Author: Badalian Vardan

DIASPORA MINISTER RECEIVES STUDENTS FROM ALEPPO

Noyan Tapan
June 18, 2009

Yerevan, June 18, Noyan Tapan – Armenians Today: RA Diaspora minister
Hranush Hakobyan receives the of 36 10-grade students from Aleppo-based
"Qaren Eppe" Armenian lyceum.

As the public relation department of the Diaspora ministry reports,
Ms.Hakobyan presented Diaspora ministry’s functions and programs. The
minister stressed, that true Armenian must be necessarily literate
and good person, law-abiding citizen of the country he lives, which
is of utter importance , be healthy, which means everyone should
refrain from bad habits.

Ms Hakobyan dwelled on the "Come Home" program, told about the official
web site of the ministry and recently established "Armenians Today"
electronic web periodical, mentioning that Armenians from around the
world are invited to post their stories on these web-sites.

Students touched upon the problem of the status of Armenian diplomas
abroad.

The minister promised to address this issue to the RA president,
since Armenians diplomas of higher education are still not recognized
in many countries, which prevents Diasporan Armenians from studying
in their homeland.

Currently 1200 students are enrolled in the "Qaren Eppe" Armenian
lyceum eestablished in Aleppo in 1947.

NATION’S RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION – DECISIVE MOMENT IN CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
18.06.2009 19:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ We take pride in Syrian-Armenians who play invaluable
role in the country’s life, especially in art, music, medicine, crafts
and other spheres, Syrian Presdient Bashar al-Asad said during solemn
supper with his Armenian colleague Serzh Sargsyan. According to Syrian
official, such inseparable intersection of cultures is a response to
the thoughts, ideologies and racist movements that led to the splitting
of civilizations, cultures, religions and nations. And that in turn,
caused destabilization in different parts of world, in particular,
in Near East, Caucasus and Asia.

Such unilateral and irresponsible policy led to wars and
conflicts unacceptable by people after long struggle for justice,
equality and nations’ right to self-determination, Syrian president
said. Armenian-Syrian relations, according to al-Asad, are based on
century-old traditions. "The talks conducted today have confirmed that
bilateral relations will develop further, considering the interests
of both nations and two regions. We hope for joint work aimed at
establishing peace, security and stability in Near East, Caucasus
and Central Asia, since situation in those regions affects global
security and stability. We are sure that respect for people’s right
to self-determination, as well as international laws and legal will
based on mutual understanding will create the background required
for settling all kinds of conflicts and crises," he noted. Bashar
al-Asad also welcomed the positive steps aimed at Armenian-Turkish
ties normalization and expressed willingness to assist in the process.

WORLD BANK’S REPORT ON OBSERVANCE OF STANDARDS AND CODES, ACCOUNTING AND AUDIT PRESENTED IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
June 17, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The presentation of the World Bank’s
Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes, Accounting and Audit
took place in Yerevan on June 17. The report contains information on
the requirements and practice of accounting and audit in the sphere
of entrepreneurial and financial activities.

Head of the WB Yerevan Office Aristomene Varudakis expressed a hope
that the report will enable to improve corporate accounting and
audit in Armenia as they represent an essential precondition for
developing the country’s economy. In his words, corporate financial
transparency is also of importance to the private sector because it
provides investors with an opportunity to properly assess the corporate
prospects of companies, raise investors’ trust in private companies and
to increase accessibility of credits to small and medium enterprises.

RA Minister of Finance Tigran Davtian underlined that accounting
and audit are one of the most important sectors of the financial and
economic system.

He said that thanks to cooperation with the World Bank and other
international organizations, reforms aimed at bringing the sector into
line with international standards are being carried out in Armenia.

TATUL MANASERIAN: ARMENIA IS ABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY OVERCOME ECONOMIC CRISIS

Noyan Tapan
June 17, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia’s economy is able and should
develop by its own regularities and independently overcome the
financial-economic crisis. Economist, Adviser to RA NA Speaker
Tatul Manaserian expressed such an opinion at the June 16 press
conference. According to his prediction, the worst period of the crisis
will be in mid-2010 or in late 2010, and Armenia should be ready for
it. T. Manaserian gave a positive answer to the question of whether
Armenia’s economic system is able to develop without assistance from
the outer world mentioning that everything depends on those working
out and implementing economic programs.

According to the economist, a team of specialists should be formed
in the country that should be able to realize what burden it assumes,
will have an idea about Armenia’s and world economic processes. "The
current government is very far from the government I imagine," he said.

T. Manaserian also touched upon the tax package submitted for
discussion at NA several days ago. According to him, today big
entrepreneurs do not provide necessary documents to proper state
structures, which, in its turn, contributes to development of shadow
economy, and we should fight it in some way. "Any bill should just
have a grounding. The grounding the government presented on the tax
package is abstract," T. Manaserian said.

ADC OFFERS FREE CONNECTION FEE FOR NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS AND INSTALLATIONS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
18.06.2009 14:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Datacom Company CJSC announces a "Free
Connection fee" campaign for the new subscriptions to both Broadband
Internet and Data Pro Communication services during the period of
June 18-30, 2009. Subscribing to ADC’s Broadband Internet services
or Data Pro Communication within the given period, subscribers are
exempt from paying a one-time connection fee of 50,000 AMD, and can
benefit from accessing high-quality fiber-optic Internet without
traffic limitations, or establish reliable data connections between
geographically separated offices of the organization, ADC press
office reports.

"Armenian Datacom Company" CJSC was formed as an Armenian-Norwegian
joint venture in April 2006, and has been joined by Dubai based Delta
Partners in January 2009. ADC created a state-of-the-art fiber-optic
network spanning all around Yerevan covering both central areas and
the suburbs. The company has launched professional telecommunication
services since April, 2007. The company has constructed an independent
and redundant, exclusive fiber-optic network, which topology represents
interconnection of ring-type core highways. An expansionist policy is
followed, and the network continues to be extended both geographically
and in terms of its service portfolio capabilities.

MILITARY CONTRACTORS AND CHEVRON LOBBY AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

AllGov
ry_Contractors_and_Chevron_Lobby_against_Armenian_ Genocide_Bill_90616
June 17 2009
USA

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 (graphic: PeaceofArt.org) Billion-dollar
business deals have trumped human rights concerns for some of the
largest defense and energy corporations in the United States when it
comes to the issue of recognizing the Armenian genocide. According
to the Associated Press, six international companies–BAE Systems,
Goodrich, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, United Technologies, and
Chevron–have quietly lobbied Congress not to approve a resolution
that labels the death of more than one million Armenians by Turkey
in the early 20th century as "genocide."

All of the companies have strong ties to Turkey, a key ally of the
United States. The Turkish armed forces is getting fighter jets from
Northrop for $3 billion, while U.K.-based BAE Systems is supplying
armored vehicles, Raytheon is selling the Stinger missile launcher
system, and United Technologies is providing Sikorsky helicopters to
Turkey. Goodrich is being paid by a Turkish firm to provide maintenance
and repair work on engine components, and Chevron holds a stake in
a pipeline that crosses the country.

Rouben Adalian, director of the Armenian National Institute, a
Washington research organization, says the companies "don’t want to
be seen opposing a resolution that has a very evident human rights
element. It would put them on the side of denying history and denying
genocide."

The House resolution regarding Armenian genocide is currently sitting
in the foreign affairs committee, awaiting a hearing. Similar bills
have been introduced in previous sessions of Congress, but have
never been approved. The government of Turkey denies that the deaths,
which occurred at the time of World War I, were genocide, saying the
number of casualties is inflated and was the consequence of civil
war and unrest.

A WELCOME NEW STAGE IN AZERBAIJANI-ISRAELI TIES
By Alexander Murinson

AZG Armenian Daily
17/06/2009

International

Israel has actively sought to establish friendly relations with
Azerbaijan and other Muslim states in the post-Soviet space. Relations
between Israel, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan serve as a model for
cooperation between the Jewish state and Muslim nations. As a result
of the meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Israel’s
new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Prague on May 6, an agreement
about a state visit by President Shimon Peres to Baku has been reached.

Peres is scheduled to visit Azerbaijan near the end of June as a
part of his tour of the Muslim republics of the CIS. The visit to
Baku will take place "at the highest level and with all honors."

In view of increasing tensions between the Iranian mullahs’ regime,
which seeks to build nuclear weapons and threaten the Gulf region, and
Israel, the invitation for Peres to visit secular Muslim Azerbaijan,
Iran’s northern neighbor, reaffirms the strategic relationship between
the two countries. Diplomatic relations between the countries were
established shortly after Azerbaijan’s independence in 1992. Premier
Binyamin Netanyahu paid a working visit in 1997 on his flight from
China.

This diplomatic breakthrough was achieved by Lieberman, who emigrated
from the former Soviet Republic of Moldova. Since his days as the
minister of strategic affairs (2006-2008), he has pursued a policy
of deepening relations with the newly independent states of Eastern
Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Lieberman paid special attention
to the Republic of Azerbaijan, strategically located on the western
shore of the Caspian Sea. He paid an official visit to Azerbaijan
in August 2007. During their meeting in Prague, Aliyev and Lieberman
discussed the development of Azerbaijani-Israeli relations. Lieberman
mentioned that he intends to visit Baku in the near future.

THE CRITICAL AREA of cooperation between the two countries is energy
security. Currently Azerbaijan supplies 20 percent of Israel’s
oil. Due to the high proportion of petrochemicals in bilateral
trade, the value of imports from Azerbaijan reached $3.5 billion
in 2008. There are also plans to supply Azerbaijani natural gas via
Turkey to Haifa. However, there is renewed interest on both sides in
expanding bilateral cooperation into new areas such as agriculture,
medical research and hi-tech. As part of this effort, a series of
events have been organized with the participation of Ambassador to
Azerbaijan Arthur Lenk, who has represented the Jewish state in Baku
since 2005 and will leave his post in July.

In May 2008, the Israel-Azerbaijani business forum took place in Baku,
with the Israeli side represented by Agriculture Minister Shalom
Simhon. Tel Aviv hosted a forum with representatives of more than 20
companies from Azerbaijan and officials of the Ministry of Economic
Development on May 18. The key part of the forum was the signing of
an agreement on cooperation between the Israel Export Institute and
the Azerbaijan Fund for Export and Investments Encouragement (AzPromo).

This agreement institutionalizes mutual trade and investment. The
International Agricultural Exhibition Agritech 2009 taking place in
Israel will also see the Azerbaijani delegation led by Ilham Guliyev,
deputy minister of agriculture.

In late September 2008, Azerbaijan agreed to buy military hardware
from Israel. On September 26, Haaretz reported that Azerbaijan will
purchase Israeli weapons, including ammunition, mortars and military
radio equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This is the
first public acknowledgment of the growing strategic relationship
between the two countries, even though the relationship goes back
to the first years of Azerbaijani independence. This political move
demonstrates Azerbaijani commitment to its Western orientation and
independence from Moscow and Teheran.

Israel sought to establish close relations with these countries,
because the developments in this region profoundly affect the
stability of the Middle East due to its territorial proximity and
the size of the predominantly Muslim population of Central Asia and
Azerbaijan. The Caspian region can become a fertile ground for the
spread of Islamic radicalism and nuclear proliferation. These threats
also unite Israel with the elites and secular middle class in these
nations. The natural riches of the region make cooperation with these
nations even more attractive.

The Obama administration would be wise to see Israel under Netanyahu
as an asset and interlocutor in the American strategy toward Eurasia
in general and the South Caucasus in particular. Israel’s influence
among the ex-Soviet republics and the Russian Federation is bound
to increase under Lieberman, who has built a broad network of formal
and informal relations with the elites of these republics during his
tenure as minister of strategic affairs.

News reports about the coming visit of Peres to Azerbaijan have already
caused consternation among the Iranian military. The Azerbaijani media
reported on May 21 that the Iranian Chief of Staff Hasan Firudabadi
made public threats directed at Azerbaijan, saying that a visit by
the Israeli president would be an "incorrect step." He added: "The
Shimon Peres visit does not seem like a friendly step in Azerbaijani
relations with Iran."

The writer is an independent researcher; his book Turkey’s Entente
with Israel and Azerbaijan: State Identity and Security in the Middle
East and Caucasus will be published by Routledge in September 2009.

NEW MINISTER WAS APPOINTED

NKR Government Information and Public Relations Department
June 15, 2009

By the decree of the NKR President Narine Aghabalyan took the place of
Lernik Hakobyan the NKR Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs. Today,
the NKR Prime Minister Ara Haroutyunyan has introduced the newly
appointed Minister to the Staff of the Ministry.

Expressing gratitude to L.Hakobyan for the conducted work, he noted
that during his short period of taking up the post, he had provided
some progress between the RA and the NKR cultural spheres in the
direction of cooperation making. According to the Government Head’s
words, they hope that by new appointment the cultural life of the
NKR will revive: preserving from concentration of anniversaries
celebrations and turning into the sphere of daily activity.

N.Aghabalyan tendered thanks for the exerted confidence.

TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ISSUES WERE DISCUSSED

NKR Government Information and Public Relations Department
June 16, 2009

On June 15, a working conference dedicated to tourism development
issues took place at the NKR President Bako Sahakyan.

Sergei Shahverdyan, the Head of the Tourism Department adjunct to
the NKR Government made a speech, which was followed by a detailed
discussion.

The President attached significance to the development of tourism in
our country, calling it one of strategic importance directions. The
Head of the State assigned a task to draft and present a tourism
development programme, in which the existent state of the sphere and
development prospects in Artsakh will find all sided and well-grounded
reflection.

The Prime Minister Ara Haroutyunyan and other officials were present
at the meeting. This information is submitted by the NKR President
Staff’s Chief Informational Department.

CAME OUT FROM THE UNDERGROUND

A1+
09:04 pm | June 12, 2009 | Politics

After going underground after March 1, 2008, leader of the Conservative
Party Michael Hayrapetyan has come out and is participating in the
opposition rally.

The rally of the Armenian National Congress kicked off with his
opening remarks. Before the rally, Michael Hayrapetyan told "A1+"
that he found that now was the time to come out to the scene and
emphasized that going underground had nothing to do with being afraid.

Hayrapetyan is certain that the opposition will succeed through a
struggle of the people united as one. In his speech, he called on
everybody to not be discouraged and rest assured that the struggle
will end with victory.

Leader of the "New Times" party Aram Karapetyan is also at the
Matenadaran. Karapetyan told "A1+" that he has come to the rally so
that the authorities would realize that the people are a factor. He
said that the people don’t accept the results of the mayor elections
and will fight until they reach victory.

Coordinator of the Armenian National Congress Levon Zurabyan also
made a speech at the rally. Talking about the commitments of the
authorities, Zurabyan pointed out the rebuttal of the Administrative
Court and the slash in funding by the "Millennium Challenges"
Corporation.