Author: Zakarian Garnik

PUTTING CITIZENS OF ARMENIA ON INTERPOL’S WANTED LIST BY AZERBAIJANI BUREAU OF INTERPOL NOTHING BUT SPECULATION: HEAD OF ARMENIAN CNB OF INTERPOL

ArmInfo
2009-11-12 15:14:00

ArmInfo. Putting citizens of Armenia on Interpol’s wanted list by
the Azerbaijani Bureau of Interpol is nothing but speculation says
Vardan Yeghiazaryan, Police Colonel, Head of the Armenian Central
National Bureau (CNB) of Interpol, in response to ArmInfo’s question.

Azerbaijan put nearly 50 citizens of Armenia on the wanted list 2
years ago with allegations of terrorism and other heavy crimes.

Armenia responded adequately then, he said. Colonel Yeghiazaryan
mentioned that the Interpol General Secretariat sent a special
commission to Armenia and Azerbaijan then to get first hand view of
the problem. The commission recommended the two parties to refrain
from such steps. "The commission declared that putting persons on the
wanted list is politicized and contradicts Article 3 of the Interpol
Statute. All this stopped their search by Interpol," he said.

HRACH TADEVOSYAN SPOKE AT ATHENS EVENT MARKING ARF 119TH ANNIVERSARY

Yerkir
10.11.2009 19:16

Yerevan (Yerkir) – The day of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF) was marked at the Athens Municipality Cultural Center on
November 7. The event was opened by screening a film on the party’s
119-year-old history, its main figures, focusing on the liberation
struggle, the May victory, the recent activities.

ARF Supreme Body of Armenia Hrach Tadevosyan was a keynote speaker
at the event.

In his speech, Tadevosyan slammed the Armenia-Turkey protocols.

"Despite the warnings from the ARF, the controversial protocols were
pre-singe on August 31and then signed on October 10. They mainly
serve the interests of Turkey," Tadevosyan said. He went on saying
that the protocols are aimed at legitimizing the illegal treaties of
Moscow and Kars on the expense of the Armenian people. He added that
the ARF has always opposed this and will continue to fight for the
interest of the Armenian people.

The full text of Tadevosyan’s speech is available in Armenian.

ARMENIAN DELEGATION TO TAKE PART IN NATO PA SESSION IN EDINBURGH

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.11.2009 21:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Delegation from RA National Assembly is to take
part in NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s session due in Edinburgh on
November 13-17, 2009.

Participant will consider reports on NATO-Russia and NATO-Georgia
relations, as well as the problems of Afghanistan and Pakistan,
"Heritage" faction MP Stepan Safaryan said.

Arts ‘ Books November 11, 2009

In pursuit of the past

PARVATHI NAYAR

Indian Connection: William Dalrymple

Parvathi Nayar learns about William Dalrymple’s Indian roots and what
inspired him to write `Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern
India’ on his recent visit to Chennai.
Ancestor-worship may not be one of the religious themes examined in
historical/travel writer William Dalrymple’s new book `Nine Lives’
(which he was in Chennai to promote), but the intermingling of faiths,
beliefs and histories certainly is. Rather appropriate, then, to troop
along with the author on his visit to the Anglo-Mughal monument in
Chennai that commemorates his ancestor Sam Dalrymple – a concrete
testament to intermingling, and not the least, of Dalrymple’s Scottish
history with that of India.
The author heads off soon after landing in town, for the monument is
close to the airport. On the short drive past lazy cows lounging on
rain-soaked grass and busily clamorous traffic, talk turns to `Nine
Lives’, religion and families.
`Though I am interested in syncretism in all forms, I had a sharply
monocultural upbringing in Scotland, where the most `multicultural`
event was a Celtic vs Rangers football match. I come from a deeply
religious family, my parents were unquestioningly Catholic, and I, a
pious little boy who grew up learning Latin, medieval history and
theology from Benedictine monks.’
`Today, I am not personally that religious at all. I am increasingly a
rational sceptic about miracles and the supernatural, but intrigued
that people believe in them. I’m interested in finding the familiar in
the unfamiliar.’ As in the weatherworn oddity he calls the `Georgian
version of a Mughal tomb’: the monument to Sam Dalrymple, who served
in the Madras artillery and died at the age of 49 in 1821. He explains
that it was while researching his bestseller `White Mughals’ (2002)
that he stumbled upon these familial connections with India.
`Sam is a family name, every generation has one,’ he says, cheerfully
climbing up the pedestal for a photograph. He recalls another humid
Chennai morning in 2004, awash with dragonflies and warm light, when
he brought his own son Sam to see the tomb.
Religious plurality being the absorbing name of the game in `Nine
Lives’, we drift on to St. Thomas Mount. `It’s amazing isn’t it, how
the story of St. Thomas has got mixed up with Lord Murugan’s stories
of spears and peacocks,’ he says, pointing to the vel or spear being
held by St. Thomas. `Legend also has it that the missionary changed
into a peacock to hide from his enemies, but was finally speared to
death.’
The view from the top of the hillock shows overlapping slices of
history, colonial and agrarian pasts being inexorably replaced by
concrete blocks and tenements. `I want to do a book on South India,’
he shares; perhaps on the Christians devoted to St. Thomas or perhaps
on Robert Clive, who first came to Madras with the East India Company
in 1744, at the age of 18.
About the same age, incidentally, that Dalrymple first came to India
as a backpacker. He returned several times to live and write books
such as `City of Djinns’ (1993); currently, he and his family are
based in a farm outside Delhi.
Fascinated with India
Of that first encounter with India in 1984: `I was dumbfounded. I was
hooked by India and Indian history. Perhaps someone more sophisticated
or better travelled might have had less of a lightning-struck
experience.’ On the Mount, the weather obligingly adds atmosphere to
the statement with `an apocalyptical’ advancement of rain from the
horizon, a relentlessly moving bank that turns the world grey behind
it. It reaches us soon enough and we take shelter in the shrine.
Within, Dalrymple proves a knowledgeable guide, pointing out examples
that speak of the Mount’s multicultural history under the Portuguese,
the Armenians, the Christians, the Hindus and the Muslims: translating
a gravestone marker written in Latin and Armenian of a lady who died
in 1759, or pointing to a pulpit adorned with mermaids that bear a
passing resemblance to Yakshi figures.
Given his knowledge and interest, religion is a legitimate subject of
enquiry. But, as he says over the sound of the rain beating down, `I
was very nervous when I started `Nine Lives’ – that it should not be
seen as a firang’s version of India. After all, religion along with
maharajas and slums, are the three things a foreign writer is
`supposed’ to write about.’
Surprising response
He was sure `Nine Lives’ would be a hard sell in India, but to his
surprise, it became the number one non-fiction bestseller, selling
35,000 copies in two weeks in India, and for the first time outselling
his British edition.
As we finally pick our way back down between the puddles, Dalrymple
offers one possible answer to why write about religion at all:
`Religion is a very telling way into the human soul, and the human
condition. Like sex or love, religion is at least equally revealing
and defining.’
`In India, moreover, religions come with a fantastic civilisational
baggage of philosophy, art, literature and poetry. The pieces in `Nine
Lives’ emerged from my interest in these – the story of the idol
carver from a fascination with Chola bronzes after an exhibition at
the Royal Academy, or the Bauls after listening to CDs of Paban Das
Baul’s music.’

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email. [email protected]
Internet

PRESS RELEASE

November 11, 2009
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

ANCA CHAIRMAN DEFINES THE STAKES: SURVIVAL OR SURRENDER

"We must keep our aspirations burning bright, our moral compass
aligned toward justice, and our nation moving forward. We must
choose survival, not surrender." – Ken Hachikian

WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
Chairman Ken Hachikian called on Armenians worldwide to choose
survival over surrender, in his remarks before federal, state, and
local public officials, a broad array of coalition partners, and
hundreds of community leaders gathered on November 8th at the
Pasadena Convention Center for the ANC-Western Region’s annual
banquet.

The full text of Hachikian’s remarks, At the Crossroads, is
provided below.

#####

At the Crossroads

Remarks by Kenneth V. Hachikian
Chairman, Armenian National Committee of America
Presented at the ANC Western Region Banquet
November 8, 2009 | Pasadena, CA

As Armenians, we have reached a crossroads.

Two paths – two very different paths – lay before us.

Two starkly different roads for our nation. For our cause. And
for our future

Standing here today at this cross road, we must make a choice.

One that will define our nation for decades, even centuries, to
come.

— A choice that begins in our hearts. And calls upon all our
collective wisdom.

— A choice of vision, born of long years of hard struggle

— A choice of courage, inspired by our enduring commitment to our
nation’s future.

A choice to move forward. A choice, very simply, between survival
and surrender.

Survival and surrender

For let there be no mistake, these are the true stakes.

The choice before us stands as a great burden.

But also as a sacred blessing. A chance to get it right
for future generations.

A choice for all those gathered here inside these walls –
and for all the sons and daughters of our nation, in
Armenia and across the far reaches of our world-wide
diaspora.

At this fateful moment, I am reminded of the words of the American
revolutionary, Thomas Paine.

In his great work, The American Crisis, he offered powerful words
that offer us keen insight and inspiration.

In the early days of the Revolution, he came across a well-known
man who ran a tavern.

Standing in its doorway, with his young son by his side, this
tavern-keeper argued against seeking independence, ending with the
words:

"Give me peace in my day."

"Give me peace in my day."

A more generous parent, Paine wrote, should have said:

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my
child may have peace."

Consider carefully his words from more than two hundred years ago,
on a continent far from Armenia, for they ring just a true today as
when they were first written.

Just as compelling for Armenians as for Americans or for any free
people.

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my
child may have peace."

"This single reflection," Paine added, "is sufficient to awaken
every man to duty."

He understood that the true choice facing the American colonists
was not peace or war, but rather where the burdens of the coming
conflict – the inevitable oppression and aggression – visited upon
them by the British would rest.

Whether upon the shoulders of his generation or upon those of
generations to come.

These truly are "the times that try men’s souls."

The tavernkeepers of our day argue that the path they advocate will
lead to peace and prosperity, when, in reality, it only defers the
day when our nation will pay the full price for their surrender.

— They would have us accept – under foreign pressure – the
"Protocols" being forced upon the Armenian nation, even though they
clearly threaten Armenia’s security, abandon the rights of all
Armenians, and cast doubt on the Armenian Genocide.

— They would have us adopt the Madrid Principles, which trade the
surrender of vast Armenian lands, today, in return for a vague
promise that Azerbaijan may someday allow a decision on Artsakh’s
future status.

— They would have us reduce the Armenian Genocide from a crime
against all humanity – one that must be recognized by the American
government and resolved truthfully and justly by the international
community and, of course by Turkey, – to a simple bilateral dispute
to be negotiated between states, states of vastly unequal power.

This is clearly the road to an unconditional surrender my friends,
the path to appeasement, and the slippery slope of accomodation.

On this path, we would allow others to speak in our name.

We would let them set our aims to suit their interests, not our
own. To put us in our place.

It is on this road that we would see the Armenian Diaspora, long
the loyal watchdog of Armenian interests, reduced to a lapdog for
the foreign powers that pursue their own advantage at the expense
of the rights, the security, and the very future of the Armenian
nation and people.

Let me be clear: It is on this road that we will witness the death
of the Armenian Cause and, with it, the viability of the Armenian
nation.

The choice, for us, for every single one of us, is clear.

We must reject retreat.

We must dispense with the illusions of easy answers.

We must reject the temptation that there is some quick shortcut to
Armenia’s security, Artsakh’s freedom, or the realization of our
national aspirations.

We must reject surrender – on the Protocols, the Madrid Principles,
justice for our nation, and freedom for our people – and choose
instead a path forward based on hope and wisdom, not fear.

We must, in our homeland and here in America, reclaim the right to
our voice and our values.

And back all this up with our activism, our political power, our
energy, and our resources.

Just as you are doing tonight, and as we must all do in days and
weeks ahead.

We must keep our national aspirations burning bright, our moral
compass aligned toward justice, and our nation moving forward.

We must choose survival, not surrender.

Survival, not surrender.

There is no other choice.

I call upon you to join us in that struggle.

We will persevere.

5.8% GROWTH OF TOURISM RECORDED IN ARMENIA IN JANUARY-SEPTEMBER 2009

Noyan Tapan
Nov 9, 2009

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. Despite the global financial and
economic crisis, a 5.8% growth of tourism was recorded in Armenia in
January-September 2009, Head of the Tourism and Territorial Development
Department of the RA Ministry of Economy Mekhak Apresian stated at
the November 9 press conference. It was mentioned that since 2001,
the average annual growth of tourism made 20-25% in Armenia, whereas
this year the growth rate has considerably declined.

M. Apresian said 422,807 tourists visited Armenia in January-September
2009, which is more by 23,116 tourists compared with the same period of
2008. There was also an increase in the number of Armenian tourists who
visited foreign countries – a growth of 1.2%, with the total number
of outgoing tourists making 399,650. The number of tourist travels
declined by 3% worlwide, at the same time there was a 10% growth in
Europe and also a considerable growth of travels in African countries.

According to M. Apresian, tourists come to Armenia mainly from such
countries as Russia, Georgia, other CIS states, the U.S, and Iran. In
recent years tourists from Scandinavian and Latin American countries
have started to show interest in Armenia. Besides, two groups from
Turkey have visited Armenia in 2008 and 2009. In the opinion of M.

Apresian, the possible opening of the Armenian-Turkish border will
have a positive impact on tourism. "In this case it would be possible
to form regional packages, so the number of tourists to our country
will increase," he noted.

M. Apresian informed those present that the Armenian government has
paid great attention to the development of winter tourism in recent
years. "There is already some infrastructure, which we, however, do
not consider as final and complete because there is still much to be
done for promotion of winter tourism," he said. He reminded that the
government has announced Tsakhkadzor and Jermuk winter tourism centers.

VTB BANK ARMENIA TO SHIFT FOCUS FROM QUALITY OF SERVICES TO THEIR VOLUMES NEXT YEAR

ARKA
Nov 11, 2009

YEREVAN, November 11, /ARKA/. Valery Ovsyanikov, director general and
chairman of VTB Bank Armenia, said Tuesday the bank plans next year
to shift its focus from improving the quality of services to raising
their volumes and will seek to become the leading bank in this sense.

Speaking to journalists after the inauguration of a new branch of the
bank in Armenia’s second largest town of Gyumri, he said the bank’s
focus this year has been on raising the quality of service.

"I think next year will be a crucial one for us in terms of the volume
of our services. I think we shall not have problems and will easily
take up the leading position, but we shall not overlook the quality
of our services’ he said.

All 100% of shares of VTB Bank Armenia are owned by the second largest
Russian Bank VTB. Bank VTB Armenia has 74 branches across Armenia.

A. ASHOTYAN: "EXTERNAL EXAMS WILL BE FORBIDDEN"

Aysor
Nov 10 2009
Armenia

"On 2011 the public schools will not have graduates. Because of
passing form 10 year educational system to the 11 year educational
system allowed us to have a spare year", – stated the Minister of
Science and Education of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Ashotyan.

He mentioned that as a result of the improvements on 2011 there will
be an extra year were the graduate of the 11th form of 2010 will
be placed with the new 11th form pupil, but the latter will have to
study by the 12th form program.

"Any school, let it be a private, experimental, or governmental
can’t have a graduate as the external exams will be forbidden", –
the Minister said.

He called for all the "naïve parents" not to catch the lure of some
schools who promise to have an extra year by which they can have
graduates of 2011th. "It is a law breach and there can’t be such
a thing."

AZERBAIJANI AND TURKISH DIASPORA ORGANIZATIONS IN EUROPE AGAINST OPENING OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN BORDER

news.az
Nov 10 2009
Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijani and Turkish Diaspora organizations in Europe will hold
a joint sitting to protest the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border,
sources in the State Committee for Diaspora Issues said.

"The State Committee for Diaspora Issues of Azerbaijan proposed
this initiative, considering numerous appeals from the Azerbaijani
and Turkish communities in Europe", the press service for the State
Committee reports.

"The event to be held in Frankfurt on November 21-22 will be organized
by the Congress of European Azerbaijanis and the Steering Council of
the Azerbaijan-Turkey Diaspora Organizations", the sources said.

In their appeals, the representatives of the Azerbaijani and Turkish
Diasporas in Europe voiced concerns over the protocols on establishment
of diplomatic relations between Ankara and Yerevan and the opening
of the Turkish-Armenian border signed between Turkey and Armenia in
Zurich on October 10. "The Diaspora organizations are against the
opening of the Armenian-Turkish border without the Karabakh conflict
settlement", the sources said.

The sitting will be held in three panels: "Azerbaijan-Turkey: common
history, common interests and common problems", "Integration of
Azerbaijan and Turkey with the world of globalization: realities,
problems and prospects", "Cooperation between the Diaspora
organizations of Azerbaijan and Turkey: current level of development
and prospects".

The presentation of the Europe-Azerbaijan Information Center will be
held within the framework of the sitting and an initiative group of
Europe-Azerbaijan women’s organizations will be established.

The two day sitting of the Azerbaijani and Turkish Diaspora
organizations in European countries will be attended by representatives
of state bodies and parliamentarians from Azerbaijan.

US AND RUSSIA WORKING TOGETHER ON ARMENIA-TURKEY RELATIONS: CLINTON

Tert
Nov 10 2009
Armenia

US State Secretary Hillary Clinton is satisfied with the course of
Russian-American relations over the last few months. Commenting on
the relations of Moscow and Washington in her interview to NBC’s
Tom Brokaw, Clinton said that she is very satisfied with the results
noticed recently.

"I’m very pleased at what we’ve seen thus far. As we have famously
said, we wanted to reset the relationship, and we wanted to work with
the Russians wherever we could, narrow the areas of disagreement,
stand up where we must against some of what we thought were their
excessive behavior.

"But I think that when it comes to nuclear disarmament, we’re in
the midst of complex, important negotiations over reduction of our
nuclear arsenals. We work together on everything from North Korea to
Armenia and Turkey. I think that they fully appreciate that we’re not
always going to agree, but that at least the Obama Administration,
and certainly the President and myself, are showing them the respect
that they deserve to have and are looking for ways that we can work
together," said the US Secretary of State.