Seta's Armenian Blog: Armenian News

Friday, 2 April 2010

Armenian News

Salisbury Journal
Armenian links to Stonehenge explored
Monday 9th February 2009
By Corey Ross

THE story of Stonehenge and the mystery that surrounds it is familiar to

most Salisbury residents, but one man has come to the city to tell people

about an ancient circle of standing stones which pre-dates even

Wiltshire’s World Heritage site.

Vardan Levoni Tadevosyan is an Armenian/Spanish historian of the

occult who visited Salisbury last week to raise the profile of Carahunge,

dubbed the Armenian Stonehenge.

He said: “It’s a very important monument, not just for Armenia, but for the

whole world.”

Carahunge, meaning ‘speaking stones’, is located 200km from the

Armenian capital Yerevan, near a town called Sisian. There are over

200 stones on the seven-hectare site and many of the stones have

smooth angled holes in them, directed at different points in the sky,

leading scientists to believe it is the world’s oldest observatory, dating

back 7500 years.

Mr Tadevosyan is very passionate about wanting people to know more

about Carahunge and has his own theories on its links with Stonehenge.
His research of the last four years is based on the work done by Professor

Paris Herouni, a member of the Armenian National Academy of Science

and president of the Radiophysics Research Institute in Yerevan.

Prof Herouni started investigating Carahunge more than 20 years ago

and wrote a book, Armenians and Old Armenia, on his findings. He sent

the book to Prof G.S. Hawkins, who had investigated Stonehenge, and

he agreed with Herouni’s findings.

Mr Tadevosyan says that in neolithic times the Armenians were much

more advanced than most other cultures. A carving found on rocks near

Lake Sevan showed they knew the world was round, they could accurately

measure latitude, and they were already skilled in astronomy, archaeology

and engineering.

He believes the earliest population of Britain, who came from Armenia,

brought the ideas of Carahunge to Europe with them and played some part

in the creation of Stonehenge and other European sites.

He plans to put together a leaflet about Carahunge that can be available to

the public at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and curator Adrian

Green said he would be happy to display leaflets about the ancient site.
“I have a passion about it because the world has a not nice attention on

Armenia. I want to publicise Armenian monuments and culture,” said

Mr Tadevoysyan.

RFE/RL Report

Armenian Dram Rebounds

Armenia-- New 100,000-dram banknotes, Aug2009

23.03.2010

Armenia's national currency, the dram, has unexpectedly rallied against
the U.S. dollar and other major world currencies, reversing a major
depreciation observed last week.

After months of relative stability, the dram began slowly weakening
against the dollar in mid-February. The process sharply accelerated on
March 15, with the Armenian currency losing almost 2.4 percent of its
nominal value in the next four days, despite apparently significant
dollar injections in the local currency market made by the country's
Central Bank.

The fall sparked panic buying of dollars in currency exchange shops
across Yerevan last Thursday. Some of them stopped selling the U.S.
currency as a result.

The dram has rebounded since then. On Tuesday alone, it strengthened
against the greenback by over 1 percent, trading at 394.5 per dollar at
the Yerevan stock exchange and regaining the exchange rate that existed
over a week ago.

The modest volume of currency transactions at the NASDAQ OMX Armenia
exchange reported on Friday, Monday and Tuesday suggests that the dram
rally did not primarily result from Central Bank intervention.

The bank appears to have spent over $120 million of its hard-currency
reserves on shoring up the dram between last December and February.
Unlike opposition politicians and other government critics, it has
downplayed the latest exchange rate fluctuations.

IT'S BEEN PROVEN: ARMENIA HAS POOREST INTERNET

ACCESSIBILITY IN REGION

Tert.am
22.03.10

A BBC study on internet accessibility has revealed that Armenia still
remains among the most poorly developed countries in the region.

In 2008, there were 191,000 internet users in Armenia, while in 2009,
that number has increased only by 3.2%.

With this data Armenia, is placed among those countries - including
Nigeria, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan - where there are only 6-10
internet users among 100,000 inhabitants, while Georgia was in the
group of 16-20 internet users among 100,000 inhabitants. The figures
look better for Azerbaijan where, according to the study, there are
26-30 internet users per 100,000 residents, while in Iran and Turkey
that number exceeds to 31.

Interestingly, this year the number of internet users in Georgia has
increased 2.85 times compared with 2009 and exceeded 1 million users.

The number of internet users in Azerbaijan has been increased by
57.3%, comprising about 2.45 million, while in Turkey and Iran that
number has increased by 15.6% and 78% respectively.

The BBC data shows that, during the past 10 years, internet
accessibility has developed rather poorly. In 1998, the difference in
the number of internet users was quite marginal - only 4,000 internet
users in Armenia, and 5,000 and 3,000 in Georgia and Azerbaijan,
respectively.

USAID BRIDGE COMPLETED 40 PROJECTS TOTALING $2.9 MILLION
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
23.03.2010 14:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The USAID Bridge Public Works Program marked the
completion of its 5-year activities in Armenia by highlighting
the program's successes and the importance of public works in
fostering Armenia's labor market. Head of State Employment Agency
Sona Harutyunyan and Social Sector advisor of the USAID/Armenia Social
Reform Office Volodimir Yatsenko opened the conference. The event was
attended by representatives of partner organizations, including the
Anoushavan Abrahamyan Educational Fund, the State Employment Services
Agency and World Vision among others.

The objective of the conference was to present the results to the
public, partners and donor organizations. Through its three components
of community mobilization, vocational training and public works, the
Bridge program aimed to assist vulnerable communities in achieving
greater self-sufficiency by providing them with vocational training
in construction skills as well as with employment opportunities on
public works projects that rehabilitated infrastructure items chosen
by the community.

Bridge worked in 20 towns in Tavush, Aragatsotn, Lori, Shirak,
Gegharkunik, Syunik and Vayots Dzor marzes. Specifically, the program
completed 40 projects totaling $2.9 million, generated more than 87
000 person days of employment, provided 1 240 people with short-term
labor opportunities, leveraged 16% matching contribution over the life
of the program, conducted 54 training in 5 different construction
trades, trained 734 unemployed persons, 70% of whom found jobs in
construction after the program completion and developed training
curricula for Riling, Wood Flooring, Painting and Plastering, Concrete
and Stone Masonry.

CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES TO GOBBLE-UP YEREVAN'S

REMAINING GREEN SPACE
2010/03/22 | 00
Consumers' Association sends protest to Mayor Beglaryan

The Armenian Association of Consumers has fired off an angry letter
to Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan regarding continuing construction
encroaching on the city's green spaces.

In the letter, the Association points out recent construction launched
at the National Library and the State Agrarian University grounds.

"You have constantly declared that the protection of the city's green
spaces will be a priority," the AAC reminded the Yerevan mayor. "We
hope that the photos we have sent underline the urgency of our concerns
and that you will move to halt such construction."