Author: Harutyunian Christine

DOGS ARE BEING KEPT ON THE TERRITORY OF SURB NSHAN ARMENIAN CHURCH IN TBILISI

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.02.2010 15:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On February 2, 2010 representatives of the
Armenian Community in Tbilisi addressed "Multinational Georgia"
Public Movement. A video record, which proves that dogs are being
kept on the territory of the temporarily non-functional Surb Nshan
Armenian Church was submitted. This gives grounds for concern about
sanitary and hygienic situation of the historic monument.

In 2007, Surb Nshan was given the status of cultural heritage,
protected by the Ministry of Culture and Historical Monuments of
Georgia.

The church is currently in terrible condition, with inner decoration
destroyed and churchyard littered with debris. Conditions of the
building unambiguously show that no repair or maintenance of the
church was carried out. There is no sign warning about status of the
Church and preventing barbarous conduct in relation to the monument.

Monument is under authority of the Ministry of Culture and Historical
Monuments, so members of Armenian community are unable to fulfill
own citizens’ duties ensuring maintenance of the monument.

On the territory of the Church yard there are graves of many prominent
persons, including Vasily Megvinov, Vice-Consul of Belgium, who died
in year 1895. During many years marble grave-stone was abandoned and
finally cracked. Applications of citizens asking for renovation were
not taken into account. Grave-stone fell down. Concerned citizens
suspect fact of vandalism.

All mentioned above inevitably draws the indignation of any citizen
of multinational Georgia, any patriot of own city and country, any
civilized person. There is also question of spending of the public
funds allocated to the Ministry of Culture and Historical Monuments
for the preservation and maintenance of them. The same applies to
the position of the City Council of City of Tbilisi, which provides
construction and renovation works at the buildings in the Old City
District, which are not historical monuments, but ignores drastic
conditions of the Surb Nshan.

On February 4, 2010, at 4 p.m., near the Surb Nshan Church, PMMG
will hold an urgent meeting with the representatives of the Armenian
community of the city of Tbilisi in order to discuss drastic conditions
of the historic monument and attract public attention to the problem.

The Church of the Holy Seal (Surb Nshan) is an 18th century Armenian
church in Old Tbilisi, Georgia. It was built between 1703 and 1711,
and reconstructed in 1780.

Currently the church lies dilapidated and was recently partially
destroyed by arson.

ARMENIAN EX-PRESIDENT MEETS GERMAN DELEGATION

News.am
20:04 / 02/02/2010

Armenia’s first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan held a meeting February 2
with a delegation of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany Markus
Lening.

The press service of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) told NEWS.am
that the sides discussed problems of Armenia’s democratic development,
political prisoners and corruption.

The sides also addressed regional problems, particularly
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation and Turkey’s prospects for joining
the European Union (EU).

GENERAL MILLS TO DISCONTINUE PRODUCING COLOMBO YOGURT
By Jonathan Phelps

Gloucester Daily Times
tory_032225256.html?keyword=topstory
February 01, 2010 10:52 pm

Family started brand in Andover kitchen 80 years ago

ANDOVER – Goodbye, Colombo.

Born in Andover some 80 years ago, General Mills will stop production
and distribution of Colombo Yogurt in the spring.

Colombo, which claims to be America’s first yogurt brand, was started
in 1929 by Robert Colombosian’s Armenian immigrant parents, Rose and
Sarkis, in the family’s home in Andover.

Robert Colombosian, 84, has been a part of the company, now in Methuen,
since he was 12.

Yesterday, Colombosian said he was disappointed with the decision by
General Mills.

"It is a big part of my life," he said. "It is all of it really."

"The worst thing (General Mills) can do is drop the brand," he said.

"It is the oldest yogurt brand in the United States."

Heidi Geller, manager of corporate public relations at General Mills,
said yesterday in a statement that the company decided to drop the
Colombo brand to concentrate on the growth of Yoplait, also owned by
the company.

"The Colombo brand has a rich, celebrated Northeastern heritage;
however the yogurt category is being led by national brands like our
popular Yoplait Yogurt brand," Geller said. "We are grateful for the
partnership and friendship we’ve shared with the Colombosian family,
and we thank them for their support throughout the years."

Colombosian yesterday showed off old packages of Colombo Yogurt
from his Andover home and told the story of how it became a popular
regional product.

Colombosian’s mother would cook the yogurt using the family recipe,
while he and his father and his brother John dealt with other aspects
of production and distribution. The company later moved from the
family home to a factory on Argilla Road in Andover, and Colombosian
later took over as president of the company around 1966.

At first, the product would only be bought by certain ethnic groceries,
but sales took off in the early 1950s when Reader’s Digest popularized
yogurt in a series of nutrition articles. Soon the Colombosians were
supplying supermarket chains and dairy distributors across New England.

By 1971, the company moved from Andover to Methuen. Before the move,
Colombo ranked fourth in the nation behind Yoplait, Dannon and Breyers.

But the growth, along with financial trouble, caused Colombosian to
seek a partner or sell the company. He ended up selling the company
to Bongrain, a French cheese company in 1977, which in turn sold it
to General Mills in 1993.

"I didn’t have enough money to keep (the business) in the family. It
was growing so fast," Colombosian said. "I decided to sell it so the
business could grow."

Howard Cannon, a spokesman for Stop & Shop, said General Mills had
said it tracks all the numbers of sales of all its products and saw
a reduction in sales of the Colombo brand and "General Mills opted
to shut the product line down."

Factory to stay busy

The Methuen factory will continue to operate at the same level
producing Yoplait products and no employees will be let go, Geller
said.

Within the last month, Stop & Shop has stopped stocking the product,
while Market Basket and other chains still offer them. David McLean,
operation manger at Demoulas Super Markets Inc., which operates Market
Basket, said they were told shipping of the product was scheduled to
end on Feb. 12.

Frances Found, 88, who was shopping at the Market Basket in Lawrence,
said she has Colombo vanilla yogurt every day with lunch and is
disappointed it will be stopped.

"It is a local brand; that is too bad," Found said. "I’ve been buying
it for years, I’ll have to buy a few more next time I shop."

Colombosian said he has enjoyed working with the company as a
consultant and would like that to continue even without the Colombo
brand.

In 2001, General Mills hired Colombosian and his wife, Alice, to
star in a series of folksy television and radio advertisements for
the brand.

Alice died in 2008 after a long illness.

Jonathan Phelps may be contacted at 978-283-7000 x3447 or
[email protected]

SENIOR US OFFICIAL CALLS ON TURKEY AND ARMENIA TO RATIFY PROTOCOLS

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Tuesday, 2 February 2010

A senior U.S. official called on Turkey and Armenia to ratify protocols
signed last year to normalize relations.

Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian
Affairs, told a press conference that Turkey and Armenia need to move
forward in ratifying and implementing protocols signed last October
on establishing diplomatic relations.

"We believe this is an opportunity to overcome really historic
differences between the two countries in a way that would benefit
both," Gordon said.

"To establish normalized relations between the two countries and open
the border would contribute to peace and stability in the region,
and we think that is true regardless of other issues — that it needs
to move forward independently of other issues, simply because it is
in the interest of the two countries," he said.

Gordon said that U.S. government was in touch with both government
and that Obama administration encouraged them to move forward.

"Turkey-Armenia normalization is a good thing in and of itself and
it should move forward because of that," he added.

NAME "ARARAT" REMOVED FROM TURKISH TEXTBOOKS IN REFERENCE TO BIBLICAL MOUNTAIN

Tert.am
13:42 ~U 29.01.10

In Turkish textbooks, Mount Ararat is noted only with its Turkish name
"Aghur Dagh."

In textbooks prepared in 2007 by Turkey’s Ministry of Education for
grade 11 students, the biblical mountain is named not "Aghur Dagh" but
"Ararat"; however, according to Fhrat agency, Turkey’s nationalist
voices protested against this decision, after which the textbooks
were collected and the name changed from "Ararat" to "Aghur Dagh."

Earlier, nationalist individuals in Turkey had protested against
Google Earth’s naming of the mountain as "Ararat" and demanded that
the education minister interfere in that affair as well.

ISLAMIC NATIONS NEED ‘UNITED STANCE’ TO BECOME A GLOBAL FORCE

Hurriyet Daily News
Thursday, January 28, 2010

Turkey and other countries in the Islamic world need to change their
Cold War-era outlook if they want to play a prominent role in the
future, according to the message delivered at a forum in Istanbul.

The three-day meeting, titled "Peaceful Civilization and Cooperation,"
opened with a strong call to forge a common stance in the new world
order. The forum has been organized by the Turkish Asian Center for
Strategic Studies, or TACSS, an Ankara-based think-tank.

TACSS chairman Suleyman Å~^ensoy warned that Turkey and other Islamic
countries need to overcome the barrier of the mentalities they held
during the Cold War era.

"If they continue with their current perceptions, Islamic countries
will be unable to forge a claim for themselves for the next five
decades or 100 years while power is shared in the new world order,"
he said.

According to Å~^ensoy, this transformation period, in which a new
world order is being created, also provides new opportunities for
more cooperation among the member states of the Organization of the
Islamic Conference, or OIC.

"The Islamic world did not have a common culture to take a joint step
during the Cold War era, because they needed to balance their policies
according to principles of their own blocs. This new era has provided
a chance for new cooperation in the Islamic world," Å~^ensoy said.

The situation is not all optimistic, however. "Our world is going
through a very complicated period where the fault line between the
Muslim world and the Western world is becoming more visible and even
cracking," said Professor Ekmeleddin Ä°hsanoglu, the secretary-general
of the OIC. "New world powers are emerging, and problems related to
underdevelopment are plaguing many parts of the Muslim world while
extremism and violence are on the rise."

A political figure from Russia agreed that today’s world does not
have a peaceful order.

"We have growing potential for conflict all over the world. The number
of conflicts is growing. At the same time, there is a general trend
to employ force rather than peaceful political methods to resolve
this conflict," said Valery Dimitrievich Nikolaenko, a former Russian
deputy foreign minister.

Nikolaenko, who is also the deputy dean of the Russian Foreign
Ministry’s Diplomacy Academy, said the multi-polar world order has
provided regional organizations with more power and more roles,
and that their leaders have tried to play increasing roles in the
solving of problems.

"The regional powers and organizations want to resolve their issues
by themselves, without interference from outside. This gives bigger
potential to Islamic countries and Islamic organizations such as the
OIC," he said.

"We in Russia are trying to be friends with Islamic countries. We are
aware of the political and economic importance of the Islamic world,"
Nikolaenko added. "We should cooperate to solve conflicts. We should
work to build peaceful civilization and cooperation."

A politician from the Turkish Cypriot administration called on Islamic
countries to take braver steps to end the isolation of northern
Cyprus and for all sanctions against Turkish Cypriots to be removed
unconditionally.

"The Islamic world should be united and take a common stance for
the sanctions to be removed unconditionally. It is time for Muslim
states to act jointly. We are now more hopeful as a result of Turkey’s
improved relations with Muslim countries," said Hakkı Altun, a former
deputy prime minister of northern Cyprus.

An official from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said the Istanbul
meeting was an opportunity to discuss and share views about wider
issues that concern not only Islamic countries, but the entire
international community.

"We hope to gain the support and assistance of international
organizations of Islamic countries as well as international forces
like the United Nations to solve the Karabakh conflict," said Hussein
Husseinov, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s secretary for political
affairs to the European Union, referring to the ongoing dispute between
his country and Armenia. "It can be solved through more coordinated
efforts led by the Islamic countries and specifically Turkey."

MANVEL GRIGORYAN AND THE LAND DEFENDERS

A1Plus.am
January 28, 2010

General-Lieutenant Manvel Grigoryan visited Yerablur when the
President, Prime Minister, Defense Minister and other officials and
soldiers had gone. He came, hugged his friends in combat, smoked and
laid flowers near the monument in memory of the dead soldiers.

Talking about the latest developments of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
Manvel Grigoryan said that it was not worth talking about handing
the liberated territories in exchange for Karabakh’s status.

"I am not in favor of any issues connected to Karabakh. The people of
Karabakh obtained and enjoy their independence. The Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict was resolved a long time ago and people are living in an
independent country. Nobody will give or take lands. Can they take
those lands?" said Grigoryan.

According to the general, the country is in danger of war and the
Land Defenders have never stepped back from a war.

"The Armenian army is currently involved in defending the state
borders. There are no victims or injured. Don’t you know that?" asked
Grigoryan. But when journalists mentioned that there was no official
information about that, the former Defense Minister said: "There is
no official news about a war." Manvel Grigoryan.

As far as Turkish-Armenian relations are concerned, Manvel Grigoryan
is in favor of relations between neighboring countries.

"Only the blind and deaf wouldn’t want to be good neighbors. That’s
life, but it depends on the conditions under which the border will
be opened. There are many issues. We also favor having good relations
with everyone, but not by their demands or motives," said Grigoryan.

President of the Land Defenders’ Union denied the rumors according to
which the authorities are planning to reinforce the "Land Defenders".

"Land defenders are the Armenian people and they reinforce people,
not the opposite," said Grigoryan.

In regard to former members of the "Land Defenders’ Union", Manvel
Grigoryan said that he had not removed anybody from the union.

"I have not removed anybody. I personally am not offended by anyone.

This was created by Vazgen and the people and nobody has the moral
right to personally get offended. Whoever is offended by the Land
Defenders is offended by the nation," said Grigoryan.

Is the Land Defenders’ Union ready to go to war again even after
the events of March 1 and getting political revenge from some of
the members?

"Land defenders fight 24 hours a day. We are not offended. No land
defender has the moral right to get offended, if people are physically
prepared," said Grigoryan.

Manvel Grigoryan wished national unity to Armenians on the occasion
of Army Day. "We need unity in order to talk about the good things
and not about who gave and got what," said Grigioryan.

RA GOVERNMENT SUMS UP 2009 MINISTERIAL REPORTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.01.2010 12:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian government summed up the 2009
ministerial reports. Heads of the state revenue committee, department
of state property management, general department of civil aviation and
the state committee of real estate cadastre submitted their reports to
RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. They also reported on omissions and
drawbacks to be addressed in 2010, RA government’s press office said

ISRAEL ACCUSES TURKISH PM OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Tert.am
15:46 ~U 27.01.10

A report prepared by the Foreign Ministry of Israel accuses the Prime
Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of "inciting anti-Semitism."

The seven-page long document says Erdogan – with his speeches against
Israel – has so far indirectly contributed to inciting anti-Semitic
movements, reports Cihan news agency.

The Turkish publication also says that the report prepared by the
Center of Political Research, a think tank at Israel’s Foreign
Ministry, was sent to Israeli embassies and consulates in different
countries.

FIRST DEPUTY OF RA PRESIDENT’S CHIEF MILITARY INSPECTOR LEONID MARTIROSOV AWARDED LIEUTENANT-GENERAL’S MILITARY RANK

Noyan Tapan
Jan 27, 2010

YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, NOYAN TAPAN. By RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s
January 25 decree first deputy of RA President’s chief military
inspector, Major-General Leonid Martirosov was awarded the military
rank of Lieutenant-General. Noyan Tapan was informed about it by RA
President’s Press Office.