane Tech High School on
Chicago’s North Side while living with his family in the Little Italy
neighborhood and later in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood.

During his time at Lane Tech, Mr. Vartan was a Golden Gloves boxing
champion, and he befriended Robert Quinn, a boxer who became
Chicago’s fire commissioner. Quinn introduced to Mr. Vartan to Daley,
and the three became friends, gathering occasionally to play
handball.

Mr. Vartan worked throughout high school and years after as a
woodcarver and at a photo engraving plant.

In 1930, Mr. Vartan married Irene, and two years later, during the
Depression, and with his wife pregnant with the couple’s first child,
Mr. Vartan started Lake Shore Photo Engraving with a partner, his son
said.

Using a bench as bed, Mr. Vartan often slept in the building that
housed his company at 222 E. Superior St. after finishing shifts that
lasted as long as 16 hours, he said.

In 1948, the Vartans moved to Evanston, where the couple lived for 54
years and where Mr. Vartan was active in civic and community affairs.

Mr. Vartan was appointed by Daley to be chairman of the city’s first
Armed Forces Week in the 1970s.

Mr. Vartan retired in 1974 after selling his business to his sons
Gibby and Gentre.

Mr. Vartan also is survived by a daughter, Juraine Golin; a third
son, Gerron; 10 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. His wife
died in 2003.

Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Donnellan Family
Funeral Home, 10045 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. A funeral service will be
held at 10 a.m. Friday in St. Athanasius Church, 1615 Lincoln St.,
Evanston.

Chess team of Armenia conquering the Olympus

ArmRadio.am
03.06.2006 11:23

Men’s chess team of Armenia celebrated its next decisive victory,
scoring 3:1 against the Czech team, thus making an important step
towards Olympic gold.

The decisive points were gained by leader of the team Levon Aronyan
and Karen Asryan. To note, this was Karen Asryan’s first victory in
this tournament.

Vladimir Hakobyan and Gabriel Sargsyan played a draw. Thus, the men’s
chess team of Armenia scored 32 points and is currently 3.5 points
ahead of the Chinese team. Only one round is left till the end of the
tournament.

The women’s team played a draw with the French.