Month: August 2008

ARMENIA MAY BECOME REGIONAL HEALTH CENTER IN 3-5 YEARS: HEALTH MINISTER

ARMENPRESS
Aug 15, 2008

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS: Health Minister Harutyun Kushkian
told Armenpress that the government is taking stock of the national
program designed to make Armenia a regional health center. He said
during the elaboration process all proposals and observations of
stockholders are taken into consideration.

The minister said more specifically Armenia seeks to become a regional
center in providing first class medical services in 8 directions. One
of these directions is treatment of cancer. The minister said the first
steps in this direction are in the process. The cancer treatment center
is supposed to be built on the basis of the National Cancer Institute.

The minister said Armenia may become a regional health center in
3-5 years. He said Armenia has the resource and personnel to offer
high class treatment of cardio-vascular diseases, infertility,
rehabilitation, stomatology, ear implants and collection and
transplantation of bone marrow cells.

HOLIDAYMAKERS GET GEORGIA REFUNDS
Tom Chesshyre

The Times
August 16, 2008
UK

Tourists with trips booked to Georgia are being offered refunds or
trips to Armenia instead, after the conflict with Russia this week.

Explore Worldwide, the leading UK operator to Georgia, predicts that
the country will "be back on the tourist map within a year" after
the violence has ended. The company sends about 100 holidaymakers
to Georgia annually. A spokesman said: "The type of person who goes
there on holiday will not necessarily be put off by a war."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against travel to the
country.

Several cruise lines that stop at Georgia’s Black Sea port of Butumi
are rethinking itineraries.

GEORGIA IS A ‘WALK IN THE PARK’ FOR HSBC – COMPARED WITH IRAQ
Patrick Hosking

The Times
August 16, 2008
UK

Timing is everything. Eight weeks ago HSBC opened the doors of
a swanky new operation in downtown Tbilisi. Georgia’s promising
economic prospects, its political stability and its pro-Western
attitudes had persuaded Britain’s biggest bank to extend its empire
a little further into the Caucasus.

"We believe that Georgia offers some of the best growth opportunities
in the entire CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] region," Tony
Turner, a veteran HSBC man and chief executive of the new venture,
told local reporters and TV crews at the time. The bank’s decision to
sink $17 million (£9.1 million) of start-up capital into the venture,
alongside minority Armenian investors, and hire an initial staff of
56 people was soon going to pay dividends, be believed.

Seven weeks later, last weekend, Mr Turner was listening to Russian
bombs raining down on military installations on the edge of the city
and wondering whether it was safe for his wife and three teenage
children to remain with him.

As the bangs intensified, his 17-year old son, visiting for the
holidays and studying for his physics A-level, remarked that it was
statistically improbable that a bomb would fall directly on them.

Related Links Current accounts shrink by 5% , says HSBC HSBC charges
up to £9,999 for ‘rescue’ deals Not surprisingly, the observation
failed to reassure anybody: by Monday morning, with the Russian
invasion gathering intensity, the family was evacuated.

HSBC opened its doors as usual for most of the week, although there was
an enforced bank holiday on Tuesday, the better to enable Georgians
to rally in a show of support for President Saakashvili. Three of Mr
Turner’s local staff were called up as reservists.

"It has been slightly surreal," Mr Turner told The Times, "and
occasionally scary. In other parts of Georgia it’s been just horrible,
but there have been no heroics from bank managers in Tbilisi."

On Tuesday, at the height of the alarm, Mr Turner called head office
and spoke to Dyfrig John, HSBC’s chief for Europe. The decision was
made to stay, but to be ready to temporarily shut down if conditions
became worse.

So far, that has not been necessary.

Nor has HSBC been particularly targeted as a symbol of the West,
which many Georgians believe betrayed them by not responding more
immediately and more emphatically to Russian aggression. There has been
"some disappointment", Mr Turner concedes.

HSBC, which operates in 85 countries, is no stranger to instability
and violence. Three of its staff were killed and 47 injured when
al-Qaeda sympathisers bombed its Istanbul headquarters in 2003. Its
Arg entina chief was machine-gunned in the leg while foiling a kidnap
attempt in 2000.

HSBC has an office in the Baghdad green zone. "The last few days in
Tbilisi have been a bit of a walk in the park compared with that,"
says Mr Turner, 48, who has been with HSBC for 25 years, and served
in Brazil, Brunei, Bahrain and Armenia.

As for Georgia’s prospects now, Mr Turner says that it is much too
early to say. Economic growth had been galloping along at 10 per cent
or more a year for five years. Foreign investment inflows had tripled
to $1.56 billion in the space of three years.

But all bets are off as a result of the invasion. At best, new
foreign investment in the country is likely to be shelved until
stability returns.

Hotel developments on the Black Sea are certain to be delayed, he says.

But Mr Turner is not unduly concerned. HSBC invests for the long term
and is in the business of risk-taking. While business may be thinner
than previously forecast, the margins in the Caucasus are five or
ten times as big as in the West.

HSBC rarely quits a country, though it was forced out of Shanghai by
the communists in 1949. Short of a dramatic revival in hostilities,
HSBC is in Georgia for good. Mr Turner adds: "It is very rare for
the group to turn its back on a place for any reason at all."

The best-laid plans . . .

What HSBC said at the launch in June . . .

"Georgia is one of the most dynamic economies in the former Soviet
Union"

"With GDP growth last year in excess of 10 per cent, we believe that
Georgia offers some of the best growth opportunities in the entire
CIS region"

"There is a new breed of Georgian who are increasingly global in
outlook and expect nothing less from their bank" "Plans for a second
branch are already well under way" . . . and this week

"It has been slightly surreal and occasionally scary. In other parts
of Georgia it’s been just horrible but there have been no heroics
from bank managers in Tbilisi" – Tony Turner, pictured left

"We will not be going anywhere. It is very rare for the group [HSBC]
to turn its back on a place for any reason at all"

–Boundary_(ID_dVXjZ6WzqAfl2PHfcWHHCA)- –

NEWLY-APPOINTED MEMBER OF CEC EXPRESSES CONCERN ABOUT ELECTORAL VIOLATIONS IN ARABKIR COMMUNITY

Noyan Tapan

Au g 15, 2008

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN. A number of citizens who visited
recently the office of "Heritage" party expressed their concern about
the mass distribution of electoral bribes – by means of collection of
citizens’ passport data – by Albert Yeritsian, a possible candidate for
the post of head of Yerevan’s Arabkir community. The newly-appointed
member of the RA Central Electoral Commission (CEC) from "Heritage"
party Hovsep Khurshudian informed the head of the RA police Alik
Sargsian and the head of the RA National Security Service Gorik
Hakobian about it in his open letter of August 15. Copies of the
letter were sent to the prime minister Tigran Sargsian and the head
of the RA president’s control service Hovhannes Hovsepian.

According to H. Khurshudian, various citizens who came to the office
of "Heritage" told them that the heads of several hospitals and
polyclinics that are located in Arabkir community and are under
the jurisdiction of Yerevan mayor’s office have instructed the
residents of Arabkir district who work at these medical institutions
to secure certain number of voters in favor of A. Yeritsian and
prepare respective lists with passport data. The employees of these
institutions were threatened to be dismissed if they do not carry
out these instructions.

Taking into account the fact that the above mentioned actions
represent gross violations of the Electoral Code, H. Khurshudian
requested to use the necessary punitive measures in order to prevent
cases of administrative pressure on voters, distribution of electoral
bribes, other electoral violations at the pre-election stage and in
the preceding period, and to reveal and punish those guilty.

ARF READY TO MAKE EFFORTS SO THAT NEIGHBORING PEOPLES OF SOUTH CAUCASUS WILL HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE IN PEACE

Noyan Tapan

Au g 15, 2008

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The ARF Bureau on August 15 issued a
statement, presenting it position in connection with the last week’s
developments in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.

The statement reads:

"The last week’s developments in the South Caucasus, the actual
war with its tragic consequences, the international tension and the
possible developments reveal new realities which are directly related
to the prospects of our region and cannot but worry Armenia and the
Armenians. What happened in our immediate neighborhood is creating new
challenges both in political and economic sense. The first reaction
is, of course, a pain for thousands of deaths and ruined fates of
all the sides.

Today’s supertask is to rule out such a situation in future. The 1990s’
stage of solving interethnic issues by force is over, and the recent
events showed once again the tragic nature and lack of prospects of
such a mode of action.

On the one side we should realize that Georgia is our immediate
neighbor and its stability and natural development are of great
importance to us, while Russia is Armenia’s strategic partner and
plays a role in Caucasus, on the other hand it is obvious that the
region will not benefit from the straining of EU-Russia-U.S. relations.

Despite assurances of Armenian officials that there are no problems
in the issue of commodity transportation, we are concerned and we
expect friendly Georgia not to create any obstacles in this difficult
situation.

For us, the situation is extremely important from the viewpoint
of three aspects. The first one is the problem of strengthening the
Artsakh people’s right to be in control of its destiny of its own free
will. The recent events clearly showed that Azerbaijan’s ambitions
to solve the problem by brute force are unpromising and may cause
more unpredicatble shocks in the region. Artsakh cannot be part of
Azerbaijan. We must protect our national and state interests in a
most definite and comprehensive way at negotiations on the conflict
settlement and we must demand that the sides should first of all sign
a legal document excluding the use of force.

The second aspect is the problem of autonomy and protection of
the rights of Georgia’s Armenians, especially Javakh, as an ethnic
minority. Here we cannot be indifferent and we want to believe that
Georgia will adhere to the principles of international law in this
issue.

The next aspect is perception of the necessity of the maximum unity
in the issues of the country’s security and the fundamental internal
state and national problems. This is a matter of responsibility before
the people and history.

We hope that after fierce confrontation both the conflict sides and
the international community will find ways to calm the region and
settle the existing problems in a civilized manner. Armenia can and
must join these efforts.

The ARF Dashnaktsutyun is confident and ready to make efforts so that
foundations of cooperation and development will finally be created in
the South Caucasus and the neighboring people will have an opportunity
to live in peace."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARTUR AYVAZIAN BECOMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION

Noyan Tapan

Au g 15, 2008

BEIJING, AUGUST 15, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. Ukraine’s Artur
Ayvazian of Armenian descent won the men’s 50m rifle prone final of
Shooting at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

According to Radio Liberty, 35-year-old Artur Ayvazian was born
in Yerevan.

He has been engaged in sports for 23 years. He currently serves in
the army.

Until today his greatest sport achievement was the bronze medal won at
the 2005 European championship. A. Ayvazian took part in the previous
two Olympic Games.

ARMENIAN BONE MARROW DONOR REGISTRY CELEBRATES 8 YEARS OF ITS ACTIVITY

Noyan Tapan

Au g 15, 2008

LOS ANGELES, AUGUST 15, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. In August
Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry celebrated 8 years of successand
and during Match For Life gala shared with 300 presents the process
of the future developments of creating a Stem Cells Harvesting Center
in Armenia.

At the gala event, presided by Master of Ceremony Mark Geragos, Chair
of the ABMDR board of directors, several key supporters were recognized
for their contributions: Naz Atikian, as Woman of the Year, George
Najarian, Man of the Year, Karineh Khudikian and Armond Aghakhanian,
Volunteers of the Year, and Horizon TV, business of the year.

Over ,000 was raised at the event, the proceeds to go toward ongoing
DNA tissue typing in order to find Matches for Life for needy patients
as quickly as possible.

Following a Champaign reception which included a chance to win a
half-karat diamond donated by Design by Naz, the program and honoree
awards commenced over dinner.

The night’s program included a video showing a young Armenian girl,
Meline, celebrating her 18th birthday thanks to a stem cell transplant
facilitated by the ABMDR and relaying the exciting news that the
organization’s new Stem Cell Harvesting Center in Armenia is nearing
completion. When officially open this coming fall, it will provide
a safe and cost effective means of harvesting stem cells to be used
in bone marrow stem cell transplantations.

The Center will bring state-of-the-art medical and research technology
to Armenia, transforming Yerevan into a regional center for stem cell
harvesting and blood component separation, bringing not only revenues
from other countries in the region, but positioning the Center as a
vital and active player among international transplantation centers
worldwide.

In order to treat Armenians suffering from uncurable blood-related
diseases (leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia), bone marrow transplants
require compatible tissue types that match the genetic makeup
of the patient, which is most likely to come from other Armenian
donors. Currently the ABMDR has identified 1,276 patients in need,
and from its registry of 14,000 donors has found over 900 potential
matches and facilitated 8 transplantations around the globe.

ARMENIA WINS 5th BRONZE MEDAL AT BEIJING 2008 GAMES

Noyan Tapan

Au g 15, 2008

BEIJING, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia’s Olympic team won 5th
bronze medal at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 15 – thanks to
weightlifter Tigran Martirosian. Yesterday Greco-Roman wrestler Yuri
Patrikeyev won 4th ronze medal for our team. Prior to that Armenia
had won three medals in Beijing: weightlifters Tigran Martirosian
and Gevorg Davtian and wrestler Roman Amoyan were the medalists.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AYDIN MIRZAZADE: "I THINK AZERBAIJAN WILL USE ITS SOVEREIGN RIGHTS WHILE RELEASING NAGORNO KARABAKH"

Today.Az
16 August 2008
Azerbaijan

If we view the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno
Karabakh through the prism of events in South Ossetia, the most
important is that the release of Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani lands
will proceed differently than in Georgia, said Aydin Mirzazade,
member of parliament, member of the political council of the Yeni
Azerbaijan party and political scientist.

According to him, Azerbaijan will use both military and diplomatic
efforts. "At the same time, conditions are different here-in South
Ossetia, we see a purely separatist regime, while Nagorno Karabakh is
part of Azerbaijan, occupied by another country, which is Armenia",
said the political scientist.

He noted that Russia had repeatedly voiced support and recognized
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

"I do not see problems for future. Our peoples are friends and the
relations between the countries are good and are constantly developing
and the commodity turnover is growing. There is no misunderstanding
between Azerbaijan and Russia. Azerbaijan wants to see Russia as
its friend and Russia wants the same. I think Azerbaijan will use
its sovereign rights while releasing Nagorno Karabakh", concluded
Mirzazade.

WAR IN THE CAUCASUS
Ghulam Asghar Khan

Frontier Post
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Pakistan

Eruption of war in the Caucasus underscores the tragic consequences of
the dismemberment of the USSR in early 1990s. It exposed the masses
of the former Soviet Union, Russia and other Soviet republics to
the dangers and predations of the US-led major imperialist powers to
exploit the resources that these republics possessed. Not withstanding
the reactionary designs of Moscow, no objective observer can
contest the fact that Washington’s provocative policy toward Russia,
aimed at supplanting Russia in its long-time spheres of influence,
was the primary factor behind this outbreak of war between Georgia
and Russia. A month back, the US trouble-shooter Condoleezza Rice
visited Georgia and held talks with Saakashvili and held a press
conference at which she denounced Moscow and backed Saakashvili’s
efforts to reassert Georgian control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
reiterating US support for Georgia’s incorporation into NATO. It is
inconceivable that Saakashvili did not review his plans in detail
with Rice for a military assault on South Ossetia. Georgia, which is
entirely dependent on US military, financial and diplomatic support,
could not have indulged in this adventurism without Washington’s
tacit consent, especially when the Georgian garrison is dominated
from top to bottom by US military advisers. Washington has been
pouring military hardware into Georgian capital Tbilisi since the
US-led air strikes against Serbia in 1999. The pace and scale of
military aid had accelerated since Washington engineered the so-called
"Rose Revolution" that had brought Harvard-educated Saakashvili to
power in early 2004. American experts trained the Georgian defence
force in the fundamentals of war strategy. At the same time, Georgia
began re-equipping its forces with Israeli and American firearms,
reconnaissance drones, communication and battlefield management
equipment, new vehicle convoys and stockpiles of ammunition. Washington
was surprised by the timing and blitzkrieg of Russian military’s move
into South Ossetia and is still trying to sort out as to what happened,
said a US defence official on Monday. If there were any people in the
State Department who had ever studied history of Caucuses region,
particularly with regard to the resolve of the Russian government
when it feels under threat, the Georgian government would never have
been given a green signal by the US and NATO to try this non-planned,
fingers-crossed and insane incursion in South Ossetia. Of course, it
appears that the people who actually have the kind of background and
knowledge to give the military thoughtful, reasoned and timely counsel
are simply not the people who are hired to do so. For Washington it’s
generally a matter of cronyism and not competence. That is why the US
military was surprised that there was no one to tell them what Moscow’s
response would be. It was only when the Russian forces responded to
the Georgian attack with a rapid massive counteroffensive; crushing
the much smaller Georgian garrison that Washington became alarmed. In
a provocative statement issued from the White House Rose Garden on
Monday, President Bush escalated the confrontation between the US and
Russia over the current fighting in Georgia. Bush denounced what he
called Russia’s "dramatic and brutal military escalation and demanded
of Moscow to immediately declare cease-fire and withdraw its forces
from Georgia. He accused Moscow of planning to bomb Tbilisi airport and
charged that Moscow was out to overthrow the pro-American government
of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, reiterating inviolability
of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia. Bush’s remarks
followed a Sunday statement by Vice-President Cheney, who said
"Russian aggression could not go unanswered." Cheney’s intervention
indicated the existence of a faction within Bush administration that
was pushing for a more aggressive US response to Russian intervention
in Georgia. The statement was a staggering example of hypocrisy. The
US government issued no protest when Georgian forces attacked Ossetia
last Thursday night, indiscriminately targeting apartment blocs in the
capital with tank cannon and mortars killing about 2,000 civilians;
a bloodletting that accounts for the vast bulk of civilian deaths to
date. Since the US was clearly at the back of Georgian assault on
Ossetia, it is difficult to believe that Washington believed that
Moscow would remain a silent spectator in response to such a grave
provocation. Why then, they supported a move that would bring Russia
in direct conflict with one of Washington’ principal allies in the
Caucasus; a region that houses critical oil and gas pipeline and
constitutes a bridgehead between resource-rich Caspian Basin and
Western Europe? Russian officials believe that it was Washington
that orchestrated the current clash. The chairman of the State Duma
Committee for security, Vladimir Vasilyev believes that the current
conflict in Ossetia is an anecdotal of the wars in Iraq and Kosovo. "We
are following the same path. The more the situation unfolds, the
more the world would know that Tbilisi could never be able to do all
this without America. "In essence they have prepared the force that
destroyed everything in Ossetia," he said. The demands being raised by
Washington, the EU, the UN and others for a return to the "status quo"
in Georgia are drenched in hypocrisy. Moscow understands that the US
is not going to abandon what it has come to see as a critical prop
to its position in the Caucasus and its long-term perspective of
reducing Russia to a semi-colonial status. The resumption of something
akin to the Cold War underscores the real motives that underlay
the decades of confrontation between the US and USSR. Washington
considered the Soviet Union, and still continues to view Russia,
as an obstacle to its geo-strategic aims of securing hegemony over
Eurasia. Bush has a lurking fear that as a consequence to the present
Russo-Georgian conflict, Moscow may just re-absorb Georgia into the
Russian Federation that would extend its boundary all the way to
Armenia, which is friendly to both "Moscow and Tehran." President
Bush is now at the centre of possibly one of the most idiotic
foreign policy embarrassments into which the US has ever gotten
itself. By having "green-lit" a Georgian invasion of South Ossetia,
an action for which one cannot even use the word "planned", the
US hoped that this would crank up a long-term conflict between
Georgia and Russia. Unfortunately, there was no resistance by the
US trained Georgian forces, and the ‘so-hoped’ for long term battle
might well be over by the end of this week. Back in 2005, speaking
before a big cheering crowd, Bush made a promise to the Georgians,
"The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not
travel alone. Americans respect your courageous choice for liberty,
and as you build a free and democratic Georgia, the people of America
will stand by you." But then, where was Bush when Russia launched
a major military attack on Georgia? Monkeying around with the US
women’s volleyball team, or amusing himself at the Beijing Olympic
carnivals. He couldn’t have possibly despatched the US Marines to
Tbilisi, but his impotence in the face of such a gravely destabilising
move highlights not only his personal loss of stature and how deeply he
has diminished US authority at the global stage generally, particularly
in the eyes of Russians. The US holds absolutely no leverage, and all
of Bush’s blustering cannot take back the terrible carnage that has
come about due to the colossally bone-headed choice the US made to back
the Tbilisi invasion of Ossetia. Moscow is terribly angry over the sale
of unarmed aerial drones and security support to Georgia by Israel at
the behest of Washington. By such moves, Washington might risk Nuclear
War by miscalculations. This means that the attack on South Ossetia is
the first battle in a new proxy war between Anglo-US-Israeli nexus and
Russia. After being terribly mauled in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US
has limited options to take the risk of hugging the angry Russian bear.