PRIME MINISTER OF ARMENIA: SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ARMENIA IN 2009 – 2010 TO BE FREE FROM INSPECTIONS
ArmInfo
2009-05-29 12:24:00
ArmInfo. Small and medium entrepreneurship in Armenia in 2009 –
2010 will be free from inspections, Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran
Sarkisyan said today in the Parliament. According to him, the relevant
draft decision will be considered at today’s session of the Armenian
government.
ARMENIA IS MARKING FIRST REPUBLIC DAY
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
27.05.2009 20:58 GMT+04:00
Armenia is marking First Republic Day on May 28. Having defeated
the Turkish army in Sardarapat May 26, Armenian troops succeeded
in stopping the Turkish intervention in the Transcaucasus and rescue
Armenia from complete elimination. The Armenian Republic was proclaimed
the Armenian National Council May 28, 1918 in Tiflis after the decline
of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.
May 29 the western and eastern bureaus of ARF Dashnaktsutyun appointed
Hovhannes Kajaznuni the first-ever Prime Minister of independent
Armenia with Yerevan as capital. The last Prime Minister was Simon
Vratsyan. The Republic of Armenia had existed for two years in all. On
December 2, 1920, the troops of the 11th Red Army entered Yerevan
and the republic became soviet. In 1991 the Armenian SSR proclaimed
independence and the parliament announced May 28 a legal holiday.
A monument to Sardarapat battle heroes was inaugurated in 1968.
PUTIN, CLINTON TO VISIT TURKEY
Turkish Press
May 28 2009
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit Turkey in one week,
after meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sarkisian in Moscow earlier in June. The process of
dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia and common steps taken in line
with the Organization for Cooperation and Development’s (OSCE) Minsk
process, which aims to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue,
as well as regional issues and energy cooperation, are expected to be
discussed during the meeting. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
will also pay her second visit to Turkey late July. /Aksam/
NKR SHOULD BE INVOLVED IN NEGOTIATIONS AS A PARTICIPANT
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
26.05.2009 17:40 GMT+04:00
"Legal aspect of NKR’s self determination is already solved. Armenia
has nowhere to retreat in NKR settlement issue," RA Democratic party
Leader Aram Sargsyan told a news conference. According to him, Armenia
has no right for a mistake, agreeing to new plebiscite or referendum
would mean denying the whole way passed and concession to Turkey’s and
Azerbaijan’s demands. "Armenia has to uphold a firm position in this
issue," Sargsyan stated. When questioned by PanARMENIAN.Net reporter
on the results to be expected from NKR’s involvement in negotiations,
Aram Sargsyan expressed his agreement with the fact that NKR should
become a participant to negotiations. "We have to struggle for NKR
to be included in negotiation process. As for results, they’re of
secondary importance," he noted.
BTA Bank to join MONEY GRAM international payment system
22.05.2009 22:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Central Bank of Armenia permitted BTA Bank CJSC
to join MONEY GRAM international payment system.
The decision was taken during the sitting of the CBA Board presided
over by CBA Chairman Artur Javadyan on Friday.
BTA Bank CJSC is a strategic partner of one of Kazakhstan’s biggest
banks – BTA Bank JSC which holds 49% of shares in the authorized
capital of BTA Bank.
The other shareholders of the banks are company ZRL (31.1%) and
Kazakh-Armenian company MOBILEX (16.2%).
Currently, the bank implements transfers through Faster, Migom and
CONTACT payment systems, the CB press office reported.
MICHAEL GIVES A SHOT IN THE ARM
By Bernard O’Neill
The Sun
May 21, 2009 Thursday
England
OLYMPIC champion Michael Carruth is backing Ireland to win medals at
the AIBA World Youth Championships in Armenia.
A six-strong Irish squad are in training camp in Armenia this week
ahead of the Championships which start in Yerevan on Saturday.
Carruth said: "Ireland’s underage squads are doing the business in
international competition, not only are they winning medals, but they
are also winning out their weight categories.
"The talent is coming through and the seniors can’t afford to be
complacent because these youngsters want a piece of the action and
their target will be the 2012 Olympics in London."
IRELAND SQUAD: 52kg: Roy O’Carroll (Glen). 54kg: Ryan McKeown (Sacred
Heart Newry). 57kg: Christy Joyce (St Michael’s Athy). 64kg: Chris
Mulally (Ryston). 66kg: Michael Reilly (Drimnagh). 70kg: Joe Ward
(Moate).
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES CALLS ON SPEAKER PELOSI TO ACT FOR ADOPTION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.05.2009 19:41 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The National Council of the Churches of Christ,
a broad-based coalition representing over 100,000 congregations,
has called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to work for passage
of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.252, the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA) told PanARMENIAN.Net.
In a letter, dated May 20, 2009, the Council’s General Secretary,
Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, restated the organization’s 2007 resolution
that found it "unacceptable" that the U.S. government continues to
refuse to use the term genocide to describe the events of 1915. The
highly regarded church leader then urged, as a step toward true
Armenia-Turkey healing, that all parties, the White House and Congress
included, use "the proper term under international law to classify
the event for what it was: a genocide."
The Council’s President, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, has publicly
noted his own deep disappointment with President Obama’s avoidance
of the word genocide in his April 24th statement. "I speak on this
issue as a person who lost 50 percent of my family to the Armenian
genocide in Turkey," Aykazian said in a letter to Kinnamon and the
NCC Governing Board.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the USA has been the leading force for ecumenical cooperation
among Christians in the United States. The NCC’s member faith groups
from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical,
historic African American and Living Peace churches include 45 million
persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across
the nation.
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES CALLS ON PELOSI TO SUPPORT ADOPTION OF GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
onal-council-of-churches-calls-on-pelosi-to-suppor t-adoption-of-genocide-resolution/
May 22, 2009
WASHINGTON-The National Council of the Churches of Christ, a
broad-based coalition representing over 100,000 congregations, has
called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to work for passage of
the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.252, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).
In a powerfully worded letter, dated May 20, 2009, the Council’s
General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, restated the
organization’s 2007 resolution that found it "unacceptable" that
the U.S. government continues to refuse to use the term genocide to
describe the events of 1915. The highly regarded church leader then
urged, as a step toward true Armenia-Turkey healing, that all parties,
the White House and Congress included, use "the proper term under
international law to classify the event for what it was: a genocide."
The Council’s President, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, has publicly
noted his own deep disappointment with President Obama’s avoidance
of the word genocide in his April 24th statement. "I speak on this
issue as a person who lost 50 percent of my family to the Armenian
genocide in Turkey," Aykazian said in a letter to Kinnamon and the
NCC Governing Board.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the USA has been the leading force for ecumenical cooperation
among Christians in the United States. The NCC’s member faith groups
from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical,
historic African American and Living Peace churches include 45 million
persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across
the nation.
The full text of the Council’s letter is provided below.
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA 475 Riverside
Drive, Suite 800 New York, NY 10115-0050
Office of the General Secretary May 20, 2009 Hon. Nancy Pelosi Office
of the Speaker H-232, US Capitol Washington, DC 20515
Dear Speaker Pelosi:
I am writing to support passage of H.R. 252, calling upon the
President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States
reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues
related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented
in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and
for other purposes.
In November 2007, a National Council of Churches resolution found it
"unacceptable" that the United States government had yet to use the
word "genocide" to describe the events of 1915. This omission is
in large measure due to international politics unrelated to those
events. Despite a consensus of world governments and historians, the
government of the Republic of Turkey rejects the use of "genocide"
and forbids its friends and allies to use the word.
But history is clear. On April 24, 1915, authorities of the Ottoman
Empire arrested some 250 Armenian religious and community leaders
in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul). Immediately afterward,
the Ottoman army forced hundreds of thousands of Armenians from
their homes and forced them to march without food or water from
Turkey to the Syrian desert. Massacres of men, women and children,
accompanied by rape and sexual abuse, were reported by survivors
and their descendants. When it was over, 1.5 million were dead. The
meticulously organized and systematic executions, elements of an
Ottoman policy of extermination also aimed at others in the region,
has been sadly declared by historians as the first of the twentieth
century genocides.
Nearly a century later, the pain of these events is unabated in
Armenian hearts and in the hearts of all people. Nothing can take
the memories away, but the view of the National Council of Churches
USA and its member communions – including the Diocese of the Armenian
Church in America – is that the events of 1915 will continue to fester
until all people acknowledge the verdict of history that they are a
twentieth century genocide.
On Armenian Remembrance Day, April 24, 2009, the President of the
United States sought to put the event in its appropriate historic
context. Although as a candidate Mr. Obama had termed the atrocities a
"genocide," his statement as president avoided the word. The President
wrote:
Ninety four years ago, one of the great atrocities of the 20th century
began. Each year, we pause to remember the 1.5 million Armenians who
were subsequently massacred or marched to their death in the final days
of the Ottoman Empire. The Meds Yeghern must live on in our memories,
just as it lives on in the hearts of the Armenian people.
Mr. Obama also declared that his previously stated views of the
events of 1915 had "not changed," and his use of the Armenian words
for genocide – "Meds Yeghern" – were a welcomed clarification of
U.S. policy. The President also stated an obvious truth: "History,
unresolved, can be a heavy weight."
The National Council of Churches welcomes the President’s efforts
to help resolve this terrible episode of history. But it is also
our view that this resolution cannot take place unless all parties
use the proper terms under international law to classify the event
for what it was: a genocide. We urge that future statements of the
President and U.S. government officials use the word as an essential
step toward reconciliation and healing.
We believe the passage of House Resolution 252 will be an important
means of taking this crucial step.
With all best wishes, I am
Yours faithfully, Michael Kinnamon General Secretary
CHAMLIAN STUDENTS AND PARENTS BUILD MOMENTUM FOR ANCA ENDOWMENT TELETHON
an-students-and-parents-build-momentum-for-anca-en dowment-telethon/
May 22, 2009
My daughter donated a $100 today," Melineh Issakhanian proudly
exclaimed Thursday at a Chamlian Armenian School fundraiser for the
ANCA Endowment fund telethon.
"Aundrae’s too modest to say she donated to the telethon before coming
here," she added. "I’m really proud of her."
Melineh’s and her daughter, Aundrae, were one of many families that
turned out at the Crescenta Valley Baja Fresh Mexican food restaurant
Thursday to support Chamlian’s effort to raise funds for the upcoming
telethon set for May 31. Baja Fresh had pledged to donate 20 percent
of every purchase to Chamlian, which in turn is going to donate the
proceeds to the ANCA Endowment Fund. The fundrasier lasted from 3 to
9pm and enjoyed a steady flow of participants throughout the evening.
I think it’s important for Armenian-Americans, regardless of how old
they are, to contribute to this cause," Aundrae, 13, said. "I want
our community in America to be strong and for that to happen we need
to unite behind the institutions that help our community grow."
Aundrae first learned about the ANCA Endowment Fund through Chamlian,
where volunteers have been coming on campus to talk to the students
about the Endowment Fund and the critical role youth play in the
community’s future success.
There are a myriad of reasons to donate to the ANCA Endowment
Fund. "The community has much to do and is up against many challenges,"
explained Shooshig Avakian- Koroghlyan, the Telethon’s Administrative
Director.
For the last few months, ANCA Endowment Fund volunteers have been
visiting Armenian schools and churches to bring the message of the
telethon to Armenian-American communities throughout the country.
At schools here in California, volunteers have been traveling from
school to school giving presentations to students ranging from 3rd to
12th grade. "We’ve been trying to raise awareness among our youth of
the growing efforts of the Endowment Fund to increase Armenian-American
participation in civic life through internship programs, support of the
ANCA Capital Gateway program and local media and government outreach,"
said Avakian-Koroghlyan.
"The goal of our presentations has been to empower the students and
get them to realize that they are the true strength of this community,"
Avakian-Koroghlyan said.
Indeed, the school feels the same. "It is important to reach out to and
engage our grassroots when they are students," said Seda Batamian,
Chamlian’s Dean of Students. "By instilling an appreciation for
civic engagement and community involvement in them during childhood,
ensures that it will become second nature for them when they grow up
to become adults."
Students have taken up the challenge, organizing classroom events and
fundraising competitions to help ensure a bright future for their
community. Chamlian, for example, has been organizing fundraiser
after fundraiser in support of the telethon.
"We are having two bake sales, one sponsored by the teachers
and staff of Chamlian and the other sponsored by Sarkis Pastry,
said Batamian. "Money is being collected from the students and
faculty/staff. Chamlian’s Parent Support Committee and the Dad’s
Support Committee is also contributing to this worthy cause."
In addition, each class at the school has set their own fundraising
goals and is working to raise funds in a competition to see which
class can raise the most. "The class that brings in the most money
will get free dress and pizza; while second place winners will get
free dress," she added.
"Surprisingly, they have a keen understanding of the threats and
challenges we face in Washington DC. Throughout all the schools,
the consensus was that the students would do everything they could to
match the financial strength of the Turkish lobby even if that meant
going door to door, raising money and informing others of the cause."
For 14 year old Chamlian student Christopher Keshishian, it’s his
generation that’s going to defang the Turkish lobby, which spends
millions of dollars monthly to deter the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide in the United States.
"By donating to the telethon I am helping my community have the
ammunition it needs to combat the Turkish government’s multi-million
dollar lobbyists who work against the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide and the interests of the Armenian Republic," he said. "Obama
broke his promise and to the community and is cutting aid to
Armenia. We need to double our efforts by being strong, united,
and even more involved in politics so that this doesn’t happen again."
For parent Razmik Arakelian, there is no better place to gather
support for this cause than the school. "We are raising money to
secure the foundations of our community, the school is an integral
part of that community and it’s the best place to rally our community
for the Endowment Fund’s telethon," Arakelian exclaimed.
Another parent, Zareh Movsesian, agreed. "By raising money for the
telethon, we are inherently supporting Chamlian," he said. "These kids,
here today, are seeing firsthand how their involvement in the school
and in the community can make a lasting impact. They are going to be
the torch bearers of our future and the support base our community
needs to maintain its institutions."
Anoush Kazarians, 19, is proof of Movsesian’s sentiments. A Chamlian
alumnus, Kazarian said Chamlian built her bonds to the community. "If
it were not for this school, I would not have known about this
telethon, the ANCA Endowment Fund, or anything else going on in my
community," she explained. "Even after all these years, Chamlian
still keeps me informed about my community."
Nine year old twin sisters, Tania and Aline Buickians, although still
young, have already begun to realize the importance of being involved
in the community. This year, they participated in Chamlian’s annual
Walk for Remembrance on April 24. For seven hours, these two sisters,
with their mom, walked with dozens of their schoolmates from Lowell
at the far edge of La Crescenta to City Hall, in the heart of Glendale.
"We came here because the proceeds are going to go to Chamlian and
Chamlian is going to give it to the telethon, which is going to help
the community," the two sisters said, almost synchronously.
In the weeks leading up to the telethon, the community is active
building momentum for what looks to be a successful telethon. The
Crescenta Valley AYF will be selling coffee at the Armenian
Independence Day Festival Sunday May 24 in Little Armenia to
raising money for the telethon and will also be organizing a car
wash fundraiser on May 30 at the Foothill 76 Gas Station at 3402
Foothill Blvd, on the corner of New York and Foothill. Meanwhile,
the ARS Askhken Pilavjian preschool and Ferrahian are both holding
raffle drawings for the telethon. Community businesses like Tailor
Town (Glendale Galleria or Westfield Santa Anita) are also pledging
to donate 30% of all sales toward the telethon.
AS OF MAY 15, 5 OUT OF 7 POLITICAL FORCES RUNNING FOR YEREVAN COUNCIL OF ELDERS ELECTIONS MAKE EXPENDITURES
Noyan Tapan
May 21, 2009
YEREVAN, MAY 21, NOYAN TAPAN. According to regular official
information provided by the Central Bank of Armenia to the Central
Electoral Commission, as of May 15, only the Labor Socialist Party of
Armenia among 7 political forces running for Yerevan Council of Elders
elections had not formed a preelection fund. Noyan Tapan correspondent
was informed about it by CEC Spokesperson Tatev Ohanian.
Only the People’s Party fund among political forces forming preelection
funds did not record expenditures. The financial revenues and the
balance of the latter is 120 thousand drams.
Bargavach Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia) party fund’s general financial
revenues made 34m 863 thousand drams, expenditures 33m 940.6 thousand
drams, balance 922.4 thousand drams.
Republican Party of Armenia fund’s general financial revenues amounted
to 30m 750 thousand drams, expenditures 30m 105 thousand drams,
balance 645 thousand drams.
Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) party fund’s general financial revenues
amounted to 16.5m drams, expenditures 13m 16 thousand drams, balance
3m 484 thousand drams.
ARFD party fund’s general financial revenues amounted to 6m drams,
expenditures 2m 19 thousand 400 drams, balance 3m 980 thousand
600 drams.
Armenian National Congress bloc fund’s general financial revenues
amounted to 6m 930 thousand 500 drams, expenditures 6m 685 thousand
drams, balance 245.5 thousand drams.
According to the Electoral Code, a political force has a right to
spend a sum not exceeding 60m drams during election campaign.