Author: Nargizian David

December 5, 2008
Press Release
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 248-7737
Fax: (818) 248-7745
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

PRELATE AND DELEGATES PARTICIPATE IN THE CATHOLICOSATE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

On Monday, December 2nd, the General Assembly of the Catholicosate
of Cilicia convened in Antelias, Lebanon under the auspices of H.H.
Catholicos Aram I.
The Prelates and lay delegates from all Catholicosate Prelacies
participated in the assembly.
Over the four day period, the activities of the executive and
religious councils of the past six years were presented and evaluated. In
subsequent sessions, a wide range of issues were discussed.
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, arrived in Antelias
on Monday to participate in the assembly. In the week prior, the Prelate
was at the Vatican as part of the delegation of His Holiness on an official
visit to H.H. Pope Benedict XVI.

COMMEMORATION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIA EARTHQUAKE

Sunday, December 7th, marks the 20th anniversary of the earthquake
in Armenia. By the ordinance of the Prelate, special requiem services will
take place following Divine Liturgy in all Prelacy Churches.
At 6:00 p.m. on the same day, a commemoration will take place at
Glendale High School auditorium. The event has been organized by the
Armenian Consulate General of Los Angeles.
Clergy and council members will be in attendance.

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY ANNUAL CHRISTMAS GATHERING

The annual Christmas gathering of the Armenian Assembly will take
place on the afternoon of Sunday, December 7th, at the home of Stella Der
Rostomian in Glendale. During the gathering, guests will have the
opportunity to hear from newly appointed director of the Western Region
Yeghig Keshishian.
Pastor of Holy Cross Cathedral Rev. Fr. Ashod Kambouria will
represent the Prelate.

WELCOMING RECEPTION FOR MRS. ALICE PETROSSIAN

The Armenian National Committee Pasadena chapter has organized a
welcoming reception for Mrs. Alice Petrossian who was recently appointed
Chief Educator Officer of the Pasadena Unified School District. The
reception will take place on the afternoon of Sunday, December 7th, at the
Pasadena Armenian Center.
Pastor of St. Sarkis Church Rev. Fr. Khoren Babochian will represent
the Prelate.

DAVIDIAN AND MARIAMIAN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ANNUAL BANQUET

On the evening of Tuesday, December 2nd, the annual banquet of
Davidian and Mariamian Educational Foundation took place at Renaissance
banquet hall in Glendale.
At this year’s banquet, Vahan and Anoush Chamlian School was honored
as "Educational Institution of the Year" and Dr. Onnig Hairabedian as
"Educator of the Year".
Rev. Fr. Gomidas Torossian attended and conveyed the Prelate’s
blessings and remarks.

OATH OF OFFICE CEREMONY OF SUPERVISOR
MICHAEL ANTONOVICH

On the morning of Monday, December 1st, the Oath of Office Ceremony
for Los County Supervisor Michael Antonovich took place at the Kenneth Hahn
Hall of Administration in Los Angeles. The ceremony was followed by a
reception.
Very Rev. Fr. Muron Aznikian and Rev. Fr. Vazken Atmajian attended
on behalf of the Prelate and wished the Supervisor success in his service.

Patrick Devedjian nommé ministre pour le suivi de la Relance
Reuters 05.12.08 | 14h58

,14-0,3 9-37808340@7-37,0.html

PARIS (Reuters) – Patrick Devedjian est nommé ministre auprès du
Premier ministre, chargé de la mise en oeuvre du plan de relance
dévoilé par Nicolas Sarkozy, annonce vendredi l’Elysée.

"Sur la proposition du Premier ministre, le président de la République
a nommé M. Patrick Devedjian, ministre auprès du Premier ministre,
chargé de la mise en oeuvre du plan de relance", indique la présidence
française dans un communiqué.

Patrick Devedjian, un ancien ministre, occupait jusqu’à présent les
fonctions de secrétaire général de l’UMP, le parti majoritaire.

Yann Le Guernigou, édité par Sophie Louet

VLADIMIR PUTIN: OUR NEGOTIATIONS WITH ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER COVERED ALL TOPICS OF OUR COOPERATION IN ALL DIRECTIONS

ArmInfo
2008-12-05 19:59:00

ArmInfo. "Russian investments, the accrued volume of which amounts
to 1.6 bln USD, is a significant factor of recovery of Armenia’s
economy",- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a joint
briefing with Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.

The Russian governmental press-service quotes Putin as saying:
"Today we touched upon all topics of our cooperation in all
directions. Certainly, the issues of cooperation in the economic
sphere were the main direction".

According to him, in 2008 experts point out a good dynamics in the
bilateral trade and economic ties, the commodity turnover is steadily
growing, in 2007 it increased by almost 17%. Putin qualified expansion
of the activity of such large Russian companies as Gazprom, INTER RAO
UES, Russian Railways, as well as some Russian banks, particularly,
VTB in Armenia as quite useful.

Good prospects for joint projects are opening in such spheres
as color metallurgy, transport, construction, banking sphere and
information technology, he said. Putin stressed that the issues of
further promotion of bilateral economic ties are in the focus of the
Russian-Armenian inter-governmental commission’s attention. "I should
add that during the negotiations we assessed its work positively",-
he said and added that the cooperation will be developed. Putin said
that he also discussed with Tigran Sargsyan the further joint steps
in the trade and economic sphere.

"Certainly, we also spoke on problems related to the global
financial crisis which anyhow affects our countries",- Putin said. He
stressed that the Russian party is content with the course of Dec
5 negotiations.

According to the National Statistical Service, in Jan-Oct 2008
Armenia’s foreign trade turnover with Russia grew by 19,2% to
$866,2 mln.

ARMENIA, TURKEY TO CONTINUE IMPROVING RELATIONS

RIA Novosti
15:05 | 05/ 12/ 2008

YEREVAN, December 5 (RIA Novosti) – Armenia and Turkey have agreed to
continue talks on improving bilateral relations, the Armenian Foreign
Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan met with his Turkish
counterpart Ali Babacan in Helsinki, Finland on Thursday. "Nalbandyan
and Babacan agreed to continue talks," the ministry said.

The border between Turkey and ex-Soviet Armenia has been closed since
1993 on Ankara’s initiative. Turkey says Armenia must end attempts to
have the early 29th century massacre of Armenians in Turkey recognized
as an act of genocide, and must settle its territorial dispute with
Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh. Turkey supports its fellow Muslim
nation Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict.

Turkey says the deaths and deportations of Armenians at the end of
the Ottoman period in 1915 were caused by civil war rather than an
act of genocide. However, the majority of Western academics qualify
the massacre, which took the lives of around one-and-a-half million
Armenians, as genocide.

The issue is a controversial one in Turkey, and in 2005 the Turkish
Nobel Literature Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk, was charged with insulting
his homeland after he commented in the Swiss media that, "Thirty
thousand Kurds have been killed here, and a million Armenians. And
almost nobody dares to mention that. So I do."

The charges were later dropped after an international outcry. However,
a hate campaign which saw the writer’s book burned on the streets of
Istanbul forced the writer to flee his homeland.

Turkish president Abdullah Gul recently made a historic visit to
the Armenian capital of Yerevan, where he attended a 2010 World Cup
qualifier between the two countries with his Armenian counterpart,
Serzh Sarkisian.

Turkey won the match 2-0.

ARMENIAN PREMIER URGES PRIVATE SECTOR TO GET READY TO FIGHT GLOBAL CRISIS

ARKA
Dec 4, 2008

YEREVAN, December 4. /ARKA/. Armenia’s private sector and government
should combine efforts to soften the negative impact of the global
crisis on the country, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said opening
today the parliament’s session.

"The government is capable of supporting the private sector," the
premier said, adding the ministries should be well aware of the
economic situation to be able to tackle possible recession.

The committee for coordination of economic programs under the prime
minister’s supervision will respond promptly to challenges presented
by the global recession.

The committee will discuss proposals made by the private sector,
and the government will be guided by the complex anti-crisis program
while assisting local businesses, Sargsyan added.

The prime minister previously talked about the new instruments that
would help the government tackle the crisis. The government will
grant state subsidies to local enterprises if necessary.

The private sector can submit their programs and proposals to the
government to help them meet possible challenges. "The government
should help enterprises draw up and implement effective business
programs," Sargsyan said.

He did not rule out the government’s share in private enterprises. This
will contribute to effective implementation of state programs, the
0D premier concluded.

EXCHANGE RATE OF ARMENIAN DRAM AGAINST DOLLAR INCREASES BY 0.3% SINCE EARLY 2008

Noyan Tapan

Dec 1, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. Comsumer prices in Armenia and the
settlement exchange rate of the Armenian dram against the U.S. dollar
increased by 5.1% and 0.3% respectively in November 2008 on December
2007.

5.1% growth of consumer prices was accompanied by a 13.1% fall of the
settlement exchange rate of the dram in the same period of last year.

According to the RA National Statsistical Service, a 0.1% inflation
in the Armenian consumer market was accompanied by a 0.4% fall in
the settlement exchange rate of the dram against the dollar (the
dram appreciated) in November on October 2008. The average settlement
exchange rate of the Armenian dram made 305.13 drams in November 2008,
which was lower by 3.7% as compared with the respective index of 2007
(316.85 drams).

GEOPROMINIG IS READY TO INVEST $350MLN IN GOLD MINING IN ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2008-12-01 20:52:00

ArmInfo. In 2009-2011 GeoProMinig is going to invest $350mln in
gold mining in Armenia, Director General of GPM GOLD LLC (company of
GeoProMining Group) Dmitry Kalandadze said during the first melting
of gold at Ararat Gold Recovery Factory.

Members of the Armenian Government and the top managers of GeoProMining
attended the ceremony.

Kalandadze said that the money would be spent on modernization
of the existing factory and the construction of a new plant and a
tailing dump. The greater part of the money will be provided by the
shareholders, the remaining part will be borrowed from international
financial organizations.

After 1.5-year idleness due to purchase procedures, in early Nov 2008
GeoProMining started to develop Sotq deposit in northern Armenia.

Each year the company is planning to mine and recover 25,000-30,000
ounces of gold. This is not enough for earning profit."When
GeoProMining bought Ararat Gold Recovery Company we promised to
launch it and we have kept our promise even despite the present global
crisis. We are not seeking profit for the moment. Our priority is to
solve the social problems and to provide people with work as after a
long downtime we may lose highly-qualified personnel," Kalandadze said.

He pointed out that since the purchase of AGRC GeoProMining had already
invested $15mln for kee ping GPM GOLD LLC in working condition,
particularly, $8mln has been spent on restart of the factory and
organization of railroad transportation of ore from Sotq deposit to
Ararat. $3mln-3.5mln more will be spent for this purpose by the end
of this year.

D.Kalandadze said that the first 10-12 kg bars of Dore bead with 40-50%
gold content and 50-60% silver content will shortly be sent to Johnson
Matthey affinage plant for final processing, afterwards they will be
sent to the London Metal Exchange within ten days. The gold price is
still stable and the company’s leadership hopes that the price will
not drop, he said.

First Vice President of GeoProMining Group Roman Khudoley (Moscow)
said that he has come to congratulate the personnel and leadership
of the company on the first melting. The group implemented all its
liabilities while the world faces a crisis, and here a great role
belongs to the personnel and leadership, he said.

For his part, Armenian Economy Minister Nerses Yeritsyan told
journalists that GeoProMining displayed a good will having launched
the company and implemented thereby its liabilities. The pledge of
the work success is still the stable price of gold and adherence
to the investment program approved by the Armenian government,
the minister said. He added that the new shareholders promised to
introduce new technologies of gold mining and work methods supported
by the government.

To recal l, in August 2007 the Indian group Vedanta Resources signed an
agreement on selling 82,4% of shares in Canadian company StÒ~PrlitÒ~P
Gold, the main asset of which was the Ararat Gold Recovery Company
(AGRC) of GeoProMining company included in the Industrial Investors
Group. The total amount of the package sale made up $86 mln.

–Boundary_(ID_X9rxOs4KETiv5kmyDciFsg)–

Hindu, India
Nov 29 2008

India-Armenia chess series

NEW DELHI: The champions of tomorrow from India and Armenia face-off
in the inaugural three-round Friendship chess (under-21) series
beginning at the Russian Centre here on November 30.

World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta (rated 2,536), fellow Grandmaster
S. Arun Prasad (2,530), International Masters G. Rohit (2,457), World
boys (under-16) champion B. Adhiban (2,439) and reserve player Deep
Sengupta (2,438) form the Indian team. Action will be held on four
boards on each of the three days.

Armenia’s strong four-player squad comprises former World junior
champion GM Zaven Andriasian (2,561), GM Hrant Melkumyan (2,541),
Avetik Grigoryan (2,513) and Samvel Ter-Sahkeyan (2,495).

A brainchild of Armenia’s Ambassador Ashot Kocharian, the series is
likely to be an annual event and a prelude to a possible series
between the National teams of the two nations.

`In Armenia, everyone plays chess, much like the way Indians play
cricket,’ said Mr. Kocharian here on Thursday.

`Viswanathan Anand recently won the biggest title in the game and our
National men’s team has retained the won the Chess Olympiad title two
days ago.

`So at present, the two nations hold the two big titles. Since our
President is also the head of our chess federation, I am sure we can
work towards having a series between our National teams,’ said the
chess-loving Armenian Ambassador.

Vidya Jain triumphs

Vidya Jain School beat Modern School by six wickets in the G.C. Mittal
Memorial cricket tournament to win the M.L. Sharma Trophy on Friday.

The scores:

Modern School 175 in 41.3 overs (Dhruv Shorey 55, Unmukt Chand 52)
lost to Vidya Jain School 176 for four in 33.4 overs (Nitish Rana 45,
Nakul Sharma 44).

Big win for Indian Oil

At Gurgaon, Inderjit Singh scored three goals as Indian Oil thrashed
CRPF 12-1 in a quarterfinal league match of the 19th Lal Bahadur
Shastri hockey tournament on Friday.

Apart from Inderjit (eighth, 52nd and 67th minutes), Deepak Thakur
(10th and 56th), V. Raghunath (42nd and 47th) and Hamza Mujtaba (54th
and 70th) struck a brace each.

Prabhjot Singh (24th), Rajpal Singh (28th) and Bharat Chikara (37th)
netted once each in the goal feast.

Amritvir Singh (46th) scored the consolation goal for CRPF.

Other results:

BPCL 2 (Sabu Varkey 8, Jaknail 27) bt South Central Railway 1 (Mayank
James 32).

ONGC 2 (Amit Bhargav 20, K.H. Jayanta Meitei 26) bt Namdhari XI 1
(Malak Singh 3).

Air India 1 (Sandeep Singh 67) drew with Punjab National Bank 1
(Jalwinder Singh 70).

AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
Nov 26 2008

British group proposes peace tea project
26-11-2008 22:05:26

International Alert, a London-based conflict resolution group working
in over 20 countries, has initiated the creation of a new Caucasus
Tea. The new product will be made of Georgian, Abkhaz, Azerbaijani and
Armenian teas.
The suggestion is intended to foster economic cooperation and develop
private enterprise in the Caucasus. The only shortcoming of the idea
is the lack of the existence of an Armenian tea.

ALMOST 54 MILLION DRAMS OF DAMAGE

A1+
[12:57 pm] 27 November, 2008

The Syunik Marz firefighting inspectorate has registered 96 fires this
year. The amount of damage makes up 54 million 183 thousand drams. But
the year is not over yet. In 2007, there were 71 fires registered.

The reasons for the fires varied-from lack of security to carelessness.

There was a 23 million 506 thousand dram damage caused from a car
that was burnt in Iran on the Kapan-Artsvanik road last month alone.

There are also many fires in homes, mainly in high-story buildings
due to wrong installment of heaters.

The inspectorate is also fined and the minimum fine is 200,000 drams.