Author: Chaltikian Arsine

LAUNCHING OF KARINE ASHUGHIAN’S "EXPERIMENTS" COLLECTION TAKES PLACE IN UNION OF WRITERS OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
March 28, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The launching of writer, translator
Karine Ashughian’s collection under the title "Experiments" took
place on March 28 in the Union of Writers of Armenia. Not only her
stories and articles, but also translations of world-famous writers’
works are included in the book.

According to Levon Ananian, the Chairman of the Union of Writers of
Armenia, the collection "Experiments" is a new word in the Armenian
literature. "K. Ashughian with her works tries to catch up with
her favorite writers, as well as makes an attempt to present the
masterpieces of world literature to Armenian readers thanks to her
translations."

"Writing is something like breathing for me, avoiding which is
impossible," K. Ashughian said adding that her next book will be
entitled "March 1" and will be dedicated to the events that happened
after the RA presidential elections.

ARMENIA WILL SHIFT TO SUMMER TIME ON MARCH 30

armradio.am
28.03.2008 15:20

The night of March 30 (the last Sunday of March) at 2 a.m. the pointers
of the clock should be drawn an hour forward, marking the start of
"summer time."

RA Deputy Minister of Trade and Economic Development Garnik Badalyan
told Armenpress that the "summer time" was created artificially to
make more efficient use of the sunny days and ease the overload of
the energy sphere.

The real working time in our republic is the "winter time," which
comes into force on the last Sunday of October.

ELI BERBERIAN TO HAVE CONCERT IN TORONTO

Noyan Tapan
March 27, 2008

TORONTO, MARCH 27, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. An annual ball
will take place in the hall of the Armenian Center of Tornoto on
March 29. As the ARF Youth Union of Canada reports, beloved singer
Eli Berberian will have a concert within the frameworks of the event.

SARKISYAN VISITS MOSCOW
By M. Alkhazashvili

The Messenger
March 26 2008
Georgia

Taking a brief break from the political turmoil in Yerevan sparked
by his official victory in last month’s election, incoming Armenian
president and current Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisyan visited Moscow
on March 24.

He held talks with outgoing President Vladimir Putin and his successor
Dmitry Medvedev, both of whom stressed the importance of developing
bilateral relations.

"Despite the difficult political situation in Armenia, I hope that
relations will continue to develop," Putin said after the meeting.

Sarkisyan underlined Armenia’s readiness to cooperate in all fields
during Medvedev’s presidency, stating, "We’re ready to build up our
relations on a mutually advantageous base."

A Kremlin source told Russian news agency Itar-Tass before the visit
that transport issues, including the Kavkaz-Poti ferry route, were
due to be discussed.

Officials from both countries have said that trade turnover is expected
to reach USD 1 billion this year.

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AWARDS VIVACELL MANAGER GOLD MEDAL

ARMENPRESS
March 26, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian National Academy
of Sciences has awarded Ralph Yirikian, the general manager of
Vivacell mobile phone operator, its gold medal for the company’s huge
investments into education and science.

The press office of the Academy told Armenpress that a 23.3 million
Drams donation of the company was instrumental in restoring the
telescope of Byurakan observatory and its electronic system.

The donation was used to buy new equipment, replace the computers of
its control center and restore its nitrogen generation system.

National Academy of Sciences president Radik Martirosian commended
VivaCell for contributing heavily not only to education and science
but also social areas.

VivaCell is , Armenia’s leading mobile operator and the choice of
over 1 million Armenians.

The first call made within VivaCell network was on 1st July 2005.

TOURIST CENTER OPENS IN FORMER POLYCLINIC BUILDING

KarabakhOpen
27-03-2008 10:17:39

In one of the oldest buildings of Stepanakert, the former
polyclinic, a major tourist center will be set up, said the
shareholder of Tourist Center Sergey Shahverdyan in an interview with
Karabakh-Open.com. According to him, the facade of the building will
not change. It will accommodate a travel agency, an information center
for tourists. There will be also exposition halls and other services
that the travel industry needs.

Reconstruction is funded by Russian Armenians and will finish in a year
and a half. The square near the building will also be improved, where
works of art will be sold in the open air. "The artists of Artsakh
can display and sell their works there," Sergey Shahverdyan said.

He says the idea of the center occurred in 2004. "It was very important
for us that the center were located in one of the old buildings of
the city, repaired in accordance with historical, architectural and
tourism requirements," said Sergey Shahverdyan. He added that they
made the right choice. "As we pulled down the additional walls and
partitions we revealed unique arcs. Experts say the building was built
in the 1850’s after the Tsar’s army had been deployed in Karabakh,"
Shahverdyan added.

He advised others not to demolish ancient buildings but reconstruct
them preserving their appearance. Sergey Shahverdyan says it will
also help develop tourism, especially in the historical part of the
city which may become frequently visited places after some work.

BLUE CROSS HAS UNHEALTHFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH ‘NO PLACE FOR HATE’
By David Boyajian

Needham Times
style/columnists/x325165939
March 24 2008
MA

Needham – With health insurance now compulsory in Massachusetts, and
premiums high enough to cause altitude sickness, it’s inexcusable
that the state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, is still
misusing its subscribers’ money by sponsoring the alleged anti-bias
program known as "No Place for Hate."

Eleven municipalities – Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Lexington,
Medford, Needham, Newburyport, Newton, Northampton, Watertown and
Westwood – recently gave their NPFH program the boot. They discovered
that its creator and sponsor, the Anti-Defamation League, denies
the factuality of the Armenian Genocide committed by Turkey and
doesn’t want America to recognize that genocide. And they understood
that NPFH – the name is a federally registered ADL trademark – was
violating its own human rights principles by being affiliated with
a genocide-denying organization.

The ADL has hypocritically opposed acknowledgment of the Armenian
holocaust to win political points with Turkey, which has close
relations with Israel. In actuality, the ADL is a highly controversial,
ethnic-specific organization known to be focused on political lobbying,
not universal human rights.

So why hasn’t Blue Cross Blue Shield followed the lead of towns that
have severed ties to NPFH?

Here’s what we know. Several years back, Peter Meade, the recently
retired Blue Cross Blue Shield vice president, "was instrumental in
mobilizing Blue Cross" to become the state’s first official NPFH
corporation. And Meade sits – amazing coincidence No. 1 – on the
board of the New England ADL and received its Chairperson’s Award.

Meade also chairs the Greenway Conservancy, which will oversee future
upkeep of Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway. For some strange reason –
amazing coincidence No. 2 – he opposes the Greenway’s proposed Armenian
Heritage Park, which might include a small plaque that remembers
the victims of the Armenian Genocide. It’s an obvious conflict of
interest for a member of the genocide-denying ADL to sit in judgment
of anything Armenian. But so far the well-connected Meade has gotten
away with it, aided by a major Boston paper that won’t report that
conflict of interest.

And here’s amazing coincidence No. 3: Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Boston
headquarters is hosting this year’s board meetings of the Greenway
Conservancy.

How much has Blue Cross Blue Shield been spending on NPFH programs?

It won’t give me a figure, and I can guess why. Blue Cross Blue Shield
was recently in the spotlight for the controversial $16.4 million
retirement package it lavished on ex-Chairman William Van Faasen.

Interestingly, Van Faasen declared in 2001 that Blue Cross Blue
Shield was "pleased [to] assist the ADL" with NPFH. Which brings us
to amazing coincidence No. 4: Van Faasen received the ADL’s coveted
Maimonides award.

Another Blue Cross Blue Shield executive, Vice President Fredi
Shonkoff, "helped spearhead" the company’s designation as NPFH. How
might that have happened? Amazing coincidence No. 5: Shonkoff sat on
the ADL’s board, along with Peter Meade.

Are you getting the feeling that the ADL and its board members and
friends have been throwing their weight around inside Blue Cross Blue
Shield, the Greenway Conservancy and the state’s NPFH municipalities?

Think of the powerful ADL as the hub of an enormous wheel with these
spokes: NPFH – Blue Cross Blue Shield – Shonkoff – Van Faasen –
Meade – the Greenway Conservancy – opposition to the Armenian Park –
denial of the Armenian Genocide – Turkey.

Had a Holocaust-denying organization created and sponsored NPFH,
Blue Cross Blue Shield would long ago have cut ties with both of them.

Blue Cross Blue Shield apparently believes Armenians and their genocide
do not deserve the same respect.

And, yes, the ADL still denies the Armenian genocide. Last August, ADL
National Director Abe Foxman deliberately used ambiguous phrases such
as "tantamount to genocide" and language that parroted Turkey’s line
that the mass murder of Armenians from 1915-23 was not intentional,
but rather just an unfortunate "consequence" of wartime conditions.

Blue Cross Blue Shield is squandering not only its subscribers’
premiums but also the reputations of a 70-year old health-care
institution and its dedicated employees. One hopeful sign: Blue Cross
Blue Shield told me, "Each year we carefully evaluate our commitment
to the NPFH program."

Though Massachusetts treats Blue Cross Blue Shield as a nonprofit,
the feds consider it for-profit. Since corporate contributions to
groups such as NPFH are tax-deductible, everyone is paying for NPFH.

And if you’re a Blue Cross Blue Shield subscriber, as thousands in
Watertown surely are, you’re shelling out even more.

Turkish doctors experimented on Armenians during the genocide just
as German doctors did on Jews during the Holocaust, according to
a study published in "Holocaust and Genocide Studies." Would any
network of doctors tolerate a health-care corporation affiliated with
an organization that denied or diminished the Holocaust? Of course not.

Blue Cross Blue Shield network doctors, therefore, should insist that
Blue Cross Blue Shield cease participation in all ADL programs.

Blue Cross Blue Shield needs to drop its official NPFH designation,
stop misusing its members’ precious health-care dollars on NPFH and
sever ties with the ADL.

BosNewsLife, Hungary
March 22 2008

Turkey Soldiers Admit Plot To Kill Armenian Journalist

Thursday, 20 March 2008
By BosNewsLife News Center

ISTANBUL, TURKEY (BosNewsLife)– Two Turkish soldiers told a court
Thursday, March 20, that they warned of a plot to kill ethnic
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink months before the murder happened, but
that their superiors refused to prevent the assassination. It came as
news emerged that a trial hearing against the suspected murderers of
three Christians in southeast Turkey was postponed for another month,
after clerics apparently refused to forward a request to replace a
judge accused of bias.

The two soldiers from the northeastern city of Trabzon, Okan Simsek
and Veysel Sahin, were the first members of security forces to stand
trial in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, where the murder was
allegedly planned.

Simsek and Sahin, who were charged with failing to inform officials
about the plot, said they told the head of the Trabzon ‘gendarmerie’
and their unit chief that they heard from a police informer that a
relative of his, Yasin Hayal, was planning to kill Dink. Hayal is
currently on trial as one of the murder’s masterminds.

The confessions of the two soldiers "are chilling" advocacy group
Reporters Without Borders said. "The security forces in Trabzon might
have been able to prevent Dink’s murder if they had taken action. All
those who were aware of this information and did nothing must be
severely punished."

KEY TEST

This investigation is seen as a test for Ankara’s resolve to
eliminate the "deep state" — a term used to describe security forces
acting outside the law to preserve what they consider Turkey’s best
interests.

The 52-year-old Dink, whom Turkish nationalists hated for calling the
World War I massacres of Armenians, including many Christians,
genocide, was shot dead in central Istanbul on January 19, 2007,
outside the offices of Agos, the weekly newspaper he ran.

The court trying the two soldiers has summoned all 10 senior officers
who were allegedly told at a meeting of the plan to murder Dink.

A criminal court in the Istanbul suburb of Sili meanwhile reportedly
sentenced Zafer Filiz this week to three years in prison for sending
a racist and threatening email to the headquarters of Dink’s
newspaper, Agos, on 1 February 2007, 12 days after his murder.

SEVEN SUSPECTS

It came as in a separate case a court postponed a trial hearing
against the seven alleged murderers of Christians Tilman Ekkehart
Geske, Necati Aydin and Ugur Yüksel who were killed on April 18, last
year in a Christian publishing house in the southeastern town of
Malatya.

Four of the detained suspects on trial were caught at the scene and
identified as Salih Gürler, 20, Abuzer Yildirim, 19, Cuma Özdemir,
20, and Hamit Ceker.

A fifth defendant, Emre Günaydin, allegedly jumped out of a
third-floor window in the building, but was arrested after hospital
treatment. Two other suspects are not yet in custody.

TRIAL POSTPONED

The fourth trial hearing was postponed till April 14 by a Malatya
court as it did not yet receive the plaintiff lawyers’ request to
remove the judge, accused of bias. There was also no sign of a ruling
in the case of two Turkish converts to Christianity accused of
`denigrating Islam and Turkishness."

Three soldiers were reportedly summoned last week to testify before
the Silivri Criminal Court in northwestern Turkey as witnesses for
the prosecution, but two of them failed to show up.

Defense lawyers have expressed some optimism that their clients will
be found innocent. However Turkish authorities have so far refused to
change legislation under which the Christians are charged, despite
mounting pressure from the European Union to the dreaded Article 301.

RUSSIA INTERESTED IN STABLE ARMENIA – KARASIN

Interfax News Agency
March 20 2008
Russia

Dialogue is the only way to resolve Armenia’s political problems,
Russian State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin
told the media in Yerevan.

"Russia cares about the internal political situation in a friendly
country. We think that dialogue and compliance with laws are the only
ways to resolve political problems," he said.

"Riots and chaos are dangerous for any state. I think Armenian
citizens understood from the March 1-2 events how dangerous such a
course could be, as it would not resolve any problems but lead the
country into a period of instability and uncertainty," Karasin said.

"I have a strong impression that President Robert Kocharian and
Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan understand that as well. They have
certain plans for the future. Their plans imply legal activities of
the constructive opposition and dialogue. I hope this tendency will
prevail," he said.

"Armenian society will once again be stable and predictable. Russia
is interested in that and is ready to promote the achievement of
this goal."

While in Yerevan, Karasin met with Armenian officials to discuss
the internal political situation, the Karabakh settlement and some
other issues.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION STAGE PROTEST

BBC NEWS
urope/7308860.stm
2008/03/21 17:26:18 GMT

More than 1,000 Armenian opposition supporters have attended a protest
in Yerevan following the end of the state of emergency imposed three
weeks ago.

The demonstrators lit candles and held pictures of the more than 100
activists who were arrested after clashes with police on 1 March left
eight dead.

fighting erupted when officers tried to end a protest against the
result of last month’s presidential election.

The poll gave victory to the current Prime Minister, Serzh Sarkisian.

The opposition says there was widespread fraud and wants to result
overturned.

Vigil

Supporters of the main opposition leader, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who
came second, took part in the march in Yerevan on Friday, only hours
after the state of emergency was lifted.

The procession was a peaceful vigil to remember the 106 opposition
activists arrested since the clashes for allegedly plotting a coup.

No violence was reported, although several protesters shouted at
riot police.

When announcing the end of the state of emergency, outgoing President
Robert Kocharian warned that any unauthorised protests would not
be tolerated.

A new law passed this week allows the authorities to ban demonstrations
if they are said to be a threat to public order.

But the opposition says it has the right to protest and will find a
way to work around the legislation.

The party of President-elect Sarkisian and three other parties have
agreed to form a coalition government ahead of his inauguration on
9 April.