MONETARY BASE TOTALED 106.3BLN. AMD IN JANUARY-JUNE, 2004
YEREVAN, AUGUST 3. ARMINFO. In January-June, 2004, Armenia’s monetary
base decreased by 10.4% and totaled 106.3bln. AMD. According to the
preliminary data of the Armenian CB, in June it increased by 2.3%.
In January-June, 2004, in the monetary base structure net external
assets decreased by 9.2%, and in June alone increased by 4%., totaling
139.7bln. AMD. The CB-set AMD/USD average exchange rate totaled
558.18 AMD/US $1 in Jan-June, 2004, and 543.90 AMD/US $1 in June
alone.
According to the CB, net internal assets remained negative and
decreased by 5.1%, and increased 9.9% in June alone, totaling 33.4bln
AMD. This is accounted for by a decrease in government liabilities by
31.5bln. AMD, to a negative level of 32.3bln. AMD, these increasing by
13.3% in June. As regards bank liabilities, they increased by 5.8% in
January-June, 2004, and by 97.8% in June alone, totaling
9.1bln. AMD. Other assets, remaining negative, decreased from
12.3bln. AMD to 10.2bln. AMD in January-June inclusive, which is by
57.4% higher than the indicator of May.
The CB’s monetary program for 2004 envisages a 9.1% average annual
increase in the monetary base and a 4.9% increase by the end of the
year.

HSBC BANK ARMENIA, CONVERSE BANK AND ARDSHININVESTBANK HAD LARGEST
LEVEL OF NET PROFIT DURING FIRST HALF OF 2004
YEREVAN, AUGUST 3. ARMINFO. HSBC Bank Armenia, Converse Bank and
Ardshininvestbank had the largest level of net profit during the first
half of 2004 – 964.9 mln drams, 852.9 mln drams and 551.9 mln drams
respectively. According to the ranking of commercial banks of Armenia
formed by specialists of ARMINFO on the basis of financial reports of
commercial banks and data provided by the banks, Armeconombank ranks
the fourth as regards this showing – 526.6 mln drams, and the
Armsavingsbank ranks the fifth – 417.7 mln drams. At the same time as
regards the level of efficiency of investments the INECOBANK is in the
lead, then follow the Converse Bank, Armeconombank, Ardshininvestbank,
Anelik Bank, ACBA and Unibank.
Thus, the share of net profit in the assets (ROA) of the INECOBANK
totaled 4.21%, of the Converse Bank – 2.78%, Armeconombank 2.43%,
Ardshininvestbank 2.06%, Anelik Bank 2.02%, ACBA 1.74% and Unibank
1.45%. The Converse Bank is in the lead as regards the showing of net
profit in the capital (ROE) – 21.49%, then follow HSBC Bank Armenia –
17.91%, INECOBANK 17.59%, Armeconombank 15.37%, Armsavingsbank 13.51%,
Ardshininvestbank 13.14%, Anelik Bank 12.23% and Artsakhbank
8.78%. Noteworthy, the indices of the Anelik bank include the data of
the Moscow branch, which was reorganized to Daughter Bank Anelik RU in
Dec 2003.
Total net surplus of the banking system of Armenia was 4.320 bln drams
during the first half of 2004. According to data of 19 banks, 16 banks
had worked with profit, their total net surplus was 5.020 bln drams. 3
banks completed the accounting period with losses, which totaled
699.287 mln drams.
During the first half of 2004 the total capital of the banking system
grew by 11.4% – from 50.024 bln drams to 55.729 bln drams. In this
period, as regards the showing of replenishment of the total capital
the Armenian Development Bank is in the lead (40.18%), then follow
Areximbank (39.89%), Armsavingsbank (19.11%), Converse Bank (17.59%)
and INECOBANK (16.04%).
During the first half of 2004 assets of the banking system increased
by 11.19% – from 287.2 bln drams to 319.3 bln drams, which was
accounted for by the growth of provision of crediting and investments
in STBs. Volume of real provision of crediting increased by 14.17% –
from 125.0 bln drams to 142.7 bln drams, making up 44.69% out of the
assets. By July 1, 2004 the share of the credits to legal entities
made up 54.13% in total provision of crediting or 77.3 bln drams,
increasing by 13.54% during the first half of 2004. The largest level
of crediting of legal entities has been provided by the Armsavingsbank
– 11.3 bln drams, Converse Bank 10.8 bln drams, Ardshininvestbank 8.6
bln drams, Artsakhbank 5.7 bln drams, Armimpexbank 5.1 bln drams ACBA
4.5 bln drams, Anelik Bank 4.2 bln drams, Armeconombank 4.1 bln drams
and ADB 3.1 bln drams. As regards the volume of crediting to natural
persons the ACBA is in the lead (9.6 bln drams), Ardshininvestbank
ranks the second (5.9 bln drams) and Armeconombank (5.7 bln drams). In
the structure of assets during the first half the volume of funds in
correspondent accounts in the banks decreased – from 68.6 bln drams to
68.1 bln drams, the share of which int he assets decreased from 23.9%
to 21.3%.
In Jan-June the investments in state loan bonds increased by 16.82%,
reaching 36.5 bln drams by July 1, 2004. The most growth were provided
by the Armsavingsbank (196.51%), Anelik Bank (143.66%), Unibank
(94.11%), ACBA (85.32%) and Ardshininvestbank (66.78%). By the way, 6
banks out of 19 reduced their investments in state securities in the
period under review, in particular, Areximbank reduced by 88.99%,
Arminvestbank – by 75.98%, ADB 36.5%, Converse Bank 14.59%, ITB 10.2%
and Mellat bank – 3.27%.
According to the data of 19 banks of the country, total liabilities of
the banking system, increasing by 11.15% reached 263.6 bln drams by
July 1, 2004. In their structure fixed deposits increased by 4.64%,
totalling 84.1 bln drams or 31.88% in total liabilities.
The share of the total capital of the banking system in GDP (600 bln
drams – by July 1, 2004) totaled 9% (55.7 bln drams), the assets- 53%
(319.3 bln drams), and the volume of provision of crediting – 24%
(142.7 bln drams). By Jan 1, 2004 these indices made up 3%, 18% and 8%
respectively.

AGENCY FOR MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION OF WATER RESOURCES OF ARMENIA
ISSUES 420 PERMISSIONS FOR USE OF WATER
YEREVAN, AUGUST 3, ARMINFO. By present, the Agency for Management and
Preservation of Water Resources of Armenia issued 420 permissions for
use of water, Representative of the Agency Vladimir Narimanyan made
this statement today in the course of a three-day seminar “Management
of water resources, designing of water reservoirs and permissions for
use of water” with support of the Academy of Educational Development
(AED) and USAID.
He said that due to the permissions provided, 85% of water users were
brought to the legal field. He said that the permission is to meet the
strategic demands of water resources management, such as the National
Program of Water Quality Standards. In particular, the permission
contains the necessary personal data on a consumer, the place of
export and use of water, characteristics of the type of water use
(irrigation etc..), the necessary quantity of water. The process of
provision lasts some 4 months. Within this period of time, the Agency
considers the applications of consumers, monitors and sums up the
results, only then, it makes negative or positive decisions. It should
be noted that provision of permissions for use of water is one of the
most important provisions of the Water Code of Armenia.

SEMINAR “MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES, DESIGNING OF WATER RESERVOIRS
AND PERMISSIONS FOR USE OF WATER” UNDERWAY IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, AUGUST 3. ARMINFO. A three-day seminar “Management of water
resources, designing of water reservoirs and permissions for use of
water” underway in Yerevan.
The participants of the seminar, representatives of the Agency for
Management and Preservation of Water Resources of Armenia and the
Academy of Educational Development (AED, will discussed the maximum
effective application of the two major provisions of the Water Code of
Armenia: design and management of water reservoirs and provision of
permission for use of water.
The management of water reservoirs is aimed at improvement of the
ecosystems of the country, the quality and accessibility of
water. Besides, the seminar-organizers think that the right management
of water reservoirs will reduce the risk of water pollution and
conflicts between the competing water consumers. As to the necessity
for permission for water use, Representative of the Agency said that
it is a necessary juridical document regulating export of water
resources and determining all the expenses connected with export and
release of water. It should be noted that the seminar consist of two
parts: first one will be held in Yerevan on Aug 3-5, the second one in
the town of Vanadzor on Aug 6-8, where the participants will discuss
management of the so-called Northern water reservoir.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF ARTSAKH’S ARF DASHNAKTSUTIUN PREFERS TO SEE
EDWARD AGHABEKIAN AS MAYOR OF STEPANAKERT
STEPANAKERT, August 5, (Noyan Tapan). At the upcoming local government
elections on August 8 in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the Central
Committee of Artsakh’s ARF Dashnaktsutiun prefers, out of the 5
candidates, the candidacy of Edward Aghabekian for the post of
Stepanakert mayor. Now he heads the Standing Commission on Social
Issues of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s National Assembly. Zhirayr
Shakhinjanian, a member of ARF Dashnaktsutiun’s Central Committee,
declared this at the August 5 briefing. According to him, the Party
made this choice proceeding from E.Aghabekian’s pre-election program:
in particular, fighting corruption, promoting the rule of law and
social justice. In connection with the CE Secretary General Walter
Schwimmer’s statement that the upcoming elections in Karabakh are
preventing the problem regulation, Dashnaktsutiun Party member
stressed that any intervention in local elections in Artsakh would be
a gross violation of international norms and human rights.
Zh.Shakhinjanian also assured that ARFD will do everything in its
power to secure holding transparent and fair elections in Artsakh.

Transitions Online, Czech Republic
Aug 5 2004
Light and Dark in the Pankisi Gorge
by Elvira Goryukhina
The classroom is the only psychological haven where one person helps
another to leave war behind, a Russian psychologist finds on a visit
to Chechen schools in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge.
Editor’s note: This article is a short extract from an account by a
Russian educational psychologist of a visit to the Pankisi Gorge in
Georgia, home to several thousand Chechen refugees. Since its
publication in mid-2003 in the human rights publication
Pravozashchitnik, some things have changed. President Eduard
Shevardnadze of Georgia has been removed and his successor, Mikheil
Saakashvili, has been exerting greater pressure on the Chechen
community. Russia is seeking the return of all refugees to Chechnya,
arguing that the republic is now safe to return to. Many refugees
have left the Pankisi Gorge, heading elsewhere but not north, into
Chechnya. The experiences captured by Elvira Goryukhina, a professor
of psychology at Novosibirsk Pedagogical University, will not have
changed.
For the past three years, schools in three villages in the Pankisi
Gorge-Duisi, Omalo and Jokolo-have, as Georgian law requires,
provided schooling in Russian as well as Georgian. For three years
these schools in what is known as the Russian sector have been
issuing school-leaving certificates enabling refugees to enter
universities. In those three years, the teachers have not received a
single kopeck.
Who works in the Russian sector? Chechen refugees. Teachers who share
a life of exile with their pupils.
I have visited many schools in places of rubble and ash: Samashki,
Grozny, Achkho-Martan, Orekhovo, [all of which are in Chechnya]
Shusha, Mardakert, Stepanakert, Karintag [in Nagorno-Karabakh]… And
there is one thing I know for sure: the classroom is the one area in
our world where no one would let a child be broken. It is the only
psychological haven where the world continues to function according
to natural laws, where one person helps another to leave war behind.
To return to life.
I once asked Suren Nalbandyan from a school in Shusha, in
Nagorno-Karabakh, how he could teach tangents and cotangents when he
knew the burden of experience on the children’s shoulders.
`I beguile them,’ Suren answered without a second’s thought. `A
teacher has no other option.’
I entered the secondary school in Duisi relying on my experiences of
establishing contact with teachers in other conflict areas. I thought
I could trust those experiences. Reality proved otherwise.
Very slowly, one by one, they filed into the teachers room, glancing
mistrustfully toward us, fresh arrivals from Moscow. Beside me stood
the deputy director of the Russian sector, Tuta Jabrailovna. A
physicist. A blue-eyed beauty. It seemed as if tears were waiting to
roll. No, she was not crying; it just seemed the tears would not go
away. A sense of unspilled tears: that, it seemed, united all these
teachers. It was the first time I had seen such a thing in my life.
They had not been killed, but their wings had been clipped. They were
caged-bird teachers. How can one enter a classroom in such a state?
What made them different from other teachers, from teachers such as
those in ransacked Samashki [in Chechnya]? The answer did not occur
to me immediately: those teachers were at home, in their own country,
near their ruined homes. One’s native environment offers protection
simply by being there.
These teachers were exiles, in a strange land, away from home.
There is something ambiguous in the very name, `the Russian sector.’
The parents had not, I heard, initially wanted to send their children
here. They preferred them to be taught in Georgian. But then they
changed their minds. Every subject here is now in Russian.
Madina Aldamova from Starye Atagy, a mother of three, teaches a
third-form class with 22 refugees. Of the 17 boys, five are named
Mohammed.
Madina is a mover, a shaker. She deals with the distribution of
humanitarian aid. A relative of Khizri Aldamov, who represents Aslan
Maskhadov’s government in Georgia, Madina speaks for many when she
exclaims: `Going back to Chechnya is impossible! We don’t need
anything from Russia! We’re not going anywhere! Where should we go
back to? To filtration camps? To be mopped up [a reference to Russian
troops’ `mopping-up operations’ within Chechnya]? There are people
who went back and were dispatched to the next world. And we know
their names.’
We mumble something about guarantees. But our words, said with
conviction, lose their strength, become emptied of meaning, become
nothing. Our partners in conversation have different criteria. The
experience of false words in war zones makes it a torture for anyone
who attempts to use words to bring change. They can puncture your
phrases with the only weapon that cannot be disarmed-their
experience, their burden of suffering. They peel away from words all
approximations, all looseness of phrasing.
The atmosphere in the teachers room is becoming tense. My
professional experience suggests no way out of this deadlock.
I tell them about pupils of mine who are reading Hadji-Murat by Leo
Tolstoy.
`I’d be interested to know how Russian children look on events here.’
Madina, the teacher with the harshest words about Russia, has taken a
little step toward dialogue.
I tell them about Samashki, Grozny, Bamut, Orekhovo, Davydenko …
`One would think you were born in Chechnya,’ says the same voice. One
more step toward us …
I ask them how the children like Russian books. Again Madina takes
the floor:
`What does the language have to do with it? The language committed no
crime. If I said bad words about Russia, do you really think that I
meant you, personally? I make no claims about you as a person.’
I seized the opportunity and asked to sit in on a lesson.
`Tomorrow at 10 o’clock I will be waiting for you in the teachers
room,’ she said.
And from that point on, I was dealing with a different Madina. Not a
soapbox speaker, not a provocateur (as we had thought of her), but a
master opening the door for us into a sanctuary-her classroom.
Madina is waiting for us in the teachers room. We did not come to the
school with empty hands. We give Madina our gift-a beautiful edition
of a Chechen language textbook. She slowly leafs through the book,
now and again stopping to linger on a particular phrase. Her
appearance, her voice, her movements change completely. Without
taking her eyes from the book, she says in a trembling voice the
words for which we had come to the Gorge, for which we had cleared
every hurdle:
`You have already brought us back to Chechnya. …’
Our former iron conviction that no one would ever go back to Chechnya
begins to melt. They could go back! They want to go back. What is
needed is not a public relations campaign, but a support system for
those who have become refugees.
Just consider: one book, just one book, had suddenly transformed the
teacher’s entire state of mind. The book was passed from hand to
hand. It reached the physicist Tuta Jabrailovna. Her ultramarine eyes
again seem full of unspilled tears.
The lesson. I ask the children something through their teacher.
Madina talks to them in Russian and suddenly senses the absurdity of
the situation: she is translating from Russian into Russian. She
makes a gesture inviting me to the blackboard and steps aside. The
classroom falls silent. I am the first Russian they have seen in
three years.
On the teacher’s desk I spot an open book. Nekrasov’s poems.
In war zones, one can bear a lot. Only not this-to stand face to face
with children who have plumbed the depths of misfortune in war.
I will never forget my baptism as a teacher in 3-a.
When I ask about returning to Chechnya, they answer readily and
swiftly. `We will go back when there are no Russians left.’
`Imagine that I live in Grozny. I’m a Russian. For you to be able to
live in Grozny, would you need to kill me?’ I ask the Mohammed
sitting at the front desk.
The boy falls silent, embarrassed. God, forgive me. Why does a child
need to solve a problem like that, a question thought up by imbecilic
grown-ups? Why?
I cannot remember now how I found a way out. We began to read poems,
poems we know and love. Pushkin took the victor’s laurels.
Another Mohammed takes the floor. He solemnly recites the very long
name of The Fairytale about Tsar Saltan, His Son Gvidon etc.
`The crescent moon is wan at night and, through the mist, pours
silver upon the field. …’ The poem proves hard to pronounce, but a
third Mohammed masters the difficulties.
After that, dainty, doll-like Asya took the floor in front of the
blackboard and recited a poem about old Babarikha [a character in
Pushkin’s fairy tale The Tale of Tsar Saltan]. It was not quite a
poem. The poetic rhythm was interrupted by a prosaic element. It
seemed as if Asya was retelling the fairy tale. There was a magic to
it, though. The rhythm was different, but it was a rhythm. This
rhythm, this intonation, so unexpected to everyone, so intoxicated
Asya that it was impossible to interrupt her.
In the middle of this poetic `recital,’ it became clear that it had
become a form of dialogue. And sitting behind a desk at the back my
friend Tamara Duishvili let the tears roll; she knew what the
children are talking about. …
But we talked directly as well. About the war. It all started with
making wishes. I am pretending to be a golden fish that the children
have netted. `So, what are your three wishes?’ Dead silence. Not a
single hand goes up. They don’t know what it is-to wish for
something. I suggest some kind of food. Some children limply mention
Snickers. Finally the whole class settles on a collective desire-for
a bicycle.
Our tiresome wishing game comes to an end when Ibrahim from the third
desk utters, `I wish there were no war.’ This is where the core of
these children’s emotions is-the war. One word blocks the children’s
wishes and drags behind it a gloomy train of memories.
They recount how they had needed to shelter from the bombers. They
are 8 or 9 years old.
`When they bomb, one should run to a trench,’ says blond-haired
Aminat, the smallest girl in the class. She says it as a soldier
would, in a running rhythm. The rhythm of running to a trench.
My throat is parched. Aminat continues in a businesslike voice:
`Of course, it is better to run to a basement. But we had no
basement. We dug out a trench.’
They recount that they had flown over Shatili by helicopter.
`Did you like that?’ I ask stupidly. The class cries out in one voice
`No!’
They hate helicopters. They hate planes. Nobody wants to be a pilot.
Or a soldier. Musa says he’d like to have a gun and immediately adds
in a frightened voice:
`A toy gun, you understand? I only want a toy gun.’
And at this, the children break. They remember what it is to have
wishes. The talk is all about toys. Girls talk about dolls. Boys,
about cars.
These are children who have not had enough time to play. Any
psychologist would tell you that is a dangerous portent for
adulthood.
Through a broken window, the mountains of Georgia are visible, but
the children are homesick for their own mountains, back in Chechnya.
They want to go home.
Putin’s name crops up in our class.
`Who’s he?’ I ask.
`The Russian president,’ Musa answers.
`And your president is Shevardnadze now?’
`Our president is Maskhadov [the elected president of Chechnya before
the second Chechen war began in 1999 and now a rebel leader].’
The bell had already rung long ago. Children from other classes kept
bursting into the classroom. 3-a did not want to leave. I aid goodbye
to the children in Chechen. They answered in Russian.
Mohammed from the front desk rose to his feet. He straightened his
back and pronounced distinctly, `Thank you for coming.’
The intonation of the phrase came from a different life. Not from a
life where wars are waged and children hide in trenches. It is from
the world where the ethics of how one person treats another are
taught in childhood.
His words felled me.
I would like to know how the habits and rules that make us human are
preserved (or born) in a human being. There, in class 3-a in the
Pankisi Gorge, I remember Josef Brodsky’s words: `A life without
standards is second-rate and not worth the labor.’
Our lesson had begun with a phrase, `when there are no Russians.’ One
can only guess what mental labor had gone into that `Thank you!’
Mohammed had brought us all up to the standard there ought to be.
`Come back again! Please come back sometime!’ I left the school
accompanied by a chorus of children’s voices.
I would like to go back to 3-a. With a bicycle.
AM NOT AFRAID!
In the evening when a single kerosene lamp burns and a stove crackles
in the middle of the kitchen, the children and I gather together. Our
favorite game is a word game, a language game.
Unlike me, the children speak three languages-Russian, Chechen, and
Georgian. Those who came to the gorge from Chechnya a year ago speak
Georgian fluently and willingly.
I wondered which of three phrases the children would choose:
So kier-I am afraid (in Chechen).
So tsakier-I am not afraid.
Ma kier-Don’t be afraid!
Me meshinia-I am afraid (in Georgian).
Me ar meshinia-I am not afraid.
Nu geshinia-Don’t be afraid!
The children immediately crossed out `I am afraid’ in all languages.
Ten-year-old Ruslan, a refugee from Grozny, makes his choice at once:
`I am not afraid!’
We tried out the word war, for its taste, for its color. In Chechen
and in Kistini [the language of Chechen Georgians] it is tom. In
Georgian it is omi. The children squeal with joy: the Georgian word
is as short as the Chechen.
Malika is 11. She is Ruslan’s sister.
`Our languages are alike. Only the Georgians make their sounds last.
They probably like them. We Chechens have already pronounced a word
and the Georgians will still be dragging it out.’
Somewhere in the middle of the game a most banal thing occurs to me.
My God! This is the Caucasus. Peoples of the Caucasus. Languages of
the Caucasus. This is a family.
Puri, bepig, korzhum mean bread in the three languages. The children
are truly convinced that the words sound the same, and what happiness
there is that the word father sounds in Kistini like mother in
Georgian.
We are not just pronouncing words. We are communicating. This is a
special kind of a conversation I first came across in
Nagorno-Karabakh. A language offers protection against a horror once
experienced. It refuses to call things their proper names. But the
necessity to share one’s experience with others remains. So people
choose the best option available: they take neutral words, give them
a different intonation, a different rhythm-and a conversation will
inevitably begin about one’s inmost feelings, without one word about
them being pronounced.
Perhaps we are subconsciously sparing our psyche, perhaps the tongue,
perhaps language resists sheer hell. Which is most important, I don’t
know. In our game even the word war is stripped of its fearsome
meaning. We control that word.
We devote the second evening to the proverbs and sayings of the three
peoples. We come across a Chechen proverb: He who answers evil with
good becomes a blood enemy.
Is this `an eye for eye’? Even if one answers evil with good? What
does it mean, this talk of `becomes a blood enemy’?
We chose this proverb from a book published specially for refugees.
The book is in three languages, Russian, Chechen, and Georgian. The
publisher is Kavkazskii dom (House of the Caucasus). The Russian part
of the book is the weakest. The Wahhabites [followers of the austere
form of Islam particularly widely practiced in Saudi Arabia and only
recently introduced in Chechnya] were unhappy with the book, because
they found the pagan aspects of the folklore blasphemous. They had
apparently burnt some of the books.
The book has a foreword, written in keeping with the Chechens’
deepest spiritual and cultural traditions. There is not one bad word
about the country these children have had to flee as refugees. There
are no accusations. It expresses compassion for and a sense of guilt
toward children whose fate it is to live outside their homeland.
`In the world created by God only a spiritual victory is a real
victory and a spiritual defeat is a real defeat. Please forgive us
for your fate.’
I leaf through a textbook for the Russian sector photocopied by a
Norwegian refugee center. I leaf through the book published by
Kavkazskii dom, and I am filled with shame. Where have we been all
this time? If we could not spare these children from bombings, what
at least have we written for them?
Malika and I are preparing a lesson in Russian literature. A strange
selection of texts. There is barely a lighthearted page in them. How
can one go through the desert of puberty with such a textbook? As if
on purpose the authors selected the gloomiest pages from Bunin,
Andreev, Kazakov, Abramov. The final sentence of the textbook reads,
`At dawn a policeman ran into his corpse lying in the snow.’
I wonder: What concept of childhood is it that lies at the heart of
this textbook of literature?
The youngest member of the family, Zarema, decides to take a serious
step: she gives a book as a gift. I resist. The book is already in my
bag. Zarema throws up her arms as she would in a Chechen dance and
says solemnly:
`I gave her a book that has all the languages in the world!’

European official’s stance on Karabakh polls “far from reality”
Artsakh State TV, Stepanakert
5 Aug 04
August
[Presenter in studio] On 5 August, the press service of the ministry
of foreign affairs of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR] commented
on the statement of Council of Europe Secretary-General Walter
Schwimmer who expressed his regret about the elections to local
government bodies in the NKR. Schwimmer has made such statements
several times.
The NKR ministry of foreign affairs regards the logic of the statement
as strange and far from reality. Elections are an important component
of building democracy and a civic society. Elections are also a tool
for electing authorities that represent the NKR in the negotiating
process on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict settlement.
The NKR foreign ministry thinks that the international community is
not interested in anarchy and in halting the establishment of
democracy in Nagornyy Karabakh. Such statements can be regarded as
political support for the regime that unleashed a war on Nagornyy
Karabakh, violates democracy and is far behind Nagornyy Karabakh in
democratic development.

Kyrgyz president hails CSTO rapid deployment forces’ air component
AKIpress news agency web site
5 Aug 04
Bishkek, 5 August: Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev met the defence
ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
member-states and the CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha in the
Cholpon Ata state residence on 5 August.
The president has congratulated the heads of defence ministries on the
forthcoming joint exercises.
The first full-scale exercises of the CSTO rapid deployment forces,
with the use of an air component deployed in the town of Kant, will
take place tomorrow 6 August , the head of state said.
“The CSTO member-states have not only a reliable shield, but also a
sword for retribution,” the president said about the use of a new air
component of the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces (CRDF).
Askar Akayev recalled the decision to establish the CRDF – adopted in
Yerevan in 2000. The countries had managed to establish a security
bastion in the Central Asian region in a very short time since that
moment, the president said.
The course of the exercises – the first phase of the Rubezh-2004
Border-2004 in Almaty and the second phase held in the mountain firing
range of Edelveys in eastern Issyk-Kul Region – was discussed at the
meeting.

SAMVEL DANIELIAN LIKELY TO BE APPOINTED YEREVAN HEAD ARCHITECT
YEREVAN, August 5 (Noyan Tapan). According to reliable sources, Samvel
Danielian, Chief of the Department of Architecture and Urban
Development of the Yerevan Mayor’s Office, is likely to be appointed
Head Architect of Yerevan. At the same time, according to the RA
government’s press service, an official decision about it hasn’t been
made yet. To recap, by the decision of RA Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian, former Yerevan Head Architect Narek Sargsian was releived
of his post on July 14.

NUMBER OF AMBULANCE CALLS INCREASES IN CONNECTION WITH RADIOACTIVE
RADIATION ACTIVIZATION
Yerevan, August 5, (Noyan Tapan). The maximum of calls received by the
First Aid state-owned CJSC during June – July of 2004, came early on
the morning of July 31 – 418 calls. On that day 193 calls were
serviced by particular specialists and 42 people were hospitalized. As
Nune Zhamkochian, the Company’s Deputy Manager, pointed out at the
August 5 press conference, the minimum of calls – 329 – was registered
on July 20, including 153 calls by particular specialists and 29
patients were hospitalized. According to her, during July the number
of calls tended to fluctuate, which was caused by the radioactive
radiation activization. It was also noted that the majority of calls
had been connected with cardiovascular and nervous diseases. The
majority of patients were people above the age of 65.