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IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAMS OF UNIRESO INSURANCE COMPANY AND GEGAMET MINING COMPANY PROCEEDS ACCORDING TO SCHEDULE

Noyan Tapan
March 24, 2009

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, NOYAN TAPAN. The implementation of the programs
of Unireso insurance company and Gegamet mining company proceeds
according to the schedule. Responding to NT correspondent’s questions,
the Director of the programs’ initiator Uniinvest company, Chairman
of the Board of Unibank (Armenia) and Chairman of the bank’s founder
Uniastrum Bank (Russia) Gagik Zakarian said that Unireso will start
functioning soon.

In his words, everything is ready for Unireso’s work, and 2 million
dollars has been invested. The major programs and the conditions of
service provision by their company are now being developed.

It was mentioned that in the initial period Unireso will be engaged
in insurance of cars, real estate and equipment, and it also plans
to provide life and health insurance services starting from 2010.

G. Zakarian said that about 30% of equipment for Gegamet has been
purchased.

Mining work and the plant to be built are now being designed, and
the licences and permissions necessary for the company’s activity
are being received from the respective Armenian bodies.

"I think that the operation of the mine and construction of the plant
will begin in the summer of 2009," he noted.

To recap, in November 2008 it was announced that the indicated programs
would be launched.

G. Zakarian and the founder of Reso-Garantia insurance company (Russia)
Sergei Sarkisov are the founders of Unireso. According to G. Zakarian,
it is envisaged increasing Unireso’s authorized capital to 10 million
dollars in the next 2-3 years.

The cost of Gegamet invetsment program makes 25 million dollars. It
is being jointly implemented by Uniastrum Bank, Unibank, Metta Group
(Armenia) and Torront Holdings Limited (Great Britain). The investment
project includes operation of iron-chromium mines in Shorzha and Jil,
construction of an ore mining and processing enterprise, as well as
of a fire-brick plant with an annual capacity of 20 million bricks a
year, a plant for cement additives (with an annual capacity of 150
thousand tons), a chromium concentrate plant (with a capacity of
50 thousand tons), and an iron chromium plant (with a capacity of
20 thousand tons). G. Zakarian considered it possible that gold and
platinum will be extracted from ores of the mines. It is planned to
create 500 jobs as a result of implementation of Gegamet’s programs.

WHY DOESN’T THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ARMENIA RUN FOR YEREVAN CITY COUNCIL?
Siranush Muradyan

"Radiolur"
24.03.2009 18:20

Why doesn’t the Democratic Party of Armenia participate in the
elections to the Yerevan City Council? Leader of the Party Aram
G. Sargsyan told a press conference today that the reason is the
imperfectness of the legislative field. Moreover, Sargsyan said that
members of his Party may even refrain from voting.

Under the conditions of the crisis in the world and Armenia,
it’s necessary to raise the regulating role of the state, sine in
this situation it will be wrong and dangerous to remain carriers
of exceptionally liberal ideas, leader of the Democratic Party of
Armenia Aram G. Sargsyan told a press conference today

Aram Sargsyan attached importance to President Serzh Sargsyan’s meeting
with party leaders on March 20 to discuss the ways of mitigating
the influence of the global crisis. In his words, such meetings are
important because thus it is possible to present the existing ideas
to the President and the Prime Minister.

CEASEFIRE BROKEN ON DISENGAGEMENT LINE BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND N KARABAKH

ITAR-TASS
March 24 2009
Russia

YEREVAN, March 23 (Itar-Tass) –The ceasefire was broken repeatedly
last night and on Monday on several sections of the disengagement line
separating the armies of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, the press
service of the Defence Ministry of the unrecognised republic said.

"The foe used small calibre weapons and sniper rifles to attack the
positions of the Karabakh troops," conducting fire in the direction
of several populated localities, the press service said.

"The foe stopped the fire after retaliatory actions undertaken by
forward-deployed units of the Defence Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic," the report said.

On February 22, 1988, the first direct confrontation occurred
in the enclave when a big group of Azeris marched towards the
Armenian-populated town of Askeran, "wreaking destruction en
route." A large number of refugees fled Armenia and Azerbaijan
as violence erupted against the minority populations in the two
countries. In the autumn of 1989, intensified inter-ethnic conflict
in and around Nagorno-Karabakh prodded the Soviet government into
granting Azerbaijani authorities greater leeway in controlling the
region. On November 29, 1989 direct rule in Nagorno-Karabakh was
ended and Azerbaijan regained control of the region. However later a
joint session of the Armenian parliament and the top legislative body
of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh
with Armenia.

On December 10, 1991, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh held a referendum,
boycotted by local Azeris, that approved the creation of an independent
state. A Soviet proposal for enhanced autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh
within Azerbaijan satisfied neither side, and a full-scale war
subsequently started | between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh,
the latter receiving support from Armenia.

The struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh escalated after both Armenia and
Azerbaijan obtained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In
the post-Soviet power vacuum, hostilities between Azerbaijan and
Armenia were heavily influenced by the Russian military, and both the
Armenian and Azerbajani military used a large number of mercenaries
from Ukraine and Russia.

By the end of 1993, the conflict had caused thousands of casualties and
created hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides. By May 1994,
the Armenians controlled 14 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan. At
that point, the Azerbaijani government for the first time during the
conflict recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as a third party in the war and
began direct negotiations with the Karabakh authorities. As a result,
an unofficial ceasefire was reached on May 12, 1994.

Despite the ceasefire, fatalities due to armed conflicts between
Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers continued. As of August, 2008, the
United States, France, and Russia (the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group) were attempting to negotiate a full settlement of the conflict,
proposing a referendum on the status of the area, which culminated
in Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan travelling to Moscow for talks with Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev on 2 November 2008. As a result, the three presidents signed
an agreement that calls for talks on a political settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

GUL CALLS ON IRAQ TO JOINTLY COMBAT PKK

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.03.2009 11:17 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In early remarks before his historic visit to Iraq
for official talks in Baghdad, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said
he hopes to boost ties through a transfer of energy resources and
through cooperation in the fight against the PKK. He said Iraqi Kurds
have clearly seen what winning or losing Turkey’s support would mean
and that it is the PKK terror that upsets ties with Ankara, Hurriyet
Daily News reported.

A symbolic trip, pragmatic agenda President Abdullah Gul began a
landmark visit to neighboring Iraq yesterday, at a time of changing
relations between Turkey and northern Iraq amid calls for increased
efforts to eradicate the presence of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK).

"Just as we attach importance to and back Iraq’s territorial integrity,
northern Iraqi officials should support us against the PKK terror
in the Turkish territory," Gul was quoted as saying by Turkish
TV channels. His remarks came in response to questions posed by
journalists accompanying him on the flight to Baghdad.

"We are ready for a strategic cooperation with Turkey," his
counterpart, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said.

Gul, who was greeted at Baghdad International Airport by Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshyar Zebari and other officials, became the first Turkish
head of state to visit Iraq in 33 years.

The last Turkish president to do so was Fahri Koruturk in April 1976.

EX-ARMENIAN DEPUTY PROSECUTOR WHO BACKED OPPOSITION GETS 3-YEAR PRISON TERM

Interfax
March 23 2009
Russia

A Yerevan court has sentenced former Deputy Armenian Prosecutor General
Gagik Dzhangiryan to three years of imprisonment, press secretary of
the Armenian Court of Appeal Alina Yengolyan told Interfax on Monday.

Dzhangiryan was found guilty of offering resistance when he was
arrested. Dzhangiryan’s term of imprisonment started on February 23,
2008, the day he was arrested.

The arrest followed his announcement at the February 22 opposition
rally that he supported the opposition and that the presidential
election that took place on February 19, 2008 were falsified. Former
Armenian President Robert Kocharian decreed to dismiss Dzhangiryan
on February 23, 2008.

The Armenian opposition led by former Armenian President Levon Ter-
Petrosian staged a rally last February, which evolved into clashes
with police on March 1 in which ten people were killed and over 250
were injured.

EARLY PRAISE FROM ELIE WIESEL AND OTHERS FOR GRIGORIS BALAKIAN’S "ARMENIAN GOLGOTHA": A MEMOIR OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE (1915-1918)

AZG DAILY
25-03-2009

Armenian Genocide

New York City – Never before in English, "Armenian Golgotha" is the
most comprehensive and dramatic eyewitness account of the twentieth
century’s first genocide. It sheds light on the Armenian Genocide as
no other book has done.

On April 24, 1915, Balakian, an Armenian Apostolic priest, was arrested
along with some 250 other intellectuals and leaders of Constantinople’s
Armenian community. During the next four years, he bears witness to
the countless deportation caravans of Armenians, tortured, raped,
or slaughtered and subsequently mutilated on their way to death in
the Syrian deserts; through the testimony of many survivors, foreign
witnesses, and Turkish officials involved in the extermination;
and also to some brave, righteous Turks and their German allies who
resisted secret extermination orders. Miraculously, Balakian manages to
escape, and his flight–through forest and over mountain, in disguise
as a railroad worker and then as a German soldier–is a suspenseful,
harrowing odyssey that makes possible his singular testimony.

Advance praise for "Armenian Golgotha" speaks to the memoir’s great
historical importance as well as to Balakian’s gripping eyewitness
narrative-

"Read this heartbreaking book. "Armenian Golgotha" describes the
suffering, agony, and massacre of innumerable Armenian families
almost a century ago; its memory must remain a lesson for more than
one generation."

– Elie Wiesel –

"Grigoris Balakian’s Armenian Golgotha is a powerful, moving account
of the Armenian Genocide, a story that needs to be known, and is
told here with a sweep of experience and wealth of detail that is as
disturbing as it is irrefutable."

– Sir Martin Gilbert –

"In this extraordinary account, Grigoris Balakian makes astute
psychological observations about himself and his fellow prisoners, and
equally astute interpretations of the behavior of Turkish perpetrators
and German collaborators in the Armenian Genocide. His writing is
clear and compelling, as rendered in sensitive translation. He has
a keen sense of history, and his extensive travels enable him to
record a tragic European panorama. This book will become a classic,
both for its depiction of a much denied genocide and its humane and
brilliant witness to what human beings can endure and overcome."

– Robert Jay Lifton, author of The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and
the Psychology of Genocide –

"The translation and publication of "Armenian Golgotha" in English
is long overdue. It constitutes a thundering proof that those who
deny the Armenian Genocide are engaged in a massive deception."

– Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing
Assault on Truth and Memory –

"The first English translation of a seminal personal account of the
first modern genocide. . . . Balakian survived to write this memoir,
which combines extensive research, an account of his own experiences
and testimony from eyewitnesses, both victims and perpetrators. Poet,
memoirist and Armenian holocaust historian Peter Balakian, Grigoris’s
great-nephew, collaborated with professional translator Sevag to
render the blistering Armenian text into modern English."

– Kirkus Reviews –

The recovery of "Armenian Golgotha" is also an extraordinary
story. Since it had been published in 1922 it had remained available
only in Armenian, and it wasn’t until 1991 that Peter Balakian first
learned of his uncle’s memoir through a chain of circumstances
he describes in his prize-winning memoir Black Dog of Fate (just
reissued in a 10th anniversary edition). After a ten-year translation
and editing project, now Peter Balakian with Aris Sevag has brought
this story into an elegant edition in English.

Full of shrewd insights into the political, historical, and cultural
context of the Armenian Genocide–the template for the subsequent
genocides that cast a shadow across the twentieth century and
beyond–"Armenian Golgotha" is destined to become a classic of
survivor literature.

"Armenian Golgotha" is available for pre-order online.

The Daily STar, Lebanon
March 23 2009

Lebanon’s election race intensifies as parties court allies

By Nafez Qawas
Daily Star correspondent
Monday, March 23, 2009

BEIRUT: The race for seats in Lebanon’s June 7 parliamentary elections
gained momentum over the weekend, as rival coalitions held electoral
rallies and met for talks aimed at forming alliances ahead of the
vote. Democratic Gathering leader MP Walid Jumblatt commented on
Sunday on the abundance of candidates in the Chouf region, saying:
"Let them take my [parliamentary] seat if they want to."

Jumblatt was referring a race among Parliament hopefuls to grab the
seat of MP Nabil al-Boustani, who has reportedly been ill. Jumblatt
reminded the contenders that MP Boustani "is still around and very
alive."

During a tour of the Iqlim al-Kharoub region on Saturday, the head of
the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) said that the March 14 Forces
would run in the elections as a single hand.

Jumblatt also stressed that all weapons would be in the hands of the
Lebanese state one day. He paid tribute to President Michel Sleiman
for "effectively" leading the national dialogue sessions, which have
addressed the issue of weapons.

He also called for ending all internal disputes, particularly the feud
over funding for the Council of the South. Jumblatt also denied press
reports that he had been harassed during the recent funeral of
attorney Sanan Baraj in the Beirut district of Bashoura.

Separately, PSP media officer Rami Rayyes responded on Sunday to
remarks by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who had urged
Jumblatt to decide what he wants from Damascus. "What the [PSP] party
wants from Syria is an end to meddling in Lebanese affairs," Rayyes
said in a television interview.

He stressed that the PSP had "never" stood in the way of establishing
normal ties between Syria and Lebanon.

Moallem, in an interview with al-Jazeera satellite television on
Saturday, mentioned to his country’s relationship with the PSP chief,
saying: "Jumblatt has to decide what he wants, if he wishes to visit
Syria we shall take that into consideration."

"We basically did not submit such a request," Rayyes stressed.

In other elections-related news, Future Movement leader MP Saad
Hariri, who is currently in Paris on a private visit, met twice on
Thursday and Friday with former Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares to
discuss details related to the upcoming vote, An-Nahar daily reported
on Sunday. Hariri is on Monday expected to visit London, where he will
hold talks with British Foreign Minister David Milliband.

The newspaper also reported that the Armenian Tashnak Party has
reached a decision about its electoral alliances and will inform the
Future Movement leader about it "within days."

On Saturday, An-Nahar said that a meeting between the Phalange Party’s
central committee coordinator, Sami Gemayel, and Tashnak’s secretary
general, Hovig Mekhitarian, in Burj Hammoud did not change the status
quo but the door was still open for a possible understanding between
the two sides.

Gemayel described his meeting on Friday with Mekhitarian as being part
of previous talks.

"What brings us together with the Armenians is more than what
separates us," the son of Phalange leader and former President Amin
Gemayel said.

Tashnak sources told An-Nahar that the party would inform Hariri about
its decision on Monday or Tuesday, adding that talks were ongoing with
MP Michel Murr.

Murr said Friday that he was "keen on maintaining a firm relationship"
with the Tashnak that dates back 50 years.

During a rally on Sunday, Amin Gemayel said the Phlange Party and the
Lebanese Forces would run as allies in the spring elections. He urged
Lebanese groups not to sell "shares from their country to Syria,
Iran."

Meanwhile, LF boss Samir Geagea hosted on Saturday evening candidates
Nayla Tueni and Nadim Gemayel at an LF annual dinner. Tueni and
Gemayel are running for the Orthodox and Maronite seats in Beirut’s
first district.

"Nayla and Nadim both enjoy and encompass the qualities of truth,
transparency and honesty," Geagea said.

"They don’t have the expertise of those who base their knowledge on
criticism and deceit from the ‘war for liberation’ to the ‘current
liberation," he said, in a jab at his rival, MP Michel Aoun.

The LF leader called on Beirut and Achrafieh residents to reject "all
matters which are not related to our history, legacy and struggle."

Meanwhile, the head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to the Resistance
parliamentary bloc MP Mohammad Raad said the "type of democracy that
was established by the Taif Accord can be practiced when the minority
and the majority agree on one national choice and a unified set of
basic national principles."

During a political lecture in the southern village of Nabatieh
al-Fawqa on Sunday, Raad said, "if we do not make unified national
choices, and instead let the majority make decisions alone, then we
are heading back to the period of Civil War, to which the Taif Accord
put an end."

"In executive issues, which touch on the living conditions of the
citizens, we will refer to the majority and minority," he said.

"However," he added, "if the elected majority says that we have to
reconcile with Israel and forsake resistance, then this issue does not
need a majority and minority: This is toppling national choices and
principles."

"The majority and minority concept can be applied in all the countries
except in Lebanon, because in this country it can only be practiced
when we have principles and fundamentals, which are agreed upon among
the Lebanese and that everyone abides by," he stressed.

In other news, a visiting French minister said Saturday his government
would back "any party" that emerges winner in the upcoming elections.

State Minister for Cooperation and Francophonie Alain Joyandet arrived
in Lebanon on Friday on a two-day visit to attend the World
Francophone Day. "France believes in opening dialogue with everyone in
the Middle East as part of its diplomatic policy," he said in a news
conference following separate talks with President Sleiman and Foreign
Minister Fawzi Salloukh.

"This is why France will support any party to win the legislative
elections and to be chosen by the Lebanese," he added, voicing hope
the June 7 polls would take place in an "atmosphere of calm and
democracy."

He said his trip served as "a continuation of President Sleiman’s
visit to France this week and as a reaffirmation of deep and strong
ties between Lebanon and France."

France’s "diplomatic pressure will remain within the appropriate
framework for the implementation of UN Resolution 1701," Joyandet
said, without elaborating. UN Resolution 1701 put an end to the summer
2006 war with Israel. During his three-day trip to Paris on last week,
Sleiman asked his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy to help pressure
Israel into abiding by the resolution.

"The pace of implementation must be proportionate to existing
pressures and regional dangers," Joyandet added.

Separately, Lebanon’s ambassador to Syria, Michel al-Khoury, will
assume his duties by the end of this month, Al-Liwaa newspaper
reported Saturday. The daily said that career diplomat Khoury, who is
Beirut’s current envoy to Cyprus, will assume his duties before the
end of March, despite earlier media reports that said the ambassador
would travel to Syria in mid-April.

Lebanon opened its first embassy in Syria on Monday, five months after
the establishment of diplomatic ties following decades of turbulent
relations.

Lebanese Charge d’Affaires Rami Mortada raised the Lebanese flag over
the building located in the Damascus residential neighborhood of Abu
Rummaneh, which is also home to the US Embassy. Syria has yet to name
an envoy to Beirut, where it opened an embassy in December that is not
yet fully operational although it has been staffed with three
diplomats.

Will the world run out of water?

19:25 | 16/ 03/ 2009

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) – The
Fifth World Water Forum opened in Istanbul on March 16 and will last
until March 22.

The event, like other water forums organized by the Marseilles-based
World Water Council (WWC), an international consultative UN agency,
will always continue to produce a lot of useful statistics.

WWC estimates show that more than 600 million people live in
water-stressed or water-deprived countries. The UN predicts that by
2025 this number may increase to 3.2 billion.

It is very expensive to transport water over large distances. Building
water channels costs much more than building oil and gas pipelines.
What’s more, oil and gas may be replaced with hydrogen, bio fuel, coal
or nuclear energy, whereas water has no alternative. It is essential
for any industrial or agricultural production.

Regional water stress can be a basis for international disputes, which
sometimes can be quite serious. The Greater Anatolia Project (GAP), an
initiative on building a series of electric power stations and dams on
the Euphrates, will give Turkey four times more electric energy than
the United States once received from the Hoover Dam, and allow it to
irrigate 1.5 million hectares of land. However, these dams will reduce
the amount of water in the Euphrates’ Syrian part by 40% and in the
Iraqi part by 80%; Iraq may altogether lose 20% of its irrigated lands.
The same holds true for cross-border rivers in Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan – Tajikistan has the upper reaches of rivers, and Uzbekistan
the lower ones.

Africa has the largest number of cross-border rivers, lakes, and even
underground water reservoirs. The Nile crosses 10 countries, the Congo
nine, Niger 11, Zambezi eight, Volta six, and Chad five. Most countries
located in their basins are water-stressed and hence fraught with
conflicts.

Russia is not the world’s leader in water resources. It is second to
Brazil in the renewable fresh water resources, and is followed by
Canada.

Some 70% of the world’s surface is covered by water but out of 1.4
billion square km of it – 97.5% is salt water and only 2.5% is fresh.
If we could squeeze all the world’s water into a five-liter canister,
fresh water would not fill in even a teaspoon.

Out of 35 million square km of fresh water, the largest part – 24.4
million square km – is locked in glaciers, ice and permafrost, while
10.7 million square km is located underground. The world’s rivers
account for 0.002 million square km of fresh water or 0.01% of its
reserves in all forms.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not
necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

Russia to begin large-scale rearmament of Armed Forces in 2011

14:03 | 17/ 03/ 2009

MOSCOW, March 17 (RIA Novosti) – A comprehensive rearmament of Russia’s
Armed Forces will begin in 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev said on
Tuesday.

"Last year we equipped a number of military units with new weaponry,
and we will start large-scale rearmament of the Armed Forces in 2011,"
Medvedev said at a meeting with Defense Ministry officials.

He said that the current military-political situation in the world
calls for a thorough modernization of the Russian Armed Forces,
primarily its strategic nuclear forces.

"They must be able to accomplish all tasks aimed at ensuring Russia’s
military security," Medvedev said, adding that this process would
involve the enhancement of combat readiness of all military units.

The president reiterated that "despite the current financial
difficulties, Russia has never had better favorable conditions to
create modern and highly efficient armed forces."

Medvedev also said that the Russian Security Council would soon endorse
a national security strategy for the period up to 2020.

"Long-term plans in the defense sphere should be based on a Russian
national security strategy for the period up to 2020, which the
Security Council should endorse in the near future," Medvedev said.

The president announced last year that Russia would make the
modernization of its nuclear deterrent and Armed Forces a priority in
light of the August military conflict with Georgia.

Russia’s military expenditure has been steadily growing recently, and
the country reportedly plans to increase the current defense budget of
$40 billion by 50% in the next three years.

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Tuesday that the share of
modern weaponry in the Russian Armed Forces would reach 30% by 2015,
and would total 70% by 2020.

Heritage proposes updated candidate list to the Armenian National
Congress
21.03.2009 13:33

Anna Nazaryan
"Radiolur"

During yesterday’s sitting the Heritage Party Board compiled a new list
and proposed it to the Armenian National Congress. The Heritage said it
will join the Congress in the forthcoming elections to the Yerevan City
Council in case the proposal is accepted. Head of the Heritae faction
Armen Martirosyan said the list is headed by Raffi Hovhannisyan,
followed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Zaruhi Postanjyan and Stepan
Demirchyan.

The Heritage has given time to the Armenian National Congress to
consider the proposal and an answer is expected by 6 p.m. today. If the
Congress denies the suggestion, the Heritage will decide during today’s
sitting whether it will run in the elections alone or not.

`We have done some preparatory work to avoid the situation of 2007,’
Armen Martirosyan said.