Author: Nadirian Emma

LEGENDARY EMIR KUSTURICA TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN

ArmInfo
2010-02-01 14:04:00

ArmInfo. Legendary film director Emir Kusturica will arrive in Yerevan.

On March 5 Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra will perform at
the Spendiarov National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

The No Smoking Orchestra is the author of the soundtrack for
Kusturica’s film "Black Cat and White Cat" (International Biennale of
Film Music Award for the Best Soundtrack ). In 2003 the song "Lost in
the Supermarket" (British rock-band The Clash) performed by the No
Smoking Orchestra appeared on the album Un autre monde est possible
("Another World Is Possible"). In 2004 another soundtrack was reated
to the film "Life is a Miracle" and then in 2007 to the rock-opera
Le Temps Des Gitans. Since 1998 the No Smoking Orchestra issued 7
albums and the latest one was "The Best of Emir Kusturica & The No
Smoking Orchestra" issued in 2009.

PRESS 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:

29 January, 2010

Hayastan All-Armenian Fund implements drinking-water project in Martuni
Region’s Sos Village

Yerevan, February 1, 2010 – The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund continues to make
headway in the construction of a drinking-water network in Sos, a village in
Artsakh’s Martuni Region, as well as the refurbishment of the community’s
broken water reservoir. The project, launched in October 2009, is
co-sponsored by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s French affiliate and the
government of Artsakh.

"The well being of the Artsakh population is at the center of our
humanitarian action, with special emphasize on children-related and water
supply projects," comments Pierre Terzian, chairman of the Hayastan
All-Armenian Fund French affiliate.

Already the construction of the 7.6-kilometer internal water-distribution
network is complete. The next and final phase of the project, slated to
start in February 2010, will comprise the renovation of the main water
reservoir and construction of the smaller distribution reservoirs.

"Unfortunately numerous rural communities throughout Artsakh and Armenia
still lack reliable access to water," said Ara Vardanyan, executive director
of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. "We are extremely gratified that, with
the project in Sos, yet another community will have resolved its water
crisis."

Igor Ghahramyan, mayor of Sos, said that the residents of the ancient
village obtain much of their water supply from a single local well, which is
in grave disrepair and whose water is not safe for drinking. "Water is the
most vital element connecting villagers to the land, and only after solving
the water problem can they begin to address other issues facing the
community," Ghahramyan added.

The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund continues to carry out a number of vital
development projects in the Martuni Region. In 2009 it completed
water-network projects in the villages of Berdashen and Spitakashen.
Currently the fund is implementing school-building initiatives in the
communities of Gishi and Chartar, and in the summer of 2009 it completed the
construction of a new school in Spitakashen.

Hayastan All Armenian Fund

Turkey apprecaites Russie’s efforts to achieve progress in the
Karabakh settlement

armradio.am
30.01.2010 15:16

Russian and Turkish Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Abdullah Gul had a
telephone talk on Saturday on the Turkish side’s initiative, the
Kremlin press service said.

The two leaders discussed Russian-Turkish cooperation in international affairs.

When exchanging views on the situation in the Trans-Caucasian region,
Gul highly appraised Russia’s contribution to the international
efforts to achieve progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

The both sides expressed satisfaction with the joint work in the Black
Sea region and discussed European security issues, including in the
light of the Russian initiative to work out a treaty on European
security.

The central event in Russian-Turkish relations in the near future will
be the planned visit by the Russian president to Turkey. The agreement
on the visit planned for next May was confirmed in the talk, the press
service said.

HAYK BABUKHANYAN: HERITAGE PARTY SHOULD BE BANNED

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.01.2010 14:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Following the latest developments in the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Armenian
authorities should think about suspending the activities of Heritage
party, which pursues an anti-national policy, said Hayk Babukhanyan,
the leader of Constitutional Right Union party.

"Why can Turkey ban a party in parliament and Armenia can’t? There
is an increasing risk of war in the region, so Armenia should become
a power," he told a news conference in Yerevan on Friday.

Touching upon the ‘football diplomacy’, he said it helped discussion
of the Armenian Genocide issue on international level.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which held
its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered
the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic
composition of democratically elected members of parliament established
on the basis of an intergovernmental treaty. The Assembly is one of
the two statutory organs of the Council of Europe, which is composed of
the Committee of Ministers (the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, meeting
usually at the level of their deputies) and the Assembly representing
the political forces (majority and opposition) in its member states.

PACE has a total of 642 members – 321 principal members and 321
substitutes – who are representatives of each member state. There
are also 18 delegates from the Canadian, Israeli and Mexican observers.

The size of each country determines its number of representatives and
number of votes. This is in contrast in the committee of ministers,
where each country has one vote.

Each State member selects its method of designating its representatives
to the parliamentary assembly; however, they must be chosen from among
the members of the respective Parliaments. Moreover, the political
composition of each national delegation must reflect the representation
of the different parties within the respective parliaments.

Current President is Mevlut Cavusoglu, a member of Turkey’s ruling
Justice and Development Party

ALEXANDER MINASYAN: TERRITORIES AROUND NKR MUST NOT BE CEDED

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.01.2010 16:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Army is strong and efficient enough to
give an adequate response to the enemy at any time, the former head
of Military Institute at RA Defence Ministry Alexander Minasyan said
at news conference in Yerevan.

Commenting on possible mutual concessions in Kabakh conflict
settlement, he noted, "Territories around NKR were liberated by the
blood of our soldiers, and must in no case be ceded."

SERZH SARGSYAN: FORMATION OF THE ARMENIAN ARMY WAS A HISTORICAL ACHIEVEMENT

armradio.am
28.01.2010 15:20

President Serzh Sargsyan issued a congratulatory message on the Army
Day. The message reads, in part:

"Dear compatriots, Dear Generals, Officers and Soldiers,

I warmly congratulate you on the occasion of the Army Day.

The formation and development of the Armenian Army was a historical
achievement, which became a reality before the eyes of our generation.

Because of the loss of statehood and the absence of army we have
paid a great price starting from the middle ages until 1915, until
Sumgayit, Kirovabad and Baku. The Armenian Army is the dignity of
the Armenian nation"

"There can be no balance in our region without efficient armed forces.

Therefore, there can be no peace and stability. The role of our army
is not restricted to the defense of national borders today. The
global integration envisages new tasks in different directions,
which we successfully carry out," the Presidnet said.

According to President Sargsyan, prevention of war is the greatest
victory for any normal country that respects the rights of nations
and states, and the Armenian officers and soldiers are doing it
effectively.

SWITZERLAND AWAITS PROTOCOLS’ RATIFICATION

News.am
13:01 / 01/26/2010

Switzerland adheres to its policy on supporting Armenia-Turkey
reconciliation. "We look forward to Protocols’ ratification. It will
open the way towards the actions considered by the documents," Swiss
Foreign Ministry informed Azerbaijani APA agency.

Swiss Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Ankara’s position to
send the Protocols to Turkish Parliament after Armenian Constitutional
Court’s decision. "It is common policy of Switzerland to mediate in
the process of Turkish-Armenian normalization and we abstain from
making comments on any concerning issue," the ministerial source says.

As NEWS.am reported previously, January 12, RA Constitutional
Court ruled Armenia-Turkey Protocols constitutional. January 19,
Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement criticizing the decision
of RA Constitutional Court on Armenia-Turkey Protocols. According
to the statement, it has been observed that this decision contains
preconditions and restrictive provisions which impair the letter and
spirit of the Protocols. The said decision undermines the very reason
for negotiating these Protocols as well as their fundamental objective.

225 ACCOUNTANTS HAVE A QUALIFICATION CERTIFICATE IN ARMENIA AS OF JANUARY 25

NOYAN TAPAN
JANUARY 25, 2009
YEREVAN

As of January 25, 225 accountants in Armenia had a qualification
certificate granted by the RA Ministry of Finance, NT was informed
by the Information and PR Unit of the RA Ministry of Finance.

MANDATES OF RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DELEGATION NOT APPROVED AT PACE

Noyan Tapan
Jan 25, 2010

YEREVAN, JANUARY 25, NOYAN TAPAN. During the PACE plenary session
that started on January 25, a decision was made to pass the issue of
non-approval of the mandates of the RA National Assembly’s delegation
to the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional
Affairs. According to a report of the "Heritage" faction of the
RA National Assembly, the mandates of the Armenian delegation were
disputed by the Bureau of the European People’s Party (EPP) – the
largest party at the PACE. The reason for suspending the mandates is
the decision of RA National Assembly’s heads on the illegal removal of
the representative of "Heritage" opposition faction Zaruhi Postanjian
from the permanent membership of the Armenian delegation, as well as
their actions to prevent her from participating in the PACE session.

It is noted that Z. Postanjian has left for Strasbourg following EPP’s
intervention: with the immediate financing provided from Strasbourg.

The Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional
Affairs will hear the issue on the same day.

To recap, by instructions of the RA National Assembly speaker, a change
was made in the permanent membership of the Armenian delegation in
the PACE: the representative of the opposition faction "Heritage"
Zaruhi Postanjian was replaced with the secretary of the faction
"Orinats Yerkir" (part of the political coalition) Artsruni Aghajanian.

TURKISH-ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI RELATIONS WILL BE DISCUSSED TODAY IN WASHINGTON DC

APA
Jan 22 2010
Azerbaijan

Washington. Isabel Levine – APA. Turkish-Armenian-Azerbaijani relations
will be discussed at the DC based George Washington University
Law school, APA’s Washington DC correspondent was informed at the
school. The discussion will start today and last for a few days.

The Law School informs this will be the second discussion in the past
two months, the first of which took place in the beginning of December.

The discussion aims to address the issues of Armenian-Turkish
normalization. The analysts are planning to discuss whether these
plans were of any satisfaction or a disaster.

Professor Catherine Kessedjian (Pantheon-Assas University, Paris,
France) and International Law Professor Sean Murphy (Patricia Roberts
Harris Research Professor of Law, GWU Law School) are invited as
guest speakers.

The "Armenia and Turkey Protocols: Reality and Myths" discussion will
try to analyze whether the attempts to built peace between Armenia
and Turkey were useful or that was just an illusion, according to a
number of Washington DC experts.

Officials, students and experts are invited to the discussions.