DOLLAR IS "ROLLING BACK"

A1+
[05:02 pm] 26 November, 2007

The dollar has been "rolling back" since last week.

Nevertheless, despite the ongoing revaluation of the dram prices keep on hiking in Armenia. A1+ has conducted a poll to know our citizens' opinion on currency frustrations.

Most of the respondents state they can hardly survive nowadays. They change $100 per 30.000 drams while once $100 was equal to 55-60.000 drams.

"Prices keep increasing day by day. People are in utter despair," Karine Aslamazian says.

Some officials enrich their personal budget with the sums earned by people's honest sweat.

According to Karen Kalantarian the dollar devaluation was planned beforehand. He had asked his son working abroad to send no more money as the dollar is priceless in Armenia. "I had better starve than send to pot the money earned by the sweat of my son's brow."

"This is the least of the evils. Things will still worsen," most of the respondents said.

To note, today the exchange rate was 290 drams per a dollar.

AZERBAIJAN RATES POSSIBILITY OF WAR WITH ARMENIA 100%

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.11.2007 13:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev thinks that conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is very likely. "While Armenia keeps occupying Azeri lands the possibility of war reaches 100%," Abiyev told a news conference in Astana after a regular session of the CIS Ministers of Defense, RIA Novosti reports.

Since conclusion of armistice on May 12, 1994, hostilities have been stopped and peaceful talks have been held in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, United States and France represented by Yuri Merzlyakov, Matthew Bryza and Bernard Fassier respectively.

"THE FORTY DAYS OF MUSA DAGH" TO BE SHOT IN HOLLYWOOD

armradio.am
27.11.2007 10:30

Turkish Akcam reported that the Armenian Diaspora in Hollywood Is completing the preparations for shooting a film based on Franz Werfel's "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh," one of the most remarkable works on the Armenian Genocide.

According to the newspaper the Kurdish authorities that have invited more than 30 most famous Hollywood actors to Northern Iraq, wish to shoot the "Peshmerga" film about the life of Kurdish leader mullah Mustafa Barzani.

According to the same source, the actors involved in the shooting of the films include Mel Gibson, Omar Sheriff, Antonio Banderas and Sylvester Stallone.

The "Foundation for the Struggle Against Baseless Allegations of Genocide" (ASÄ°MED) has begun an e-mail campaign to try and dissuade actor Mel Gibson from playing a role in the film on the Armenian Genocide.

WHY ARTSAKH ENERGY DOES NOT GENERATE PROFIT?

KarabakhOpen
26-11-2007 10:39:48

"The NKR government is dissatisfied with the activities of Artsakh Energy. In 2006 the losses totaled 500 million drams," said Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan in a consultation with people in charge of the energy network on November 22. Artsakh Energy does not generate profit, it sustains losses. "It is absurd to have such a network and sustain losses," the prime minister says, the Azat Artsakh reports. The prime minister says it is all due to indifference and chaos. He says if there are people who use electricity and do not pay the bills, the wrongdoers will be punished. He also says the government will clamp down on people who were involved in dissipation of money. The prime minister thinks the way out is to organize the water power plant of Sarsang as a separate company and privatize the transmission network. Currently the activities of Artsakh Energy in 2003-2006 is being checked. He said the energy sector should be made attractive for investors. In the closed consultation later the government studied the preliminary results of activities of Artsakh Energy in 2007, the Azat Artsakh reports.

ALTERNATIVE CANDIDATE WAS NOMINATED

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 24 2007

"And in this situation we need to make a deciding move and name an alternative candidate," the leader of the People's Party Tigran Karapetyan addressed his fellow partisans during the conference on November 26. According to him, this situation is that the struggle involves the former and the present government, and the other candidates have been government at one time, one way or another. Is it progress, Tigran Karapetyan asks?

Tigran Karapetyan's party made the "resolved" decision and nominated their party leader for the president of Armenia. Earlier Tigran Karapetyan had stated that he is against both the former and the present. He thinks the former government planted the present evil.

Tigran Karapetyan asks what money the political forces spend. Do they spend their own money, the leader of the people's party asks? It turns out that it is the greatest evil when they try to bribe their people with others' money. Meanwhile, it turns out that they do not bribe, they work, all the time. In other words, they care about people and Tigran Karapetyan was nominated as one who cares about people.

CONFERENCE OF PEOPLE'S PARTY NOMINATES TIGRAN KARAPETYAN PRESIDENT

In today's conference the People's Party nominated its leader and the president of ALM Holding Tigran Karapetyan as president of Armenia.

Addressing the conference, Karapetyan explains his home political vision: we are nominating an alternative candidate which has never been part of government in the past.

DONATIONS OR GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA?

By James Hakobyan

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 24 2007

We may state that the remote villages of Armenia and the region of Martuni of Karabakh will be saved. The annual telethon of Armenia Fund raised over 15 million dollars or dollars of pledges which is an unprecedented sum for the telethons. They will be saved just like the region of Hadrut, the region of Martakert, as well as North-South motorway were saved for which the previous telethons have raised money. As to how Hadrut, Martakert or North-South were saved, those who wish can visit Karabakh and have a look at them. The manifestation of this salvation is not merely the footages which are shown on the responsible TV channels how the Supreme Commander-in-Chief dedicates the fresh section of North-South and a smooth and clean road is shown. In reality, perhaps it would be better to show footages of those sections of the new road which are ruined after only a year. Or the sections which were not built although three or four years ago they stated to have raised the money necessary for the construction of the road. If these sections were televised as well, the picture would be full.

The same is about the reconstruction of Martakert and Hadrut which were launched with considerable delay and at a slow pace. For a Diasporan who donates money for these programs, the questions about what has been done should be as important as the questions about what has not been done. Why are these programs delayed or slowed down?

Isn't the reason that sums are pledged but are not transferred in the course of the year because the goal is not to raise money but to imitate donations to turn this pan-Armenian action into a means of propaganda for the governments of Armenia and Karabakh? Or isn't the reason for delaying or curtailing programs the steep depreciation of the dollar due to which the money becomes less hour by hour before it is spent? For instance, the value of 15 million dollars raised on November 22 decreased by 10-15 percent between November 22 and November 26. Meanwhile, the money is still on the way, it is just about to "leave" the house to serve the homeland. In other words, over this period the skillful money and loan experts of the homeland will manage to convert 15 million to 10 million at best.

It is clear that in this case it is impossible to maintain the schedule of programs because when money raised for Martakert is not enough, it is necessary to wait for the money raised for Hadrut, which means that Hadrut should wait for the money raised for Martuni, and all the three need to wait until North-South is finished.

Certainly, a possible way is that some people in Armenia wait for a while and let the exchange rate of the dollar remain in the state they have left it. They could do this self-sacrifice for the sake of the reconstruction of Karabakh or the remote villages of Armenia.

Especially that it takes them so little - they need to maintain the exchange rate of the money that others give. However, this self-sacrifice seems unlikely, and the more pan-Armenian money is collected, the greater the intra-Armenian appetite becomes.

Monte Melkonian’s 50th year of his birth.

Today is Monte Melkonian’s 50th birthday. For those of you who don’t know who Monte is, most of the people living in Artsakh will tell you that he is the reason we still have a country.

Monte was born in Central California on November 25, 1957. He died on June 12, 1993 in battle.

For those of you interested in learning more about Monte, click here.

Artsakh Television reports on Southern Kashatagh

Children of Armenia Fund Raises $3.5 Million From its Annual Gala Evening

October 31, 2007 07:00 AM Eastern Time

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) is pleased to announce that it raised a record $3.5 million from the 2007 Save a Generation Awards Dinner, held Friday, October 19, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. The money raised will be directed at reversing the ongoing impoverished conditions affecting significant numbers of children in rural Armenia through COAF’s Model Village program.

“Due to the tremendous ongoing commitment from our donors, COAF is able to implement significant projects that dramatically improve the conditions of rural Armenian communities especially in the areas of health, education, infrastructure as well as social and economic development,” said Garo H. Armen, PhD, founder and chairman of COAF. “With the money raised from the gala, COAF can continue executing a broader, sustainable revitalization program that has the potential to impact a combined population of 17,000 – of whom nearly 5,000 are children.”

COAF hosted more than 350 guests for the annual gala event. Sherry Lansing, Oscar-winner of the Humanitarian Award in 2007 and former chairwoman of Paramount Pictures, delivered the keynote address in the context of an interview hosted by Lesley Stahl, a 60 MINUTES correspondent and Charlie Rose, Emmy award winning journalist. Ken Davitian, co-star of the critically acclaimed 2006 blockbuster, BORAT, was master of ceremonies.

The COAF annual awards dinners have raised more than $8.5 million since 2001, placing funding emphasis on the Model Village project, the first such program ever to be undertaken. The project has been recognized by international aid agencies, such as the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank, as an exemplary template of sustainable development throughout the world.

About COAF

Founded in 2000, the Children of Armenia Fund is an independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization (501(c)(3). COAF seeks to reverse the impoverished conditions affecting significant numbers of Armenia’s children by revitalizing Armenia’s villages and implementing projects that provide immediate and sustainable benefits to children and youth.

KIRO MANOYAN: ARMENIAN AND KURDISH TERRITORIES WILL COME OFF TURKEY SOONER OR LATER

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2007 17:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian people should know and exercise their rights, especially as because there are all essential mechanisms for that, historian Rafael Hambartsumyan said during an international conference titled "Foundations and ways of implementation of Woodrow Wilson's arbitration award."

Problems existing between Turkey and Armenia can be transferred from political to juridical level, according to him.

"Woodrow Wilson's award has juridical power since it has no period of limitation. We should press for affirmation of the arbitration award status and then for restoration of our rights in Western Armenia. It's quite real," said ARF Bureau's Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office Director Kiro Manoyan. In his opinion, implementation of Woodrow Wilson's arbitration award will become a precondition for establishment of normal relations with Turkey. "Syndrome of Sevres is already observed in Turkey. It means that confidence in legitimacy of current borders wanes. Armenian and Kurdish territories will come off Turkey sooner or later," he said adding that Armenians should be ready to take back what belongs to them, Novosti Armenia reports.

November 22, 1920 President Woodrow Wilson signed the Arbitration Award marking the Armenian-Turkish border.

Besides, the Treaty of Sevres divided the Ottoman Empire in mandated territories. Palestine and northern Iraq with Mosul and Kirkuk areas went over to UK, Cilicia was passed to France. The mandate on Western Armenia was offered to the U.S., however, Congress refused to ratify it. Meanwhile, the Arbitration Award has no period of limitation and can't be appealed in international courts.