Month: December 2008

SERZH SARGSYAN: GYUMRI SHOULD BE TURNED INTO NORTHERN CAPITAL CITY OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan

Dec 8, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. "Gyumri should be turned into the
Northern capital city of Armenia, it should be given the opportunity to
become a center to host Pan-Armenian Games, Armenia-Diaspora forums,
big international meetings, to be a capital city of sports and arts,
restoring its former liveliness," the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
repeated his promise given months ago during the solemn ceremony held
on the 20th anniversary of the 1988 Spitak earthquake in Gyumri on
December 7. "My demand is simple: to make work in this direction most
active: I will demand not only statistical data, but also a change in
the environment, a change in the atmosphere and the style of work,"
he said.

S. Sargsyan underlined that a lot of work has been done under the
guidance of the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharian, the
despair was overcome, with the apartment conditions of thousands of
families being improved and numerous schools, kindrgartens, healthcare
and cultural instititions being built, but the consequences of the
disaster have not been fully eliminated yet. "Moreover, today we
have the problem of rapid development, we should be able to bring
the development rates of Shirak, Lori, Tavush and other Armenian
marzes into line with the development rates of Yerevan. We will solve
together these problems and in a few years we will be able to fully
overcome all the consequences of the disaster," S. Sargsyan said. "We
promised that and we will do that – despite the global economic crisis
and the existing obstacles," the president stated.

The president, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, the second
president Robert Kocharian, numerous officials, guests from abroad,
including the member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal
Assembly Nikolay Ryzhkov participated in the opening ceremony of
Monument to the Innocent Victims and Kind Hearts at Surb Amenaprkich
Church in Gyumri. Serzh Sargsyan said that the monument by Frid
Soghoyan not only perpetuates the memory of the victims but also pays
a tribute of respect to all those – individials, international and
Armenian charitable organizations, heads of countries, rescuers and
builders who lent a helping hand to Armenia.

Nikolay Ryzhkov, who as the USSR prime minister assisted the Armenian
people hit by the disaster 20 years ago, reminded about the words of
Catholicos of All Armenians Vazgen I: "A disaster should be received
with a grief but without a despair and one should feel oneself a
victor", and his behest was fulfilled: the Armenian people has won
and regenerated. N. Ryzhkov made public the message of the Russian
president Dmitry Medvedev which in particular read: "We bow our heads
in memory of thousands of victims of the disaster, at that difficult
time Russia lent you a helping hand and made its contribution to
rescue and restoration work. I am sure that the strategic partnership
of the two countries based on strong traditions of friendship and
mutual help will develop and become stronger in the future as well".

A service for the repose of the dead and a Liturgy were celebrated
by Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II in Surb Mariam Astvatsatsin
Church of Gyumri (also known as "Seven Wounds"). Karekin II read the
letter of blessing of Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II in connection
with the 20th anniversary of the earthquake. The letter was written
by Alexy II two days before his death.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE MINSK GROUP URGES BAKU, YEREVAN TO COORDINATE SETTLEMENT BASICS

Interfax
Dec 4 2008
Russia

The foreign ministers of Russia, France and the United States –
countries represented by the cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group –
have urged parties to the Karabakh conflict to build up confidence
and to draft a peace agreement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry told
Interfax on Thursday.

The foreign ministers called for "using the constructive and positive
impulse given by the Moscow meeting of the Azerbaijani, Armenian and
Russian presidents on November 2, 2008," the ministry said.

They also suggested that parties to the conflict should pool efforts
with the Minsk Group cochairmen "in order to complete the coordination
of settlement fundamentals within the next few months and to begin
the drafting of a peace agreement on that basis," the ministry said.

"We reaffirm our opinion that the Karabakh conflict cannot have a
military solution and urge the sides to confirm their adherence to
the peace settlement," the ministers said in a joint statement.

ARMENIAN SECURITY SERVICE ARRESTS CAVIAR SMUGGLER

Public Television of Armenia
Dec 6 2008
Armenia

Officers of the Armenian National Security Service [NSS] have
confiscated a large amount of smuggled caviar as a result of a search
operation.

Georgian citizen Aida Saralidze, who lives in Yerevan, tried to
smuggle into Yerevan about 112 kg of black and 49 kg of red caviar
about which she had earlier agreed with her companions in Georgia.

According to the press service of the Armenian National Security
Service, the officers have found tools for canning caviar at
Saralidze’s home. The National Security Service has brought a criminal
case into the case and arrested Saralidze.

TRANSEURO ENERGY TO BUY ASSETS IN RUSSIA WORTH $25-39MLN IN 2009

RIA Novosti
20:02 | 08/ 12/ 2008

MOSCOW, December 8 (RIA Novosti) – Canadian oil company Transeuro
Energy plans to buy assets in Russia worth 20-30 million euros
($25-39 million), the company president said Monday.

David Worrall told reporters that the company wants to buy small oil
production companies with assets in Russia. He said there have been
preliminary talks with several companies, but did not give further
details.

Transeuro Energy has oil assets in Canada, Ukraine and Armenia.

ARMENIAN MPS COMMENT ON DIPLOMATS’ STATEMENT ON KARABAKH

Mediamax
Dec 5 2008
Armenia

Yerevan, 5 December: The political forces represented in the Armenian
parliament commented today on the joint statement by the Russian and
French foreign ministers and a US deputy secretary of state on the
Karabakh conflict settlement made in Helsinki on 4 December.

The secretary of opposition Heritage party faction in parliament,
Stepan Safaryan, said that the settlement of the Karabakh conflict
is high on the agenda of European organizations, and that time for
imitation of negotiations by the sides has passed and it is time to
make concrete decisions.

A member of the Prosperous Armenia party parliamentary faction, Avet
Adonts, described the statement of OSCE Minsk Group co-chair as a
"positive document".

Deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament Hrayr Karapetyan of
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun said that
the statement became a confirmation of the provisions of the Moscow
Declaration, and does not contain new postulates. He expressed surprise
in connection with "irresponsible and controversial statements by OSCE
Minsk Group’s US co-chair Matthew Bryza". He said that "this indicates
that the US diplomat does not have a serious attitude towards his
responsibilities and often what he says is wishful thinking."

3RD ANNUAL "WITHOUT-TIE" MEETING-FORUM OF ICT LEADERS HELD IN DILIJAN

Noyan Tapan

Dec 8, 2008

DILIJAN, DECEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. "The Tax and Customs Legislation and
Administration Reforms", "The Global Financial Crisis: The Strategy
of Behaviour in the Crisis Situation", "The Principles of Electronic
Governance in Armenia" round tables were included in the agenda of
the 3rd annual "withou-tie" meeting-forum of ICT leaders held in
Dilijan on December 6-7.

This time the event was organized by the Union of IT Enterprises of
Armenia (UITE). More than 80 representatives of Armenian ICT companies,
NGOs, this sector’s state governance and regulation bodies, the
Central Bnak of Armenia (CBA) and commercial banks, the State Revenue
Committee adjunct to the RA government, Ericsson company (Sweden),
the IT department of Georgian ministry of finance, and USAID Business
Environment Reforms Program in Georgia took part in the meeting-forum.

During the round table on the subject "The Tax and Customs Legislation
and Administration Reforms", the deputy head of Taxpayer Servicing and
Taxation Procedures Deparment of the State Revenue Committee Armen
Tamazian presented the package of amendments and additions to tax
legislation to take effect starting from January 1, 2009, while the
head of the Committee’s Customs Control Department Albert Harutyunian
presented the amendments to customs legislation. They gave explanations
to the issues raised by businessmen and the proposals made by them. One
proposal of the UITE was related to making an amendment to the Law on
Value Added Tax because ICT companies cannot donate morally outdated
computers in good state without paying a value added tax.

Discussing the issues raised and proposals made at the round table
"The Global Financial Crisis: The Strategy of Behaviour in the Crisis
Situation", the RA minister of economy Nerses Yeritsian explained
that there are no problems with attraction of organizational and
financial resources for development of programs on overcoming the
challenges of the crisis: the business community just has to develop
these programs on confronting the crisis in a rapid and efficient way,
and the state will support the programs in some way or other.

During the round table "The Principles of Electronic Governance
in Armenia" held on the second day of the meeting-forum, the
representatives of Ericsson presented the technological solutions
of e-governance systems, while the Georgian guests spoke about the
experience gained in e-governance sector and the experience of the
e-trade systems in their country. The annual turnover of e-trade
makes about 20 million dollars a year in Georgia.

U.S. DIPLOMAT HAILS AZERI-ARMENIAN MINISTERIAL MEETING IN HELSINKI

Interfax
Dec 4 2008
Russia

U.S. Co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh Matthew
Bryza has hailed a meeting between the Armenian and Azeri foreign
ministers in Helsinki, seeing it as yet another step towards resolving
the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

It’s hard to say whether the meeting was or was not a success
because it is part of the general process and the next step after the
Azeri-Armenian summit in Moscow, the diplomat told a news conference
in Helsinki, the Azeri ANS television reports.

Bryza said he believed a regular top-level meeting was likely to
be held amid signs of growing trust between the Armenian and Azeri
presidents.

He stressed that the future peace agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh should
be based on the principle of territorial integrity.

The United States does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence
and hopes Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians will switch to the negotiating
process at a certain stage and in fact are already taking part in it,
Bryza said, adding that he often traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh to meet
with local leaders.

Apart from the principle of territorial integrity, the document should
also reflect the right to self-determination, he said.

Some progress has been made but differences remain and talks are the
only way of settling them, the U.S. diplomat said.

ICON TARGETS 10,000 ARMENIAN WIMAX CUSTOMERS IN FIRST YEAR OF OPERATION
Michael Lacquiere

World Markets Research Centre
Dec 4 2008

iCON Communications has indicated that it is targeting a WiMAX
subscriber number of 10,000 within a year of launching operations,
reports ARKA. The company will begin testing its network from 1 January
2009. It will carry out state-by-state access to the network, beginning
in the centre of the capital Yerevan and expanding throughout the city
by April 2009. It aims to cover the entire country by the end of 2010,
at a likely total cost of around $10US million. The roll-out has been
delayed because of problems in Belgium with the supply of equipment
from Alcatel-Lucent.

Significance: iCON’s 802.16e-2005 (Rev. E) WiMAX network will offer
broadband internet in the first phase and VoIP and VPN services in
the second phase. The operator plans to target both residential and
business customers, as well as government organisations. Given the
poorly developed fixed-line infrastructure in Armenia, wireless
networks have the potential to offer broadband while saving on
the costs of physical infrastructure deployment. As well as iCON,
Comstar and Clearstream have also obtained WiMAX licences in Armenia
(see Armenia: 21 October 2008: ).

UNEMPLOYMENT LEVEL DECREASES BY 0.4% FROM BEGINNING OF 2008 IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan

Dec 8, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. As of November 30, unemployment
level decreased in Armenia by 0.4% as compared with the beginning
of 2008 and made 6.3%. As Sona Haroutiunian, the Head of the State
Employment Service agency, reported at the December 8 press conference,
91 thousand citizens looking for a job are registered at the agency
at present. The highest unemployment level is recorded in the Syunik
region, which is followed by the Shirak, Lori, Kotayk, and Tavush
regions.

According to S. Haroutiunian, though the number of officially
registered unemployed is 6.3%, 27-28% real unemployment level is
often spoken about.

"These are also official data. It is people employed in the
agricultural sphere, who made use of land privatization, but have not
received a status by our current legislation: they are the concealed
employed people and the housewives who did not wish to be registered,"
he said.

In response to the question of what impact the world financial crisis
will have on Armenia, S. Haroutiunian said that the mining sphere
Armenian companies plan to dismiss 1655 employees: the biggest part
of dismissals falls to the Dino Gold Mining Company, which is going
to dismiss 60% or 725 employees and to reduce the salaries by 40%.

It was also mentioned that dismissals of employees are expected
not only in the mining, but also in the information technologies
sphere. However, as the agency head predicted it, the number of people
becoming unemployed due to the international crisis will not exceed 1%
in Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LEBANESE MP RECEIVES US AMBASSADOR, COMMENTS ON AWN’S VISIT TO SYRIA

Lebanese National News Agency
Dec 5 2008
Lebanon

National News Agency, 5 December: MP Michel al-Murr received US
Ambassador Michele Sison and reviewed the latest developments with her.

After the meeting, Al-Murr said: "We discussed what is happening in
the world in the wake of the global financial crisis and its impact on
European nations and Middle East countries. The ambassador stressed
to us that the US policy after the presidential elections is still
the same. She is waiting for President Obama to assume his official
duties on 20 January. She said that US policy towards Lebanon is
for maintaining its sovereignty and supporting it on more than one
level. Other issues include the new US vision of finding solutions
to the problems of the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue
and the Iraqi issue, which are linked to Lebanon either directly
or indirectly, in addition to the nuclear problem between Iran and
America."

Questions and answers

He was asked: What is your comment on the visit of Gen Awn to Syria
in form and content?

He answered: "I do not want to comment on this issue for one reason,
which is that during the previous elections and the alliances,
General Awn used to say: How are we going to have an alliance with
Michel al-Murr, who is one of the symbols of Syria? Today, it seems at
least that we have met on this symbolic principle, which he used to
ascribe to us. He is now convinced that we were not at fault in our
good relations with Syria. As for the content, Syrian courtesy and
welcoming Gen Awn is one of their moral duties; it has nothing to do
with politics. Syria’s political position does not depend on a visit
to determine it. As for the timing, the president of the republic is
in Germany, and this coincided with General Awn’s visit to Syria. Awn
also previously visited Iran when President Sulayman was in Saudi
Arabia. The two visits are important, but for them to coincide with
the visit of the president of the republic, this was not right. I
wish things had been coordinated because there is a president for
the state in Lebanon and he negotiates in the name of Lebanon and
establishes relations. As a president who represents consensus,
he can establish good relations with both Iran and Syria."

He was asked: Yesterday, Gen Awn wore an aba in Syria. Does this
mean that the Christian electoral decision is now in his hand, and
has the decision of the Armenians been confiscated as well?

He answered: "First, I do not want to speak on behalf of
the Tashnaq. They can speak for themselves and they have a
position. Certainly, they have communicated this position to the
Syrians. I met them recently, and their position was firm and did
not change. As for the issue of the aba, I am thinking of wearing
one now if the aba helps in creating lists. As for the story of the
aba according to its colour, it is a symbol of love and welcoming a
guest. I will not forget during the war of liberation how many members
of the Syrian army died. I will also not forget how they demanded,
on an American television, a Syria accountability law. Maybe this
visit will erase everything from memory and open a new chapter."

He was asked: The question of amending the Al-Ta’if [Accord] was also
raised in Syria. What do you think?

He answered: "I am waiting for my main ally, Speaker Nabih Birri,
who is a friend of General Awn. If he agrees to amend the Al-Ta’if
[Accord], let us start discussing the amendment. All the Lebanese
agree on the Al-Ta’if Accord. Hezbollah, in its positions, and Sayyid
Hasan Nasrallah, stressed the Al-Ta’if Accord and its implementation
in full. The same goes for Speaker Birri. But if this is part of
one-upmanship to amend the powers of the president of the republic,
which Al-Ta’if prejudices, I do not think that Al-Ta’if can be amended
in this way. Do we have to see the country in ruin once more to reach
another Al-Ta’if? The Al-Ta’if Accord is agreed upon. If he wants
to amend it, that is his business. I reiterate: Does Speaker Birri
want to amend Al-Ta’if? Will Hezbollah amend it? I do not know. If
you want, we can study the issue."