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SORCIO PLANS TO INCREASE ITS PRODUCTION VOLUMES TO 5-10 MILLION DOLLARS BY 2010

Noyan Tapan
June 11, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Sorcio company plans to increase its
production volumes by late 2009 with the assistance of 125 million
drams (about 403.8 thousand USD) it has received from Armenian
government. NT correspondent was informed by the company’s CEO
Hovhannes Avoyan that the U.S. is the main consumer of the production
made by this IT company, and Sorcio will also increase its export
volumes this year.

H. Avoyan expressed a hope that the government’s assistance will
help the company to mitigate the impact of the global financial and
economic crisis.

Sorcio currently employs 50 people, but it envisages increasing the
number of jobs to 200 within 3-4 years and the number of customers
to 80 thousand instead of the current 1,000. The company expects its
production volumes to reach 5-10 million USD in 2010. In 2008 its
production amounted to 700 thousand USD.

Sorcio’s products enable various institutions to control work of
websites, networks and servers. According to H. Avoyan, demand for
their products is gradually increasing abroad, while in Armenia there
is no demand for them.

"Demand for such products is just emerging in Armenia as few companies
seriously use information technologies at their enterprises,"
he underlined.

He said that the government has acquired part of the company’s
shares. "The government evaluated Sorcio quite conservatively: our
company has rather a high cost," the CEO said.

In his words, despite this fact, the governmental assistance came
just in time because Armenia’s IT sector is suffering a decline due
to the crisis.

20.8BLN AMD OF RUSSIAN CREDIT TO BE DIRECTED TO EARTHQUAKE ZONE IN ARMENIA

ARKA
June 11, 2009

YEREVAN, July 11. /ARKA/. Some of the funds, 20.8bln AMD, of the
Russian stabilization credit, will be directed to the construction
and renovation work in the Spitak earthquake zone, said RA Minmister
of Finance Tigran Davtyan.

The press service of the RA Ministry of Finance reports that the
Russian stabilization credit, US $500mln, has been issued to Armenia
today.

"It will be the first tranche of the Russian credit," the Minister
said at the Government’s sitting.

He pointed out that the funds will be reflected in the budget.

RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that the funds must first
of all be directed to the renovation work in the earthquake zone
and to the National Center for SMB Development, as well as to the
Government-approved programs.

Earlier Premier Sargsyan stated that some of the funds will be
allocated for anti-crisis measures from a special stabilization fund
to be formed at the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA).

Renovation work to the amount of 24bln AMD is to be carried out in the
disaster zone, and about 15bln AMD is to be provided to the National
Center for SMB Development to enhance the SMB crediting potential.

On May 20, RF and RA Ministers of Finance, Alexey Kudrin and Tigran
Davtyan, signed an agreement on a 15-year US $500mln stabilization
credit to Armenia for sup porting its economic during the crisis.

The soft credit has been issued at an annual interest rate of 4%,
the grace period being 4%.

PAN-ARMENIAN SONG COMPETITION KICKS OFF IN STEPANAKERT
Anahit Danielyan

2009/ 06/11 | 15:45

Nagorno Karabakh culture

The first leg of the yearly "Untza" (Tribute) pan-Armenian
competitive festival kicked off yesterday in Stepanakert, NKR. The
young contestants who arrived in Karabakh performed a number of
Armenian songs.

This is the fifth year of the competition sponsored by the NKR
government, Armenian Public Radio and TV and Armenia’s State Song
Theater. Taking part in the competition are 23 performers who were
contestants in the past four competitions.

The jury awarded Razmik Amayan, a young singer from Karabakh,
the highest score. He performed Gourgen Gabrielyan’s a "Karabakh
Melody". Large parts of the repetoire of the other performers were
songs penned by Artur Grigoryan, Artistic Director of Armenia’s
Song Theater.

Today the contestants will perform renditions of foreign songs. The
competition runs till June 13.

TRIAL OF

2009/06/11 | 15:52

Region

The trial of Turkish journalist Nedim ªener, who recently wrote a
book entitled "The Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies", got underway
yesterday at Istanbul’s Second Court.

The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office has charged Mr. ªener with the
publication of official secrets and exposing state anti-terrorism
personnel. The reporter faces a maximum prison term of 28 years if
found guilty.

ªener has two trials pending as a result of the complaints. Yesterday’s
trial at the Istanbul Second Court was on violating official
secrets. ªener, who faces up to eight years in jail on this charge,
defended himself by saying that the information in his book was from
phone conversations that were made public on televisions and newspapers
months before his book was printed. "These conversations are also on
the Internet and can be found when one searches Google," he said.

ªener said the trial aimed at preventing the public from learning the
facts about Dink’s murder and press freedom. He asked the court to
find him not guilty. The judge decided to postpone the trial to another
date for the defendant’s lawyers to prepare for the prosecutor’s case.

"Some of the security personnel that sued me are under investigation
for neglecting their duty for Dink’s murder. They want to punish
the journalist writing about the responsibilities of those people,"
said ªener.

RA PRIME MINISTER TIGRAN SARGSYAN CALLED AT THE YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY TO TAKE PART IN THE OPENING SITTING OF THE WORLD SOCIOLOGICAL INSTITUTE-ORGANIZED CONGRESS OF SOCIOLOGISTS, ENTITLED "AT SOCIOLOGICAL CROSSROADS"

709/
Thursday, 11 June 2009

RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan called at the Yerevan State
University to take part in the opening sitting of the World
Sociological Institute-organized congress of sociologists, entitled
"At Sociological Crossroads." In attendance were scholars from a number
of foreign States, as well as representatives from key international
institutions.

In his opening remarks, Tigran Sargsyan said it to be symbolical that
our country was chosen to host the congress at such a crucial to the
international community time. He presented his vision of the global
developments, challenges faced by societies and nations, changes we
are in for, and went on to stress that the world just needs having
the expert community comment on current social phenomena.

The Prime Minister said to be hopeful that the congress will try
to identify the social background of today’s crisis, trace out the
scope of the new space of co-existence and eventually propose ways
for defying modern challenges.

KYRGYZSTAN: UZBEKS DIG TRENCHES ALONG STRETCHES OF BORDER

Eurasianet

June 10, 2009

The Kyrgyz Border Service confirms that Uzbek guards are digging
trenches along stretches of their mutual border across from the
Kyrgyz districts of Jalalabad and Batken. However, in a statement
to EurasiaNet, the Service denied media reports that 7-meter tall
concrete walls are also being built to separate the two countries.

The trenches, which are reportedly 3 meters wide, are the latest in a
series of measures instituted since attacks in Khanabad and Andijan on
May 26. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Locals say
the trenches are due to be filled with water to create makeshift moats.

"On the border of our village territory we don’t see any digging. But
before that there were iron gratings. Relations between the residents
of the two neighboring regions have recently ended," Kalukberdi
Shermatov, the head of Kyrgyz-Kyshtak, a village in Batken, told the
AKIpress news agency on June 10.

"Before, residents of Uzbekistan used to visit Batken, where their
relatives live, or come in for trade. Also, they used to bring their
fruits and vegetables to Kadamjai [district center] to sell. The
cessation of the relations could bring damage to both sides," he added.

HEGHINE BISHARYAN: PEOPLE ARE TO BLAME FOR ELECTORAL WRONGDOINGS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
11.06.2009 16:17 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ All in all, Yerevan Council elections can be
estimated as "satisfactory", Heghine Bisharyan, Head of "Orinats
Yerkir" parliamentary faction, told today a news conference. The "old
style", i.e. wrongdoings, bribery and falsifications, was visible
during the voting, nevertheless, the quality of conducting elections
in Armenia rises by every year, the speaker noted.

"Even though ‘Orinats Yerkir’ overcame only the 5% barrier, its
votes were not purchased," Ms. Bisharyan said, stressing that their
party would improve its strategy by next elections. "Yerevan is not
Armenia, and these were just municipal elections. So, we’ll revise
all our omissions which prevented us from overcoming the 7% barrier,"
Bisharyan said, adding that before elections she had met with different
international representatives who had told her how their countries
organized election and what wrongdoing were observed.

"Coalition parties signed a document on not distributing bribes,
but the agreement was breached," Bisharyan said. Refusing to give
the name of any party, she also noted that pro-opposition factions
had also engaged themselves in such ill practices.

"No need to feel compassion for the people who elected their
authorities on their own. People go to polling stations themselves,
and there, they take bribes," Chair of "Orinats Yerkir" party said.

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER: WE STILL FEEL THE STRONG IMPACT OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS AND REDUCTION IN SOLVENT DEMAND

ArmInfo
2009-06-09 16:45:00

ArmInfo. "Since our meeting in Astana we have witnessed no conceptual
changes in economy. We still feel the very strong impact of the global
crisis and reduction in the population’s solvent demand, which is the
main factor affecting all the macro-economic indices of our country",-
Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said at the 23rd sitting of
the EurAzES Interstate Council at the level of heads of governments,
Monday.

According to him, the policy of the Armenian Government and Central
Bank is expanding today. "We have abruptly increased the budget
deficit, and it will be about 7% in 2009. The inflation level is still
low enough, we have no fears that the inflationary pressure will be
high this year. We’ll complete this year with 4-5% inflation",- the
Armenian prime minister said and added that the anti-crisis measures
taken by Armenia are actually similar to those being taken in EurAzES
countries. They dampen the impact of the global financial and economic
crisis, but, certainly, they cannot completely remove the negative
impact existing today. "Our forecast for 2010 is careful. We’ll draw up
the budget estimating the economic growth at 1-2%, the budget deficit
will also be high enough – about 5-6%. The Central Bank and Government
of Armenia will continue the expanding policy to take countercyclical
measures to stimulate the economy",- Tigran Sargsyan stressed.

DEFENSE MINISTER LEAVES FOR BRUSSELS

Panorama.am
16:04 09/06/2009

Armenian delegation of the Defense Ministry chaired by the Defense
Minister Seyran Ohanyan leaves for Brussels tomorrow to attend the
NATO Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council ministerial sitting, Seyran
Shahsuvaryan, the Ministry’s press spokesman says.

After the sitting the Defense Minister will have meeting with his
counterparts of partner countries.

It’s worth mentioning that the Defense Minister will leave for Moscow
afterwards to join the Presidential delegation attending Collective
Security Treaty Organization Security Council sitting on 14 June.

FREEDOM OF TOPIC FOR PRESIDENTS
HAKOB BADALYAN

LRAGIR.AM
12:53:58 – 08/06/2009

The OSCE Minks group Co-Chairs issued their regular statement,
which was spread after Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting and justified it. For
attaching some kind of particular luster to the meeting, they stated
that the presidents agreed to open a "main" topic within the frameworks
of the negotiations. The Co-Chairs naturally did not mention it,
because of the simple reason that there is not such a topic, but
there is only some need to attach significance to the Sargsyan –
Aliyev meetings.

It is also natural that the Minsk group countries will throw Sargsyan
and Aliyev a topic to present to their societies as inventive freedom
of their own gains during the negotiation. We may only guess how
Sargsyan and Aliyev will use this freedom.

For example, Aliyev will tell his public that the new topic concerns
not only the released areas but also the version of ceding Zangezur
to Azerbaijan as a recompense for keeping the released areas for so
many years. The Azerbaijani public is natural to be happy and to be
once more sure that it did right to give the right to Aliyev to hold
the office of president for life, as during each period of presidency,
Aliyev will open a new "topic" on ceding a new region of Armenia to
Azerbaijan. Moreover, after this the Azerbaijani people, will decide
that Aliyev not only has the right to be the president of Azerbaijan
for life, but also he has no right to think of not being the president.

Serge Sargsyan, naturally, will present to the Armenian society, that
the new "topic" concerns the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, which will be
discussed without the precondition of returning the territories. But
the Armenian society will not manage to be happy and think of not
giving Serge Sargsyan the right to hold his office for life, but
at least until the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is settled, when it will
become clear that the question on the status without the precondition
to return the territories is being discussed by the simple reason,
that they made a decision to return the territories despite everything,
and this decision is not a condition or a precondition.

Anyway, usually, especially in the latest period, everything is this
way in the Armenian foreign policy, almost all the Armenian statements
are renounced by everyone. And probably it is only the Armenian side
to refuse the Azerbaijani statements.

But, we do not need to make such conclusions so soon. After all,
it is not understandable form the Minsk group statement whether
the new topic, which stems from the Madrid principles, concerns
Nagorno-Karabakh issue or not. This topic may be related to a
completely different thing, as it stems from the principles of
Madrid. The authors of the Madrid principles may turn out to be
so long-sighted to include a reserve topic for the Co-Chairs to
have something to dwell on when the negotiation process will meet
a deadlock.