Author: Nahapetian Lilit

EXHIBITION OF BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS TITLED "ZERO VIOLENCE" OPENS IN
INFORMATION OFFICE OF COUNCIL OF EUROPE

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. On the initiative of the Information
Center of the Council of Europe and the Federation of Youth Clubs the
exhibition of black and white photos titled "Zero Violence" opened in
the Information Center of the Council of Europe on November 2 within
the frameworks of the "All different, all equal" campaign, where 55
works of young photographers from Armenia, Latvia, Poland, and Spain
are exhibited.

In the words of Anahit Minasian, the organizer of the exhibition, the
main goal of the event is to increase the public awareness on different
manifestations of violence.

In the words of Suzan Marukhanian, the Head of the Information Center
of the Council of Europe, similar exhibitions will be organized in
Spain, Poland, and Latvia in November within the frameworks of the
program.

Panorama.am

14:13 03/11/2007

NEXT YEAR 80 MILLION DRAMS TO BE ALLOCATED FOR ADDING FISH INTO LAKE
SEVAN

`This month we plan to add 15,500 fish of Sevan trout type (4 gram)
and 59,400 Gegharkunik type (3 gram) into the Lake Sevan,’ press
secretary of nature protection ministry, Artrun Pepanyan, told
Panorama.am. In his words, 9.5 million drams are spent to that
aim. `Next year, 80 million drams are allocated to add small fish into
the Lake Sevan,’ he said.

Some more fish was added into the Lake Sevan this April. Funding comes
from several sources to ensure growth of Sevan trout each year, mainly
from the state budget.

Source: Panorama.am

TURKEY AND US HAVE MANY SIMILAR GOALS: BABACAN

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Nov 2 2007

While saying that effective measures needed to be taken against the
PKK, Rice did not specify what those measures would be.

ANKARA – Turkey and the United States have similar positions and
goals on a number of issues, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
said Friday.

Speaking in Ankara at a joint press conference with US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice following a lengthy meeting, Babacan said they
had canvassed a number of issues in their talks, including problems,
Iraq and the presence of the terrorist organisation the PKK in northern
Iraq and a bill before the US House of Representatives supporting
Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915.

"We have seen that both Turkey and the US share similar perspectives
on various issues," Babacan said. "The US is a friend and ally of
Turkey. The US is also a strategic partner of Turkey. Within this
framework, we share the same vision regarding the settlement of
problems.

Rice said that the United States considers the PKK to be a terrorist
organization and a common enemy.

"We have agreed with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan that
effective measures must be taken so that Turkey is not faced with
terror attacks in the future," said Rice. "PKK is a threat to Iraq’s
stability; and security of both Turkey and the United States."

Rice said that Turkey was an important friend of the US and that
Washington was thankful to Turkey for organizing the forthcoming
international conference on Iraq in Istanbul, which is due to open
Saturday.

"We discussed various issues, including Lebanon, Iran and the Middle
East peace process during our meeting," she said. "Mr Babacan updated
me on his recent tour of the Middle East."

Following the press conference, Rice met briefly with President
Abdullah Gul.

She is scheduled to leave Ankara late Friday for Istanbul to attend
the international conference on Iraq.

DEFENSE MINISTERS OF RUSSIA AND ARMENIA WILL DISCUSS MILITARY COOPERATION ISSUES
Translated by Pavel Pushkin

Source: RIA-Novosti, October 30, 2007
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 2, 2007 Friday

Colonel Alexei Kuznetsov, press secretary of the Russian Defense
Minister, reports, "During his official visit to Yerevan on Tuesday,
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov will visit the 102nd
military base of the Russian Armed Forces in Armenia located in
Gyumri and will discuss issues of bilateral military cooperation with
Defense Minister of Armenia Mikael Arutyunyan." Kuznetsov added,
"During the visit to the Russian military base the minister will
get acquainted with arrangement, personnel, equipment, armament and
military hardware of the military units". The base is subordinated to
the group of Russian forces in Transcaucasia of the North Caucasian
Military District. The base is armed with air defense missile systems
S-300 and fighters MiG-29 and has about 5,000 servicemen.

RUSSIA FOR THE FIRST TIME CHARACTERIZED PKK AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.11.2007 18:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia has for the first time officially
characterized the PKK as a terrorist organization, but has asserted
that Turkey should not engage in a military operation, but instead
focus on a diplomatic war aimed at cutting PKK support systems outside
of Turkey. Comments came from Kremlin press secretary Dimitry Peskov
yesterday in Moscow.

"We see the PKK actions as terror attacks, and we fully condemn
them. We think that Turkey has the right to defend itself. We believe
that the path towards finding a solution lies in dialogue and meetings.

Ankara needs to carry out its war by sitting down at the table with
certain nations who are giving marked support to the PKK," said Peskov,
Hurriyet reports.

APRIL 24 TO BE MARKED AS A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN MARKHAM, CANADA

armradio.am
30.10.2007 12:55

The Armenian National Committee of Greater Toronto thanked the Town of
Markham Council for adopting a motion on October 9, 2007, officially
designating April 24 as a day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide,
Armenian National Committee of Greater Toronto informs.

At Council’s meeting on October 23, 2007, Mr. Harout Manougian,
Secretary of the Armenian National Committee of Greater Toronto,
formally thanked the Town of Markham. Mr. Manougian stated:
"Remembering the past is the necessary first step to preventing
similar atrocities in the future. Without this integral component,
all other effort is futile."

Prior to the Council’s meeting, the Armenian National Committee of
Greater Toronto organized a reception attended by 200 members of the
community, as well as newly elected MPP for Oak Ridges-Markham Helena
Jaczek, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, and Regional Councillors Jack
Heath and Tony Wong.

The event was made even more special thanks to the presence of
Mr. Diran Terzian, one of the few remaining survivors of the Armenian
Genocide in Ontario.

ANOTHER 110 "BOGDAN" BUSES TO BE BROUGHT TO YEREVAN BY LATE 2007

Noyan Tapan
Oct 29 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, NOYAN TAPAN. 110 "Bogdan" buses will be brought
to Yerevan by 14 private organizations by late 2007. The director
of Yerevantrans CJSC Karen Yedigarian said at the October 29 press
conference that the program on development of Yerevan’s public
transport envisages increasing the number of "Bogdan" buses to 650,
that of trolley buses – to 120 by 2010. According to him, during the
indicated period, the number of 3,100 minibuses moving by city routes
will be reduced to 1,500.

K. Yedigarian said that this year the Yerevan municipality has already
imported 18 new "LIaz" trolley buses, with 20 trolley bauses to be
imported every year until 2010. 230 medium seating-capacity buses
have been brought to Yerevan with state funds in recent years.

Speaking about cases of illegal parking of cars in the city,
K. Yedigarian informed those present that about 1,000 such cases were
registered in the past month. A fine of 20 thousand drams (about 66
dollars) was imposed on drivers for this violation. In the indicated
period, 405 protocols were complied as penalty on drivers smoking in
public transport, and 113 protocols – for keeping transport means in
insanitary state. In the latter case, a fine of 3 thousand drams was
imposed on drivers.

K. Yedigarian announced that henceforth it is envisaged to move
cars, which are illegally parked in various parts of streets, to a
penalty area by using evacuators. The issue of obtaining evacuators
is now being discussed, while later it will be decided whether the
municipality or the traffic police will implement this work.

IVAYLO KALFIN: BULGARIA’S MEMBERSHIP IN EU WILL MAKE BULGARIAN-ARMENIAN RELATIONS MORE ACTIVE

Focus News, Bulgaria
Oct 29 2007

Sofia. Bulgaria’s relations with Armenia are in a new stage of their
development. All the conditions for intensifying the bilateral and
multilateral relations have come, after the accession of Bulgaria to
the European Union, the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
of Foreign Affairs Ivaylo Kalfin said after a meeting today with
his Armenian counterpart Vartan Oslkanyan, the Bulgarian Foreign
Ministry announced.

The two Ministers signed today a protocol for cooperation between
the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries.

RF MINISTER OF DEFENSE TO PAY TWO-DAY OFFICIAL VISIT TO ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Oct 29 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The delegation headed by Anatoly
Serdyukov, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, will
be in Armenia on an official visit between October 29 and 30. This
information was provided to Noyan Tapan by the Press Service of the
RA Ministry of Defense.

Meetings with the RA President, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense,
during which issues concerning the bilateral military cooperation
will be discussed, are envisaged during the visit. The delegation
will also visit Russian military units located in the territory of
the Republic of Armenia.

MARCOS GRIGORIAN COMMEMORATED AT IAF

Mehr News Agency
Oct 26 2007
Iran

(MNA) — A ceremony was held at the Iranian Artists Forum on
Wednesday in memory of the late Iranian-Armenian artist Marcos
Grigorian. Grigorian, who is recognized as a pioneer of Iranian
modern art, died from a heart attack at his home on August 27 in
Armenia. He was 82. Veteran artist Aidin Aghdashlu talked about
Marcos and his artworks. He said, "There is much that can be said
about Marcos and his art which is of great importance. His influence
can be observed in every part of our art and culture. He was one
of those people who impart a special meaning to life. "Marcos
experienced great restlessness throughout his life and his art is
rooted in this impulsiveness. Whenever he felt inspired to take up
a new style or technique, he would become excited and impatient to
put it into practice by creating new artworks. "He was a collector,
a film actor and a gallery owner. He was particularly interested
in the style of Arshile Gorky, an Armenian abstract expressionist
painter (1904-1948), and he had a private collection of his works,"
he added. His niece Janet Lazarian also participated in the ceremony
and said that Marcos had, before his death, donated all his works and
collections to Armenia’s one and only museum. She added that every
in-coming Armenian minister of culture had promised to establish a
museum for his works but that it had never been accomplished.

"Marcos himself later wrote a letter to the cultural officials of
Armenia asking them to return his works and to convert his own house
into a museum. However he never received a reply in his lifetime.

There is still no answer," She stated. She went on to say, "The only
way open to us is to make a heartfelt appeal for the establishment
of a museum to house his works, so we are going to get a petition
together and deliver it to the Armenian Embassy in Tehran." At the end
of the ceremony, Mir Ahmad Mirehsan talked about the avant-garde nature
of Grigorian’s works. Aryasp Dadbeh made a speech about the various
influences of the Iranian and Armenian cultures. The participating
artists signed the petition. Marcos was born into an Iranian Armenian
family which emigrated from Russia to Iran in 1930. He studied at the
Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. In 1954, Grigorian returned to Iran
from Rome and opened the Galerie Esthetique in Tehran. Grigorian’s
artworks encompass a wide range of themes; his first paintings depict
the violent despair of the victims of Auschwitz. Later, turning to
sculpture, his works were dominated by such themes as Persian bread,
abgusht (a type of Persian soup) and wheelbarrows full of straw. He is
also renowned for the sculptures which he crafted from a combination of
clay and straw. Grigorian was also fond of teahouse paintings. Some of
his works are now on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York,
Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art
in Kerman, and the Armenian National Gallery.