Author: Tambiyan Samvel

COUNCIL OF EUROPE DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL TO VISIT ARMENIA

armradio.am
17.05.2008 13:02

The Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Maud de
Boer-Buquicchio, will visit Yerevan (Armenia) to participate in a
conference on domestic violence, organised by the Armenian Ministry
of Labour and Social Affairs on 20 May.

During her visit, Ms de Boer-Buquicchio is due to meet with the
President of the National Assembly of Armenia, Tigran Torosyan, the
Prime Minister, Tigran Sargsyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Edward Nalbandian, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arman
Kirakossian, the Minister of Justice, Gevorg Danielyan, the Minister of
Labor and Social Affairs, Aghvan Vardanyan and the Armenian Ombudsman
Armen Harutyunyan.

"DIGITEC BUSINESS" TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN ON JUNE 26-27

Noyan Tapan

Ma y 15, 2008

YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. DigiTec Business forum on the use of IT
in various business sectors will be held at Yerevan’s Armenia Marriott
Hotel on June 26-27. Representatives of about 3,000 companies of
IT and other sectors, various organizations, state departments are
expected in participate in the event. The director general of the
event’s organizer – the Union of IT Enterprises (UITE) Karen Vardanian
announced that at the May 14 joint press conference with the heads of
the structures assiting with the organization of the forum: Mikael
Hovsepian – deputy CEO of the Union of Banks of Armenia (UBA) and
Arsen Ghazarian – chairman of the Union of Employers (Manufacturers
and Businessmen) of Armenia (UMBA).

According to K. Vardanian, the efficiency of business and its
competitiveness in the foreign and domestic markets are one of the
main guarantees of Armenia’s economic development. The introduction
and use of ICT in the various sectors of business contribute to
its efficiency. He informed those present that an exhibition will
be held during DigiTec Business, at which a number of ICT companies
providing services in the banking sector, mining industry, tourism,
health, education, trade, construction and transport will present
their solutions for business automation.

A. Ghazarian said that a more widespread use of ICT in Armenian
companies will help increase the efficiency of their management and
their financial transparency and to reduce the shadow economy. In his
words, Armenian IT companies also have potential for participation in
the programs on introduction of e-governance systems by the Armenian
government. He expressed a hope that the joint work of UITE and UMBA
on introduction of ICT will have continuous character.

M. Hovsepian said that UBA is interested in developing ICT in banks
in order to improve the quality of their work. Besides, the increased
level of financial transparency of enterprises engaged in the real
sector of the economy – thanks to the use of ICT at these enterprises –
results in increased financial flows through these banks.

NEW APPOINTMENTS

Azat Artsakh Daily
Published on May 15, 2008
NKR Republic

Today the Prime Minister Ara Harutynyan has signed NKR government’s
decisions about personnel changes in the two boards of administrations
of the republic. Vahram Baghdasarian has been appointed leader of
Askeran’s board of adminstration. In that post he has taken the place
of Samvel Harutyunyan. Kamo Martirosian has taken the palce of Lernik
Ghevondian who has been relieved of his post of Kashatagh’s board
of administration.

ART FRAMES COLORFUL LIFE OF SAROYAN
By Felicia Cousart Matlosz

The Fresno Bee
05/09/08 17:04:01

Writer is the inspiration for Carol Tikijian’s art museum show.

Artist Carol Tikijian’s 15-year journey via a black-and-white dotted
line has led her to the planetary steps of William Saroyan.

In a vivid contemporary exhibit at the Fresno Art Museum, Tikijian’s
six door-sized, gold-accented mixed media panels — as well as her
intricate black-and-white drawings — thrive against the deep-hued
red walls of the gallery. One panel is called "Come On-a My House,"
a cozy memory of an Armenian grandmother’s home: a red Persian rug;
pomegranates piled in a large, antique pot; a small kitchen device
used to make Armenian coffee; and a quilt popping with small squares
in all kinds of color.

Of course, that title also is the name of the famous Rosemary Clooney
1951 hit song written by Saroyan and his cousin, Ross Bagdasarian. As
you spend time in the exhibit, the lively tune plays in a regular
rotation. Clooney’s warm voice is a connective point for this art that
is a biographical take on the famous writer, his Armenian ancestry
and his world.

The other link flows from Tikijian’s black-and-white dotted line. She
says she started using the line as a metaphor for a journey or a
path. So, in this show, it follows Saroyan’s path. It’s there, running
down the right side of "Come On-a My House." Or providing a large
circle for a floor installation marking moments in Saroyan’s life.

The exhibit, which ends Sunday, is called "Why Abstract? William
Saroyan’s Dotted Line." The term "Why Abstract?" is the title of
a 1945 book mostly written by Hilaire Hiler (sounds like, as Time
magazine once said, kill-care smiler). Hiler was many things, including
a painter, a musician and a psychologist whose paths crossed with
Saroyan. Tikijian says that Saroyan contributed to the book, writing
about how artists feel more deeply and sense things more deeply.

The show comes in a year celebrating the centennial of Saroyan’s
birth in Fresno in 1908. Tikijian’s aim is that visitors leave the
gallery with an enhanced insight into Saroyan.

"I don’t expect people to understand what I’m doing cold," says
Tikijian, who has been an exhibiting artist for more than 30 years
and is a member of Gallery 25 in Fresno. "I know that’s not going to
happen, but if they just glean an essence that might lead them toward
an understanding — of, in this case, William Saroyan — that’s what
I hope to do."

Tikijian’s art here is accessible. "I like art that is open-ended,"
she says. "I like people to bring their own interpretations to it.
Oftentimes, I’m pleasantly surprised by what someone gets out of it
that I didn’t put into it intentionally."

The exhibit sprung from an invitation by Jacquelin Pilar, the museum’s
curator. "Carol has such an immediate sense of living life in a full
way," says Pilar, who adds that there’s a "real vibrancy" to Tikijian
and her art.

Pilar says visitors "absolutely love" the exhibit. It also will be
shown in the fall at a Merced arts center.

"Her work is expressive, and I felt that she brought to this work
the kind of characteristics that Saroyan also brought to his work."

Which brings us back to "Come On-a My House." Tikijian says she was
thinking of what her grandmother’s home was like in creating the
panel. And Saroyan is there, not just in the title of the song he
co-wrote or in the lyrics painted in the background, but physically as
well. A framed photo of him as an older man sits on what looks like
the end of an aged, narrow white-wooden table. Next to the picture
is a glass jar of pennies.

Tikijian, who did a lot of research for her exhibit, explains the
pennies connect to Saroyan’s brilliant short story, "The Daring Young
Man on the Flying Trapeze," about a young writer dying of starvation.
She says the main character finds a penny in a gutter and wonders
how many pennies it takes to stay alive.

Those are the kind of layers that deepen this exhibition. The floor
installation, for example, includes a Saroyan bicycle on loan from the
Fresno Metropolitan Museum, and two piles of earth, one from Fresno and
one from Armenia. Tikijian says his ashes are buried in both places.

"It is like the beginning and ending of his life," she says. "And
earth is an important part of his writing. He talks about the earth
and being from the Central Valley."

There also is a crate of lettuce, marking the time Tikijian saw
Saroyan. She was a student at California State University, Fresno,
in the early 1970s. Saroyan spoke to a club to which she belonged, and
several agriculture majors were there as well. She remembers Saroyan
spoke in support of farm labor leader Cesar Chavez’s lettuce boycott,
and the ag students stomped out: "It really stayed with me."

The gallery is divided into two spaces. Nine exquisite and intricate
black-and-white drawings line the walls toward the back. They feature
circular and labyrinth patterns — representing, for example, Saroyan’s
bicycle wheels and travel, meditative journeys and direction. Feathers
symbolize him as a writer and a free spirit. His written words also
are incorporated into these designs, as they are in the panels.

It was important to Tikijian to present a fully dimensional Saroyan.
Hence, there’s the black-and-white dotted line looping around a pair
of female legs adorned with a youthful black polka-dotted gold skirt
in "Double Helix." The panel reflects aspects of his personal life,
chiefly his relationship with his two children and their mother,
Carol Marcus, whom he twice married and divorced.

There’s also the homage to Armenian people in another panel that
evokes their spirit and strength. The piece includes a powerfully
written passage by Saroyan about his ancestry; the number 1915,
which is the year that the Armenian genocide started; and a pair
of black boots representing those forced out of their homes and,
in many cases, to their deaths.

All these aspects are elements in the 72-year timeline of Saroyan’s
life. As Tikijian says: "I wanted to show a complete William Saroyan."

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559)
441-6428.

EDGAR MANUCHARIAN DOES NOT SEE HIS FUTURE IN AJAX

Noyan Tapan

Ma y 13, 2008

AMSTERDAM, MAY 13, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. Ajax striker Edgar
Manucharyan has admitted he does not have a future at the club. The
21-year-old has not played a single minute for the first team this
campaign and does not want the same thing to happen next season.

IN OPINION OF TURK HISTORIAN, "IF ARMENIANS WERE NOT EXILED, TURKEY WOULD FACE MORE SERIOUS PROBLEMS TODAY"

3307
Noyan Tapan
May 13, 2008

ANKARA, MAY 14, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. The Turkish "Kanal-1"
TV channel broadcast the speech of historian Murad Bardakce, who had
recently published one of the diaries of Taleat pasha. In his April
26 speech Murad Bardakce read extracts from an interview with the
widow of Taleat pasha and declared that Armenians did not fulfil the
orders of Taleat and revolted and that there was not a genocide but
a war between two peoples at the beginning of the century.

Murad Bardakce mentioned that exile was not a good thing and at the
same time considered it to be a right solution as, according to him,
if Armenians were not exiled, Turkey would face much more serious
problems today.

The Roanoke Times (Virginia)
May 9, 2008 Friday

Armenian dentist works to be hygienist in U.S.: Armen Grigoryan will
graduate today from Virginia Western Community College.

by David Harrison, The Roanoke Times, Va.

May 9–Armen Grigoryan is looking forward to finally working on teeth
again.

Eight years after moving to the United States, Grigoryan, a dentist
from Armenia, will graduate today with an associate degree in dental
hygiene from Virginia Western Community College. He is one of 16 newly
minted dental hygienists and one of roughly 600 students who will
graduate from the school.

"I’ve been around dentistry all my life," said Grigoryan, whose mother
also is a dentist. "When it came time to make a decision and do
something, I knew I was going to be a dentist."

After getting a dentistry degree in Armenia, Grigoryan practiced for a
few years before moving to the United States. He settled briefly in
Los Angeles before moving to Roanoke.

But his foreign degree and his work experience are not recognized in
this country. If Grigoryan wanted to be a dentist here, he would have
had to start dental school again. Instead, he worked in retail until
enrolling in Virginia Western’s dental hygiene program.

As a dental hygienist, Grigoryan will perform duties such as teeth
cleaning, exams and X-rays. He still can’t work as a dentist but, to
him, being a dental hygienist is good enough for now.

"Since I was a little child, I was fascinated by all the tools and all
that stuff," he said.

His mother tried to dissuade him from a career in dentistry, noting
that the job is hard on a dentist’s spine and eyes, but Grigoryan
wouldn’t budge.

Although he’s already been trained as a dentist, Grigoryan still found
the Virginia Western program "very intense." "And it should be because
when people go to the hygienist they want to know that this person is
trained to do it," he added.

The program’s head, Marty Roberson, described Grigoryan as an "ideal
student," one who never trumpeted his previous dental experience.

"He came in with a wide-open mind and said, ‘I’m a sponge and I want
to learn,’ " she said.

Part of the training involved working on patients who signed up for
free dental cleanings and exams through the college. The students see
their patients in an exam room in the school’s Anderson Hall, where 10
dentists’ chairs are arranged in a half-circle.

"Armen is really good at explaining things to patients in his chair,"
she added. "He gets great compliance."

For his part, Grigoryan said he was a little rusty after eight years
away from teeth. But he was able to shake off the rust easily.

"It’s like riding a bicycle," he said. You don’t forget.

Now that he’s done with school, Grigoryan is looking for a job as a
dental hygienist in Roanoke. He said he wasn’t sure whether he wanted
to go back to dental school.

Roberson, however, didn’t hesitate.

"I do hope Armen does go back and gets his dentist’s license because I
think he would be an excellent contribution to the profession."

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
May 8 2008

Baku Angered by US Criticism

Americans accused of interfering in forthcoming Azerbaijani
presidential election.

By Leila Amirova in Baku (CRS No. 443 07-May-08)

A war of words over Azerbaijan’s democratic record has damaged
relations between Baku and Washington, less than six months before
Azerbaijan’s presidential elections.

Both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George Bush
have made critical remarks about Azerbaijan in the last month,
eliciting a furious response from Azerbaijani officials.

Speaking to the US Peace Corps 2008 Worldwide Country Director
Conference on April 29, Rice said, `[In] the Caucasus ¦ not so much
Georgia, but Azerbaijan [and] to a certain extent Armenia¦ there is
important work to be done¦to bring that part of the Caucasus closer
to [democratic] standards that we thought they were once meeting. And
it has been a disappointment.’

Rice said that the failure to resolve the Nagorny Karabakh conflict
was holding back both Azerbaijan and Armenia.

President Bush, in a speech to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 1,
underlined the country’s poor record on detention of journalists. "In
2007, for the ninth consecutive year, China remained the world’s top
jailer of journalists, followed by Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, and
Azerbaijan," he said.

Azerbaijan has been criticised in the past. What seemed to rankle this
time with Azerbaijani officials this time was that their country had
been set below its traditional enemy, Armenia, despite Armenia’s
recent disputed elections, bloody street clashes and state of
emergency. The Georgian government also brutally suppressed opposition
demonstrators last November.

Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim said that US
officials had been misinformed.

`The assessment of the situation in our region displays double
standards. We do not shoot at demonstrators, do not kill them, do not
impose a state of emergency or shut down independent media,’ he said,
in a reference to Armenia.

`There is an impression that in Washington they do not have a real
picture of the region, which is very disappointing when you take into
account the relationship of strategic partnership between Azerbaijan
and the USA.’

Ramiz Mekhtiev, the veteran head of the presidential office, was even
more scathing.

`Condoleezza Rice’s statements about Azerbaijan cannot be taken
seriously,’ he said. `You can only conclude from her words that
Azerbaijan ought to copy the March events in Armenia so as to earn a
good report on us.’

Political analyst Mubariz Ahmedoglu argued that Azerbaijan was in a
better situation than either of its two neighbours and that Rice
`wants to see Azerbaijan as a client state of the USA’.

The Azerbaijani opposition, however, which is currently considering
whether to announce a boycott of October’s presidential elections,
took heart from the criticism.

`The Azerbaijani authorities need to take criticism against them more
seriously,’ said Isa Gambar, head of the opposition Musavat party.

`Declarations that President Bush and Secretary of State Rice are not
properly informed about the situation in Azerbaijan are
astonishing. Instead of doing that they need to properly assess the
situation in the country and take steps to improve it.’

Head of the Liberal Party Lala Shovket said she hoped the statements
would force the authorities to hold more democratic elections later
this year.

`We also hold the opinion that there is an undeclared state of
emergency in the country, we cannot hold rallies or speak on
television,’ she told Trend news agency.

The row became even more heated when the US embassy in Baku announced
it was allocating the sum of three million dollars in technical help
and media assistance to help make the elections more free and fair. US
ambassador Anne Derse also called on the opposition not to boycott the
polls.

Presidential official Ramiz Mehtiev was scornful of the initiative.

`Personally, as a citizen of Azerbaijan, I regard the allocation of
three million dollars by the USA for our presidential elections as
interference in the internal affairs of the country,’ he said. `I
don’t consider it normal. The US would not permit the interference of
another country into its internal processes, so why should that happen
in Azerbaijan?’

Opposition member of parliament Fazil Gazanfaroglu also criticised the
American plans saying, `I think that non-governmental organisations
ought to control and monitor this initiative by the embassy of the USA
so that government officials and members of the opposition who are
close to them don’t share out the money amongst themselves. That’s
what happened to the money allocated for the last elections.’

Recently, most of the criticism against Azerbaijan has focussed on the
issue of the harassment and imprisonment of journalists. In April
alone, 72 incidents against journalists were recorded by the League of
Democratic Journalists, four media employees received death threats
and the city authorities in Baku banned the sale of newspapers on the
street or at bus stops. Twenty one journalists went on hunger strike.

Another US State Department report which praised Azerbaijan for its
positive contribution to the `war on terror’ went virtually unnoticed
in Baku.

Analysts say that this kind of criticism of Azerbaijan’s democratic
credentials has been heard before. What is different this time is the
response.

`The USA always spent money on observing elections and in principle
nothing new has happened,’ said commentator Ilgar Mamedov. `The only
thing that’s changed is the attitude of Azerbaijan. And that is
connected to the fact that the authorities feel more confident because
of the inflow of petro-dollars, greater geopolitical opportunism and
the importance of our country when it comes to the energy security of
Europe.’

Leila Amirova is a freelance journalist in Baku.

;s=f&o=3 44521&apc_state=henh

HEAD OF PASSPORT AND VISA DEPARTMENT DENIES RUMORS ABOUT GROWTH IN
NUMBER OF PERSONS LEAVING ARMENIA

YEREVAN, MAY 7, NOYAN TAPAN. The number of persons returning to Armenia
exceeds 1,5 times the number of those leaving the country," head of the
RA Police Passport and Visa Department, Colonel Alvina Zakarian
declared at the May 7 press conference, denying the rumors about an
increase in the number of persons leaving Armenia. According to her, 54
families rejected so-called green cards (status of a permanent resident
of a country) in 2007, while 25 families rejected green cards in the
first 4 months of this year. 799 citizens have applied to their
department with the request to be granted Armenian citizenship in 2008,
most of them are citizens of Georgia, Russia, Lebanon, Turkmenistan and
the U.S. 188 citizens received dual citizenship under decrees of the
Armenian president, while after adoption of the RA Law on Dual
Citizenship, the department sustained 1,417 persons’ applications for
dual citizenship.

In her words, as was announced earlier, in 2010 Armenia intends to
introduce a new passport system but the current passports will be in
force until their date of expiry.

A. Zakarian provided explanations about some provisions of the RA Law
on Foreigners concerning the terms of residence permit and entry visas.
She underlined that without an invitation sent beforehand, residents of
not all countries may receive a visa to cross the Armenian border.
Among these countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China,
Egypt, India, Iraq, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Vietnam amd Syria.

Article 301: Same law, different words

armradio.am
03.05.2008 13:11

On Wednesday, April 30, 2008, the Turkish Parliament adopted the AKP
bill which `amends’ the disturbing article 301 that penalizes freedom
of expression in Turkey. The amendment, which consists only of
replacing the crime of `insulting Turkishness’ with that of `insulting
the Turkish nation,’ was adopted by 250 votes for and 65 against. In
addition, prosecutions will now have to be pre-approved by the Ministry
of Justice and the maximum penalty will be reduced from three to two
years imprisonment.

For several years now, article 301, in its initial form, has been
widely invoked to prosecute any author of dissident opinions on Turkish
taboos such as the Armenian Genocide and its acknowledgment, the
Kurdish issue or the occupation of Cyprus. A segment of the Turkish
public opinion considers that the charges against journalist Hrant
Dink, at that time, for his article led to his tragic assassination in
January 2007.

Throughout Europe and even in Turkey, a number of entities have
denounced this parody of reform and have demanded a complete abolition
of article 301 and other clauses.

The general view is that the `reform’ will not change anything with
respect to the critical situation regarding freedom of expression in
Turkey and intellectuals will still be prosecuted. Indeed, the Turkish
Minister of Justice intervened during the debates in Parliament to make
clear that `with this law, there is no question of letting people
freely insult the Turkish identity’.

`This so-called reform is a joke’, declared Hilda Tchoboian, the
chairperson of the European Armenian Federation. `It curiously
resembles the manipulation of article 305, which remained absolutely
identical in its punitive clauses, but from which the Turkish
Parliament just removed the statement of motives that cited the
Armenian Genocide and the occupation of Cyprus,’ she explained.

`The European Union should not let itself be anaesthetized by this
gross manipulation of words,’ stated Hilda Tchoboian.