Sunday was a great day, I was at the official sendoff ceremony of the Armenian replica Cilicia vessel. This is a model of an 800 year old ship that is being sailed around the world by a very talented group of Armenians. The ceremony was great, with easily 1000 people present. There were excellent performances from the London community dance group, and speech from His Excellency Dr Vahe Gabrielyan, Ambassador for the R.A. - It was great to see British passersby being so interested by the event that they ended up watching it, security was needed to control the crowds, I don’t think anyone expected it to be so big…and it was truly amazing to see the ship sail through the Tower Bridge to the tune of the Zurna and Dhol , and the cheers of the Armenian Community.

I think it’s amazing that this ship is sailing around so many parts of the world, and it will be great to see it docked at Sevan lake one day…

A fire occured in the Kond suburb of Yerevan today. According to official reports 5 houses are completely destroyed, and 2 have their roof destroyed. The state tv H1, showed pictures of professional firemen putting out the fire, whilst Yerkir Media’s new online news service shows a completely different story:

Residents putting out the fire themselves with fire hoses, and half way through, the water running out. There was inadequate pressure in the fire hydrant,and no water supply in the suburb at the time. Pictures show people filling buckets with water, and apparently it took the one fire engine a very long time to arrive.

It makes me wonder, what if something worse happend in Yerevan? If there was not even water to put out a residential fire, what on earth would happen if anything worse occured. It is truly shocking that residents were having to struggle with no water whilst watching their houses burn. It is very, very sad.

Watch the Yerkir tv Report. HERE about half way through you can see the water run out.

As I ‘m sure many of you guessed, a1 plus ( the only functioning ‘opposition’ media outlet) were denied a frequency by the commision for licenses today. This time for a radio frequency. It came as no surprise but is once again a testimony to the fact that under the current government, the existence of impartial reporting is threatened. This is over the tenth competition they’ve taken part in, and have lost 2 radio frequencies to obscure new companies. The reason being - apparently, the “Ulyss” media company will pay their staff higher wages…what has that got to do with anything? I guess we can’t complain, the commision is just a puppet. They are just doing as they’re told. More on a1plus.am

Specialists have pulled from the water one of the black box flight recordes fro the tragic A320 flight. It is envisaged that they will continue the extraction of the second box today, which is believed to be in a similar location. It will be the beginning of trying to find the true causes of the crash, provided transparency is ensured.

Top banker in Russia says investment in Armenia attractive from purely profit motive Suren Deheryan & Suren Musayelyan / ArmeniaNow reporters
The Moscow business journal Profile recently named Garegin Tosunian the sixth most influential financier in Russia, and the only Armenian in the top 10.
The 50-year-old, who in 2002 was elected president of the Association of Russian Banks (ARB) says ratings don’t impress him, and he attributes the accolade to the fact that he never refuses to speak to the media.

Born in Yerevan, Tosunian moved to Moscow in 1971 to study at Moscow State University, where he earned a PhD in physics and then a doctorate in law.
“I am grateful to this country as Moscow gave me everything to shape my personality,” he says. “I don’t accept it when my friends of different nationalities speak of Russia as ‘this’ country. I correct them that it is ‘our’ country.”

more…

TEHRAN, May 19 (Mehr News Agency) -– The Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) will finance construction of a power transmission line in Armenia.

The bank will offer 85 percent of the contract fee to the project contractor for the building of the power transmission line. Repayment of the credit will be made over a five-year period, noted the bank’s chairman Noruz Kohzadi.

The project will offer new venues for the exchange of 800 megawatts of electricity between the Islamic Republic and the Republic of Armenia, he asserted.

The project aimed at development of the exports of the technical and engineering services is to receive its insurance coverage through Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI), he explained.

The line to be built in the Armenian territory will totally extend 312 kilometers, the official said.

Guys, this is not a joke.

There’s an autograph of President Robert Kocharyan, on a photo at a Nato summit.

It’s bids start at £27, I’ll be interested to see how much this goes for!

Here it is

Gibrahayer Saturday 20 May, 2006 - Armenia’s rising tennis star 15 year old Zaruhi Harutyunyan won her first ITF title by defeating South Africa’s number one player Bianca Swanepoel in the singles of the international world ranking tournament that concluded today at the Enka Sports Club in Bolis.
In a three-set nail-biting final that was watched by local tennis fans and cheering Bolsahays, Harutyunyan found herself losing 3-1 and 15-40 in the final set before regrouping and fighting back to clinch the set, the match and the championship, 5-7,
6-2, 6-4.
more…

Yerevan, 17.05.06 ArmInfo. According to the information distributed by an Indian News Paper Economic Times Vedanta Resources is planning to enter the precious metal business in Armenia.
The Economic Times also informs that the intention of Vedanta - India’s major player in non-ferrous metals, in investing in gold mining industry is based on an all-time high current prices of gold. The Vedanta Resources listed in London Stock Exchange may make an investment in Sterlite Gold, controlled by Agarwal family through Volcan Investments. For expansion of their gold mining project Sterlite needs $70-80 mln. Vedanta is likely to step in by investing the money and thereby picking up a stake in the company.

more…

Microsoft has opened its office in Armenia, with the well-known IT specialist Grigory Barsegyan appointed as director. The office will be officially presented, after a number of organizational and technical preparations. CIS HUB Director John White and CIS Business Development Manager Yuri Omelchenko paid a short visit to Armenia recently. Mr. White, who is responsible for big corporate projects, donor organizations and education, has kindly agreed to give an interview to ARMINFO.

Would you tell me please what are the functions of Microsoft CIS HUB?

The key function of Microsoft CIS HUB is to support Microsoft’s business development in the CIS, that is, in the countries where there is no developed Microsoft business. In the CIS, besides Russia, we have big offices in Kazakhstan and Ukraine, which are some kind of autonomies, while in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Belarus we are actively working to develop our business. Grigory Barsegyan is our new man, whom we have appointed to direct the Microsoft Armenia Office, and we are here to help him to start up. Now he has to solve some small administrative tasks to lay a basis for our future business in Armenia. We hope that in the coming months this all will be solved and we will organize a special event to publicly announce the opening of the office.

more…

Is this a good or bad idea from Raffi? Check Hye Plan out and share your thoughts…

In response to the discussion going on in the Diaspora logs, I have decided to put online a concept paper I drafted for “promoting Armenia and Armenianism worldwide”. It includes ideas which would both promote Armenia proper, promote the and strengthen the Diaspora, and tie the two together more firmly. It is a compilation of ideas I’ve had over the years (many of which are of course not original), but which, if implemented in part or in whole could make a massive impact on our nation across the planet. To implement the whole thing would require massive resources, but bits of it could be done quite easily (and many of them rather profitably).

Some of the ideas include:
- Creating real “Little Armenia’s”, which are not just Armenian neighborhoods with a couple of bakeries, but offer a true taste of Armenia and a sort of cool neighborhood with a real flavor and tourist attraction, educational opportunities, shopping, and a tighter community. These would be also be implemented in cities where there used to be Armenian quarters centuries ago, but have disappeared (Lviv, Venice).
- Building a large-scale retirement community in Armenia, where every concern and reason why someone wouldn’t want to retire in Armenia (except the colder winters) would be addressed.
- Creating a series of Armenian theme restaurants and bars to be franchised around the world… what better way into peoples hearts, than through their bellies?

Well, if the ideas interest you, check ‘em out link…

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Armenian Energy Minister Tuesday met with Iranian Foreign Minister and discussed avenues available for consolidation of the two countries’ ties.

A statement released by the Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Bureau said that during the meeting, Mottaki noted the common interests shared by the two states and their profound relations and stated that the visit to Iran by the Armenian Energy Minister could pave the way for future agreements in the two countries’ 6th joint commission meeting.

Noting the necessity for promoting the two countries’ relations, the Iranian Minister underlined that the two sides should study new ideas and grounds of cooperation very actively.

He also stated that the two countries should prepare the grounds required for the promotion of relations through cooperation in areas of road communication, tunnel excavation, railroad, activation of private companies, providing more business facilities, reducing trade risks and facilitating of exchanges.

Mottaki said that the two states’ cooperation could reach a desirable level through upgrading of the existing trade balance, adding that Iran and Armenia should build more and more capacities.

For his part, Armenian Energy Minister Armen Mousisian expressed pleasure with the performance of the two countries’ joint commissions and welcomed the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s taking up of the responsibility of the said commissions.

“In light of the two countries’ profound ties, we have succeeded in implementing all the approvals of the joint commission,” he said.

Viewing exchange of visits by the two countries’ officials significant, he said that the upcoming visit to Tehran by the Armenian president could open a new chapter in the two states’ interactions. Mousisian further stated that talks by the two countries about construction of the gas pipeline project, exchange of electricity and construction of new link roads could serve to be a turning point in mutual cooperation.

MICROSOFT OPENS OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN ARMENIA
ARKA News Agency / May 17 2006

Official representative office of Microsoft Corporation was opened in Armenia on May 16. Director of the Armenian representative office of the company Grigor Barseghyan said coming
plans of Microsoft in Armenia envisage enlargement of the circle of its partners, instruction in high technologies and cooperation with the RA Government.

According to the Vice-President of Microsoft in the region of Central and Eastern Europe Vahe Torosyan, opening of the corporation’s office in Armenia is of great importance for the country, especially in the light of recent success in the sphere of economy of the republic and
particularly in the IT sphere.

The Chairman of the Union of IT Enterprises Hovhannes Avoyan said opening of Microsoft’s representation in Armenia will enable Armenia to take its deserving place and use elaborations of the corporation in the proper way.

Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975. At present it is the world leader in the sphere of software development and servers,service rendering and elaboration of Internet-technology.Its production is being sold in more than 80 countries of the world and was translated into more than 45 languages. Microsoft’s representative offices exist in CIS countries as well, including Ukraine, Kazakhstan,
and Azerbaijan.

I know some people don’t agree with a fuss being made of this, but out of 25 countries, and the odds of bookmakers at 66/1 , Armenia ( in true style ) was picked first to perform, ( no one has ever qualified from opening) and then just as there was one of the 10 countries left to reveal, Armenia was revealed - Cyprus, Poland, and other favourites didn’t qualify.

That’s all I’ll say here, visit www.andreforarmenia.com for more

All I can say is I’m really, really happy right now.

I thought I’d share this story with you as it really made me think.

A few days ago, a friend of my family called up and was very worried. He is a young man from Armenia who has come to the UK to do a college course. He has a girlfriend and is living in a small village here. A couple of weeks ago, the UK authorities ( In a “clampdown” on illegal immigration ) decided that he should be deported.

This is a fair enough point, there are hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Britain and it has become something of a central failiure of the UK government. Without wanting to cause offence to anyone, there are many illegally settled families that are known to be claiming social support from the state, without contributing anything in the way of taxes. Generally, in the larger cities, it is far easier to continue living illegally than in the small towns. There are a lot of people “reporting” anyone with an accent in such places.

This is what happend to the man from Armenia. He recieved a visit from the so called ” immigration police “. He refused to be taken to a detention centre, claiming that he had things to sort out before hand. Following this, he recieved another visit: This time he was forced into the back of a car, his hands and feet tied, and he was severely beaten. He told us that he was screamed at and taunted with racist remarks.

I ‘ve personally never heard of this sort of thing in the UK, but if it happened once, I guess it has happend a few times before. Either way, its very upsetting and worrying.

Lufthansa have an offer on flights available until Tuesday that makes visiting Armenia from Europe more affordable than ever.

I was really surprised to see this from Lufthansa who are usually a bit more expensive… but I managed to find a flight from UK to Yerevan ( they fly from elsewhere too ) for just £129. The next cheapest is Czech Airlines with £310- a big difference.

This may be the start of a new, cheaper set of fares for visiting Armenia. Hurry, its only on til Tuesday…so if cost was putting you off flying to Armenia, go ahead and make the booking now…and you could be there this summer

- this isn’t an advert, just something I thought many of you might like to know.

For a look at pop culture, I’d like to draw your attention to the launch of a new website. I created this website a couple of weeks ago, but due to the Armavia tragedy I did not feel it right to launch it.

However, with just a week left until the competition it’s important that Armenians in the diaspora recognise that we can vote for Andre in our first ever Eurovision entry. The debates, disagreements are too late, let’s send our best wishes for Andre and hope for the best!

In the site you can get all the latest news about our entry, as well as pictures, and if you apply early, you can get free badges, and posters to put up around your place of work, home, or anywhere! This site is also going to be featured in upcoming episodes of Haylur on H1. So I will keep you posted.

visit www.andreforarmenia.com !

Pop Culture Roundup:

A new DVD and CD album is released by Zaruhi Babian, Its a recording of her very successful concert in Yereva. You can purchase it at www.armenianmusiccenter.am

A new film “Arahet” is being shown in Moskva Cinema in Yerevan. It’s the story of a Yerevantsi (Played by Harutyun Movsisyan) who moves to Los Angeles, and the trials of his journey. It really does look quite good. It’s produced in conjunction with Hayfilm. If anyone gets to see it , please email.

RnB fever has hit Yerevan, a new song, released by the group H.A.Y.Q. hit screens this week. It features a group of youths, including the Black Armenian singer Hrant, that we mentioned a few months back. We await new work from this group. I’ll get a sample of the track available soon.

H1 Public TV Launches a new TV show at 22.10 Yerevan time. It’s an Armenian version of the popular TV show “Family Feud”, whereby public surveys give answers to questions, and partipants guess the outcomes. It’s hosted by Hrant Tokhadyan.

I had a quick search for Armenia on Ebay, and look what I found: It’s a CD of the Promo release of Armenia’s Eurovision Entry “Without Your Love”. I really wanted this CD, and it’s not being sold, it’s just a CD thats given free at press conferences etc. This makes it quite rare..

2 days ago it was bidding at £8 ( about $15) …now, almost £80 … ($160!) with 5 days left, so it will almost definitely go up … I can’t believe this, and there are still 5 days left! I guess as Armenia’s first entry there are some collectors who are going mad for this, you can see the H1 logo in the corner. It’s times like these I wish I had connections in the State TV!

It has just been reported by A1plus that as suspected, Artur Baghdasaryan, Orinats Erkir Party member and Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly has resigned.

The move follows a number of prominent businessmen associated with the party, deciding to renounce their loyalty to Orinats Erkir, and calling for it to join the opposition ranks. Orinats Erkir , and Artur Baghdasaryan himself is known to be critical of the Kocharyan team . The party is saying publicly that the prominent businessmen renouncing loyalty means little, but we all know that business and the National Assembly come hand in hand to getting things done.

So the National Assembly is without a speaker, and all Orinats Erkir Assembly Members will be leaving their posts. It will be interesting in tommorows scheduled press conference, to see if the party officially declares itself an opposition.

The reason behind the businessmen switching loyalty is rumoured to be driven by President Kocharyans plans to recruit many businessmen and public sector workers to pro Kocharyan parties - similar to the one we reported on headed by Gagik Tsarukyan.

If this is the case then this is extremely good planning by President Kocharyan, to create many new parties loyal to him, so that whoever gets elected in 2007 will be someone he knows and trusts. Does this mean that we wont see a significant change? Or could Orinats Erkir be the start of a credible Armenian opposition? Time will tell.

Armenia did not get elected on to the UN Human Rights Council, a newly formed body to replace the previously ailing Commission. There were 7 seats set aside for Eastern Europe, and Armenia required an absolute majority.

Whats interesting is Azerbaijan did get a seat on this council, yet Georgia fared worse than any of the caucusus , with just 35 votes.

According to an NGO based in Europe, Armenia and Azerbaijan were declared unfit to join the council anyway, because of their goverments’ apparent poor human rights records, along with China and Russia, and others. So in this case It is interesting that Azerbaijan is now on this council yet Georgia and Armenia are not.