Month: May 2008

PILGRIMAGE TO SHUSHI

Panorama.am
17:15 01/05/2008

Today the Supreme Patriarch of all Armenians Garegin II received
five hundred members of pilgrimage group to Shushi. The group will
start from Saint Echmiatsin and reach to Artsakh – Shushi Saint Savor
Church. The Patriarch told them the sacrament of Ascension Day and
called them on to accompany prayers and the ten tables.

"Today when you start your way of pilgrimage you should let the
commandments move into your hearts and souls. Only by love we can
develop our country and meet all the problems," said the patriarch.

The pilgrimage is organized by Pan Armenian international youth center
and "spiritual-cultural renaissance" foundation.

PROGRAM OF NEW GOVERNMENT WILL NOT HAVE DESCRIPTION OF 21st CENTURY’S ECONOMY, ECONOMIST EDWARD AGHAJANOV SAYS

Noyan Tapan
May 1, 2008

YEREVAN, MAY 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The program of the new Armenian
government will not have a description of 21st century’s economy,
as this program gives priority to mining industry and metallurgy,
economist Edward Aghajanov said at the May 1 press conference. By
observations of international experts, Armenia will become either
marginal or competitive country. In order to achieve the latter,
according to E. Aghajanov, a shift should be made from the traditional
mode of economy to an innovation economic mode.

He said that the president and prime minister of Armenia have no idea
about the real state of the country, while in this case it is no use
speaking about the country’s development and creating a financial,
educational, health center in the region. "Our authorities are fond of
fairy tales. They are not aware that billions rather than millions
must be spent to achieve it," the economist said. In his words,
it is unrealistic to speak about such things when there is no stock
exchange and banking system in the country.

"When will our authorities become sober and take a serious approach
to this terrible situation: the competitiveness of the country has
fallen, the share of exports in GDP has declined to a terribly low
level – 12.5%, which has never happened in Armenia before," he said.

He pointed out that VAT makes up 51.2% of tax revenues of the
Armenian state budget. Whereas, 11 years ago VAT made up only 30%
of tax revenues. Besides, the share of income and profit taxes
in the total amount of tax revenues has declined as compared with
1996. "There is no such thing in any country. The opposite has to
happen. It means that in 1996, the tax burden was mainly on business,
whereas now it lies on people as it is the consumer who pays VAT,"
E. Aghajanov said. According to him, when buying bread, the Armenian
population in fact pays more money as VAT to the state than all the
businessmen taken together pay profit taxes.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE REPUBLICANS DON’T SUFFER FROM PARTY-ADDICTION
LILIT POGHOSYAN

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on May 02, 2008
Armenia

Member of the `Republican’ Parliamentary Faction Artak Davtyan answers
the questions of the correspondent of `Hayots Ashkharh’ daily.

`The day before, when from the NA tribune you were expressing the
standpoints of your fraction regarding the government’s action plan you
stressed the importance of refusing party-addiction. Does this mean;
the beautiful words about the supremacy of the state interests are
veils to move forward the party-affectations?’

`If we consider secondary the interests of the state, and the national,
state programs underlined in the coalition cooperation and be guided by
narrow party interests, we will unequivocally jeopardize the
implementation of the government’s action plan.

Of course personal skin is closer, but it is high time to unite our
people, and why not the protestant electorate as well, those who voted
for the extra-parliamentary powers, around the state problems. This is
the very principle, the Republican Party has always been guided by: to
be based on the idea of national solidarity while forming the
government.

That is why I quoted Garegin Njdeh: saying that party-addiction is a
great evil; he was exhorting to refuse that mode of action. The
Republican Party has well prepared cadres. That’s why we can nominate
several worthy candidates for different positions. The President of the
Republic, possesses the whole human resource bank of the party, and in
my view, everyone knows that we don’t have any problem linked with the
human resource potential.

We have started the process of uprooting party-addiction from
ourselves. That is why we give ourselves the right to voice this from
NA tribune.

`In your estimation does the government’s action plan answer the
purpose of overcoming the internal and external challenges faced by the
country?’

`In my view it is a balanced program. It is possible to include the
impossible in one document: to represent the mechanisms of the solution
of all the issues, the succession of all the steps and the exact
schedule. The most important thing is that the government’s action plan
clearly enshrines the key targets and priorities, the implementation of
which will lead us to a qualitatively new country in 2012.

Particularly the conversation is about the formation of the middle
class, because the high economic growth recorded during the recent
years is far not satisfactory to mitigate the social polarization. In
different countries in Latin America, for many years they ensured high
economic growth, in conditions of emphasized social polarization. This
implies estrangement of the different layers of society, which usually
turns into enmity and hatred.

In such conditions it is senseless to speak about social agreement and
building civil society. That is why in my statement I brought the
attention of the government on the fact that in parallel with the high
tempo of economic growth, by every year we must try to improve Jin
Coefficient of the income distribution, so that rich people won’t
become richer and the poor ` poorer. Otherwise the second-generation
reforms will be an end in itself.’

`What is the difference between this government program and the
previous one?’

`Firstly I must record that this program is based on the fundamental
clauses of the previous one. It is not right to say that the
conversation is about revolutionary changes. Of course there are
certain new accentuations, taking into account the new coalition format
and the priorities enshrined in Serge Sargsyan’s pre-election program.

After all one year has passed after the parliamentary elections, new
problems have appeared during this period of time, the expectations of
the society have changed and many issues have become priorities. The
conversation is mainly about the atmosphere of trust between the
authorities and the society. This is the fundamental pledge, due to
which the government can overcome the challenges faced by the country.

It is also essential, that the digital index of the economic growth is
based on not the nominal but the real growth of the GDP. This means the
real increase of prices and the deflator of the GDP is neutralized by
the growth of income.

By giving vote of confidence to the government, during the coming
months we must implement a serious legislative activity. If we fail to
ensure corresponding legislative field we will not be able to realize
all this. The parliament and the government must coordinate their work,
to be able to implement the reforms, enshrined in the government’s
action plan.

I must mention that there is something common between the action plans
of the ruling and the former governments: both are based on the concept
of the national security. Which means we must bring our legislation in
conformity with the strategy of the national security.’

AVET ADONTS: THE ISSUE OF NKR RECOGNITION SHOULD BE APPROACHED FROM A BROADER PERSPECTIVE

armradio.am
02.05.2008 13:15

"The issue of recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic should
be approached from a broader perspective, and not by taking separate
steps on the parliamentary level," Chairman of the National Assembly’s
Standing Committee on European Integration Avet Adonts said in an
interview with Mediamax, commenting on the refusal to include the draft
law on "Recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic" in the NA agenda.

"The Karabakh issue is a national priority, which touches upon the
directions of foreign policy, national and regional security, the
European integration," the Chairman of the Committee noted.

"The issue of recognition of Nagorno Karabakh should be approached
more broadly, and not by taking separate steps on the parliamentary
level," Avet Adonts said, suggesting to hold joint consultations,
featuring the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
the NKR authorities.

According to the MP, the recognition of NKR by Armenia directly
depends on the negotiation process and the results of the dialogue
between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

At the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe, the Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on European
Integration Avet Adonts introduced the draft resolution on "Regional
Cooperation." Avet Adonts said 40 parliamentarians from 20 countries
joined the document as co-authors. The draft resolution was not
supported by representatives of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

In the draft resolution the member state of the Council of Europe and
the CoE Committee of Ministers is proposed to discuss and elaborate
new methods of regional cooperation.

"Regional cooperation is important from the perspectives of security,
settlement of existing conflicts, raising the level of trust," Avet
Adonts declared.

A number of regional programs are being implemented in the South
Caucasus, which, unfortunately, do not correspond to the accepted
norms of regional cooperation because of Azerbaijan’s position, which
does not wish to participate in any joint project with participation
of the Armenian side," Avet Adonts said.

INTERNAL CHALLENGES DEEMED AS THE PRINCIPAL CHALLENGES OF ARMENIA
KIMA YEGHYAZARYAN

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on May 02, 2008
Armenia

SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN, Head of the National Democratic Party (NDP), was
yesterday’s guest speaker of `Pakagits’ (bracket) club

Although the press-conference was originally devoted to the discussion
of the `External Challenges’, all the questions arousing interest among
the journalists concerned the internal political issues. Especially
when, after enumerating and attaching importance to different
challenges threatening our country, the NDP leader finished his
introductory speech with the following conclusion, `Speaking about all
kinds of external challenges, we must clearly realize that Armenia’s
principal challenge is currently the internal challenge.’

Sh. Kocharyan regretted to state that having chosen the path of
European integration, our country, is, along with Russia and
Azerbaijan, among the few states whose compliance with their
commitments is estimated as imitative and not real. `At this point, we
are facing a problem too, because if your country has become a member
of some international structure and undertaken commitments, it is
obliged to comply with them.

And that implies that the governance system inside the country should
be effective enough to solve the problems which constantly demand a
solution. On the one hand, you are required to establish stability in
you country, and on the other hand, you should never cross the limits
which are not characteristic of a democratic country,’ Sh. Kocharyan
announced.

Distinguishing the activities of the radical opposition as one of the
`internal challenges’, the speaker noted that the forces supporting L.
Ter-Petrosyan crossed the permitted limits, by implementing the tactics
of struggle they had chosen themselves. `I have said, and I repeat that
no development is possible without an internal political struggle. But
anyway, it is necessary for an internal political struggle to have a
certain threshold which should never be crossed.

In my estimation, the part of the opposition supporting ex-President L.
Ter-Petrosyan during the last presidential elections did cross that
threshold.’

Touching upon the efforts of the leader of `Heritage’ party to organize
a dialogue between the country’s president and Mr. Ter-Petrosyan, Sh.
Kocharyan expressed surprise, `As regards the dialogue, it is a little
bit unclear to me why Raffi Hovhannisyan acts as a mediator. He
supported L. Ter-Petrosyan, didn’t he? So why doesn’t he have that
dialogue himself? It isn’t as if former Prime Minister and new
President Serge Sargsyan had announced that he was ready for a
dialogue. Well, if you represent a political party which is the only
pro-opposition faction in the Parliament, just announce that you are
ready for a dialogue. I am already unable to understand that.’ And the
speaker again expressed hesitation, `If two individuals really desire
to talk to each other, is there any need for a mediator?’

GOVERNMENTAL CORRUPTION AND LARGE SHADOW ECONOMY MADE ARMENIA POTENTIALLY VULNERABLE TO MONEY LAUNDERING AND TERRORIST FINANCING SCHEMES: US STATE DEPARTMENT’S COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM 2007

arminfo
2008-05-02 15:41:00

ArmInfo. Endemic governmental corruption, a significant organized
crime presence, and a large shadow economy made Armenia potentially
vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing schemes,
say the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2007.

Armenia’s counterterrorism contribution included its continued
commitment to overflight and landing rights of U.S. military aircraft,
additional security support to U.S. facilities in Armenia during times
of terrorist alert, and the renewed deployment of peacekeeping forces
in Iraq. In addition, Armenia joined the Global Initiative to Combat
Nuclear Terrorism, and expressed interest in joining the Convention for
Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. In September, a delegation of
inspectors from the UN Counterterrorism Committee Executive Directorate
visited Armenia to ascertain its progress in complying with UNSCR 1372,
and found that 12 of the 13 legal counterterrorism instruments had
already been implemented or were soon to be implemented. And in July,
the Armenian government succeeded in adapting the EU export control
list of "dual-use" commodities to its own national control list.

The Financial Monitoring Center (FMC), a U.S.-supported financial
intelligence unit within the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), continued
to make investigative strides against money- laundering. During the
first nine months of the year, the FMC received twenty-four suspicious
transaction reports (STRs), compared to twenty-three STRs during the
same period in 2006, and six STRs in 2005. Under its current mandate,
the CBA can freeze temporarily financial assets while referring the
STRs to the competent authorities for further investigation. However,
it must rely on private financial institutions to self-monitor and
lacked an integrated IT system to store information on financial
entities or individuals of concern. At the end of the year, no cases
involving terrorist financing were uncovered or prosecuted. The FMC
received Egmont Group membership this year.

Armenia improved border security by maintaining an automated Border
Management Information System (BMIS) that documented and stored
the names of travelers at nearly all official points of entry, and
contained criminal and terrorist watchlists as updated by the Republic
of Armenia Police (RAP) and National Security Service (NSS). While
Armenia has no bilateral agreement with the United States governing
the sharing of information on travelers, the NSS and RAP shared
information with the U.S. Embassy when they discovered fraudulent
U.S. visas or other documents of interest to the United States.

Although Armenia continued to strengthen its counterterrorism
capabilities and enhanced its counterterrorism cooperation with
the United States and other international security organizations,
its geographic location, porous borders, and loose visa regime still
provided ample opportunities for traffickers of illicit materials,
persons, and finances.

TIGRAN SARGSYAN MET GAREGIN II

Panorama.am
15:39 02/05/2008

Today the Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan had a meeting with
the Supreme Patriarch of All Armenian Garegin II in the Government
building. The information is provided by the press and public relations
department of the Government.

During the meeting they discussed a few questions on church
construction which could have their strong impact on the role of
church in the society and its improvement and the evaluation of
Christian values.

The Patriarch and the Prime Minister made some arrangements to organize
a scientific conference on the role of church in the lives of modern
people. It was planned that "Noravank" foundation will also take part
in the conference.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SCHOOL TO PRESENT MUSICAL ON SATURDAY

Asbury Park Press, NJ
May 2 2008

LONG BRANCH: "The Georgetown Boys," a musical, will be presented at 8
p.m. Saturday at the Long Branch Middle School by Brookdale Community
College’s Center for Holocaust Studies.

The musical recounts the true story about 109 boys who, after being
orphaned during the Armenian Genocide, were brought to Canada to be
trained as farmers in Georgetown, a suburb of Toronto.

Tickets are $25 for the public and $12 for students and Center for
Holocaust Studies members. For tickets, visit to
or call (732) 842-8028.

US Attorney – Glendale Man Convicted In Cigarette Smuggling Conspiracy

Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2008

LOS ANGELES – LAWFUEL – The United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of North Carolina, George E.B. Holding announced yesterday
that a federal jury in Los Angeles, California, found AVEDIS
DJEREDJIAN, 39, of Glendale, California, guilty on 15 counts for
conspiring to traffic in contraband cigarettes, in violation of Title
18, United States Code, Section 371; conspiring to violate Title 18,
United States, Code, Section 1956 (a)(1)(A)(I) by conducting financial
transactions with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified
unlawful activity, in violation of Title 18, United States
Code,Section 1956(h); and structuring financial transactions and
aiding and abetting, in violation of Title 31, United States Code,
Sections 5324(a)(3) and 5324 (d).

The jury, however, could not come to a unanimous decision regarding
charges against the two other defendants, CARMEN BADRIAN, 36, and
ROOBIK OHANIANSAKI, 50, also of Glendale, California.

This matter was originally indicted by a Federal Grand Jury sitting in
the Eastern District of North Carolina on October 25, 2006, as much of
the criminal activity took place within this federal
district. However, the defendants moved to transfer the

matter to California. On May 16, 2007, after lengthy hearings and over
the objection of the United States, the Court in the Eastern District
of North Carolina transferred the matter to the Central District of
California.

The case focused on the efforts of the defendants to purchase
cigarettes at a lower cost in North Carolina, transport them to
California to sell, and avoid payment of higher cigarette taxes in
California. According to the evidence presented at the trial of this
matter, from January, 2002, to June, 2005, DJEREDJIAN and his wife,
CARMEN, and OHANIANSAKI purchased more than 530,000 cartons of
cigarettes from North Carolina, which is considered to be one ofthe
states with a low cigarette tax rate, and other sources, and shipped
and sold the contraband in California, a state considered to have a
high cigarette tax. However, according to the evidence, the
defendants had purchased only enough legitimate California tax stamps
from the California Board of Equalization for 2,040 cartons. These tax
stamps are required by California to be placed on each individual pack
to show that the state tax had been paid before any pack could be sold
in the state. As a result, during the time period alleged in the
indictment (2002 to 2005), purchases in the State of North Carolina
were used to defraud the State of California of more than $9.5 million
in cigarette taxes revenue.

Mr. Holding commented on the important nature of this case: `An
important part of our system of Government is a recognition of the
sovereignty of states when it comes to setting tax rates and managing
the sale and distribution of goods within a state’s boundaries. Here,
North Carolina was used by these defendants to break the laws of
California. I am pleased that we could work hand in hand with the
United States Attorney for the Central District of California and with
investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, the Internal Revenue Service and the California Board of
Equalization to put a stop to this criminal activity.’

The maximum penalty for conspiring to traffic in contraband cigarettes
is 5 years’ imprisonment, 3 years supervised release and a fine of
$250,000. Conspiring to violate Title 18, United States, Code,
Section 1956 (a)(1)(A)(I) by conducting financial transactions with
the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity
is punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment, 5 years supervised
release, and a fine of $500,000 or twice the value of the property
involved in the transaction, whichever is greater. The maximum penalty
for structuring financial transactions and aiding and abetting is 10
years ‘ imprisonment, 3 years supervised release and a $500,000
fine. Sentencing in this matter is set for August 4, 2008.

As noted in Mr. Holding’s comments, the investigation of the case in
the Eastern District of North Carolina was conducted by the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Internal Revenue
Service. In theCentral District of California, the investigative
agencies included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives and the California Board of Equalization. Assistant United
States Attorneys Clay Wheeler and Joshua Royster of the Eastern
District of North Carolina handled this matter for the United States.

CLASH OCCURS BETWEEN AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN STUDENTS IN MOSCOW

Today, Azerbaijan
html
May 2 2008

A fight occurred yesterday in the Russian University of Friendship
of Peoples in Moscow, involving Armenian, Azerbaijani and Turkish
young people.

15:40

APA reports with reference to the press service for the University
that representatives of different countries set small tents with the
names of their countries and demonstrated various performances.

According to the press service, after an Armenian student came on stage
and sang a song, Azerbaijani students accused him saying that this is
an Azerbaijani song and started to wave flags and chant "Azerbaijan".

Armenians responded by different kinds of chanting and fist fight
started. The law enforcement bodies broke up the crowd to prevent
mass fighting.

Other students and administration representatives tried to urge
Azerbaijanis and Armenians to calm down and continue the festival. Yet
the parties continued to curse each others, in the result of which
the university administration decided to stop the festival.

———— 11:00

The incident occurred during the traditional May 1 concert when
representatives of different countries, studying at high schools,
demonstrate their art and cultural traditions.

Initially, the cross-fire occurred, but then the fight
started. Students from Armenia, on the one side, and from Azerbaijan
and Turkey from the other side, started to throw bottles, sticks and
stones to each other. Casualties were reported.

Special police forces came on the spot and made the fight participants
out of the building, where an event was held. The fight participants
were brought to underground, divided into two parts, isolated by
militiamen.

Later, the law enforcement officers were subjected to fire from Zhiguli
car. The special police forces detained the car passengers and took
traumatic guns away from them. Another car was later detained as well
and it was revealed that the driver also had a gun.

It should be reminded that a conflict between representatives of
Azerbaijani and Armenian youth occurred at the same high school last
year. An Azerbaijani student got a gun wound during the clash.