Author: Toganian Liana

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT WELCOMES PREMIER’S TRANSPARENT ACTIVITIES

ARKA
Apr 10, 2009

YEREVAN, April 10. /ARKA/. RA President Serzh Sargsyan welcomes RA
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s transparent activities.

"I think we should welcome the Prime Minister’s transparent activities,
everyone should welcome his determination and the Government’s
confidence in the future," President Sargsyan stated at a news
conference on the 1st anniversary of his presidency.

"No government in the world considers this period a good one,"
Sargsyan said.

"As to the Armenian Government, I think that the crisis is not only
the Government’s problem or an Armenian phenomenon. However, we all
must be united and stand side by side with the Government for it to
be able to temper the impacts," Sargsyan said.

The Armenian President pointed out that the Government’s anti-crisis
program is, on the one hand, in harmony with other Governments’
programs, and, on the other hand, has its specific features because
the crisis is complicated by a number of problems in Armenia.

Specifically, the Armenian population received financial assistance
from the Diaspora, and part of the population earned their living
abroad, mainly in Russia. However, most of them are now unemployed.

"I am happy that we were able to form a political coalition before
the crisis and to implement the right personnel policy. I think=2
0that the criticism against the government is natural," Sargsyan said.

According to him, every government must be ready to listen to criticism
and "instead of feeling hurt, draw necessary conclusions."

"We have chosen the way and I think that we have not an easier or
better way," Sargsyan said.

SERZH SARGSYAN: CONSEQUENCES OF MARCH 1 HAVE NOT BEEN OVERCOME, THERE IS NO SOLIDARITY IN SOCIETY

Noyan Tapan
Apr 10, 2009

YEREVAN, APRIL 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The consequences of the tragic events
that happened on March 1, 2008 in Yerevan have not been overcome, there
is no solidarity in society, RA President Serzh Sargsyan stated at the
April 10 press conference dedicated to the one year of his tenure. He
emphasized that he seeks solidarity. "However, it is obvious that
maybe I do not master all ways, because if I mastered, there would
be a general peace in our society in a short time. However, the man
has the ability of thinking and developing. I also has that ability,
I am thinking to see what other steps to take to establish calmness
in our society. If I knew, I would take all steps," S. Sargsyan said.

He said that he shares the anxiety of media and society connected
with the March 1 events, but he does not share the opinion that
there are illegally imprisoned people, political prisoners in the
country. Answering a question about granting an amnesty, S. Sargsyan
gave assurance that the RA President should exercise his rights
when the trial stage regarding the post-electoral period is over
in Armenia. "I do not exclude that an amnesty can be granted, but
I have seen no power that announces in advance that it is going to
grant an amnesty in several days, in a week or in several months. The
time will come, and we will see," S. Sargsyan said. Reminding that
28 people appealed to him for mercy and were granted an amnesty,
the President expressed readiness to consider any appeal for mercy.

S. Sargsyan stated that everybody is to blame for the March 1 events,
including Police forces. According to him, criminal cases were filed
in connection with policemen’s actions, but there are no arrested and
imprisoned policemen, as there are no concrete facts. According to S.

Sargsyan’s estimation, the actions of Police lacked professional skill,
which is not the fault of the Police, but was the consequence of the
general situation. "We are obliged to have a large, efficient army,
to spend huge resources on Armed Forces, and the Police for years
running was financed by the rest principle. That is the reason
that overdue special means were used, their number was small and
professional preparedness level low," S. Sargsyan said.

He said that every power is obliged to establish law and
order. Depending on the fact what way of struggle is chosen against
the authorities, they have to undertake adequate measures. "If the
law-breakers did not use fire-arms on March 1, I am sure that the
Police would not use fire-arms," S. Sargsyan stated.

ARMENIAN LEADER ON "GENOCIDE" RECOGNITION, KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

Public Television of Armenia
April 7 2009

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has said that the recognition as
genocide of the killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in the early
1900s is about justice. In an interview with German sociologist Tilman
Alert, aired on Armenian Public TV on 7 April, Sargsyan said that the
day when the Turkish president visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial
would be "one of the happiest moments" in his life.

"I don’t think that a Turkish president may pay a visit to the
Genocide Memorial in the visible future," Sargsyan said. "If
something like that happens, it would be one of the happiest moments
in my life because no Armenian doubts the fact of the genocide. For
Armenians, the recognition of the genocide is not an end in itself;
nor do Armenians want an additional confirmation of the fact of the
genocide. The recognition is more about preventing things; it is more
related to justice."

Speaking about the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict settlement and
developments, Sargsyan, who himself comes from this breakaway
Azerbaijani region, said he would be glad to resign from politics
if the Karabakh conflict was settled. "The happiest day in my life
would be the day when Azerbaijan recognizes the self-determination
right of Nagornyy Karabakh, and Nagornyy Karabakh is declared either
an independent state or unites with Armenia, and I resign," he said.

The rest of the interview was about Sargsyan’s life, with almost no
political statements. Speaking about his early years, Sargsyan said
he had planned to become a historian when in school but then decided
to study the Armenian language and literature so enrolled in Yerevan
State University. Sargsyan spoke about his background, family, brothers
and other relatives. He said that while being a senior member of the
Communist Party in Nagornyy Karabakh in the late 1980s, he chose to
join the popular movement in 1988 when the Karabakh people rose to
cede from Azerbaijan.

EXPERT URGES ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT TO BACK COUNTRY’S JEWELRY MAKING

ARKA
Apr 10, 2009

YEREVAN, April 10. /ARKA/. Government intervention is necessary to
boost Armenia’s jewelry-making business, Director of Yerevan Jewelry
Factory Emil Grigoryan said Thursday at an exhibition of jeweler’s
art books at Armenia’s National Library.

The main problems of the sector are connected with handling the new
marketing policy, he said, urging the government to help the local
jewelry-making business address the existing problems.

Director of the Armenian National Library David Sargsyan pointed out at
the opening ceremony the ancient traditions of Armenian jeweler’s art.

Rafik Harutyunyan, member of the RA Library Association Board, stressed
the importance of state-of-the-art jewelry making in Armenia. He
emphasized the role of retraining marketing specialists to work in
jewelry making business, as well as ensuring the design-sales-marketing
chain.

"OBAMA SAID HIS VIEWS ON THE KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY, WHICH HE HAS PREVIOUSLY REFERRED TO AS GENOCIDE, HAVE NOT CHANGED"

AZG DAILY
09-04-2009

Turkish press; Armenian-Turkish relations

"On the margins of tonight’s Alliance of Civilizations dinner, the
president met the foreign ministers of Turkey, Armenia and Switzerland
to commend their efforts toward Turkish-Armenian normalization and
to urge them to complete an agreement with dispatch," a senior US
official told reporters in Istanbul on Monday evening, according to
Turkish Zaman.

According to the newspaper, "prospects of normal relations between
Turkey and Armenia have caused great unease in Azerbaijan, where
politicians and the media criticize the Turkish government for its
efforts aimed at peace with Armenia despite a lack of progress on
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem".

Speaking at a meeting with Cabinet ministers and high-level state
officials on Monday night, Aliyev declared that Nagorno-Karabakh will
never be independent despite Armenian efforts to that effect. Aliyev
insisted that the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh would never be
accepted by the international community.

Zaman underlines that "any move toward reconciliation with Armenia
requires a careful balancing act for Turkish foreign policy makers,
who do not want to harm Ankara’s strategic ties with Azerbaijan. Normal
ties between Turkey and Armenia could help shore up stability in the
Southern Caucasus, crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines which make
it of strategic importance to Russia, Europe and the United States,
and push Armenia away from Russia toward the US-led Western camp. But
possible damage to Turkish-Azerbaijani ties also poses risks to Turkey
and the West. Azerbaijan is a major supplier of natural gas and oil,
transported to Western markets through Turkish territory, and thus
represents a key alternative to Russia as an energy supplier".

Speaking after talks with President Abdullah Gul on Monday, Obama
said his views on the killings of Armenians in the early 20th century,
which he has previously referred to as genocide, have not changed, but
he signaled that he would not use the word "genocide" in a traditional
message US presidents issue on April 24, Turkish Zaman reports.

GAGIK SHAMSHYAN – "I WON’T PAY ONE DRAM IN FINES"
Ararat Davtyan

hetq.am/en/court/gshamshyan-2/
2009/04/08 | 13:20

Court important

The trial of Gagik Shamshyan, a photo-journalist for the "Aravot"
and "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" newspapers, continued today at the
Kentron and Nork-Marash district court. During the trial, lawyer for
the prosecution Levon Dzarkhifalakyan motioned the court to fine
Mr. Shamshyan in the amount of five hundred times his salary for
showing disrespect to the court.

Mr. Shamshyan noted, "This was the greatest surprise of the entire
trial for me. I really believed that before the elections they’d send
me on extended vacation. The regime would have gotten rid of me and
I from them."

Defense lawyer Hovik Arsenyan stated that he is convinced that had
Mr. Shamshyan not refused to offer testimony such political persecution
of his client wouldn’t have occured.

Mr. Shamshayn is accused of calling presiding Judge Gagik Avetisyan a
"cow" and a "dolt". The defendant called the accusations ridiculous and
pointed to the fact that according to the findings of the specialist
center which examined the taped recordings of the day in question,
such derogatory epithets weren’t usedMr. Shamshyan said he’d rather
see the money go to fund child orphanages and that he’d never pay
one dram in penalties for something he never committed. Stating he
was sure the court would find him guilty, Mr. Shamshyan said he was
ready to appeal the verdict.

The trial will continuue on April 15 at the request of defense
lawyer Hovik Arsenyan in order that he have time to prepare a defense
statement.

PEOPLE AGED 60 AND ABOVE MAKE 12% ARMENIA’S POPULATION

NOYAN TAPAN
APRIL 7, 2009
YEREVAN

A selective study on RA population’s aging was for the first time
conducted in June-December 2008 in Armenia within the framework of UN
Population Fund’s program under the title Strategies of Population
and Development with the financial and technical assistance of UN
Department on Economic and Social Issues. Study’s goal was to register
people aged 50 and above, to find out their family interrelations,
health condition, way of living, well-being, employment, extent of
pension and financial security.

Arsen Hambartsumian, the RA Minister of Labor and Social Issues,
said on April 7, at a three-day working meeting dedicated to aging
problems, that social policy and actions plan of its implementation
will be worked out on the basis of the study results. In particular,
it will be aimed at population’s permanent education, extension of
working period, ensuring healthy way of life.

The Minister said that people aged 60 and above make 12% Armenia’s
population, which means that Armenia is numbered among aging societies.

According to A. Hambartsumian, today the issue of population’s aging
is also considered very important in the context of international and
regional socio-economic development. "Aging society implies existence
of many problems. Each state is obliged to undertake events to weaken
aging influences to prevent the socio-economic consequences at the
same time to ensure well-off old age," the Minister said.

It was also mentioned that the Strategy of Work and Social Sphere
Stable Development is envisaged to be confirmed under the RA
government’s 2009 actions plan. The Strategy will enable to exactly
reflect social policy’s all directions.

Representatives of Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine take part in the working
meeting.

FILMMAKER CONFRONTS BITTER CULTURAL LEGACY

The Toronto Star
April 6, 2009 Monday

Hagop Goudsouzian travelled to his ancestral homeland to ease a
cultural burden and left with bones in his pocket.

"Armenian identity is coloured by the fact that we are living in
diaspora," says the Armenian-Canadian filmmaker, who was born in Egypt
a long time after his grandparents had travelled there by foot. "We
are all in exile. … The genocide issue is like an unresolved cultural
burden that is necessary at one point in one’s life to confront."

His 2005 documentary My Son Shall Be Armenian follows Goudsouzian
and five other Montrealers who lost relatives in the genocide begun
by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

"When my son was born, that’s when I realized that I have to do
something, so that I don’t transmit, in addition to the cultural
identity, the cultural burden," says Goudsouzian, whose father died
before he was able to make his own journey home. His son is 13.

He remembers visiting a cave in northern Syria where it is said 50,000
Armenians were burned to death.

"We went down. We walked around – it was really dark – with
flashlights and everything. I brought back with me remnants of human
bones. Originally one piece was in my pocket," he says. "It was
crumbling in my pocket."

They travelled to modern-day Armenia where he met with survivors of
the genocide.

"It’s touching history," he says, before choking back tears as he
recalls one conversation in particular. "She says, ‘I just want to
go back home and drink the water and be buried there.’

"It is one thing when you read it in books and it’s another when you
actually meet the person and how she feels about life and what her
dreams are and aspirations."

THEOTOKOS ICON RETURNED TO GANDZASAR MONASTERY

Panorama.am
12:30 07/04/2009

On April 7 NKR President Bako Sahakyan together with the leadership
of the republic partook at a solemn ceremony of returning to the
Gandzasar monastery the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos icon
that has been preserved at the Artsakh State History Museum. The
ceremony took place in capital Stepanakert and was dedicated to the
20th anniversary of reopening the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, reports the central information department of the
Office of the NKR President.

Money quote:
"She also hails from a traditional Armenian family and speaks Armenian."

/URI_ANDREWS_PROFILE_04-06-09_SGDU9KT_v14.34f1100. html

Finalist for URI’s top post builds consensus for excellence

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, April 6, 2009

By Linda Borg

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE – Sona Karentz Andrews is that rare academic leader,
someone comfortable with the considerable administrative and financial
responsibilities of a major university who hasn’t lost touch with the
professors who make the work possible.

"She brings people together," said Ralph W. Kuncl, an old friend who
is provost of the University of Rochester. "Her faculty knows she
cares deeply about their scholarship. She’s also made it possible for
her current institution to make significant changes."

Andrews, 55, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at
Boise State University, is one of three finalists for the presidency
of the University of Rhode Island, a position held for 18 years by
Robert Carothers, who is retiring.

Related links Candidate Robert D. Newman

Bios of the presidential hopefuls A provost wears many hats. Andrews,
a geoscientist by profession, oversees the entire academic operation
at Boise State, including all faculty hiring, academic programs and
new degree programs.

But Andrews, who was born in Providence, has accomplished so much
more. During her four years at Boise State, she helped the university
double its research grant funding, recruit and retain talented staff
and add a dozen new graduate-level programs, at least half of them in
the sciences. Boise State has also bought its first-ever research
park, which the university hopes will serve as an incubator for
related technologies.

In many ways, Andrews said, URI’s aspirations are no different than
those of Boise State, Idaho’s largest educational institution, with
more than 19,500 students enrolled in eight colleges. In her letter to
URI’s presidential search committee, Andrews wrote that both
institutions want to enhance student retention, improve graduation
rates, create a more diverse environment and expand research activity.

"Sona raised the stature of the college as a research institution,"
said Boise President Robert Kustra, adding that the university began
as an undergraduate teaching college. "She made a significant
difference in the hiring of quality faculty, chairs and deans. She put
a big emphasis on scholarship and research."

But colleagues say that Andrews has never lost sight of the importance
of building relationships with individual faculty members. Kustra said
she still reads every scholarly article published by faculty members,
including papers published outside her own discipline.

"She is very likable," Kuncl said. "Put her in a room with 30 people
and she will know everyone very soon. People who meet her know that
they are meeting someone special."

Like many large public universities, Boise State struggled with the
question of how to keep students from dropping out after their
freshman year. It was Andrews who figured out that introductory math
was the stumbling block, Kustra said. Andrews sat down with the math
department and together they reorganized the way the university taught
entry-level math.

As Boise began to improve its graduate science programs, top-notch
research institutions began raiding its faculty. Kustra credits
Andrews with stopping those losses by increasing faculty salaries. In
one instance, she raised the salary levels of the entire geosciences
department, no small feat in an era of diminishing resources.

Andrews is also the point person with both the Idaho legislature and
the state’s congressional delegation, serving on state task forces and
giving testimony before legislative committees.

"All of those activities mean that Sona must be an unusual partner
with the [Boise] president," Kuncl said. "It takes an unusual amount
of trust to put those activities in the hands of a provost."

Andrews is as competitive in her personal life as she is in her
professional one. According to Kuster, Andrews just broke her
collarbone skiing and loves to mountain bike in Idaho’s rugged
terrain. She also hails from a traditional Armenian family and speaks
Armenian.

Her husband, Joseph, is an endocrinologist at the University of
Wisconsin; her son, Christopher, is in graduate school at George Mason
University and her stepdaughter is enrolled in medical school.

Andrews spent the bulk of her career at the University of Wisconsin in
Milwaukee, where she began as an associate professor of geography in
1988 and rose to vice provost of academic affairs in 2003. She
graduated from Worcester State College in Massachusetts in 1975 and
earned her doctorate from Arizona State University in 1981.

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