Month: February 2012

IS TIGRAN SARGSYAN ASHAMED?
Naira Hayrumyan

Lragir.am

Published: 12:49:25 – 17/02/2012

Prosecutors want Germany’s president Christian Wolff’s immunity lifted
in order to investigate the scandal relating to the loan he took.

Most probably, the German parliament will meet the request of the
prosecutors, following the resignation of the minister of defense who
“left” only because used the ideas of other authors in his thesis.

The Western scandals, no matter what they are related to, are based
on the simple human feeling of shame. Shame is the feeling that a
human being has after breaking a moral norm. And if the person is
incriminated of a crime, it should cause shame.

In Armenia, shame is not a political category, so scandals are
practically impossible here. The breaches of officials are bluntly
pointed out, they are accused of protectionism and theft but no
scandals follow because officials are not ashamed.

Yesterday, something sensational happened in Armenia. The minister of
energy stated that one of the major plants of Armenia, Nairit chemical
plant of Yerevan, became the property of a bank about which hardly
anyone had heard. Since last November, Harutiun Arakelyan, a citizen of
Armenia, has been publishing materials proving that the government and
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan sent Nairit into bankruptcy on purpose,
some people gained a fortune by way of machinations involving the
plant and the plant is mortgaged in the Interstate bank and Armenia
may lose it.

The prime minister who was accused of an economic crime did not
even sue him for slander. Apparently, he did not want to appear in
court. A safer method has been chosen. The prime minister appealed
to the Prosecutor General’s office requesting to launch criminal
proceedings into the facts. The Prosecutor’s office somehow handed the
materials to the police which does not have a department of economic
crimes but Arakelyan was never invited there for an interrogation.

In fact, what Harutiun Arakelyan had been stating for months on was
yesterday confirmed by the minister. The plant was really passed
to the CIS Interstate Bank. But the issue brought up by the citizen
needs to be addressed.

There is no clear line separating “economic mistakes” and economic
crimes in Armenia. The absence of such definitions enabled the
authorities to state that the decision on the privatization of Nairit
was part of the policy but who can be insured from mistakes. The fact
that thousands of people suffered in the result of this policy is
not taken into account. The government reserves the right to commit
mistakes, at the same time depriving the others of this right.

But along with the legal side of the issue, there is also another
on the simple human shame. Democracy is built on public control of
the government which should be based on the ability of the society to
make those in power feel ashamed. If the authorities are not ashamed,
there will be no public control. Although there may also be the reverse
of this. The feeling of shame will come as soon as the society poses
claims to the government openly.

SKIRMISHES STARTED IN HRAZDAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 14:46:07 – 17/02/2012

Member of the Armenian National Congress will not appeal the result
of the Hrazdan Mayoral elections though he is not satisfied with it.

“Representatives of the state system headed by Serzh Sargsyan fought
against me. I don’t want to appeal and make up a show? Where can I
appeal if the whole system is against me? All the structures worked.

The whole state was against me, who can I turn to?” he said.

According to Mikaelyan, the ruling Republican Party has 5-10% support
in the regions, in particular in Hrazdan. He says it is impossible
that 25 thousand people voted in the Hrazdan local elections. Taking
into account many people have left Hrazdan, the percentage of voters
would be 85-90%, says Mikaelyan.

He also informed that after the elections skirmishes started in Hrazdan
trying to find out how Sasun could receive so many votes after so
many bribes in favor of the Republican Candidate. Mikaelyan said that
he won the election, while Aram Danielyan was appointed Mayor by the
authorities. He noted that he is not disappointed.

400 EMIGRATING “STRAPPERS”
JAMES HAKOBYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 11:27:57 – 17/02/2012

The minister of energy of Armenia Armen Movsisyan stated in a press
conference that the government is working out a rehabilitation program
for Nairit Chemical Plant of Yerevan which will be submitted for an
independent assessment, after which the government will resolve this
issue. According to the minister, Nairit is the property of the CIS
Interstate Bank because the ex-manager of Rhinoville Property Limited
Company which is registered in an offshore zone, borrowed about USD
70 million from the CIS Bank and did not repay the loan.

Obviously, if the minister of energy of a country usually plays games
on his iPad during the meetings of parliament, one of the major plants
of that country will be ignored instead of becoming a source of stable
income for the country.

Will anyone explain why the ex-owner of Nairit wasted the loan and the
plant became the bank’s property? Or, will there be a structure to
study the story of the loan trying to understand how the 70 million
dollar loan was spent and why the plant failed to pay it off, if
there is corruption or not?

By the way, if the majority of the parliament or the Speaker does not
demand that the playing minister apologize to the MPs or at least
to one of them for his disrespectful behavior, especially when the
minister says that he was playing because not all the parliamentary
speeches are interesting, we should never expect from the parliament
to care for the fate of the industrial giant.

While in normal parliaments of normal countries the ad hoc committees
would have already studied this issue to reveal why the giant became
an “orphan”. But it is enough to see who the heads of the committees
dealing with the economic sphere in the Armenian parliament are –
Gagik Minasyan and Vardan Ayvazyan – and there will be no need to
come back to this issue any more.

Soon about 400 employees of Nairit will be made redundant, according
to the minister of energy. He said it will be done by the new manager
of the plant, but he added, that 400 people are a small number against
the total 3000.

When a small workshop is opened in Armenia with 10 or 20 employees, the
whole Armenian government headed by the president attends the opening
ceremony. The TV channels cover the event as if the unemployment
issue has this been solved in Armenia.

Now the reduction of 400 jobs is said to be a small number. They
don’t care if the number of hungry and angry families will be 400
more or less, or emigrating “strappers” (as Karen Karapetyan said)
will be 400 more or less or emigrating “stuff” will be 400 more or less
(as Vardan Ayvazyan said).

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA’S FOREIGN DEBT IS UNSTABLE: WB ARMENIA OFFICE HEAD

Lragir.am News:

Published: 14:51:52 – 17/02/2012

Jean-Michel Happy, the head of the Armenian office of the World Bank,
stressed today the necessity to allot loans to Armenia stating at
the same time that Armenia’s foreign debt in unstable.

“After the 2009 economic crisis, Armenia’s foreign debt has
significantly increased and today it is unstable”, he said.

Happy noted that the government of Armenia adopted a strong program
on the consolidation of the debt which will enable to keep the debt
on a stable level in a long-term perspective.

“But the solution of this issue will be determined by two factors –
acceleration of the economic growth and export”, said Happy.

According to him, it is necessary to do this for the foreign debt
not to influence negatively the vulnerable groups.

From: A. Papazian

KARABAKH CONFLICT NOT TO BE SOLVED SOON – RUSSIAN MEDIATOR

news.am
February 17, 2012 | 14:12

Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov said he does not
consider the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would be solved soon.

Sabine Freizer, Europe program director of the International Crisis
Group, quoted Popov on her Twitter.

“But the good news from Popov: It is most important that the Presidents
(Armenian and Azerbaijani) are friendly… the atmosphere in Sochi
was excellent,” she tweeted.

From: Baghdasarian

‘BAKU-TBILISI-KARS RAILWAY WILL WEAKEN ARMENIA AND IRAN’S POSITION’

News.Az
Fri 17 February 2012

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will isolate occupant Armenia from
different economic projects in the region.

Collaborator of Prague University, political scientist Zamig Mammadli
told the statement to Gun.Az while commenting on Georgian President
Mikhail Saakashvili’s remarks that the railway would open the door
to Europe for Georgia and Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey are strategic allies in the region.

This alliance forms the political and economic power of the region.

And Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will provide an alternative access
to Europe for Azerbaijan and Georgia and weaken Armenia and Iran’s
positions in the region.

It will isolate occupant Armenia from different economic projects in
the region. Besides being deprived of regional projects, it will be
more difficult for Armenia to solve its own socio-economic problems
unless it abandons its occupant policy,” the political scientist said.

ARMENIA’S CENTRAL BANK IS HINDERING COUNTRY’S STOCK EXCHANGE?

NEWS.AM
February 17, 2012 | 13:44

YEREVAN. – The NASDAQ OMX Armenia stock exchange is working with
a loss, its General Manager Konstantin Saroyan said during a press
conference on Friday.

According to Saroyan, the stock exchange was working with a loss even
prior to the financial crisis. And the reason, in his view, is that
the exchange has very little profits. And there are two causes for
the low profits: First, the rates at the stock exchange are not high;
and second, Armenia’s Central Bank (CB) offers other platforms for
market trading, and without any fees; and that is why the banks very
often prefer CB’s systems.

“Under other equal terms the banks will prefer the free service. In our
view, no service must be free [of charge], since the stock exchange
secures a safe and effective mechanism for signing business deals,”
Konstantin Saroyan maintained.

From: A. Papazian

GREEN ACTIVISTS LOSE THEIR TRUST IN MUNICIPALITY OF YEREVAN

arminfo
Thursday, February 16, 22:46

The green activists have lost their trust in the Municipality of
Yerevan.

The reason of their disappointment is the Mashtots Park, which
caused a scandal two weeks ago after the dismantled trade pavilions
mysteriously had “moved” from Abovyan Street to the public park near
Mashtots Avenue. According to the official version, the pavilions
have been moved in line with the zoning of the center of the city
defined in the general outlay.

For their part, the green activists say that in reality the given
development runs counter to the general layout, and the Old Yerevan
project has never been put to public hearings. The meetings of the
activists with Mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan and Chief Architect
of Yerevan Narek Sargsyan have given no results.

The initiative “We are the Owners of Our City” told ArmInfo that it
has become clear after the talks that the Municipality took all the
decisions unilaterally, disregarding the public opinion. Furthermore,
the representatives of the Municipality failed to clearly explain
how the pavilions “moved” to the place of public use and “settled”
in the green zone of the capital of the country.

The Municipality’s statements that the given area has temporarily been
given to the trade outlets on a contractual basis cause doubts. “In
the Municipality’s understanding there is no such a concept as a park
for public use, therefore, placement of the trade pavilions has become
a priority”, the statement says.

The Municipality of Yerevan has also made a statement and assessed
the case. In particular, the Municipality says that during the meeting
with the green activists, Mayor Taron Margaryan advised them to apply
to the court. The mayor also assures that the pavilions are beyond
the borders of the green zone and they have been placed there in the
manner prescribed by the law.

EXPERT: SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN ARMENIA ARE NOT IN A GOOD STATE

arminfo
Thursday, February 16, 22:47

The small and medium enterprises in Armenia are not in a good state,
Director for Corporate Banking of Ameriabank Gagik Sahakyan said at
today’s press conference in Yerevan when commenting on the current
state of SMEs in the country.

According to him, over the past few years the state of the small and
medium enterprises has been considerably improving, however now the
situation is far from being good. “SMEs are not a priority direction
now”, Sahakyan said. He added that the monopolies and the high level
of market concentration continue hindering the development of SMEs
in Armenia. The statistics demonstrates, however, that the market
concentration level is declining, Sahakyan said.

In order to improve the state of SMEs in Armenia, one should remove
the administrative burden, i.e. to switch to a differentiated policy
towards SMEs and large business, he said. Most representatives of
SMEs often lack the relevant documents when applying to the bank,
whereas today the banks are interested in lending to SMEs. Sahakyan
added that the bank’s internal regulations with respect to SMEs are
being simplified, the problem still remains unresolved.

To note, according to the data of the Agency of Rating Marketing
Information (ArmInfo), received on the basis of the analysis of the
financial reports of Armenian banks, the quality of the summary credit
portfolio of “nontrade” financing of SMEs considerably worsened over
the past year.

INDEPENDENT COMMISSION TO BE SET UP TO DETERMINE NAIRIT PLANT DEBT

/ARKA/
February 17, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, February 17, /ARKA/. Armenian energy and natural resources
minister Armen Movsisyan said Thursday an independent commission will
be set up to determine the amount of debt of Nairit chemical plant
in Yerevan.

According to a variety of estimates, the total debt of Nairit synthetic
rubber producer is $120-$130 million, of which $20-$25 million is
owed to Armenian banks. He said if the commission finds that part of
the funds were invested in the development of production but did not
pay off, the problem of repayment will be removed fr om agenda. The
minister said that several large companies interested in Nairit,
have already investigated its investment program.

“The next stage is an independent assessment of the investment
project. We hope to sign a relevant agreement soon,” he said.

Movsisyan also said if the investment program is approved a tender
will be announced to choose a company to run the plant.

In 2011 October Armenia formally asked the Anti-Crisis Fund of the
Eurasian Economic Community for a $400 million loan for Nairit.

Nairit plant was closed in 1989 for ecological reasons, but resumed
partial operation in 1992-93. In 2006 some 90 % of its shares were
sold to a British-registered Rainoville Property Lim ited at $40
million. The Armenian government has a 10 percent stake in the
Soviet-built company, which has repeatedly changed owners over the
past two decades.