Author: Kamalian Hagop

RESS RELEASE
Hayastan All-Armenian Fund
Governmental Buiding 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Hasmik Grigoryan
Tel: +(3741) 56 01 06 ext. 105
Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

21 January, 2009

Hayastan All Armenian Fund completes construction of Apaven village water
main, Lori marz

Hayastan All Armenian Fund is pleased to announce the completion of the new
water main in Apaven village. The project, worth around 32 million Armenian
drams, was sponsored by the Fund’s Montreal local committee.

Through the 620 m long pipeline and 1200m long inner network good quality
drinking water is already supplied to around 30 households of the community.

The village of Apaven located 1650 m above sea level had been experiencing
water supply problems for many years now. Water running from the old and
excessively damaged pipeline was no longer fit for drinking and was a
serious problem for the residents.

"Before launching a new project, we first tackle the most important problem
existing in the community; that is a principle approach we have adopted,"
the Fund Acting Executive Director Ara Vardanyan says.

GEGHAM GHARIBJANIAN DISMISSED FROM POST OF RA DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.01.2009 18:17 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan Signed A Decree
On Dismissal Of Gegham Gharibjanian From The Post Of RA Deputy Foreign
Minister, The RA Leader’S Press Office Told PanARMENIAN.Net.

Gharibjanian is reported to take up another job.

CHINESE PRESIDENT TO VISIT ARMENIA

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
16.01.2009 12:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of
China Armen Sargsyan handed Thursday his credentials to PRC President
Hu Jintao, the RA MFA press office told PanARMENIAN.Net.

During the meeting, the two discussed the current level of bilateral
relations and ways of their development.

Mr. Jintao said he accepted his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan’s
offer to visit Armenia with a purpose to promote relations between
the two states.

He also pledged the Chinese government’s support to the Armenian
diplomatic mission.

JEWS IN MUSLIM LANDS FEELING THE HEAT
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

Arutz Sheva
aspx/129403
Jan 13 2009
Israel

(IsraelNN.com) Jews living in majority-Muslim countries are in a
precarious situation as Israel fights the Islamist Hamas regime in
Gaza. While pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic rallies and sporadic attacks are
continuing worldwide, Jews in Muslim lands face an additional danger
as a vulnerable minority.

Synagogue Shut by Force In Indonesia, the world’s most populous
Muslim state, that nation’s only synagogue was forcibly shut down
and sealed. Located in an ethnic Arab neighborhood of Surabaya,
Indonesia’s second-largest city, the synagogue became the focus of
a Muslim mob last Wednesday following a "free speech forum" held
in the city. The small Indonesian synagogue, without benefit of a
Torah scroll or rabbi, is in Rivka Sayers’ home. She is one of only
a handful of Jews living in the Muslim state, most of whom are of
mixed European-Asian background.

In addition to forcing the sealing of the Surabaya synagogue,
protesters called for a boycott of US products. Anti-Israel and
anti-American rallies continued this week, with some 20,000 Indonesian
Muslims have gathering in the capital Jakarta on Sunday under the
auspices of the the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

‘We Will Kill You’ In Turkey, synagogues in Izmir were also shut down,
but this time out of serious security concerns, after someone scrawled
"We will kill you" on the door of one of the biggest synagogues
in the city. Synagogues in Turkey have been the target of Islamic
fundamentalist and pan-Arab terrorist bombings and shootings in
the past, including a double car bombing that killed 20 people in
November 2003.

In Istanbul, a shop owned by a local Jewish family was targeted, as
well. A huge poster saying, "Do not buy from here, since this shop
is owned by a Jew," was plastered on the shop and other posters on
the wall said, "Jews and Armenians are not allowed, but dogs are."

On Wednesday, all Turkish high schools and primary schools will pay
homage to Gazans killed in Israel’s Operation Cast Lead. Art teachers
are instructed to dedicate their classes to the topic, "Human Drama
in Palestine," and to offer awards to outstanding compositions.

A Turkish-Jewish source wishing to remain anonymous reported that
Istanbul is filled with anti-Israel posters and billboards, as well as
more explicit graffiti saying things like, "Kill Jews", "Kill Israel,"
and "Israel should no longer exist in the Middle East."

"We have previously faced some strong reaction regarding previous
operations in Gaza and the West Bank, but this time is really
different from former ones. I feel open anti-Semitism and hatred from
all these people," the Turkish source commented. Openly anti-Semitic
propaganda far exceeds anything happening in Europe, according to his
observations. The situation, the source concluded, "is becoming much
more dangerous day by day."

Approximately 26,000 Jews live in Turkey and the country has become
a very popular destination for Israeli tourists.

On December 30, a protest of Tehran’s Jews was held in front of
the United Nations’ office in the city. Speaking with an Iranian TV
station, Rahmatullah Rafii, the chairman of a Tehran-based Jewish
organization, said, "Jews in the Islamic Republic of Iran condemn
Israel’s attack on the people of Gaza."

However, due to the totalitarian nature of the Islamic regime,
the true status and views of Iran’s Jews – as well as Iran’s other
citizens – remain hidden from view. Increasing cases of discrimination,
including the closing of Jewish day schools and the banning of Hebrew
instruction, have been recorded in recent years. About 200 out of
Iran’s 28,000 Jews immigrated to Israel in 2007, many of them through
clandestine means.

Egyptians Want to Ban Visits to Jewish Tomb

The tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira has become the focus of Egyptian
anti-Israel efforts. The Moroccan-born rabbi, who died in 1880, is
the grandfather of the late Israeli Kabbalist Yisrael Abuhatzeira,
better known as the "Baba Sali". The tomb of Rabbi Yaakov, located
in the coastal village of Nekraha, has become a place of pilgrimage
for hundreds of Jews in recent years. The largest group regularly
comes from Israel in January and is given heavy protection by local
security services.

This year, a coalition of Egyptian political opposition parties came
together to prevent the pilgrimage of Israelis to the rabbi’s tomb. The
coalition has brought together unlikely allies, from the far-left
Al-Tagamu party to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. An article in
Al-Masri al-Yooum said that the coalition’s leader, Gamal Mounib,
stated that he holds the Egyptian government responsible for any
pilgrims reaching the shrine this year.

Only about 60 Jews currently live in Egypt, while the country’s
synagogues and the Israeli Embassy in Cairo are heavily guarded by
Egyptian soldiers.

Elsewhere in North Africa, the Al-Qaeda offshoot known as Al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb (North Africa) has issued explicit calls for
Muslims to attack Jews "wherever they are found." Jewish communities
among Muslim populations constitute the most obvious and immediate
targets for incited individuals as well as organized Jihadist cells.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA GRANTS AMNESTY TO NINE CONVICTS

ARMENPRESS
Jan 12, 2009
YEREVAN

President of Armenian Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree on granting
amnesty to nine people sentenced to 2-4 years imprisonment for
participating in March 1 2008 unrest, acquiring explosive substances,
using force against representative of authorities.

The president made the decision taking into consideration the
applications by the convicted, the fact that they have not been
convicted before, as well as their health and family circumstances.

With December 3, 2008 decree on the basis of other applications
Serzh Sargsyan granted amnesty to other 3 convicts. Spokesman for
the Armenian president Samvel Farmanyan told Armenpress that by Serzh
Sargsyan received applications from 12 citizens convicted in connection
with March 1 events: the president satisfied all the applications.

ENTROPA: STEREOTYPES ARE BARRIERS TO BE DEMOLISHED

AZG Armenian Daily
13/01/2009

Culture

The Czech Republic unveiled a modern art installation called ‘Entropa’
in the atrium of the Justus Lipsius builiding of the EU Council
in Brussels.

The installation will remain in its stand-by mode until Thursday 15
January when it will ‘start to live’ in the full regime.

Entropa is the joint work of 27 artists, each one from a different
Member State. Each object depicts one Member State using common
stereotypes or prejudices. The Presidency commissioned the artists
without any restrictions and they were free to create any object
they liked.

‘Sculpture, and art more generally, can speak where words fail. In
line with the Czech Presidency motto a ‘Europe without Barriers’, we
gave the 27 artists the same opportunity to express themselves freely,
as a proof that in today´s Europe there is no place for censorship,’
said Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra. ‘In return we got an
uncommon, yet common piece of art. I am confident in Europe´s open
mind and capacity to appreciate such a project.’

‘The freedom of art as an extension of the freedom of speech is
the core value of democracy,’ said Milena Vicenová, the Permanent
Representative of the Czech Republic to the European Union. ‘There are
many barriers to integration and cooperation in Europe. Stereotypes are
such barriers. When we point out the stereotypes we begin demolishing
them. Making fun of prejudice destroys it most efficiently.’

The Czech Presidency’s motto a ‘Europe without Barriers’ expresses the
dedication to remove remaining obstacles to cooperation between the EU
Member States. In particular obstacles to the free movement of goods,
services, persons and capital. The Presidency notes that other barriers
also hamper a fruitful cooperation between the European nations.

The Czech government is renting Entropa until the 30 June 2009. The
rental costs amount to 50,000 euro. Other expenses, such as production
costs, were to be borne by the creator, the Czech artist David
Lerný, born 15 December 1967 in Prague. His works can be seen in
many locations in Prague and elsewhere. He gained notoriety in 1991
by painting a Soviet tank that served as a war memorial in central
Prague pink. As the Monument to Soviet Tank Crews was still a national
cultural monument at that time, he was briefly arrested. Another of
Cerny’s conspicuous contributions to Prague is his ‘Tower Babies’,
a series of cast figures of crawling infants attached to Zizkov
Television Tower.

It is a Presidency tradition to install a decoration in the Justus
Lipsius building atrium for the duration of the Presidency.

–Boundary_(ID_5hdzVYTLet6Uq5TvgTDK4A )–

IN 2008 CONVERSE BANK INCREASED ITS CREDIT PORTFOLIO BY 44%

ArmInfo
2009-01-12 17:02:00

In 2008 Converse Bank increased its credit portfolio by 44% to 43.3bln
AMD. The assets of the bank grew by 8.2% to 72.3bln AMD.

Jan 1 2009 the capital of the bank totalled 13.036bln AMD, the net
profit – 1.956bln AMD (43% more than Jan 1 2008), the obligations –
59.3bln AMD (10% more than a year before). The share of time deposits
in the structure of the bank’s obligations made up 43% or 25.438bln
AMD – 54% more than in 2007.

As Director General of Converse Bank Ararat Gukassyan said earlier,
2008 was transitional for the bank in the field of agriculture
crediting. In 2008 this index grew by 130% to 1bln AMD. The crediting
of small and medium-sized business grew by 17%.

2009-01-12 12:56:00 Exchange rate of dram against US dollar and EUR

Today, the maximum buying rates at commercial banks of Yerevan were 307
drams for 1 dollar, 410 drams for 1 EUR and 9,3 drams for 1 Russian
ruble. The minimum selling rates stood at 308 drams for 1 dollar,
410 drams for 1 EUR and 11,2 drams for 1 Russian ruble.

Karen Grigorian leads at Moscow Chess Tournament in memory of Tigran
Petrosian

MOS COW, JANUARY 9, NOYAN TAPAN. After the 6th round, the Armenian team
has earned 12.5 points and is in second position at the Moscow Youth
Chess Tournament in memory of Tigran Petrosian.

By the results of the individual tournament, Karen Grigorian with 5.5
points is in lead in the points table. Robert Hovhannisian with 4.5
points shares 2nd-4th positions, and Zozan Shakrian has 2.5 points.

3 rounds remain until the end of the tournament.

EUROPE’S PLAN FOR ALTERNATIVE PIPELINE FACES BIG PROBLEMS
Ian Traynor in Vienna

The Guardian
Wednesday 7 January 2009

With its vast underground storage tanks and network of pipes, valves
and tubes, Baumgarten in the flatlands east of Vienna is one of
Europe’s biggest gas hubs. The first gas to cross the iron curtain
was pumped through thousands of miles of pipelines from Siberia and
into western Europe 40 years ago, arriving at Baumgarten for resupply
across the continent. The hub remains the most important junction
today, matching Russia’s huge mineral riches to Europe’s gargantuan
appetite for natural gas. But a new energy revolution is being plotted.

With the Kremlin and the giant Russian gas monopoly, Gazprom, locked in
their annual spat with Ukraine, the main transit country for Europe’s
gas supplies, over prices and politics, Europe is desperately seeking
ways to diminish its dependence on the 140bcm (billion cubic metres)
of gas it currently imports from Russia. The most favoured, most
ambitious and most contentious idea is to build a new pipeline beyond
the grip of Gazprom, which controls 90,000 miles of gas delivery
systems. Named after a Verdi opera, the Nabucco pipeline is supposed
to terminate at Baumgarten, ultimately pumping 31bcm of Caspian gas
through Turkey and the Balkans to Austria. "Diversification on the
terrestrial route for gas is a must for Europe," says Alexandr Vondra,
deputy prime minister of the Czech Republic, which has taken on the
EU presidency and sees energy policy as a priority.

The plan, born in 2002, is to thread almost 2,400 miles of pipeline
through the narrow geostrategic stretch between Russia and Iran, the
two countries with the world’s largest reserves of gas, to central
Europe. "If we have a dominant company like Gazprom trying to influence
all inroads of gas to Europe, we need to develop an alternative to
the supply of gas from Russia," says a senior European commission
official involved in energy policy. Given the worsening fallout from
the Russia-Ukraine dispute as well as the impact of last August’s
Russia-Georgia war on Caspian energy security, the Europeans are
trying to accelerate the Nabucco plans.

"We have good reason to believe that Nabucco will fly," says Reinhard
Mitschek, who manages the Nabucco consortium of six national energy
companies from the 21st floor of an office block above the Danube
in Vienna.

But the problems are formidable. European gas industry sources
complain that EU officials are confusing political imperatives with
economic, business and energy fundamentals. "This is an attempt
at reverse engineering in pipeline development," said a senior
industry source. "Usually you find the resource and then you build
a pipeline. With Nabucco it’s the other way round."

Pierre NoÃ"l, energy analyst at the European Council on Foreign
Relations, says: "This is a pr oject that does not exist except in
the minds of Brussels bureaucrats. They think you can build a pipeline
and then the gas will flow. It’s simply not credible."

Brussels has already spent millions on feasibility studies for a
pipeline that will consume more than 2m tonnes of steel and comprise
some 220,000 lengths of pipe from Turkey’s eastern border through
Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary into Baumgarten on Austria’s border
with Slovakia.The cost is â~B¬8bn (£7.2bn) and rising. Construction
was supposed to start last year, then this year, now next year.

Last summer Mitschek ordered a survey of gas shippers and said the
results showed interest in pumping 16bcm through Nabucco, half the
total capacity but ample to get the pipeline operating.

The industry source said there was nowhere near enough to make Nabucco
viable. "The most important issue regarding this project is to obtain
enough gas," the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, said last month. The
first target for gas to fill the pipeline is Azerbaijan, whose Caspian
field Shah Deniz II should come onstream around 2013, when Nabucco
is due to start pumping. "This gas is expected from Azerbaijan,"
says Mitschek of the 8bcm, or quarter of the pipeline’s capacity,
needed to start Nabucco operations.

But Gazprom is competing fiercely for the Azerbaijani prize in a
bidding war with the Europeans, offering above- market prices for the
gas while the Kremlin dangles20the political carrot of arranging the
return of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh to Baku’s control.

"The Russians have offered a deal," says Elmar Mammadyarov,
Azerbaijan’s foreign minister. "But there are different options on
the table. At the end of the story, it’s our gas."

A recent western audit of Turkmenistan’s gas reserves cheered officials
in Brussels by confirming a doubling of the known resources. But
experts caution that it will be 20 years before sufficient Turkmen
gas can be pumped for Europe to evade Gazprom’s control. Similar
calculations apply to aims of filling Nabucco with gas from Iraq or
Iran, were there to be major political change in Tehran. Compounding
the problems is Turkey and its worsening relationship with the EU. Well
over half the proposed pipeline is to be located in Turkey.

Brussels is attempting to negotiate an agreement making Turkey the main
transit country for Caspian gas to Europe. The Turks are insisting
on 15% of the gas at discounted prices, a demand that would wreck
Nabucco financially, say officials in Brussels.

–Boundary_(ID_7Y4Y3wF56C9cHbs9RuL9TA)- –

Anadolu News Agency, Turkey
Dec 28 2008

Turkish minister sees Armenian "incidents" as "risky area" in
relations with USA

Ankara, 28 December: Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on
Sunday [28 December] that Turkish authorities regarded the issue of
1915 incidents as "risky area" in the relations between Turkey and the
United States during the period of the new US administration.

Appearing in a programme on a private television channel, Babacan
replied to questions on several matters.

Answering a question on the fight against terrorist organization in
the north of Iraq, Babacan said terrorist organization in the north of
Iraq was an issue poisoning the relations between Turkey and Iraq.

Turkey has entered a different process in regard to combating
terrorist organization last year, he said.

"We have not taken any step which might make negative impact on daily
life of the people living in the north of Iraq. We have some problems
with mentality and policies of the local administration in the north
of Iraq," Babacan said.

Replying a question on Turkey’s EU negotiation process, Babacan said
EU had some internal problems in the recent period.

Turkey’s decisions on Cyprus and statements in France and Germany
against Turkey made a negative impact on the relations, he said.

"Despite all these difficulties, Turkey’s negotiation process is
advancing on its track," he added.