Month: December 2008

INTERNATIONAL EXPERT: CRISIS TO HARDLY CAUSE SERIOUS SHOCKS TO ARMENIAN BANKING SYSTEM

ARKA
Dec 17, 2008

YEREVAN, December 17. /ARKA/. Armenian banking system is to hardly
undergo serious shocks as a result of the crisis, even in the case
of an economic slump, international expert on corporate management
issues Douglas Muir said.

The banking system of Armenia is in a comparatively good condition
with quite a good level of liquidity and regulation as compared to
other small economies, the expert said at the roundtable discussion
on corporate management in Armenian banks Tuesday.

According to Muir, Armenia has been getting out of the first stage
of the global crisis good enough so far.

Official information shows that Armenian economy go on developing,
but cold winds blowing from the East and the West will undoubtedly
have impact on the Armenian banking system, the expert said.

Currently there are 22 commercial banks in Armenia with 367 branches
throughout the country.

As of the end of September 2008, total assets of Armenian banking
system were 954.1bln Drams, total capital 214.9bln Drams and
liabilities 739.2bln Drams.

Economy crediting reached 617.5bln Drams against 434.5bln Drams in
the beginning of 2008, including consumer credits – 172.5bln Drams
and mortgage loans – 81bln Drams. ($1=308.55Drams).

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS RULED THAT TURKEY HAD VIOLATED PROPERTY RIGHTS OF TWO ARMENIAN FOUNDATIONS IN ISTANBUL

ArmInfo
2008-12-17 17:56:00

ArmInfo. The European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday that
Turkey had violated the property rights of two Armenian foundations
in Istanbul.

As the Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" says, the Board of Governors
of the Samatya Surp Kevork Armenian Church, School and Cemetery and
the Foundation for the Armenian Hospital in Yedikule appealed to the
Strasbourg-based court, claiming the decisions made by the Turkish
courts, setting aside their title to property they had acquired by
donation, violated their property rights under the European Convention
on Human Rights.

The two Armenian foundations were established by Imperial Decree in
1832 under the Ottoman Empire and founded under modern Turkish law,
the newspaper says.

TURKISH PM SAYS APOLOGY CAMPAIGN TO ARMENIANS UNACCEPTABLE

ArmInfo
2008-12-17 17:47:00

ArmInfo. It is unacceptable to affirm support to the recent internet
campaign launched to issue a public apology to Armenians, Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Wednesday.

"I neither accept nor support this campaign. We did not commit a
crime, therefore we do not need to apologize," Erdogan said, adding
the issue is still being discussed by historians. Moreover, he said
such initiatives only reverse the positive steps taken by Turkey,
as Turkish Hurriet reported.

To recall, around 200 Turkish academics, writers and journalists
launched a website issuing an apology to the Armenians regarding the
1915 incidents and calling for people to sign on in support.

DEFENSE STRATEGY REVIEW

;p=0&id=694&y=2008&m=12&d=17
15.12 .08

On December 15, 2008 the recurrent sitting of the interdepartmental
commission coordinating the review of the Defense Strategy of the
Republic of Armenia was held at the Ministry of Defense. The sitting
was chaired by Co-Chairs of the Commission, RA Defense Minister
Seyran Ohanyan and Secretary of the National Security Council Arthur
Baghdasaryan.

Participants of the sitting discussed the draft document on assessment
of RA security atmosphere and challenges. All the suggestions of
the members of the Commission and the disputable questions were
agreed upon.

The Commission took the decision to edit the document and present it
for the approval to the President of the Republic of Armenia.

IMPRISONED EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF AZADLYG NEWSPAPER GANIMAT ZAHID MEETS WITH HIS WIFE

Today.Az
17 December 2008 [11:30]

Family of editor-in-chief of Azadlyg newspaper Ganimat Zahid, held
in correctional facility No 17, met him, said journalist’s wide
Ayanda Mursaliyeva, Day.Az reports with reference to the Institute
for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety.

She said Ganimat Zahid feels normal and has no complaints about his
treatment by the officials of the facility.

Mursaliyeva noted that her husband condemns the attack against the
Yeni Musavat newspaper correspondent Zamin Haji by the chairman of
the Organization for Karabakh Liberation Akif Naghi.

"Today a court proceeding will be held in the Baku Appellate Court to
consider the claim about the manuscripts of Ganimat Zahid. My husband
has already been notified about it", noted she.

It should be noted that while being in the Bailov investigation
facility No 1 Ganimat Zahid wrote a book about the modern history
of Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that on March 7 of 2008 the Yasamal district court
of Baku presided by judge Sudaba Mamedova passed a sentence about
editor-in-chief of the opposition of Azadlyg newspaper Ganimat Zahid
and Baku resident Vusal Hasanov. Under the verdict, Ganimat Zahid is
sentenced to four years in prison and Vusal Hasanov to 1.5 years.

ARMENIAN BTA BANK TO LAUNCH NEW CAMPAIGN FOR DEPOSITORS ON DEC 20

ARKA
Dec 17, 2008

YEREVAN, December 17. /ARKA/. Armenia’s BTA Investbank will launch a
new campaign for the depositors of Formula of Success on December 20,
the bank’s press service reports.

Those who opened deposits from April 1 to December 1 (except the
deposits of BTA Investbank’s staff) have a chance to win a Nissan
Sunny.

BTA Investbank CJSC is the strategic partner of Kazakhstan’s leading
BTA Bank (48.8% shareholder of Armenia’s BTA Bank).

On November 25, BTA Bank’s capital and assets totaled 4.3bln drams
and 13bln drams respectively, with the liabilities amounting to
8.7bln drams.

Leader in forming bank networks in the CIS, the Kazakh BTA Bank absorbs
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.

The bank has representations in Russia, China, Ukraine and the UAE. BTA
was considered the best bank in the CIS in 2006 and 2007.

The first-half consolidated assets of BTA Bank reached $27.8bln,
with the capital amounting to $3.9bln. ($1 – 308.34 drams).

VIVACELL-MTS PROVIDED FUNDS FOR BUILDING A BOILER HOUSE, ACQUISITION AND INSTALLATION OF HEATING SYSTEM IN ST. KHACH CHURCH OF APARAN

Lragir.am
19:59:12 – 17/12/2008

St. Khach, which is known as Kasakh basilica among local population,
is a 4th century basilica building. A shard of the Crown of Thorns
is placed on the altar. In 2001, when the building underwent major
restoration, the church revitalized it mission of uniting people and
became a place where people could come, find guidance and belief,
and receive spiritual education. But the church temporary ceases
its activities during frozy winters of Aragatzotn marz (region). And
since the building of the church is unique, the installation of the
heating needed to be carried out in a way as to avoid damage to this
precious ancient structure.

"The Armenian Apostolic Church for centuries was carrying out
its mission of uniting the Armenian people all over the world and
preserving the Armenian identity. Being corporate citizen we must
preserve this spiritual and cultural heritage, to ensure uninterrupted
experience of future generations with the culture", – VivaCell-MTS
General Manager noted.

SANCTIONS MOST PROBABLY NOT TO BE IMPOSED
Gevorg Harutyunyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
17 Dec 2008
Armenia

Today the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe will convene its regular session. The discussion of
the report assessing the process of the implementation of resolutions
1609 and 1620 on the activity of the democratic institutions in
Armenia and the related bill is in the agenda of the session.

It is well known that the co – rapporteurs on Armenian issue
George Columbie and John Prescott will cover in their reports
the conclusions of the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner
Tomas Hammarberg. The before mentioned bill will be submitted to the
discussion and confirmation of the PACE during the winter session to
take place on January 26-30 in Strasburg.

And how do our political figures assess the process of the
implementation of resolutions 1609 and 1620?

Victor Dallakyan

"It is evident that our authorities are taking certain actions to
meet the requirements of PACE resolutions 1609 and 1620. But in my
view these actions are of imitative character.

Anyhow I don’t think they will impose serious sanctions on Armenia.

Based on my observations I can state that in case Armenia remains
Council of Europe member country, and in case we are not deprived of
the right to vote and avoid harsh sanctions, Armenia will have rather
weighty influence. In this regard the Council of Europe can use more
serious sanctions, with rather serious consequences and have more
effective influence on the activity of the democratic institutions,
than depriving of the right to vote and quitting the membership.

Galust Sahakyan

The fact that we usually stipulate Armenia’s relations with the
international structures, especially Council of Europe, by secondary
factors, foreign interference, and sanctions is explained by our
adoration towards the foreigners. I’m sure that our country has not
only implemented the proposals made by PACE resolution, but we have
also moved forward, and made essential reforms.

After all Tomas Hammarberg has built his conclusions and impressions
on the basis of the data and the opinions submitted by our political
figures. He will most probably repeat the ideas speculated by certain
political figures in Armenia.

The opinions and the approaches of our people must comply with the
speeches and the assessments of our delegations. In this case there
will be no artificial obstacle between the relations of our country
and the Council of Europe.

Aram Safaryan

If the monitoring committee of the Council of Europe, on December
17 and PACE, at the end of January come to a decision to deprive
Armenia of the right to vote, the consequences for our country will
be very sad and unpleasant. I mean the positions o f those political
figures in our internal political domain, who have always encouraged
our cooperation with international and European structures and have
been the champions of the implementation of the demands made by the
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, will become weak.

Instead the positions of the political factions and individuals,
who are the champions of harsh policy and stance towards the foreign
forces, will strengthen.

I would like to abstain from predictions. Meanwhile I hope that the
process of the reforms underway is continual and the Council of Europe
will perceive its necessity. And if they do the opposite than it will
give reasons for profound meditation on why did the Council of Europe
adopt this harsh stance towards our country and to what extent is it
conditioned by political interests and pan-European principles.

Armen Martirosyan

I don’t attach any importance to the PACE sanctions. The most important
thing for me is the general and political developments taking place
in my country. I strongly believe that Armenia has all the necessary
pre-conditions to comply with the highest scale of democracy.

In the context of the PACE resolution, certain actions are already
taken in terms of the improvement of the Electoral Code. But
unfortunately the interested discussions of all the parliamentary
political forces didn’t have logical effect, because the reforms of
the code were not submitted to the discussion of the parliament.

Instead we recorded regress. I assess negatively the existence of
political prisoners and the process of the political trials in our
country. The delay in finding the culprits of the post election
developments, as well as the imperfect activity of the state,
legislative and justice structures is also negative.

Anyhow in my view they will not impose sanctions, especially strict
sanctions towards our country.

MILLENNIUM CHALLENGES – A TOOL OF BLACKMAIL
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
17 Dec 2008
Armenia

Running ahead of the events, the press supporting the Armenian
Pan-National Movement has recently reported that the Council of
Directors of the "Millennium Challenges Corporation" discussed
the issue Armenia on December 11 and gave our country a "bad"
mark. That means neither rejecting nor delaying the regular "transfer",
because the country does not comply with the criteria of "democratic
governance".

In the language of the revolutionaries, this means that Armenia
refuses to close the "March 1" case and release the organizers and
perpetrators of the mass disorders without holding a trial. They
even ify the amount of the rejected or delayed sum: around 7 thousand
dollars which is envisaged for the reconstruction of rural roads and
the renovation of the irrigation system.

Whereas, as stated by ARA HOVSEPYAN, Head of the Armenian Office of
the "Millennium Challenges" corporation, the Council of Directors
couldn’t have delayed or rejected the request submitted by Armenia
for the simple reason that the committee held its regular session or
rather, the meeting devoted to "the course of the implementation of
the reforms initiated by the RA Government over the recent months"
on December the 11th.

And the board of managers of t he "Millennium Challenges-Armenia"
non-commercial state organization submitted its request for the 6.8
million Dollars (to be allocated for the first trimester of 2009)
on December the 12th.

That’s to say there has not yet been any discussion over the issue
whether or not to satisfy the request. The discussion is to be held
during the coming week, and the decision will be made by the 24th
of December.

As mentioned yesterday by Nerses Yeritsyan, Minister of Economy,
Armenia has no serious problems in connection with two of the three
groups of issues to be evaluated by the committee (quality of life,
economic policy, management of natural resources etc.), and the main
target of the corporation’s concern are the post-electoral developments
imposed on the country by the radical society, i.e. "violence,
imposition of a state of emergency, mass arrests, restrictions on
rallies and freedom of the press."

It is, by the way, with such "serious concerns" that the corporation
refused to allocate means from the foundation for hiring contractors
within the frameworks of the road-construction program (envisaging the
construction of road with a total length of 273 km.). In response,
the Government of Armenia proposed to allocate 16.8 million Dollars
for starting the preliminary stage of the program. And the "Millennium
Challenges" corporation generously agreed to that and gave Armen ia
"additional time" for improving itself with the hope of "seeing
signals" testifying to Armenia’s compliance with its obligations.

Actually, instead of receiving funding from the "Millennium
Challenges" corporation, the Government itself "provides funding"
to the organization. Furthermore, as reported by the Armenian office
of the corporation, the above-mentioned sum of 16.8 Dollars "has not
yet been exhausted". That’s to say, Armenia can still get by without
the funding of the corporation.

In such circumstances, there arise several questions.

For instance, how long should the Government ask different
organizations for help, being well-aware of the fact that the funding
may be suspended at any moment with political considerations? Besides,
if the Government refuses to proceed with the activities discontinued
by the Directors of the "Millennium Challenges" corporation, what are
they going to do with the contractors? Are they going to terminate
the contracts on grounds that the owners of the sums have regretted
about their plans and do not care whether the road, irrigation network,
or the rural infrastructures will be renovated?

Perhaps, it’s really time to rely only on our potentials? Especially
considering that the Armenian businessmen of the Diaspora and
especially Russia have promised and are ready to make investments in
the amount several milli on dollars in Armenia. And what’s more, they
do not advance and preconditions and do not blackmail the authorities;
they do not threaten to punish the Armenians, teaching them how
to live. Neither do they think whether to give the neo-Bolsheviks
permission for organizing spontaneous rallies or to restrict their
"constitutional" right to stage a coup and turn the centre of the
capital city into a battlefield.

And last but not the least: how long are the radicals going to fix
their gaze on the West, praying that they would apply sanctions
against us, and jump with joy every time they hear someone say a
couple of bitter words about Armenia?

NKR AUTHORITIES HAVE NOT YET RECEIVED THE DOCUMENT

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
17 Dec 2008
Armenia

As reported by NKR Foreign Minister G. Petrosyan, the authorities
of Nagorno Karabakh have not yet received the "technical document"
envisaged within the frameworks of the Helsinki meeting. The idea of
the document had been proposed by Co-Chair of the MG Group Bernard
Fassier.

"The authorities of Nagorno Karabakh have not yet received such
document, but since the country has been recognized as a conflicting
party based on the fundamental documents of the OSCE, we anticipate
the OSCE Co-Chairs to submit the document in the near future," he said.