Month: December 2008

CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA PERMITS ARARATBANK TO PARTICIPATE IN "EXPRESS MONEY" INTERNATIONAL PAYMENT SYSTEM

ARKA
Dec 2, 2008

YEREVAN, December 3. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
permitted Araratbank open joint stock company to participate in
"Express Money" international payment system. The respective decision
was made at yesterday’s sitting of the CBA Board presided over by
the CBA Chairman Artur Javadyan.

Araratbank Open Joint Stock Company (assignee of "Armsvyaz" bank)
was founded on 02.09.1991. On October 31 1996 the bank was issued a
banking license N4.

Under the agreement signed on October 29 2008, the EBRD purchased
25%+1 shares of the Armenian Araratbank for $7mln. As a result, the
authorized stock of the bank reached $24mln. 70% of bank’s authorized
stock is held by businessman and owner of "Flash" company Barsegh
Beglaryan.

The bank’s assets totaled 27.9bln Drams by the end of September 2008
with its capital being 5.5bln Drams and profit totaling 552.6mln
Drams in January-September 2008.

Currently, Araratbank is providing services through the following
international payment systems – Anelik, Blizko, Privat Money,BTF-Souz,
Migom, "Bistraya Pochta" and Avers. The bank has 23 branches throughout
the country. ($1=305.72Drams).

HRANUSH HAKOBIAN: MONK HAS NO BUSINESS TO JEOPARDIZE ARMENIAN-GEORGIAN RELATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.12.2008 13:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian state structures should interfere to decide
the fate of Armenian churches in Georgia. This is a common case,
the RA Minister of Diaspora Affairs said.

"We should understand that the Armenian-Georgian friendly relations are
very important for us. We do understand that this problem can damage
our relations. But all should remember that a monk has no business
to jeopardize them," Hranush Hakobian told a news conference today.

Condemning acts of vandalism, she emphasized that Armenia should to
protest encroachment on the Armenian cultural heritage and interact
with international structures dealing with the problem.

On November 16, Georgian monk Tariel Sikinchelashvili instructed
workers to raze to the ground the graves of Mikhail and Lidia
Tamamshevs.

This barbarian act outraged Armenians, who demanded to let the graves
in their place. However, Father Tariel responded with harsh statements.

Upon arrival of representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church and
parliament member Van Bayburt, the Georgian monk said he just wanted
to replace the gravestones to "clean under them."

CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA REDUCES REFINANCING RATE BY 0.5PCT TO 7.25% P.A.

ARKA
Dec 2, 2008

YEREVAN, December 3. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
decided to reduce the refinancing rate by 0.5pct down to 7.25%
p.a. at yesterday’s meeting of the CBA Board presided over by the
CBA Chairman Artur Javadyan.

The Board confirmed that external and internal environment developments
in November were mainly in line with expectations for the fourth
quarter, the CBA Press Service reported. Certain risks of reduction
in economic growth rates came up.

Internal inflationary environment started to considerably weaken in
responding the trends for continuous reduction in global prices for
foodstuffs and fuel in the last months. This led to reduction in
prices for bakery goods and petrol in particular.

According to the CBA report, the continuous weakening of external
inflationary pressures and response of the domestic prices in the
upcoming 12 months will bring to a substantial reduction in inflation
level. Under these circumstances, the CBA Board considers it worth
"to weaken monetary and credit conditions to support maintaining high
economic growth rates".

0.1% inflation was recorded in November against October with annual
inflation having reduced by 2pct down to 6.6%.

Under the state budget, inflation level was expected at 4% (±1.5%)
in Armenia by the end of 2008.

–Boundary_(ID_gCr0l0gja5ambFfhe5ki3g)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE HOPES FOR A REGIONAL DECLARATION ON NAGORNYY KARABAKH ISSUE

ArmInfo
2008-12-03 12:18:00

ArmInfo. ‘Azerbaijan and Armenia have made progress in resolving a
long-standing dispute over a Caucasus mountain enclave and the OSCE
hopes for a regional declaration on the issue at its annual meetings
later this week, its chairman said on Tuesday.Things are looking quite
good on Nagorno-Karabakh," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb,
who is leading the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
under the Finnish chairmanship, told Reuters in an interview.

"I think that we are moving away from a frozen conflict towards a
permanent solution, but of course we are not there yet, and it is
very important that the Minsk Group works on this," Stubb said.

RA MFA: NO DECLARATION ON KARABAKH TO BE SIGNED IN HELSINKI

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.12.2008 13:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Foreign Ministry refuted Azeri media
reports that a declaration on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will
be signed during the Ministerial Council summit due in Helsinki
December 4-5.

There won’t be any declaration signed in Helsinki, Tigran Balayan,
head of the RA MFA media relations division, told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter.

Armenian Foreign Minister will hold separate with his Turkish and Azeri
counterparts but the format of the meeting has not been defined yet,
he said.

RA MINISTRY OF DIASPORA AFFAIRS DEVELOPING PROMOTION PROGRAM FOR ARMENIANS OF LATIN AMERICA

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.12.2008 14:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The RA Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is developing
a promotion program for Armenians of Latin America.

"This program will facilitate resolution of problems of the Armenian
community, exchange programs for teachers, etc. The Armenian community
of Latin America is different from those in other states. There is
a danger of alienation," Hranush Hakobian, the Minister of Diaspora
Affairs, told a news conference today.

"Our compatriots welcomed the idea," she added.

"The Ministry, whose official website will be launched soon, is
negotiating with 120 Armenian communities throughout the globe. We are
developing a number of projects to streamline the process of Armenian
citizenship receipt, to help Armenians return to the homeland and to
help Diaspora youth enter Armenian universities," Ms. Hakobian said.

ACTIONS OF PROTEST AGAINST ENCROACHMENTS ON ARMENIAN CHURCHES IN GEORGIA BEING HELD IN YEREVAN

De Facto
Dec 2, 2008

YEREVAN, 03.12.08. DE FACTO. An action of protest against encroachments
committed against Armenian cultural-historical monuments, in part,
churches situated on the territory of Georgia, started this morning in
front of the U. N. representation in the center of Yerevan. Students
of various higher educational institutions of Armenia participate in
the action of protest.

To note, the attempts of desecration of Armenian Surb Norashen Church
have been recently made in Georgia.

Father Tariel, a clergyman of a Georgian church situated in the
vicinity of Surb Norashen, initiated the construction of a fence,
using symbols peculiar of Georgian Orthodox Church. After holding
talks with Georgian authorities, under the pressure of Armenian party
and Georgia’s Armenian public Tbilisi City Hall rendered a decision
on the construction’s illegality and fence’s dismantling. However,
the directions were not followed.

Moreover, some time later father Tariel made new encroachments,
in part, an attempt of moving the graves of patrons of art
Tamamshevs. Georgian Eparchy of Armenian Apostolic Church also
protested against encroachments on Surb Norashen.

The attempt of defilement of two graves of the Tamamshevs was again
made in Tbilisi on November 16. The act of defilement was made
under the guidance of father Tariel Sikinchelashvili, who did it,
in his =0 Awords, "within the frames of his private program on
improvement of the territory adjoining the Armenian Church". The
Ombudsman’s representatives and patrol were called to the place of
incident. Under the pressure of those present, father Tariel and a
group of workers-accessories had to put the tombstones back.

ARMENIAN STUDENTS CONDEMN DESECRATION OF ARMENIAN CHURCHES IN GEORGIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.12.2008 15:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Some 2 thousand Armenian students gathered today
at the UN premises in Yerevan to protest destruction of the Armenian
churches in neighboring Georgia and to condemn indifference of the
Georgian authorities.

The students demanded that vandalism against the Armenian cultural
monuments in Georgia be stopped, according to a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter on the ground.

The protest action was followed by a march toward the Georgian Embassy,
where the demonstrators handed their open letter to the Ambassador.

REGULAR ISSUE OF "THE KARABAKHI COURIER" PUBLISHED

De Facto
Dec 2, 2008

STEPANAKERT, 02.12.08. DE FACTO. Regular issue of "The Karabakhi
courier" is in print, which is published in the NKR Permanent
Representation in Moscow.

According to the information DE FACTO received at the NKR MFA Press
Office, materials on the 17th anniversary of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic recognition are featured here under the heading "Nagorno
Karabakh: yesterday and today". In his address to the people the NKR
President Bako Sahakian particularly mentioned that September 2 "has
opened a new page in Artsakh’s fate and laid down the foundations of
independent Armenian statehood restoration".

The NKR Foreign Minister Georgy Petrossyan’s speech at the NKR
Parliament’s solemn sitting dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the
Nagorno Karabakh Foreign Ministry’s establishment is also placed in
the issue.

In "The Karabakhi courier" large space is given to the problem of the
Armenian refugees. The necessity to recognize on the international
level the right of refugees living in the NKR to have compensation for
material and moral harms is particularly mentioned in the materials.

NKR President Bako Sahakian’s interview to the RBK daily, in which the
head of state underlined the idea that without the NKR’s participation
the conflict settlement process could not be effective, is also
inserted in the=2 0regular issue of the publication.

A number of materials are devoted to the OSCE Minsk group co-chairmen’s
visit to Stepanakert, as well as to the fact of recognition of the
state independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Russia.

Interviews with experts and political scientists on the conflicts in
the South Caucasus are also published in this issue.

ANCA WELCOMES HILLARY CLINTON’S APPOINTMENT AS U. S. SECRETARY OF STATE

De Facto
Dec 2, 2008

YEREVAN, 02.12.08. DE FACTO. President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of
Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to serve as his Secretary of State was
welcomed today by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

"We extend our thanks to President-elect Obama for this choice
and our congratulations to Senator Clinton on her appointment to
our nation’s top diplomatic post," said Aram Hamparian, Executive
Director of the ANCA. "We are certainly pleased to see that, for
the first time in recent memory, an individual with a strong record
in support of Armenian Genocide recognition will serve as America’s
Secretary of State."

To add, during her tenure in the U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton has both
called upon President Bush to honor his campaign pledge to recognize
the Armenian Genocide, and also cosponsored every Armenian Genocide
Resolution since coming into office in 2001.

On January 24th of this year Senator Clinton issued a campaign
statement outlining her views on U.S.-Armenia relations.