Author: Babajanian Karo

CULTURE MINISTERS OF ARMENIA AND GEORGIA DISCUSSED COOPERATION ISSUES

15:30, 27 June, 2013

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS: The Minister of Culture of the Republic
of Armenia Hasmik Poghosyan had a meeting with the Minister of Culture
and Monument Protection of Georgia Guram Odisharia. As reported by
Armenpress, quoting the Press Service of the Ministry of Culture
and Monument Protection of Georgia, the meeting was organized in
the framework of the first Conference of Ministers of Culture of the
Eastern Partnership countries, held in Tbilisi.

By the data provided by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection
of Georgia, during the meeting the interlocutors discussed the
agreement signed between the Ministries of Culture of Armenia and
Georgia on January 17 2013, which provides for the cooperation in
the field of culture between the two countries in 2013-2015.

The Minister of Culture of the Republic of Armenia Hasmik Poghosyan
and the Minister of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia Guram
Odisharia also touched upon the current state of the Armenian monuments
located in the territory of Georgia and the Georgian monuments located
in the territory of the Republic ofArmenia.

OFFSHORE LABYRINTH: ARMENIAN STYLE

16:20, June 27, 2013

Edik Baghdasaryan
Kristine Aghalaryan
Ararat Davtyan

According to instructions of the Dzoragyugh Production Cooperative,
owned by Ashot Sukiasyan, $9,370,450 of the loans issued by AmeriaBank
were transferred to the accounts of several offshore companies held
at the Hellenic Bank Publik Company of Cyprus. The loan monies were
transferred to:

1. A.B.S. GLOBAL LIMITED- $7,020,450 2. WLISPERA HOLDINGS LIMITED-
$350,000 3. STR EMERALD LIMITED- $2,000,000

So who are the shareholders of these companies? A.B.S. Global Limited,
the company to which the largest amount was wired, is owned by the four
following companies according to the Cyprus Department of Registrar
of Companies and Official Receiver website.

1. A.K. Holdings Limited – 1,000 shares 2. BCB Holdings Limited –
1,000 shares 3. STR Emerald Limited – 1,400 shares 4. Wlispera Holdings
Limited – 6,600 shares

What we see is that Wlispera Holdings Ltd. owns a 66% share of A.B.S.

Global Ltd. According to the Cyprus Registrar website, there are
three shareholders of Wlispera – Ashot Sukiasyan, Tigran Sargsyan
and Samvel Kjoyan

Shareholders of the companies who own A.B.S. Global Limited

RA Prime Minister has declared that he has no connection to the
Cyprus registered company and has petitioned the Prosecutor General’s
Office to launch an investigation as to how his name appears on the
registration document; i.e., who used his name. Ararat Diocesan Primate
Navasard (Samvel) Kjoyan also declared that he has no connection to
the off-shore company. The Armenian Police has issued an all-points
bulletin as to the whereabouts of Ashot Sukiasyan.

Subsequently, Sukiasyan wrote to the Prosecutor General stating that
he had registered the company, using the names of Sargsyan and Kjoyan
without their prior knowledge. (He also sent a copy of that letter
to Hetq).

“I used their names in order for the business to avoid any outside
hassle or interference. It never dawned on me that it would lead to
such consequences,” wrote Sukiasyan.

Ashot Sukiasyan is now entangled in a court case with GMC Global
(SL) Limited, a company registered in Sierra Leone. At Sukiasyan’s
invitation, the owners of this company visited Armenian twice and met
with Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, among others. Company Director
Ruben Lazarian was present at one of those meetings.

Here’s an excerpt of the conversation we had with Lazarian.

When did you visit Armenia and how did your meeting with Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan come about? Who else was at that meeting
and who arranged it?

I visited Armenia twice. I can’t give a definite date. The first time,
I came with my business partners. I brought diamonds to Ashot the
second time. The first meeting was in mid-July, 2010. My impression was
that the meeting was arranged by Ashot Sukiasyan. The prime minister,
N. Kjoyan and Ashot Sukiasyan were present at the meeting, on the
one hand, and I and my partners, Sergey Tryukazyuk and Alexander
Kalchikovski, on the other. We talked about Sierra Leone and the
project, about general investments. Afterwards, in the evening, all
of us went to the Noyan Tapan restaurant. We understood that Ashot
had complete support and the finances. All of it inspired confidence
in us that the investments would actually take place. When I visited
the second time, Ashot and N. Kjoyan left for Cyprus. I saw them off
at the airport. Ashot has no company in Sierra Leone. He was supposed
to receive shares after making investments in the company.

But he never received any shares since he didn’t even make half the
promised investment.

How did the story regarding the development of the diamond business
begin?

There is the following news item in the official RA
Government website dated November 7, 2008.

RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan met with Shermon Cissy, director
of Sierra Leone-based Western Mines Company, a corporate entity
specialized in diamond processing and jewelry. The company intends
to develop cooperation with Armenian partners by making mutually
beneficial investments into Armenia’s jewelry sector. Shermon Cissy
said to have met the President of his country before coming to Armenia
and stressed that the President had welcomed their initiative of
establishing business ties with Armenia by assuring of Sierra Leone
government’s support. Mr. Shermon who owns several gold and diamond
ore deposits in Sierra Leone noted that Armenia’s tax policy and
investment environment seem to be quite favorable for doing business
in our country. Tigran Sargsyan assured in turn that, appreciative of
any support available to the private sector and desirous of building
on the traditions existing in this area, his government will possibly
back the strengthening of business contacts which are supposed to
foster political interaction between the two countries.

[main20081108_16.jpg] PM Sargsyan shakes hands with Shermon Cissy. 
Ashot Sukiasyan is one the right

The new item in the government’s website has no photo accompanying
it, but here is the photo that appeared in the Hayastany
Hanrapetutyun newspaper on the matter. The photo clearly shows that
Ashot Sukiasyan was also present at the meeting with the Sierra
Leone delegation.

Shermon Cissy, seen here shaking hands with PM Sargsyan, was also
issued a power of attorney by Ashot Sukiasyan to serve as an authorized
representative of A.B.S. Global Limited. Hetq has in its possession
the notarized document to this effect.

In essence, a few months after Tigran Sargsyan became prime minister,
Ashot Sukiasyan has bringing delegations to Armenia and arranging
meetings with state officials. It was after this same meeting that
Minister of the Economy Nerses Yeritsyan decided to develop the
diamond business and turn Armenia into a regional center.

Similar words are included in the business plan drafted by AmeriaBank.

It remains incomprehensible how AmeriaBank agreed to loan $12 million
given such a business plan. AmeriaBank remains silent on the issue
and Executive Director Artak Hanesyan refuses to answer our written
inquiries. Neither does Ruben Vardanian, Chairman of the Board of
Directors at AmeriaBank.

Instead, the bank is quickly trying to sell off the assets that Paylak
Hayrapetyan put up as collateral. AmeriaBank seems to believe that
it can smash the lid closed on this loan story by doing so.

Also incomprehensible is why Paylak Hayrapetyan’s lawyers haven’t
yet taken the bank to court, given that there are falsifications in
the business plan it drew up. Someone apparently “put in a good word”
at the bank for the loan to go through.

The answers to these and numerous other questions can be supplied by
law enforcement.

Ashot Sukiasyan hasn’t only taken a loan from AmeriaBank. He received
a $4.5 million loan from Prometey Bank.

And there are transfers from off-shore companies to Prometey Bank
as well.

(To be continued)

Photo (left to right) – Ashot Sukiasyan, RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan, Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan

ARMING SYRIA MILITANTS, TOO RISKY, MERKEL SAYS

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Thu Jun 27, 2013 10:6AM GMT

In an interview broadcast on Turkish television in April, Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad said that if the militants take power
in Syria, they could destabilize the entire Middle East region for
decades.”

Related Interviews: ‘US uses double face diplomacy on Syria’ ‘US
involved in massacring of Syrians’ Related Viewpoints: Hezbollah:
A game changer in Syria German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned
against supplying arms to the militants in Syria, saying the risks
of the move are too high.

The German leader told her country’s parliament on Thursday that,
in her view, “the risks [of arming the militants in Syria] would
be incalculable.”

Earlier in May, Merkel had noted that Berlin would never send arms to
the militants in Syria, saying, “Germany will under no circumstances
send weapons to Syria – a country in civil war – no matter how other
countries deal with the arms embargo.”

Those comments were made after the European Union, pushed by Britain
and France, decided to lift the Union’s arms embargo on the militants
in Syria in order to facilitate the dispatch of weapons to the armed
groups in the Arab country.

Meanwhile, a June 26 report by the Wall Street Journal said the US
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has begun transferring weapons to
Jordan in order to arm groups of foreign-backed militants fighting
against the Syrian government.

The unrest in Syria erupted over two years ago and many people,
including large numbers of Syrian soldiers and security personnel,
have been killed in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country,
and there are reports that a very large number of the militants
fighting in Syria are foreign nationals.

In an interview broadcast on Turkish television in April, Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad said that if the militants take power
in Syria, they could destabilize the entire Middle East region for
decades.

MR/HSN/HJL

SERZH SARGSYAN HAS SERIOUS DOUBTS

Serzh Sargsyan stated during his visit to Warsaw that Armenia will not
act against Russia because history, economy and security link us to
Russia. At the same time, in Poland Serzh Sargsyan held another pageant
of his commitment to Europe but Poland responded in a working mode,
and the president of that country said that Armenia cannot join both
the Customs Union and the Eurasian Union, it must choose either one,
or the other.

However, official Yerevan insists on the “both” option. Yerevan
pretends as if it does not understand Europe’s message. Most probably,
it does but wants to mark time though it is not clear why and till
when.

One possible reason is to mark time till November when the Association
Agreement and DCFTA will be pre-signed in Vilnius. For the time being,
Yerevan will make sure not to anger Russia and refrain from abrupt
actions, especially that it has already taken some tough steps.

However, is there confidence that Russia will give up and congratulate
Armenia in autumn or will it nevertheless take abrupt steps? Or will
Armenia develop immunity to Russian offensives as soon as it pre-signs
the agreements?

Yes but Europe must call the donor meeting postponed constantly
immediately after the signing of agreements to direct millions of
investments to Armenia. In this case, Armenia will develop immunity
unless the millions are not stolen in Armenia as it has been the
practice so far.

Currently, there is no confidence whether the millions will arrive. At
least, Europe has not made such commitments as part of the Association
Agreement. Moreover, the agreement will be only pre-signed, after
which it will take months to ratify it. Take at least EU Delegation
Head Trian Hristea’s recent statement that the agreement will be
translated to languages of 28 EU member states.

In other words, nothing will change for Armenia after the signing of
the agreement, which means that Armenia will not be more resistant
to Russia than now. So why is Armenia marking time with its obstinate
“both” thesis , especially that Russia judged about the processes by
the state of affairs rather than the statements by Yerevan. As Vartan
Oskanian, the ex-foreign minister said, Lavrov is a person who may
know more about the settlement of the Karabakh process than we do.

Lavrov surely knows more about the negotiations between the EU and
Armenia than we do.

The Armenian government is marking time for itself, not for anyone
else. The “both” principle is promoted because Serzh Sargsyan is not
sure how long he will be able to stand Russia’s growing pressure.

“Both” leaves him space for an honorable retreat.

Otherwise, if the task were marking time till re-signing, Europe
would not keep repeating to Sargsyan the same thing at increasingly
higher levels. The more Serzh Sargsyan speaks about “both”, the more
concerns Europe has about Serzh Sargsyan’s confidence. Otherwise,
Europe would allow Serzh Sargsyan to maneuver and mark time.

Hakob Badalyan 15:59 28/06/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

SEYRAN OHANYAN: DESPITE THE TENSION, LIKELIHOOD OF WAR IN KARABAKH IS NOT STRONG

ARMINFO
Friday, June 28, 15:20

Despite the tension in the Karabakh conflict zone, likelihood of a
new war is not strong, Armenia’s Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan told
journalists today.

Asked about the lasting belligerent rhetoric by official Baku, Ohanyan
noted that such statements are made to achieve a certain goal either
to solve an internal problem, or to obtain unilateral concessions.

“We were once drawn into a war and we managed to defend
Nagorno-Karabakh and our borders. Nowadays, it is impossible to make us
accept unilateral concessions,” he said, adding that Armenia stands for
peaceful resolution achieved through talks and mutual understanding.

Defense Minister said we must be ready for war and improve the
capabilities every day. However, he said the likelihood of war is
not strong despite tensions.

He also added that Armenia worries about purchase of arms by the
enemy, however, one should take into consideration that military and
technical cooperation between Armenia and Russia is at a rather high
level and Armenia manages to maintain balance of forces due to the
long-range weapons as well as high professionalism of the personnel.

CRACKDOWN ON PROTESTERS REVEALED BAD SIDE OF ERDOGAN’S POLICIES – ANALYST

09:23 28/06/2013 ” INTERVIEWS

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ian Williams, with the
Foreign Policy In Focus from New York City, to shed more light on
the issue of the Turkish government’s crackdown on protesters and
the subsequent decision of the European authorities to postpone the
country’s EU accession talks.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

– Mr. Williams, first of all how much did Turkey’s crackdown on
the demonstrations in Istanbul and Ankara have an impact on its EU
accession bid?

– Well, the accession talks are going ahead. The immediate one,
scheduled for Wednesday is canceled; and the rest of the European
countries, sort of, hammered out this compromise with the Germans and
the Austrians and the Dutch who wanted to send a message, but part of
the problem is of course, that the Germans and the Austrians don’t want
Turkey in any way, so this looks like that they are using an excuse
but there are genuine grounds that the rest of Europe recognizes that
there should be some type of protest to the Erdogan government about
the severity of the crackdown on demonstrators.

– Will this policy be long-term to postpone Turkey’s EU accession bid?

– From the compromise that was hammered out, it looks like they
will send a signal by postponing talks this Wednesday but they are
going to continue with the overall program and the rest of Europe
are looking and they are saying to themselves, Hey! we let Greece
in, we know the Greek government put down the riots quite brutally,
why are we are picking on Turkey? And that is just strange.

You know, Erdogan is being castigated for being Islamist but one
commentator pointed out that in this context he was being more Turkish
than Islamist as a long tradition of what you might call a lack of
gentleness on the part of the Turkish security forces and Erdogan
certainly should do more to rein them in but he can …..be blamed
for what generations of Turkish cops have grown up to do.

– And how does the EU justify its own crackdown on protests, especially
what we saw, the protests against the financial crisis in Europe?

– Well, pure hypocrisy, it does not of course! You know, people got
killed in Greek riots against the austerity measures, actually being
pushed for by the European Union countries in Greece and nothing is
said but in Turkey it gives an excuse to the Germans and the Austrians
to slow things down, which makes Angela Merkel look good back home in
Germany because she can say, Look! I am holding up the Turks coming
in and appeal to her conservative constituency there.

So there is a lot of hypocrisy to go around here but I think that there
is a general feeling that the crackdown in Istanbul has not revealed a
good side of Erdogan’s policies which in some ways have actually been
fairly progressive, he has been more prepared to talk to the Kurds
and the Armenians and the others than many of his ultranationalist
predecessors. But this seems to be disintegrating in what looks like
traditional, almost Ottoman authoritarianism.

Source: Panorama.am

IRAN DECIDES TO PRODUCE 20,000 MW OF NUCLEAR POWER

28/06/2013 16:10:00 Oratert News

Iran plans to produce 20,000 megawatt of electricity, using nuclear
power plants, the Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI),
Fereydoon Abbasi said, Mehr news agency reported.

Abbasi made the remarks at the International Conference of the IAEA.

He noted that Iran plans to fulfill its needs for nuclear power
by building 20 more nuclear power plants, in cooperation with
international leading manufacturers of nuclear plants.

Iran’s National Development Plan aims to have 20 nuclear power plants
similar to 1000-MW Bushehr power plant built in the future.

Abbasi noted that Iran will be both building plants using domestic
manufacturers, and with leading international manufacturers.

“We are following these two paths and the principles of nuclear safety
standards are also our main principles,” Abbasi noted.

Iran is the only of IAEA member which signed the Non-Proliferation
Treaty, but hasn’t accepted the Nuclear Safety Convention.

The Head of AEOI also evaluated Iran’s active participation in
the International Exhibition of ATOMEXPO 2013 in St. Petersburg
and related conferences as a message of peace and intention for
international cooperation.

Abbasi also praised Russia for building the country’s first NPP,
Bushehr, saying that the reactor would be launched in near future.

IRANIAN GAS IS CHEAPER BY 23 AMD

Ten more days and Armenian consumers will have to pay for the Russian
gas at higher price.

Though the society has reconciled with Russian regular initiatives
to increase the gas price, it didn’t stop seeking cheaper gas.

The reason is the fact that Russia is not the only country importing
gas to Armenia. The entry of the Iranian gas to Armenia was justified
years ago by the necessity to have an alternative source. But it
never became such.

More, Armenian consumers have never been told the price of the
Iranian gas, but we can only guess it from the incoherent statements
of officials.

Minister of energy and natural resources Armen Movsisyan stated that
the Iranian gas is more expensive than the Russian, while the Iranian
ambassador affirmed the opposite. There is on index in this chaos of
contradictory statements: Armenia exports to Iran 3 kWh electricity
in exchange of 1 cubic meter of gas.

Since the retail price of one kWh of electricity is 29 AMD, Armenia
comes out to pay 87 AMD for 1 cubic meter of Iranian gas, while Russia
sells one cubic meter of gas at 110 AMD. The Iranian gas turns out
to be cheaper by more than 20 AMD.

Nelli Danielyan, Pastinfo 13:45 28/06/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

ARCHBISHOP KJOYAN: “IT WAS BY A STROKE OF FATE THAT I TRAVELLED TO CYPRUS”

12:37, June 28, 2013

In response to yesterday’s Hetq article “Offshore Labyrinth: Armenian
Style”, the Ararat Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church issued
a statement saying that the information contained within has no
connection with reality and is merely “a logical continuation of
series of slanderous remarks previously raised.”

Official documents obtained by Hetq have revealed the name of
Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan (Primate of the Ararat Diocese) as a
shareholder in an offshore company, Wilspera Holdings Ltd., allegedly
involved in some shady financial transactions.

The diocesan statement also calls on the public at large “not to be
taken in by the dissemination of such disinformation.”

Yesterday, Hetq had written that Kjoyan, RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan and Ashot Sukiasyan had a 2010 meeting with businessmen
Ruben Lazarian, Sergey Tryukazyuk and Alexander Kalchikovski and
that they all later dined at the Noyan Tapan restaurant in Yerevan.

In his interview with Hetq, Lazarian says that he later accompanied
Ashot Sukiasyan and Archbishop Kjoyan to Zvartnots Airport where
they caught a flight to Cyprus. (Wlispera Holdings Ltd. is registered
in Cyprus)

While Archbishop Kjoyan claims this information to be false just three
days ago, answering questions posed by ArmenPress, he confessed to
having close relations with Ashot Sukiasyan.

Kjoyan told ArmenPress that he has travelled frequently with Sukiasyan
and that “by a stroke of fate” he visited Nicosia, Cyprus, at the
invitation of Tigran Badalyan, one of his friends.

Here’s more of what Kjoyan told ArmenPress:

“Back then, in March 2011, who would have thought that a year before,
as it recently turns out, Ashot Sukiasyan used my name to register
his company? I knew that he had a company registered in Cyprus with
his partner Sergey. I know that this Sergey is a Belorussian. I had
no other information as to Ashot’s Cyprus company…”

Readers will note that the Belorussian “Sergey” mentioned by Kjoyan
is actually businessman Sergey Tryukazyuk.

GAZPROM INTENDS TAKING UP 15% OF GLOBAL LNG MARKET

YEREVAN, June 28./ARKA/. Russian energy giant Gazprom intends to take
up higher portion of liquefied natural gas market increasing it to 15%,
said Aleksey Miller, head of the holding, RIA Novosti reported.

“Our goal is to take up about 15% of the global LNG market,” he said at
the annual meeting of the shareholders noting that currently Gazprom
holds 5%.-0-

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