Author: Hunanian Jack

SOUTH CAUCASUS RAILWAYS BUYS NEW ELECTRIC TRAIN

ARKA
February 17, 2010
Yerevan

YEREVAN, February 17, /ARKA/. The South Caucasus Railways said in a
press release that within the frameworks of its program for upgrading
its rolling stock it bought last year a new, 12-car eclectic train.

It said the new cars each with 110 seats, will start running in the
near future. In 2008 the company bought 48 cars that were put into
operation in 2009.

The South Caucasus Railways said earlier upgrading its rolling stock
was one of its major priorities for 2009-2010. Some 12 % of its last
year’s investments were meant for rolling stock modernization. This
share is supposed to grow to 21% this year.

The South Caucasus Railways is run by Russian Railways. The concession
agreement was concluded in 2008 for 30 years, with a right of extension
for another 20 years after the first 20 years of operation.

PROTOCOLS PUT INTO CIRCULATION IN RA PARLIAMENT

news.am
Feb 16 2010
Armenia

February 15, RA National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan introduced
Armenia-Turkey Protocols on the normalization of relations to RA
Parliament.

In his February 10 speech at Chatham House in London RA President
Serzh Sargsyan said he was going to instruct presidential staff to
submit the Armenia-Turkey Protocols to the National Assembly for the
ratification process to be initiated. On February 12, the Protocols
were already in RA National Assembly.

RA NA Speaker appointed a Standing Committee on Foreign Relations as
head commitee to consider the Protocols. The committee is chaired by
Armen Rustamyan from Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun.

It is unclear when the discussions will begin.

"Heritage" parliamentary faction offered RA NA Speaker to discuss
the Protocols in all committees.

ARAM I: MIDDLE EAST CHURCHES WILL CONTINUE COOPERATION WITH CHURCHES OF JERUSALEM

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.02.2010 16:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Michel Sabbah, former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
and Michel Nseir, representative of the World Council of Churches
visited Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.

Jerusalem churches addressed Aram I with a request to determine
sanctions against Israel for unacceptable attitude to Christianity.

The address was harshly criticized by Israeli government.

The parties emphasized the importance of Christian collaboration
strengthening, activation of dialogue between Christian and Islamic
worlds and assistance of foreign churches in Israeli-Palestinian
conflict settlement, chancellery of the Great House of Cilicia said.

Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, in turn, noted that Middle
East churches will continue cooperation with churches of Jerusalem.

NKR PRESIDENT MET ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF PYATIGORSK

news.am
Feb 15 2010
Armenia

February 13, Nagorno-Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan arrived in
the city of Pyatigorsk, administrative center of the North Caucasian
Federal District of the Russian Federation.

Sahakyan met the representatives of business circles of Stavrapol
region Armenian community. A wide range of issues related to
strengthening and deepening relations between Motherland and Diaspora
were discussed at the meeting.

Thereafter the President attended the celebrations of Candlemas Day,
which took place at the St.Sargis church of the Pyatigorsk city,
NKR President Office Central Information Department informed NEWS.am.

February 14, Bako Sahakyan also met with the representatives of the
Armenian communities of the South of Russia.

During the meeting the President presented the current situation in
NKR, social-economic development of the republic as well as the current
stage and prospects of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement.

Sahakyan drew special attention to the issues on the development of
Motherland-Diaspora relations. According to him, expansion of these
ties will have a positive impact strengthening of the independent
Armenian statehood and the consolidation of the Diaspora, as well as
maintenance of its identity.

In this context, NKR President noted the importance of cooperation
expansion with Armenian community of the RF North Caucasian Federal
District, particularly that of the Stavropol Region, qualifying it
as promising.

Bako Sahakyan answered the questions of the participants.

TURKEY HOPES FOR KAZAKH HELP ON KARABAKH

news.az
Feb 15 2010
Azerbaijan

Ahmet Davutoglu Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said
Kazakhstan might get involved in the solution of the Karabakh conflict,
as the chair of the OSCE.

Davutoglu who is on an official visit to Kazakhstan told Anatolia
News Agency that he was confident that Kazakhstan would take important
steps for the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue between Azerbaijan
and Armenia.

Davutoglu said he discussed the issue with his Kazakh counterpart Kanat
Saudabayev, who is chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

"As far as I know, Mr Saudabayev will be visiting both Baku and
Yerevan in the next few days. We communicated our position to them.

Kazakhstan may make a significant contribution on Nagorno-Karabakh. We
are hopeful for the future," Davutoglu said.

Referring to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s call to Turkey to
reveal its intentions on Karabakh, Davutoglu said Turkey had made
its intention clear to all parties.

"Turkey will support all steps taken toward the establishment of
peace," Davutoglu said.

Sargsyan said in an address to the Royal Institute of International
Affairs in London last week that Turkey had made Karabakh a
precondition for the approval of the normalization protocols with
Armenia. Sargsyan said that this attitude jeopardised both the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue and the normalization of relations with Turkey.

Commenting on the recent row between Iran and the international
community, Davutoglu said he wanted to visit Iran next Tuesday,
signalling a Turkish initiative for mediation.

"We are ready to do everything within our reach to overcome the
current tension through peaceful means," Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu, who also commented on the Cyprus issue, reiterated Turkey’s
stance in support of a lasting solution and said they did not want
settlement talks to be interrupted.

HERITAGE OFFERS DISCUSSING PROTOCOLS IN ALL STANDING COMMITTEES OF RA NA

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.02.2010 21:54 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Monday, February 15, Heritage parliamentary group
addressed a letter to RA NA chairman Hovik Abrahamyan, offering to
discuss Protocols in all standing committees of Armenian parliament.

"All standing committees of Armenian parliament must be given a
chance to deliver reports on the influence of Protocols on the spheres
they’re engaged in, as Protocols ratification will obviously have a
major influence on them," the message said.

Founded in 2002, Heritage , a National Liberal Party, is national by
its roots, liberal in its economic principle, and an advocate of the
democratic system of governance and due process for its citizens. The
party’s objective is the development of Armenia as a democratic,
lawful, and rights-based country that anchors its domestic and foreign
policies in the nation’s sovereign interest. During the party’s Third
Congress on May 30, 2005, Raffi K. Hovannisian was elected chairman.

The other eight members of the party board were elected by secret vote.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation.

On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of
Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.

NEW TV RESTRICTIONS WILL NOT BRING ABOUT ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGE: MUSHEGHYAN

Tert.am
15.02.10

A few days ago, Armenians watched the last part of one of the most
popular local TV series in the country: Vorogayt ("Pitfall").

Roman Musheghyan, the director of the series, told Tert.am that the
series ended as it was written in the script and that the ending had
nothing to do with the new restrictions on TV content which are yet
to be implemented.

"I am content with these parameters. But I do not think they will in
any way be reflected in TV broadcasting," said Musheghyan.

In his opinion, these parameters will not bring about any significant
change in the TV series. He also called on the initiators of these
parameters to reconsider them and make some changes.

SARGSAN’S VISIT TO ISRAEL CANCELLED

Tert.am
11:18 ~U 15.02.10

Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan cancelled his special visit
to Israel.

Sargsyan’s assistant Aram Ananyan told Tert.am that the prime minister
cancelled his visit due to the fact that he had a high temperature.

Tigran Sargsyan was set to visit Israel with His Holiness Karekin II,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. The Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin press service told Tert.am that the Catholicos left
for Jerusalem this morning.

Armenian Applicant for Turkish State Vacancy Faces Court Obstacles

Tert.am
14:25 – 13.02.10

Despite the fact that Leo Suren Halepli, the first and only Turkish
citizen of Armenian descent who had successfully passed a written exam
for employment at the European Union Secretariat in Istanbul, could in
fact become a Turkish state official, the Turkish Court at the last
moment ruled that Halepli, together with 42 other applicants, must
take additional exams, reports Turkish daily Hurriyet.

The reason the Istanbul court handed down this ruling is that one of
the Turkish national applicants had appealed the results of his exam
to Ankara’s district court of first instance, therefore the Istanbul
court ruled that an additional exam must be taken. On the grounds that
there had been some infringements in the written exam, the court thus
declared the results of the first exam null and void.

But the good news is that the EU Secretariat is going to appeal the
Istanbul court ruling at the Appellate court.

ARMENIA DEBUTS AT LA TIMES TRAVEL SHOW

E5-148E-11DF-A2C80003FF3452C2
Monday February 08, 2010

Los Angeles – For the first time in the history of the Los Angeles
Times Travel and Adventure Show, the Republics of Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh (Artsakh) will be represented in the main Exhibition Hall,
on-stage with cultural performances, and with a photo travelogue.

The tourism offices of Armenia and Karabakh will share a large
Welcome to Armenia booth in the Exhibition Hall of the Travel Show,
which organizers estimate will be seen by as many as 50,000 people
over the course of the two-day show. The Los Angeles event is the
largest travel show in the US.

Armenias participation is co-sponsored by the Armenian American Chamber
of Commerce (AACC), located in Glendale, Calif., the Armenian Tourism
Development Agency (ATDA), based in Yerevan, Armenia, and the Consulate
General of the Republic of Armenia, in Los Angeles.

Armenia will also be represented on the Global Beat Stage with a
music and dance performance at 11:10 am on each day of the show. The
Gevorkian Dance Academy will perform modern and fold dances in
traditional attire, and the Armenian music and dance group Duo Images
will perform, as well.

And there is a Destination Workshop featuring a slide show travelogue
about Armenia and Karabakh at 3:30 pm on the first day of the show,
Feb. 13.

This slide show, entitled Welcome to Armenia: Ancient Nation, New
Republic, will be presented by Matthew Karanian and Robert Kurkjian,
the authors of first-ever commercial travel guidebook dedicated solely
to Armenia. The show features spectacular photography of the people,
vistas, and historic sites of Armenia and Karabakh.

In addition to showcasing the beauty of Armenia and Karabakh in
photographs, Karanian and Kurkjian will discuss the current state of
tourism in the two republics and explain some of the logistics of
getting there and getting around. They will also discuss Armenias
prospects for developing as an eco-tourism destination. Their
guidebook on Armenia, The Stone Garden Guide: Armenia and Karabagh,
is the best-selling guide to the country.

This is a huge event for Armenia, but also especially for Karabakh,
says Zaven Kazazian, a member of the AACC. This is a rare opportunity
to showcase Armenians at one of the largest travel shows in the world,
he said.

Participation in the travel show caps a decade of growth in Armenias
tourism market, according to the Armenian Consul General Grigor
Hovhannissian. Armenia attaches a special importance to tourism,
and has declared it to be a priority sector for the countrys economic
development, he said. This is a joint undertaking [by the government
and the private sector] and I am sure the Armenia booth will attract
a lot of visitors, he added.

Approximately 650,000 tourists traveled to Armenia in 2009, a ten-fold
increase over the number who visited just a decade ago. More than a
million visitors are projected to annually travel to Armenia by 2020.

The event is a milestone for the development of tourism in Armenia,
says Nick Hacopian, a member of the AACC and the Chair of the committee
that organized Armenias participation in the travel show.

This is the largest travel event in the US, and our presence will
help showcase Armenia to a vast new audience, he said.

Representatives of Levon Travel and Sidon Travel, two Los Angeles
travel agencies that offer tours to Armenia, will be at the Armenia
booth each day to explain the logistics of traveling there. And
several tour operators will travel to the Los Angeles from Armenia
to be at the booth, including Saberatours-Sevan; Armenia Travel M;
Elitar Travel; and Nueva Vista Travel.

The LA Times Travel Show will be open to the public from 10 am
to 5 pm on Saturday, February 13 and Sunday, February 14, at the
Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueora Street, Los
Angeles. Admission is $10 (Children 16 and under are admitted free
when accompanied by an adult). More information is available at

The Armenian American Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1999. The
organization serves Southern Californias Armenian American business
community and encourages greater ties and collaboration with
the business community of Armenia. The AACC can be reached at
, and at 818-247-0196.