Author: Nalchajian Markos

NEWLY FOUNDED UNION ENGAGES IN ARRANGING HYPOTHECARY MARKET

AZG Armenian Daily
14/03/2006

Union of Mortgage Market Participants is founded in Armenia. In
this connection, the first sitting of founders took place today. The
union includes 8 commercial banks, 2 universal credit organizations,
4 insurance companies and 4 real estate companies.

The union is aimed to create preconditions for effective functioning
secondary market of mortgage credits, to elaborate strategy for the
mortgage market’s development, to improve regulation and to study
the experience of developed mortgage markets.

Tigran Sargsian, chairman of RA Central Bank, stated that the union
will represent general interests of professional participants of
the market and create equally acceptable rules for all of them. The
primary market and the relevant infrastructures will be formed in
2006. Sargsian said that donor sources will help increase mortgage
credits in the primary market, while in 2007, they will implement
the project of creating the second mortgage market. At present,
mortgage credits are allocated for 10 years in maximum, while the
minimal stake is 12% annually.

Ashot Osipian, chairman of Armeconombank’s Board, said that they will
discuss the program on development of mortgage market at the first
March 17 sitting of the union. It is decided that each sitting will
be held by a new chairman.

It’s noteworthy that the Union includes Armeconombank, Armenian
Development Bank, Unibank, Areximbank, Armswissbank, INECOBANK,
Arminvestbank, Bank “Ararat,” “Washington Capital” UCO, “First Mortgage
Company” UCO, “SIL Insurance” “Private Insurance,” “Nairi Insurance”
and “Prime Insurance” companies, as well as “Alta VIP,” “M & M,”
“Prime Realty” and “Elephant Realty” agencies.

PRESS RELEASE

UN Department of Public Information, Yerevan Office
2 Petros Adamyan str., First Floor
Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Contact: Armine Halajyan, UN DPI Information Assistant
Tel.: (374 1) 560 212
Fax/Tel.: (374 1) 561 406

“ARAM KHACHATURIAN: THE LIFE AND WORKS” HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED AS THE WORLD’S
BEST E-CULTURE DVD/CD-ROM IN 2005

“THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: 1915-1923” DVD/CD-ROM – AMONG THE FIRST TEN
BEST PROJECTS IN E-EDUCATION

“Aram Khachaturian: The Life and Works” DVD/CD-ROM of the Armenian
company “ITE” (Information Technologies Education), has been selected
by the World Summit Award 2005 () Grand Jury as
the world’s best cultural CD/DVD multimedia product of 2005.

Another project of the same company, the interactive CD-ROM “Armenian
Genocide of 1915-1923” was recognized by the World Summit Award 2005
Grand Jury as one of top 10 products in e-learning category and was
specially mentioned.

Those products were selected in a five-stage process from over 20,000
candidates from 168 countries. The selection of the best products in
the world included national evaluations, a 35 member Grand Jury review
of over 750 nominations and a 6-day methodical judging process. The
overall process meets near-scientific requirements of independent,
inter-subjective judgment and of establishing the best available
expert views.

The success of ITE “Bazmaweb” studio proves its further significance
when we consider the fact that other major projects that were chosen
as the world’s best five e-culture products, were the websites
“Eternal Heritage of Egypt” created by IBM, “Virtual Roman Paris”
created by Ministry of Culture of France, “Lakota Winter Counts” of
USA Smithsonian Institution, and the Russian website about the history
of the Second World War (see ).

Shortly before, in June 2005, both Armenian products won All Armenian
2005 National e-content contest “Mashtots 1600″().

As projects with best content, both of them will be officially
announced and presented at the World Summit Award 2005 Exhibition
in the framework of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)
2005 in Tunisia, from November 16 to 18.

Garegin Chugaszian, president of ITE company will accept the award
on November 16 at a special Gala ceremony to be attended by more
than 500 VIPs from all over the world, including heads of States,
leading representatives of international organizations, the private
sector and civil society.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), initiated by
the United Nations and directly organized by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a twofold process. The first phase
has been held in Geneva from 10-12 December 2003, while the second
will take place in Tunisia from 16-18 November this year.

The Armenian delegation to participate in WSIS this year will be
headed by the Prime Minister of Armenia Andranik Margaryan. Armenia
will also have the opportunity to present its best e-content products
to consumers in an individual pavilion.

The second Phase of WSIS together with the awards giving ceremony of
the e-contents world contest will take place in Tunisia from 16-18
November of this year. Heads of States (Presidents and Prime Ministers)
and other 500 high ranking guests will participate.

The World Summit Award is organized under the patronage of Austrian
chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, Argentine President Nestor Carlos
Kirchner and other presidents intending to observe existing worldwide
electronic contents be it Internet, DVDs, or CDs. The awards have 8
nominations: e-learning; e-culture; e-science; e-government; e-health;
e-business; e-environment; and e-inclusion.

It is worth mentioning that, amongst 168 countries only 14 had the
chance of gaining the World Summit Award twice and Armenia is one
of these few counties. At the first Phase of WSIS in Geneva (2003)
Armenia was awarded with the WSA 2003 in e-science for the website
“A Space Weather Aerie” created by Ashot Chilingarian’s Cosmic Ray
Division Center (CRD) from the Institute of Physics in Yerevan.

“ITE” (Information Technologies Education), and its “Bazmaweb” studio
are founded in 1998, and represent software company specializing in
the design and development of multimedia products (CD/DVD-ROMS),
as well as knowledge management applications based on portal
technologies(“Armino Web Solutions”).

For getting further information, both in Armenian and English, about
the WSIS Armenia’s participation you can visit the Summit’s website:
which has been prepared by the “Information
Technologies Foundation” (ITF) with the assistance of UN Resident
Coordinator and UN Department of Public Information in Yerevan.

* * * * *

HEADS OF YEREVAN SATISFIED WITH BUDGET ALLOCATIONS FOR CAPITAL
By Nana Petrosian

AZG Armenian Daily #187
18/10/2005

There is no discontent about the budget allocations envisaged for the
needs of the capital. Kamo Areyan, deputy mayor of Yerevan, assured
that it is quite possible to carry out all the elaborated programs
within the framework of the allocations for the next year. Yerevan will
receive AMD 389.760.9 thousand in 2006. AMD 5 billion are envisaged
for the 12 communities of the capital.

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 14 2005

INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION CONTINUES TO MOUNT AGAINST CAUCASUS
RAILROAD PROPOSAL THAT BYPASSES ARMENIA

WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The European
Commission has added its voice to the growing international
opposition to a Caucasus railroad proposal by the Turkish government
that would, if built, institutionalize Turkey’s border closure with
Armenia, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The Commission’s position was articulated this week by the
Directorate General for Transport and Energy. In explaining why the
European Union would not support the creation of this rail line, the
Directorate noted that its construction was both unnecessary and
inefficient in light of the existing railroad connecting Kars,
Gyumri, and Tbilisi. This line, which passes through Armenia, was
effectively shut down more than a decade ago by Turkey’s imposition
of its blockade of Armenia, which continues to this day.

The Commission’s adoption of this position comes in response to a May
21st letter from Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian to Jacques
Barrot, Deputy Chairman of the European Commission. In this letter,
the Foreign Minister outlined the destabilizing implications of the
proposed route bypassing Armenia, and stressed the willingness of the
government of Armenia to cooperate in the reactivation of the
existing Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway, which remains fully functional
but unused due to the unilateral Turkish blockade.

“We welcome the wise position taken by the European Commission
against Turkey’s most recent effort to effectively institutionalize
its border closure with Armenia. The well founded concerns raised by
the Commission reflect and reinforce those being addressed in the
U.S. Congress by the South Caucasus Integration and Open Railroads
Act,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “In pressing
forward so recklessly with this politically motivated proposal,
Turkey openly disregards the Administration’s repeated calls to end
its decade-long border closure with Armenia. Clearly, this disregard
must be recognized and reckoned with by the U.S. Congress, which
should, in the coming weeks, act in an urgent and decisive manner to
check Turkey’s growing indifference to U.S. priorities in the
region.”

On July 21st, Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and
Frank Pallone (D-NJ), along with Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA),
introduced legislation addressing this issue by barring U.S.
financing for such rail projects circumventing Armenia. The ANCA
welcomed this bipartisan effort, noting that it would protect U.S.
taxpayers from subsidizing a totally unnecessary and regionally
destabilizing proposal by Turkey aimed at isolating Armenia. The
measure, known as the “South Caucasus Integration and Open Railroads
Act of 2005” (H.R.3361), currently has 39 House cosponsors and is
gaining support from both sides of the aisle.

The text of the legislation notes “the exclusion of Armenia from
regional economic and commercial undertakings in the South Caucasus
undermines the United States policy goal of promoting a stable and
cooperative environment in the region.” In its operative section, the
legislation prohibits U.S. assistance “to develop or promote any rail
connections or railway-related connections that do not traverse or
connect with Armenia, but do traverse or connect Baku, Azerbaijan;
Tbilisi, Georgia; and Kars, Turkey.” Specific forms of U.S.
assistance prohibited would include: foreign economic and development
aid, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Trade and Development
Agency, and the Export-Import Bank.

The ANCA raised this issue publicly as early as June 10th of this
year in a question to Foreign Minister Oskanian, during a briefing at
the National Press Club. Minister Oskanian expressed concern that
this would be a wasteful undertaking for the international community.
He said that they [Turkey] are “planning on spending something from 0
million to billion to put that railroad in place.”

The Minister closed his comments, by stressing that, “This is in no
one’s interest – not the U.S. or European Union or the countries
involved. I have raised this issue with the Administration and they
understand, they promised to follow this, and to try to talk them
[the Turkish government] out of engaging in this type of senseless,
useless activity.”

GOVERNMENT AGENCY CALLS ON TURKEY TO DROP CHARGES AGAINST WRITER

The Associated Press
10/13/05 18:03 EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) – A U.S. government human rights group is calling
on Turkey to drop charges against Orhan Pamuk, a writer indicted for
speaking openly on the Armenian question.

The appeal was made by commissioners of the U.S. Helsinki Commission,
which monitors rights issues, mostly in Europe.

They sent a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
urging him to authorize the removal of charges against Pamuk.

Pamuk is charged with “public denigration of the Turkish identity.”

“A stable democracy cannot blossom until the government ends the
practice of stifling free speech and removes the clouds of deception
and censorship from a true telling of history,” said Commission
Co-Chairman Rep. Christopher Smith.

The commission, known formally as the Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe, monitors progress in the implementation of
the provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Accords.

The Commission consists of 18 members of the U.S. Congress and
representatives from three cabinet agencies.

Eastern Turkey was once a heartland of Armenian culture but was
consumed by ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire splintered at the
end of World War I.

Yerevan says Turks slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians. Turkey strongly
denies there was any genocide, saying Armenians were killed due to
civil unrest.

WORLD CUP: ARMENIA WIN 3-0 AT ANDORRA

The Associated Press
10/12/05 12:08 EDT

ANDORRA LA VELLA, Andorra (AP) – Second-half goals by Aram Hakobian
and Ara Hakobian helped Armenia to a 3-0 victory over Andorra in the
teams’ final World Cup qualifier on Wednesday.

Andorra’s Oscar Sonejee turned a cross past his own goalkeeper Koldo
Alvarez in the 39th minute to give Armenia a 1-0 lead.

Four minutes later, Andorra defender Ildefons Lima was ejected for
spitting at an opponent.

Armenia doubled its lead in the 52nd when Aram Hakobian volleyed in
at the far post following a swiftly taken corner.

Ara Hakobian added a third in style 10 minutes later by dribbling
through Andorra’s defense before smashing the ball home.

Armenia finished next-to-last in Group 1 with seven points, two ahead
of Andorra.

Despite coming last, Andorra has enjoyed its most successful qualifying
campaign. A year ago, the minnow downed Macedonia 1-0 at home to record
its first ever victory in the World Cup or European Championship. It
also drew in Macedonia and at home to Finland.

Lineups:

Andorra: Koldo Alvarez; Josep Ayala, Ildefons Lima, Antoni Lima, Javi
Sanchez, Gabi Riera (Manolo Jimenez, 82), Justo Ruiz, Antoni Sivera
(Juli Sanchez, 18), Oscar Sonejee, Marc Bernaus, Marcio Vieira (Ludo
Clemente, 56).

Armenia: Gevorg Kasparov; Valeriy Alexanian (Samvel Melkonian, 77),
Karen Alexanian, Robert Arzumanian, Karen Dokhoyan, Romik Khachatrian,
Alexander Tadevossian, Eghishe Melikian, Hamlet Mkhitarian (Arthur
Voskanian, 82), Ara Hakobian, Aram Hakobian (Aram Voskanian, 80)

NOBEL JUDGE QUITS IN DISGUST – A YEAR AFTER ‘PORN’ WINNER
>>From Charles Bremner in Paris

The Times, UK
Oct 12 2005

MYSTERY surrounded the resignation of a member of the Nobel Academy
yesterday, 48 hours before the prize for literature is due to
be awarded, amid speculation of a split over whether to honour a
dissident Turkish writer.

Knut Ahnlund said that he had resigned in protest over the award
last year to the little-known Elfriede Jelinek, of Austria, whose
work he described as “violent pornography”. Mr Ahnlund, 82, did not
explain why he had waited almost a year before lodging his protest,
increasing talk of a rift among members over the award for this year.

The announcement of this year’s literary honours had been delayed for
a week after the academy was reported to have disagreed on whether
to anoint Orhan Pamuk, 53, who has upset authorities in his country
by campaigning for official recognition that Turkey had carried
out genocide against the Armenians after the First World War. He
has been charged with “public denigration of the Turkish identity”,
and a prize for him would be certain to anger Turkey.

Mr Ahnlund wrote in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper that Jelinek’s
work was “a mass of text that appears shovelled together without
trace of artistic structure”. The 2004 prize, he said, “has not
only caused irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has
(also) confused the general view of literature as art. After this
I cannot even formally remain in the Swedish Academy.” Jelinek is
known to the right-wing Austrian media and political parties as
“the red pornographer”. The conservative US Weekly Standard said
that the academy had given the prize to “an unknown, undistinguished,
leftist fanatic”. In making last year’s decision, the academy cited
the “musical flow of voices and counter-voices” in her writing,
which draws heavily on sexuality and violence.

The Nobel Academy will announce this year’s winner tomorrow. In
addition to Pamuk, other writers tipped for the £760,000 prize
include Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates, of the United States,
Margaret Atwood, of Canada, and Nuruddin Farah, of Somalia. Some
Swedish insiders believe that the academy may award the prize to a
non-fiction writer. Two British precedents for this exist: Winston
Churchill, in 1953, and Bertrand Russell, in 1950.

Yesterday Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the academy, played
down Mr Ahnlund’s resignation, saying that he had not taken part in
the academy’s work since 1996.

The debate over the 2004 award has been in keeping with the disputes
that have often erupted around the sometimes quirky and politically
correct choices of the academy, whose 18 members are appointed for
life. Mr Ahnlund’s withdrawal reduces the active membership to 15.

Two other members, Kerstin Ekman and Lars Gyllensten, left in 1989
in protest at the academy’s failure to express support for Salman
Rushdie after the fatwa against him by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
the late Iranian leader.

The academy, which has been awarding the prize since 1901, has often
honoured mainstream authors such as Gabriel García Marquez and Rudyard
Kipling. It has also courted disfavour with governments by elevating
anti-establishment writers, and perplexity by anointing figures
little-known in their own countries. Boris Pasternak, the author of
Dr Zhivago, was forced by the Kremlin in 1959 to reject the prize,
which it deemed to have been motivated by anti-Soviet intentions.

Mr Engdahl said that criticism of the academy came largely from the
Englishspeaking publishing world. “A French or a German reader, or
writer or critic, is more likely to have access to the great dialogue
of literatures that Goethe called Weltliteratur,” he said.

–Boundary_(ID_KaGznGHUdPDheiAp8T1L/A)–

SERGE SARGSIAN: WE CANNOT REMAIN INDIFFERENT TO IRAQ AND KOSOVO

AZG Armenian Daily #183
12/10/2005

“We will possibly turn to the parliament to prolong the stay of our
peacekeepers in Iraq,” Mediamax agency quoted defense minister Serge
Sargsian as saying at the awarding ceremony of Armenian peacekeepers
yesterday. “You represented the Armenian armed forces with honor in
Iraq contributing thus to the authority of our country. On its way to
European integration Armenia cannot step back from the issues facing
the European family. We cannot remain indifferent and that’s why we
took part in peacekeeping missions in Iraq and Kosovo.”

Sargsian also stated that he will discuss issues of deepening
Armenian-American military cooperation at his forthcoming US
visit. Defense minister said no inner political issues of Armenia
will be discussed in the US: “I am not accustomed to discussing our
inner issues abroad.”

Speaking about Baku’s militant statements, Sargsian said that “certain
Azerbaijani leaders are intoxicated with oil dollars.” “Today’s
situation can be compared with that of the early 90s when the leaders
of Azerbaijan wanted to settle the Karabakh issue in a short while
by occupying Karabakh, Armenia or at least part of it. The war
showed that it was a wishful thinking, a legend that vanished on the
battlefield. Today, 11 years past the military operations, they again
sing the same old song,” Sargsian said.

DEFIXIONES: DIAMANDA GALAS
by Sybil Nolan

Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)
October 11, 2005 Tuesday

Where: Hamer Hall, Friday

DIAMANDA Galas’s one-woman show, Defixiones, intended to honour
the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek dead killed by Turks during the
disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in and after World War I.

How effective it was in its stated purpose depended on the audience’s
knowledge of this awful part of history, for we got little help from
the show itself.

Defixiones ran 80 minutes and was sung or recited in several languages,
including Greek and Turkish, with only a few minutes of English. Yet
the show lacked a narrative structure to explain the content to those
watching and listening.

This, then, was a Performance with a capital P, and you were either
spellbound by the voice and presence of Galas — who appeared covered
from head to toe in black robes, with only her face and hands showing
— or you were irrelevant.

It seemed there were many aficionados of this Californian Greek artist
in the audience, for she was rewarded with a standing ovation.

Galas has a truly amazing voice and uses it like a weapon to assault
the ears. Moving between piano and music stand on the darkened stage,
a microphone in front of her, a harsh soundtrack booming behind her,
she found 100 different ways to throw her voice.

Sometimes it evoked a long elegant spear, sometimes a stone discus
slowing spinning towards the audience. At one point, as Galas sat
in profile at the piano, I could have sworn it became a curved steel
blade flying above her head and exiting stage right, perhaps impaling
unwary stage crew in the wings.

Turkish Press.com
Published: 10/8/2005
40,000 People From Armenia Live Peacefully In Turkey, Bagis

SYDNEY – Egemen Bagis, the foreign policy advisor to Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Friday that 40,000 people who came to Turkey
from Armenia lived peacefully in Turkey.
Bagis, who is currently in Australia prior to the visit of Prime Minister
Erdogan to this country and New Zealand in December, met representatives of
an international policy think-thank organization named Lowy Institute in the
morning.
Speaking in the meeting and responding to questions, Bagis said that mutual
visits started between the two parties in Cyprus and no problems took place.
When asked what kind of a solution could be found in Cyprus, Bagis said,
”let’s persuade those two countries to get united under the same state,
country and flag or let’s make the UN Security Council take up the report of
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan about Cyprus once again.”
Responding to a question about the Armenian issue, Bagis said that Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the parties to make public the
documents they had regarding the ‘genocide claims’ and face their history.
”Although we opened our archives, Armenia hasn’t done that so far. It still
debates whether it should open the archives or not. Today there are 40,000
Armenians who came to Turkey from Armenia to live in our country. Our
citizens of Armenian origin are not included in that figure. These 40,000
Armenian citizens work in construction sites and some of their wives look
after our babies. Turkish families entrust Armenian women with taking care
of their children and it shows that Turks don’t have any hostility towards
Armenian people,” Bagis said.