Month: October 2005

PARTIES DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO THE OLD-AGE PENSION FUND

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| 20:37:55 | 17-10-2005 | Social |

In 2006 the budget has allotted 94 billion 590 million AMD to the
old-age pension fund which is 10.9% more than last year. The basic
pension has become 4 250 AMD instead of 4 000, and 180 AMD for one
year of work instead of last year’s 160.

Head of the Old-age Pension Fund Vazgen Khachikyan gave interesting
information today. It turns out that of the 68 registered parties
there are only 5 which give salary to their workers. Three of them
are the coalition parties, which “show” that they pay only 20 thousand
AMD to their workers.

50 MILLION VICTIMS OF BIRD FLU

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| 20:21:05 | 17-10-2005 | Social |

In 1918 50 million people died of bird flu. Today the doctors have
fears that the same will be repeated.

RA Health Minister Norayr Davidyan said that there is no danger of
the illness in Armenia, but in any case there are vaccinations. The
Ministry of Agriculture and the Tax Committee are also on the alert:
the latter has recently forbidden the import of bird meat into the
country.

FIRST AID WILL BE FREE OF CHARGE

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| 20:16:05 | 17-10-2005 | Social |

The money allotted to the health field in 2006 has grown by 22%
becoming 39.1 billion AMD. Health Minister Norayr Davidyan found
the growth of the sum allotted to the first aid field extremely
important. He said it gives them the possibility to realize first
aid totally free of charge except dental service.

Norayr Davidyan informed that 1.4 billion has been allotted to the
purchase of about 250 types of medicine and to the provision of people
with the right to get medicine free of charge with the proper types
of medicine. The Minister mentioned that in 2006 323 million AMD has
been allotted to the reconstruction of the hospitals. Although he was
very well pleased with the news, he still finds that the salaries of
the doctors are too low.

Norayr Davidyan claimed that the financial means allotted to the
health field will give them the possibility to keep the development
tendencies for the last few years.

ALMOST CAUGHT WITH HANDS IN FORGERY

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| 19:54:21 | 17-10-2005 | Politics |

Member of the delegation of the CoE Local and Regional authorities
Congress David Lloyd Williams from Britain told the journalists today
about the fact he witnessed in Vanadzor during the elections of mayor
where he was fulfilling his duties as observer.

“There was a case when we were looking for one of the electoral areas
and we noticed a group of about 150 people. We found out that it was
the headquarters of one of the candidates. The people hesitated to
answer our questions. They had heard that if they went there with their
passports, they will receive money. I entered and asked why they were
outside. The people inside confirmed the existence of the gossips but
they said they were spread by their opponents. So we left the place as
it was not a proper place for observation”, David Lloyd Williams told.

WILL THERE BE A TRANSPARENT “YES”

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| 19:11:56 | 17-10-2005 | Politics |

It is now yet known how the draft Constitution will be preached. The
details about the process will be announced in several days.

Today head of the Constitutional preaching structure and the NA
Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs
Mher Shahgeldyan invited the journalists to a briefing to tell that
their aim is to adopt the Constitution. “We work for the sake of the
Constitutional reforms, for the formation of a new political system,
and for its realization. This is our aim”.

According to Mher Shahgeldyan first they must represent the
constitutional reforms to the population, then its positive sides,
and finally secure “free, fair and transparent elections”.

By the way, one of the main problems of the structure is to correct
the errors in the electoral rolls. The structure will work in several
directions. Chief editor of the newspaper “Yerkir” Spartak Seyranyan
will be responsible for preaching, and Aram Karapetyan who did good
work organizing the “Unity round dance” will be responsible for
technical issues.

According to Shahgeldyan, during the preaching, the coalition will
be supported by more than 20 parties and more than 200 organizations,
the names of which will be announced in several days.

By the way, during the briefing the poster saying “YES” was not yet
fixed to the wall. It was lying on the floor.

THERE ARE VACANT PLACES

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| 18:43:17 | 17-10-2005 | Social |

400 civic officers have been resigned from their posts on the ground
of their being not correspondent to their posts.

“We must be able to include serious workers into the state service
system, especially into the civic system. They must also be able to
get proper knowledge in order to be able to face the challenges of
time. If there are demands, there must also be a chance to meet them”,
said head of the Civic Service Council Manvel Badalyan.

Today there are 7 000 civic officers in Armenia. 1/3 of them pass
trainings every year. By the way, in 2006 the salary of civic officers
will be raised by 50%.

“NOT KOCHARYAN BUT THE COALITION IS GUILTY”

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| 18:23:02 | 17-10-2005 | Politics |

“Thanks to the draft Constitution the Presidential-Parliamentary
governing system of the country turns into Parliamentary-Presidential”,
the RA President representative Armen Haroutyunyan says. He considers
it a serious achievement.

Mr. Haroutyunyan claims that we cannot take the constitution of another
country and copy it like the other post-Soviet countries did. “It
does not work”, he said. According to Armen Haroutyunyan the draft
Constitution makes considerable progress in comparison to the present
one. At the same time he does not deny that it could have been better.

Asked the question what hindered its being better Mr. Haroutyunyan
did not answer clearly. He only said that his offers were rejected
not the by President of the country but by the coalition and by the
Parliamentary powers in general.

HOW TO TALK TO TURKEY
by Pelin Turgut, Leo Cendrowicz

Time International
September 26, 2005

Orhan Pamuk is Turkey’s most widely read living author. His fame and
his liberal views have made him a symbol of Turkish aspirations to join
the European Union. But the decision of a Turkish state prosecutor
to try him for “publicly denigrating” the nation reinforced European
ambivalence–in some cases, outright hostility–toward admitting the
mainly Muslim country.

Pamuk is due to face trial in December for comments made to the Swiss
newspaper Tages-Anzeiger in February in which he criticized Turkey’s
refusal to discuss the mass killings of Armenians at the start of the
last century, as well as the country’s more recent Kurdish conflict.

“Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in
these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it,” he said. If
convicted, he faces up to three years in jail, though few expect such
an outcome. Instead, the penalty may be paid by all Turks who support
the move to join the E.U. The European Commission is due to begin
accession talks with Turkey on Oct. 3, but Dutch Christian Democrat
M.E.P. Camiel Eurlings wants negotiations suspended if the trial goes
ahead. Pamuk hopes his case will not count against Turkey’s bid.

“This is without doubt an example of utmost intolerance,” he told
TIME. “But I don’t want that intolerance to be an obstacle in Turkey’s
road toward the E.U.”

Since coming to power in 2002, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
has introduced reforms–such as Kurdish cultural rights and curbs on
the military’s political clout–in a bid to meet E.U. standards. But
the country’s old guard still sets its face against change. “There
has been a huge amount of legal reform, but it takes time for the
mental transformation to sink in,” says one senior Turkish official.

Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Galatasaray University, says Pamuk’s case
“is a sign of how this accession process is going to go. It’s going
to be a roller coaster of a ride.”

ROSE QUEEN ANNOUNCED TO REIGN OVER ROSE PARADE

NBC4.TV, CA
Oct 17 2005

PASADENA, Calif. — A 17-year-old La Salle High School senior was
chosen Monday to reign over the 2006 Rose Parade.

Images: Rose Bowl Royal Court

The new Rose Queen, selected from among the seven members of the Royal
Court, which was announced last Monday, is Camille Clark of Pasadena.

At La Salle, Clark is a member of the school cheer squad, National
Honor Society and Junior Classical League. A tutor at inner-city
public schools and volunteer at Union Station and the Covenant House,
she hopes to attend the University of Virginia and major in finance.

The queen and her court will take part in more than 150 community
and media functions leading up to the 117th Rose Parade on Jan. 2
and the National Championship Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 4.

More than 1,000 young women from the Pasadena area tried out to be part
of the Royal Court. Selections were based on a range of qualities,
including public speaking ability, poise, academic achievement,
community involvement and personality.

Clark’s court includes:

— Lorri Bowman, 17, attends John Marshall Fundamental High School,
where the Altadena resident is the student body president and a
member of the varsity tennis team. She hopes to work with children
as a speech therapist.

— Michelle Corral, 18, of San Marino, is a member of the varsity
cheerleading squad at Flintridge Preparatory School, as well as the
National Charity League, Key Club and Minority Student Union. She
hopes to attend New York University to study nursing.

— Rachel Geragos, 17, of Altadena, attends Flintridge Preparatory
School, where she is a member of the National Charity League and the
Minority Student Union. She is also a peer counselor, school tutor
and Armenian church camp counselor and has her own handbag company,
which she hopes to expand nationally.

— Alyssa Jones, an 18-year-old Arcadia resident, is a freshman
at Pasadena City College, majoring in child development. She is
organizing a volunteer group that teaches horseback riding to
handicapped children.

— Carolyn Loo, 17, of San Marino, is a senior at San Marino High
School, where she is president of the Art Club and active in student
government and the yearbook. She hopes to study speech and physical
therapy in college.

— Eliza Walper, 17, of San Marino, attends Polytechnic School, where
she captains the varsity soccer team, participates in varsity tennis
and track and acts as sports editor for the school newspaper. She hopes
to study history and business while playing collegiate-level soccer.

2006 DRAFT BUDGET SETS 54.1 BILLION DRAMS FOR SOCIAL PROGRAMS

Armenpress
Oct 17 2005

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 17, ARMENPRESS: Armenia’s 2006 draft budget earmarks
54.1 billion drams for the labor and social affairs ministry, an
8.1 billion drams rise against the 2005. Labor and social affairs
minister Aghvan Vardanian told parliamentary debates on the draft
budget today that a set of new programs would be implemented next year,
one of which is to establish a single system of children’s protection,
which would require 113 million drams.

He said around 26 billion were set aside to pay social benefits to
insecure families. This is almost 5 billion more than was earmarked
for 2005. The average amount of a monthly benefit to these families
will grow from current 12,000 drams to 15,300 drams. He said
another one billion drams would be released for 24-hour care of
935 institutionalized children. Also some 1.4 billion drams will be
released for taking care of graduates of children’s houses and senior
lonely citizens in specialized institutions.

And eventually some 90 millions are set for construction of the first
ever shelter for homeless people.