Month: September 2013

Armenian sport minister’s son has car accident (Photo)

September 14, 2013 | 11:09

YEREVAN. – A Lexus and a GAZel-model minibus crashed Saturday, at
around 8am, in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan.

According to preliminary information, five people are affected from
the collision, the Road Police informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The identities of those involved in the accident are being ascertained.

To note, the driver of the Lexus was weightlifter Norayr Vardanyan,
26. In line with the information which Armenian News-NEWS.am has
received, he is the son of Armenia’s Sport and Youth Affairs Minister
Yuri Vardanyan.

From: A. Papazian

Armenian minister’s son’s injury not life-threatening

September 14, 2013 | 11:41

YEREVAN. – The injuries of weightlifter Norayr Vardanyan – the son of
Armenia’s Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Yuri Vardanyan – and of the
others affected by the car accident are not life-threatening.

The Sport and Youth Affairs Minister’s press secretary Suzy Badoyan
told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

She noted that they are now checking up on which hospital the injured
were taken, but informed that those affected by the accident had
sustained solely minor injuries.

According to our information, Yuri Vardanyan likewise was at the scene
of the accident in the morning.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, a Lexus and a GAZel-model
minibus crashed Saturday, at around 8am, in Armenia’s capital city
Yerevan. According to preliminary information, five people are
affected from the collision. The driver of the Lexus was weightlifter
Norayr Vardanyan, 26. In line with the information which Armenian
News-NEWS.am has received, he is the son of Armenia’s Sport and Youth
Affairs Minister Yuri Vardanyan.

Protestors March to Yerevan’s Pak Shouka; Met by Counter-Demonstration
Across the Street

Hrant Gadarigian

18:13, September 13, 2013

A group of around 100 protestors, all sporting yellow baseball caps,
wound their way through downtown Yerevan today, urging passersby to
join their march in opposition to the construction taking place at the
city’s iconic landmark, the Pak Shouka (Covered Market).

Against a backdrop of seemingly public indifference, the marchers
gathered on the sidewalk opposite the market where construction was
continuing in earnest.

As if on cue, a larger group had assembled directly in front of the
market in support of the construction being undertaken by MP Samuel
Aleksanyan, the new owner of the building.

It seems that the police had learnt a lesson from the last
demonstration for and against the construction when the opposing sides
met head on and scuffled.

Both sides waved the Armenian tricolor and snapped photos of the opposition.

I have to confess that those in favor, many of whom it is alleged have
been `paid-off’ by the new owner, were the most vocal and hoisted
large banners calling the anti-construction protestors `Paid Foreign
Spies’ and `Grant Eaters’.

It would appear that Aleksanyan has chosen a strategy of making it
appear that just as many citizens favor what he is doing as those
opposed.

One anti-construction protestor I spoke to commented that it was
ironic that Turkey is rehabilitating Armenian cultural landmarks while
they are being destroyed in Armenia.

He added that while Turkey has realized the advantages of such
rehabilitation, even if just to attract more tourist dollars to the
eastern regions, Armenia is bent on turning its landmarks into crass
commercial sites.

MP Aleksanyan owns the Yerevan City supermarket chain and it is feared
that the market will become one as well.

Despite the fact that several state agencies, including the Ministry
of Culture, have publicly stated that the changes being made to the
market violate landmark norms, it seems that no one in government is
able or willing to halt the construction and to commission a panel of
experts to appraise what is being done.

Yesterday a group of noted Armenian architects held a press conference
and labeled the construction a desecration of the 1950s landmark.

It seems that their protestations have fallen on deaf ears.

;-met-by-counter-demonstration-across-the-street.html

Leader of Armenia’s `Free Democrats’ is Building a 2nd Hydro-Plant on
the Same River – Photos

Kristine Aghalaryan

16:05, September 11, 2013

Small Hydro-Electric Plants: Attractive Profits and Environmental Annihilation

MP Khachatur Kokobelyan, leader of the Free Democrats Party is
building a new small hydro plant (SHP) on the Paghdjour River in the
village of Getahovit in Armenia’s Tavoush Province. This will be his
second SHP on the site.

A third SHP, `Khachaghbyour 2′, is being built by MegaEnergy Ltd. The
100% shareholder of the company is Gegham Aghadjanyan, an Armenian
citizen.

In its answer to our inquiry, Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection
stated that Energy Kok Ltd. had presented a business plan and that on
September 1, 2009 the ministry issued a positive Environmental Impact
Assessment for the Khachaghbyur SHP. Four years have since past. At
the time an operating license hadn’t been issue to MegaEnergy to build
the Khachaghbyur-2 SHP on the Paghdjour River. Public hearings that
took place were merely for show. (Energy Kok belongs to the
Kokobelyan family, but the MP denied that they were building the SHP –
K.A.)

None of the residents gathered in the center of Getahovit could
remember any public hearings ever being held for the SHP being built
by Kokobelyan. Nevertheless, village mayor Artour Ghazaryan claims
that the company possesses all the required documents and that
everything was finalized years ago.

We tried to reach Kokobelyan throughput the day on September 9, but
failed to talk to him at any length. At first he claimed he was busy
and told us to call again after 4pm. We did, but again he claimed he
was busy and promised to call us back the next day by noon. He never
did. We asked for the name of someone else we could talk to about the
SHP. Kokobelyan answered that he was the only one qualified to speak
about the matter. We should remind readers that the National
Assembly’s `Rules of Procedure’ (Article 9.1), specifically prohibits
Members of Parliament from engaging in entrepreneurial activities. It
appears, however, that Khachatur Kokobelyan is personally managing and
overseeing his SHP business. Why else would he tell us that he is the
only person qualifies to answer our questions?

The construction site of Kokobelyan’s new SHP
The building housing Kokobelyan’s operating SHP
The water intake complex
Two pipes take the water from the intake tank to the main station. The
river bed you see is what’s left of the flow after the environmental
discharge.
In the background is the fish ladder. Theoretically, the river’s fish
are supposed to climb or descend this during their migration.

According to data in the Ministry of Nature Protections’ assessment,
Kokobelyan’s SHP will feature four hydro-turbines with a combined
output of 1,292 kilowatts. An environmental discharge of 1,100 liters
per second is planned for. In order to minimize and prevent any
possible environmental damage, the site will be leveled, fenced off
and replanted after the SHP is built. The plan calls for fifteen trees
to be planted. The area to get new plantings will cover 450 square
meters. The plantings and cosmetic improvements will cost 830,000 AMD.
Environmental measures will cost some 7.1 million AMD. By the way,
bio-toilets will be installed for workers.

These are numbers that are usually presented in the initial plans.
But, more importantly, there are no agencies that monitor how many
trees were actually cut down in order to install the 1,430 meters of
pipe to carry the river water to the SHP. And who will certify that
the company actually planted the fifteen trees promised?

We were not allowed to enter the construction site. Director Loris
Yeghoyan said that he was ready to answer our questions at the
company’s office on Northern Avenue in Yerevan. He specifically
stressed this. Yeghoyan said he couldn’t permit us entry to the
construction site because he couldn’t ensure our safety. `We have no
safety helmets,’ he said. Indeed, none of the workers wore safety
helmets, even though the SHP is regarded as a danger zone.

The village of Getahovit

Getahovit lies 700 meters above sea level. According to the
environmental impact assessment, the pipes at the new Kokobelyan SHP
will start at an elevation of 656 meters and end at the main water
input section of the SHP at an elevation of 725 meters.

According to figures of the Public Services Regulatory Commission, the
pipes at Kokobelyan’s SHP will start at 731 meters and end up at 850
meters. As for the MegaEnergy SHP, the pipes will begin at 860 meters
and wind up at 1,050 meters.

Another company, ATVA Ltd., received water usage rights in 2011 for
the Khachaghbyour-3 and Khachaghbyour-4 SHPs on the Paghdjour River.
However the Public Services Regulatory Commission has still not
granted the company a license. ATVA Ltd. is owned by Arben Ghoulanyan,
a former Executive Director of Armenia Water and Sewerage CJSC, and an
advisor to the President of the State Water Economy Committee of the
Ministry of Territorial Administration of Armenia. This agency told
Hetq that the SHPs would be at an elevation of around 1,400 meters.

These figures show that water from the Paghdjour River below will be
mainly piped to the SHPs at a higher elevation. If the SHP owners
decide not to allow for an environment discharge, as is the case with
the vast majority of SHPs now operating in Armenia, Getahovit
residents will be deprived of using the river for irrigation and other
purposes. There will be little or no water left to flow.

The once struggling residents have given in and no longer want to
discuss the SHPs. They regard any further struggle as pointless.

The efforts of Getahovit residents and environmentalists to prevent
one of the SHPs under construction proved fruitless. Today, the
situation has changed add residents are no longer voicing their
opposition. In private conversations with them it is clear that while
all are opposed to the SHPs, no one can publicly express it. They are
afraid of doing so. Some of the residents say they have been
intimidated, while others say they have been `bought off’.
Construction continues. One Getahovit woman offered her solution – let
them fill the pipe with dirt and be done with.

One magnificent section of Tavoush’s natural landscape is being
destroyed. Various government agencies, including the Ministry of
Nature Protection, are assisting in the destruction. The Public
Services Regulatory Commission and local community leaders are also
playing their part in the destruction.

They are directing the waters of the Paghdjour River, slowly but
surely, into feeder pipes. This translates into the destruction of the
flora and fauna of the river and its surroundings.

Armenia’s Parliament Passes Profit Tax Amendment: Opposition Argues
Country Being Turned Into Offshore Haven

Grisha Balasanyan
21:28, September 10, 2013

Today, by a vote of 67 to 42 a draft bill to make amendments to
Armenia’s Law on Profit Tax was approved by the National Assembly.

The bill passed on the second hearing.

It was Deputy Finance Minister Souren Karanyan who took the podium in
the parliament and spoke out in favor of the bill that would free non
residents from paying profit tax in a number of instances.

Non residents would be exempt from the tax on interest accrued from
government foreign currency bonds or from the sale of such bonds, from
the exchange of other securities, and from the revenues accrued from
similar transactions.

For legal purposes organizations established in foreign countries are
considered non-resident, as well as international organizations and
any subsequent organizations they establish outside Armenia.

Deputy Minister Karanyan stated that resident organizations of other
countries with which Armenia has signed a double taxation treaty will
not be doubly taxed. Those organizations, resident in countries with
which Armenia has no double taxation treaty, will be doubly taxed when
investing in foreign currency bonds issued by Armenia.

Karanyan argus that the latter case decreases interest in investing in Armenia.

ARF MP Artzvik Minasyan noted that non-registry is mostly dependent
not on a person’s citizenship but on the center of their activity or
economic interest.

Minasyan asked the official what guarantees were there that Armenian
capital wouldn’t be sent abroad, say to an offshore company, and then
come back to Armenia, to be invested in Armenian-issues securities and
not get taxed?

Deputy Minister Minasyan retorted that he didn’t find it realistic
that Armenian companies would go offshore to register and then evade
being taxed as non-resident companies.

Minasyan argued that one of the reasons is that an Armenian company
can amass a greater profit domestically, rather than by operating as a
non-resident operation.

Armenian National Congress (HAK) MP Hrand Bagratyan took the floor and
declared that he was categorically opposed to the bill, arguing that
by giving allowances to the wealthy, the country would be turned into
an off-shore zone.

`Are you creating an off-shore zone, or is it just because you like
the word offshore,’ chided Bagratyan.

Those voting against the bill were the parliamentary opposition and
the Prosperous Armenia Party.

Voting in favor of the bill, besides ruling coalition member the
Republican Party and Rule of Law, was independent MPs Khachatur
Kokobelyan,

Those abstaining were Edmon Maroukyan, Levon Zurabyan, Stepan Demirtchyan.

Armenia’s banking system operates with 1% profitability

September 14, 2013 | 01:15

YEREVAN. – The net profit of Armenia’s banking system made up Armenian
drams equivalent to approximately $30 million in the first half 2013.

The annual profitability is 1 percent, in line with assets, and 6
percent, in line with capitals.

The Central Bank of Armenia informs the aforesaid, and based on
oversight reports.

In addition, nineteen banks in Armenia operated with profits, whereas
three banks, with losses.

Also, the commercial banks of the country secured a gross income in
drams equivalent to about $680 million, and made gross expenditures in
drams equivalent to roughly $640 million.

From: A. Papazian

Armenia-Syria foreign trade suffers considerable loss

September 14, 2013 | 02:26

YEREVAN. – The current situation in Syria has had a negative impact on
the Armenian-Syrian commercial ties.

Before the start of the Syrian crisis, the Armenia-Syria trade
turnover had totaled an annual amount of $4-5 million.

In line with customs statistics, about $550,000 in trade was conducted
between Armenia and Syria in the first half of 2013; this amount is
three times less than in the first half of the year past.

In 2013, Armenia managed to export solely 170 watches to Syria; there
were no other exports. In previous years, Armenia was able to export
stones and ceramic objects to Syria.

But the imports from Syria are more diversified this year. The most
imported items were shoes, with 45,000 pairs. It is noteworthy that
the number of imported shoes almost doubled as compared to the
previous year. Detergents and cleaning items are second, and grains
are third.

From: A. Papazian

Armenia decreases wheat import and increases its production

11:53, 14 September, 2013

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS: The volume of wheat imported to the
Republic of Armenia in the first half of this year has decreased
around 3.3 times compared with the same period of the previous year
becoming 62 596.1 tons. According to data of State Revenue Committee
in the first six months of previous year to our country were imported
206 439 tons of wheat and during the whole year 477 681 tons. At the
same time according to data of National Statistics Service village
economies sold one kilo of wheat in average 182-209 AMD. The wheat
imported to our country during the first six months of 2013 was
brought from Russia (54 833.1) tons and from Ukraine (7762.5) tons.
`Armenpress’ reports that this year Armenia has not exported wheat.

The internal demand on wheat in the Republic of Armenia is annually
700 000 tons. During the last years the volumes of wheat gross harvest
show growing trend. In 2010 there were 183 500 tons of wheat harvest,
in 2011 – 224 100 tons, I 2012 – 243 000. In current year is expected
around 305 000 – 310 000 tons of wheat harvest which will exceed the
previous year result by almost 25 percent. According to international
standards food independence is considered secured when 70-75 percent
of the most necessary food is secured due to own production. It means
that in order to be self-sufficient in part of wheat Armenia should
increase wheat production up to 500 00 tons.

In Artsakh republic the gross harvest of crops showed positive trend.
For many times has been announced about Artsakh’s still unused
opportunities to grow corns.

SO in case of maintenance of existing trend of wheat harvest volume in
the Republic of Armenia and using Artsakh’s opportunities for growing
corns, two Armenians states during coming years will solve the issue
of strategic importance and will have self-sufficiency in part of
wheat.

© 2009 ARMENPRESS.am

Armenia imports Turkish powder instead of Italian

19:12, 13 September, 2013

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS: The volume of powder imported to
the Republic of Armenia increased more than 7 times in the first half
of this year compared to the same period of the previous year becoming
1 tone. According to data of State Revenue Committee in the first half
of last year in our country was imported around 140 kg of powder from
Italy. This year the whole volume of powder imported to our country
was brought from Turkey, reports `Armenpress’.

In the first half of this year the indicators of foreign trade of the
Republic of Armenia are the following: `import – 2 059 817 000 AMD,
export – 710 395 000 AMD.

Author of dismantled monument symbolizing Armenian-Turkish friendship
applied to European Court of Human Rights

13:00, 14 September, 2013

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS: Famous Turkish sculptor Mehmet
Aksoi who is the author of dismantled `Friendship monument’ applied to
European Court of Human Rights.

`Friendship monument’ which was thought by the sculptor to be a symbol
of friendship between Armenia and Turkey was dismantled in 2010
because Turkish PM Erdogan called it `grotesque’ in 2009 during his
visit to Kars. Erdoga visited Kars in October, 2009 after singing
protocols on establishing relations between Armenia and Turkey.

`Armenpress’ reports that during interview with `Haberler’ Mehmet
Aksoi said that the judicial process against illegal dismantling of
the monument has not finished yet. `Turkish courts today are not free
and impartial. How can a piece of art be called `grotesque’? It is an
obvious abuse. This monument has been being built for three years. The
sense of the monument is friendship with Armenia. But Erdogan
destroyed it. It means that Erdogan who wishes piece was against it.
We applied to all kind of Turkish courts which was like a comedy
theatre. Now we will aplly to European Court of Human Rights. I do not
do anything bad,’ said Aksoi.

Turkish sculptor earlier had announced that according to Turkish
legislation withour permission of the author nobody can dismantle art
creation.

`Friendship monument’ in Kars was erected in 2007. It was seen also
from the territory of Armenia.

© 2009 ARMENPRESS.am