Month: September 2008

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER DISCUSSES COOPERATION ISSUES WITH KARABAKH COUNTERPART

ARMENPRESS
Sep 2, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS: Delegation headed by the Armenian
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, who is in Karabakh on the occasion of
the 17th anniversary of Karabakh’s independence, participated today
in the ceremony of paying tribute to the memory of freedom fighters.

Governmental press service told Armenpress that Armenian prime minister
also conducted today a conversation with his Karabakh counterpart Ara
Harutyunian and discussed a number of issues on bilateral cooperation.

In the evening the prime minister and members of the delegation will
participate in other events dedicated to the 17th anniversary of
independence of Nagorno Karabakh.

ARMENIAN AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENTS DISCUSS A NUMBER OF ISSUES IN SOCHI

ARMENPRESS
Sep 2, 2008

SOCHI, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS: Meeting of the Armenian and Russian
presidents took place today in Sochi. Greeting the Armenian president,
Dmitri Medvedev noted that the meetings of the two presidents are
conducted on a regular basis. "During Your last visit to Moscow we had
full contacts, the visit was complete and in my opinion the dialogue
continues developing: You are aware of all the results but still there
exists potential for increase. I would also like to exchange with
You opinions over the international issues, and foreign policy. In
a few days the CSTO summit will kick off and the chairmanship of the
establishment will pass to Armenia. I think we can discuss issues on
the organization of the work of the summit," Russian president said.

S. Sargsyan on his part said that the working meetings in Sochi between
Armenian and Russian presidents have become a good tradition. "This
is a good opportunity to discuss in calm atmosphere both issues on
bilateral and multilateral relations," the Armenian president said,
noting that recently "Rubezh-2008" military exercises were conducted
in Armenia, the session of the ministers’ council of CSTO took place
and tomorrow the session of the Security Councils’ secretaries will
be held in Yerevan.

"Of course I would like to discuss issues on economic development
of our relations, further consolidation of our relations within
CSTO, issues connected with the situation created in the Caucasian
region. This is our first meeting after the developments in the
South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia. We have spoken about it on
the phone. I would like to once again express my condolences on the
death of Russian citizens and peacekeepers," Serzh Sargsyan said,
adding that Armenia is waiting schoolchildren from Ossetia and said
that everything is ready for them.

D. Medvedev expressed gratitude for such support. "As to the rest,
including the consequences of what happened, taking into consideration
the work in the format of CSTO, together with You we will have an
initial discussion but the final decision will be made at the CSTO
summit in Moscow," Medvedev said.

MANY MEMBERS OF TURKISH PARLIAMENT EXPRESSED A WISH TO WATCH THE FOOTBALL MATCH IN YEREVAN

AZG Armenian Daily
03/09/2008

Armenia-Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Rejep Tayib Erdoghan while speaking with the
journalists said that the President of the country Abdullah Gul will
leave for the Republic of Armenia on the invitation of the Armenian
President to watch the football match of the national teams of Armenia
and Turkey on September 6.

After confirmation of the information, many deputies of the Turkish
parliamentary leading party "Justice and development" applied to
their leader of faction asking permission to leave for Yerevan.

According to "Anatolu" agency, the decision on permission would be
made at the meeting of the Central Administrative Council of the
party in the evening of September 1, "Armenpress" reported.

TURKISH LEADING PARTY DIDN’T PERMIT ITS MEMBERS TO LEAVE FOR YEREVAN

AZG Armenian Daily
03/09/2008

Armenia-Turkey

The parliamentary faction of Turkish leading party "Justice and
Development" made a decision not to permit its MPs to leave for
Yerevan to watch "Armenia-Turkey" football match on September 6.

According to "Anatolu" agency, similar decisions were taken by the
parliamentary factions of the opposition "People’s republican" and
"National movement" parties.

The Chairmen of the mentioned parties announced that they are against
Abdullah Gul’s possible visit to Yerevan on the Armenian President
Serge Sargsian’s invitation to watch the football match.

"Justice and development" party didn’t explain taking of similar
decision, but Turkish opposition parties explained their decision by
so-called "occupation" of Nagorno Karabakh, not recognition of the
borders of Turkey by Armenia, also by the insistence of the Armenians
on recognition of the Armenian Genocide, "Armenpress" reported.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DICK CHENEY TO DISCUSS ISSUES OF KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT IN BAKU

AZG Armenian Daily
03/09/2008

Karabakh issue

According to the statement of White House, US Vice President
Dick Cheney during his coming visit to Baku will discuss issues of
peaceful settlement of Karabakh conflict, US assistance for efforts in
strengthening of democracy and supremacy of law in Azerbaijan. The
statement mentioned that the main issue to be discussed in Baku
during the visit will be energetics, and that the US want to help
Azerbaijan to develop its energy resources and market it safely. "It
is driven by the interest of both the USA and European countries",
is mentioned in the statement.

The visit of the US Vice President will take place September 3 in
the framework of his visit to South-Caucasian region.

EXPERIENCED REPORTERS OF RADIO LIBERTY BEING FIRED

AZG Armenian Daily
03/09/2008

Local

When recently, the Yerevan Bureau Chief of Radio Liberty, Atom
Margaryan was fired, reporters could not find out why and what was
the reason. That remained a secret.The story is repeated with Armen
Doulyan and Ruzan Khachatryan, who have both left Radio Liberty,
but remain steadfastly silent about the reasons.The media is also
silent, even though some of its representatives are usually very
outspoken in such cases. Our information indicates that both of
them have been invited by Public TV to have their own talk show,
which will be launched in late September.

However, there was some information among reporters as to why they
left Radio Liberty. According to this, Armen Doulyan, who was Acting
Bureau Chief before he left, sent a reporter to an event, only to
discover that Prague management also sent someone to cover the same
event. This seemed to have been a vote of no-confidence in him, which
angered Doulyan who served 14 years at Radio Liberty. We were not
able to verify this from Mr. Doulyan or ask him about other possible
reasons for his departure. Therefore, we have to be content with our
own assumptions.

Nobody doubts the fact that these journalists were all professionals
and well-informed media people know that they never catered to any
political or other special interests. It is also not a secret –
and regular listeners know well – that especially in the last six
months, Radio Liberty’s programs have assumed a distinctly ‘orange’
colour. The voices of the radical-pro-Levon opposition have a special
place in its programs and the two journalists have tried to maintain
a balance in their own reports and analytical pieces, by trying to
make the voices or other sides heard equally.

Our readers also remember the case of another professional journalist,
Anna Karapetian, who was unfairly fired from Radio Liberty more than
a year ago and now is suing the management in Czech courts. Likewise,
the firing of another experienced journalist, Armen Zakaryan, never
became a subject of discussion by our ‘liberal’ media. We would
like to just add that besides the Washington style, coded modus
operandi, for which we cannot blame the staff of a radio financed by
the U.S. Congress, the Armenian Service of RL suffers from another
problem – the intolerance of its director, Hrair Tamrazyan vis-à-vis
experienced journalists of his own generation. This possibly has
psychological roots. We leave the conclusion to the readers and to
Radio Liberty, its own slogans about plurality of opinion.

–Boundary_(ID_zlKcr79YfWpvmDMnH1YHZw)–

A RESIGNATION IS GETTING MATURED

A1+
[09:27 pm] 02 September, 2008

Today RA First President Levon Ter-Petrosian called a conference to
declare three documents, which ground that RA authorities "won" in
elections on February 19 by complete delinquency. Levon Ter-Petrosian
proclaimed the decision of Chairman of Court General Jurisdiction
of Kentron and Nork-Marash districts Mr. Zhora Vardanian’s made on
mid February against Aleksandr Arzumanian. It’s said in the decision
that General-Major of RA National Security Service (NSS) Z. Nanian’s
petition was satisfied and he got permission to examine Aleksandr
Arzumanian on the phone and hear all his phone talks. It’s a solid
ground for Levon Ter-Petrosian to say, "It means the authorities
entirely controlled all the events of our staff, the alarm calls
received from districts, all the information provided to the empowered
staff members, observers and journalists. As well as this, state
embodies supervised all the instructions related to the appealing
process.

Therefore it’s a case of gross violation of Constitution and Election
Code, which could cause national riots and governmental crisis in any
normal country just like "Watergate" scandal which led to Nickson’s
resignation."

Mr. Ter-Petrosian detailed, "The only assumption as a basis of applied
measures against Arzumanian is that he may have been implementing
activities which may cause RA internal political instability, civil
uprising which could be a basis for realizing power takeover in RA
in an anticonstitutional way."

Mr. Ter-Petrosian mentioned that this basis completely contradicts
another official document, which is Mr. Marukian’s decision. He is a
senior investigator of NSS Investigation department. On February 24 he
took criminal proceedings against the Pan-National Movement. According
to that decision content the Opposition "made an attempt of state
power takeover of RA in an anticonstitutional and violent way" only
after it was informed that Levon Ter-Petrosian had lost the elections
according to the preliminary data and got 21.5% of votes.

On February 19 it was not clear who would win. Therefore we are
puzzled why Mr. Arzumanian should have attempted to realize "power
takeover in an anticonstitutional way" on that day. It’s harder to
imagine more miserable logic or awareness of Law.

Mr. Ter-Petrosian has serious basis to insist that the Judge Zhora
Vardanian made such a decision on February 19 not only against
Arzumanian, but also against many members of the Pan-National
Movement. "That is to speak about the total illegal supervision of
the Opposition pre-election campaign," said Mr. Ter-Petrosyan.

TURKISH PEOPLE HAVE REFUSED TO VISIT ARMENIA

A1+
[04:48 pm] 02 September, 2008

Turkey Football Federation has officially rejected its disposed
tickets for September 6, 2010 World Cup qualifying match. This news
was announced by Ruben Hayrapetyan, the chairman of Football Federation
of Armenia (FFA) at today’s press conference.

"According to FIFA regulations host country is obliged to place 5%
of match tickets at visiting country’s disposal, but Turkey Football
Federation has officially refused pointing out that their fans will
not arrive in Armenia. Their delegation consists just of 130 people",
said the chairman of Armenian Football Federation.

Armenian national team introduced a new emblem on occasion of
Armenia-Turkey match. Its official presentation took place at the
beginning of the conference. Ruben Hayrapetyan explained the change
of the emblem of FFA by the request of football fan community. Many
football fans didn’t like the previous one. But what refers to the
point of Mt. Ararat image on the previous one, there were no complaints
on that and nobody was to prohibit us. We simply considered right to
change it to meet the social claim.

Ruben Hayrapetyan excluded that Armenia and Turkey teams can hold
an arranged results match taking into consideration the existing
political situation between the two countries. "How could respected
countries make a deal like that?"

Coming to the footballers’ trainings the chairman of FFA drew
attention to the fact that team candidates have already joined the
National Team being physically fit. "Yesterday we had part-team slight
trainings. Four people hadn’t arrived yet but they have already arrived
by now and will take part in today’s trainings. I have talked to the
coach and he was pleased with all the candidates. It makes me happy
that none of them has any injuries. Yesterday I also conducted a
meeting. All the footballers have strong competitive will and it’s
indisputable that we will be a success in this match".

At that gathering Ruben Hayrapetyan aimed the footballers to win the
match in the upcoming competition. "The Team has also a task to attain
a pass to 2010 World Cup final. It has been 6 years I am the chairman
of FFA and I have never set a goal to draw the match. My targets are
maximum gains and I always aim the team to win."

Ruben Hayrapetyan appealed football fans arrive at the Stadium 30-40
minutes before the match. "When there is a big crowd, it’s physically
impossible to provide their entrance to the Stadium on a high level".

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

30 COMPANIES TEND TO PARTICIPATE IN DIGITEC 2008

Panorama.am
17:36 02/09/2008

DigiTec 2008 will be conducted in Yerevan on September 3-5. This
fourth incessant exposition is usually organized with the support of
RA Prime-minister, the Union of Information Technology Enterprises
(UITE) told Panorama.am.

The chief aim of DigiTec is the creation of better environment for
ICT companies, business consumers and the society. Moreover, the
exposition reveals the possibility of studying and understanding the
challenges and opportunities of Armenian ICT field.

30 local and international companies are likely to take part in
DigiTec 2008, among them Moscow Teleport and Softline representing
their production in Armenia for the first time.

DigiTec 2008 will take place in the new pavilion called "Epygi office
park" equipped with all necessary technologies, and is expected to
have 70 participants and 12 000 visitors (in comparison to the last
year, the number of visitors has increased for 4 000).

The chief sponsor of the exposition is Microsoft RA Company and the
co-chief sponsor Virage Logic holding. Along with DigiTec 2008 several
adjoining arrangements will be held in three working-day’s period:
DigiTec -business solutions forum, DigiTec- electronic management
forum and DigiLife seminar sessions.

THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE INFECTED WITH HIV/AIDS IN ARMENIA HAS GROWN FOR 75 PEOPLE

Panorama.am
18:18 02/09/2008

>From 1988 to 31 July 2008 613 HIV cases had been registered in the
Republic of Armenia among citizens of the Republic of Armenia with
109 new cases of HIV infection registered in 2007 and 75 – in 2008.

>From 1988 till July 31 2008 only 613 cases of HIV/AIDS infection were
registered among Armenian citizens. In 2007-2008 143 people died from
HIV/AIDS: 121 of them were men and 22 women.

According to the Republican Centre for AIDS Prevention the general
number of HIV infected is 613, 456 are men and 157 women. The number
of AIDS infection cases is 258: 208 men, 50 women.

The survey of HIV/AIDS current situation shows that there are 2800
HIV infected people living in Armenia now.

General statistics of the topic is like this: 1988 – registration of
the first HIV case; the transmission mode is heterosexual intercourse;
1988 – registration of the first AIDS case; 1989 – registration of
the first death from AIDS; 1990 – registration of the first case of
HIV infection through injecting drug use; 1996 – registration of the
first HIV case among women; 2000 – registration of the first case
of HIV transmission through homosexual practice; 2001 – registration
of the first cases of HIV infection and AIDS among children; 2001 –
registration of the first case of child death from AIDS; 2002 – HIV
prevalence among IDUs is in the range of 15%; 2007 – HIV prevalence
among IDUs is in the range of 6.8%

Males constitute a major part in the total number of HIV cases –
456 cases (74.4%), females make up 157 cases (25.6%). 613 reported
cases include 13 cases of HIV infection among children (2.1%).

The overwhelming majority of the HIV-infected individuals (70.5%)
belong to the age group of 20-39.

In the Republic of Armenia the main modes of HIV transmission
are through heterosexual practices (49.1%) and injecting drug
use (44.2%). Additionally, there are also registered cases of
mother-to-child HIV transmission, as well as through blood transfusions
and homosexual practices.