Author: Boshkezenian Garik

IRANIAN SPEAKER TO VISIT ARMENIA ON 10 SEPTEMBER
Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran
9 Sep 06
The Majlis Speaker [Gholamali Haddad-Adel], heading a parliamentary
delegation, will visit Armenia tomorrow [10 September]. Mr Haddad-Adel
will meet high-ranking Armenian officials during the two-day visit. The
expansion of bilateral ties and discussions over regional issues are
among the items on the Majlis Speaker’s agenda.
He is also scheduled to visit to the Yerevan State University and
Yerevan Blue Mosque during this visit.

Baku Sent Protest Note against Broadcasting Report on Karabakh via Russia TV Channel
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 15:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Azeri Embassy in Russia has sent a protest
note to the Russian MFA due to the fact of Vesti program of Russia TV
Channel covering events, marking the 15th anniversary of independence
of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic on September 2. Azeri Ambassador to
Russia Polad Bul-Bul ogly stated that “the note expresses categorical
protest against the report.” It indicates that “demonstration of
reports of the kind via a state TV channel harms relations between
Russia and Azerbaijan.” The note demands “taking respective measures
not to admit such events in the future,” reports AzerTaj agency.

WORLD BANK SAYS GEORGIA TOP REFORMER, ARMENIA AHEAD IN EASE-OF-DOING-BUSINESS
Civil Georgia, Georgia
Sept 6 2006
6 September 2006 – Georgia is ranked 37th in the world in terms of
the ease-of-doing-business index, according to the World Bank’s report
Doing Business 2007: How to Reform.
Georgia placed 100th in last year’s report, and the drastic improvement
in 2006 makes Georgia the top reformer of the year.
According to the report, Georgia made more progress than any other
country in the world through the introduction of flexible labor rules
and other reforms.
The report provides a global ranking of 175 economies on key business
regulations and reforms.
The report notes that social security contributions paid by businesses
in Georgia decreased from 31% of wages to 20%, making it easier for
employers to hire new workers, while the collection of corporate
taxes increased by 300%.
Romania and Mexico came in second and third, respectively, in terms
of reforms aimed at easing business.
>>From the CIS countries only Armenia, which is ranked 34th in the
report, is ahead of Georgia in the ease-of-doing-business index.

ARMEN JIGARKHANIAN INVOLVED IN TOP-LIST OF “BEST PEOPLE OF RUSSIA” FEDERAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 06 2006
KRASNODAR, SEPTEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Everybody
may vote for publishing an article about famous actor and
director Armen Jigarkhanian in the “Best People of Russia” federal
encyclopedia. According to the “Yerkramas” (country) newspaper of
Armenians in Russia, the “Top Best” rate site consists of four parts:
“Culture,” “Science,” “Sports,” “Policy.” There is a sub-point in the
“Culture” part: “Armen Jigarkhanian (actor, director), and one may
vote here. Only those people, who will gather at least 5% of total of
votes as a result of the year, will be involved in the 6th edition
of the encyclopedia which will be published in April, 2007. Those
people’s names are now involved in the top list who are famous, but
the choice will be widen and changed during the year. One may vote
for future laureates of the federal encyclopedia in the
or internet site.

TURKISH ENVOY SAYS CLAIMS IN SPAIN ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE “UNFORTUNATE”
Anatolia news agency, Ankara
4 Sep 06
Madrid, 4 September: “This is a wrong and unfortunate approach,”
said Turkey’s Ambassador to Spain Volkan Vural when commenting on
the move of two Spanish MPs to bring the so-called Armenian genocide
allegations to the Spanish parliament.
Two MPs from Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) have asked the Spanish
parliament to debate the so-called Armenian genocide allegations,
taking into consideration a letter from the Armenian committee.
In the motion they submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
Spanish parliament last June, ECR MPs Rosa M. Bonas i Pahisa and Joan
Puigcercos i Boixassa asked the parliament to acknowledge the so-called
Armenian genocide saying that “a crime against humanity was committed”.
They also “insist that Turkey should recognize the so-called Armenian
genocide” and “the EU should be a means to close up this matter”.
Necessary initiatives launched
In an exclusive interview with AA [Anatolia] correspondent, Ambassador
Vural said: “After we learned about this motion, we launched
initiatives at the Spanish Foreign Ministry and the parliament. We
sent a letter to the two MPs and the head of the Foreign Affairs
Commission in which we deemed this move as wrong, and we told them
that this will harm Turkish-Spanish relations. And, Turkish Foreign
Ministry has expressed its concerns to the Spanish government.”
Vural thinks that adoption of the motion by the Foreign Affairs
Committee is not likely.
“Even though it is adopted, it is obvious that it won’t have a legal
meaning. Everybody will see how wrong and unfortunate it is to make
historical incidents a tool for politics,” he commented.
Vural said: “ERC MP Rosa Bonas wrote a letter to me, and said that she
does not have any negative feeling for Turkey. She also said that she
has always supported Turkey’s EU membership and believes that Turkey
should become an EU member.”
Ambassador Vural added that he will meet Bonas in the coming days.
On the other hand, Bonas said that they will change some parts of
the motion, adding: “We will take out the article asking Turkey to
recognize the (so-called) Armenian genocide.”

FOOD COMMODITY PRICES GROW BY 2.2% IN ARMENIA IN AUGUST 2006 ON DECEMBER 2005
Noyan Tapan
Sept 04 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. A 2.2% price growth was registered
in the Armenian food commodity market in August 2006 compared
with December 2005, and a 8.9% price growth – compared with August
2005. According to the RA National Statistical Service, a 2% decline in
the prices of food commodities was registered in Armenia in August 2006
on July 2006, which is by 0.5% lower than the price fall index (2.5%)
of the same months of 2005. The prices of vegetables and potato grew
by 49.2% in August 2006 on the same month of 2005, those of cabbage –
2.3fold, of carrot – 1.8fold, beet – 1.8fold, cucumber – by 40.9%,
garlic – 30.4%, onion – 22.7%, tomato – 16.7% and the prices of green
pepper grew by 3.6%. The 25.2% price growth registered in the fruit
commodity group in August 2006 on August 2005 was due to an increase
in the prices of strawberry (42.1%), apple (50.3%), pear (52%), peach
(61.8%), apricot (2.4fold), melon (74.5%), banana (28.4%) and orange
(30.8%). The prices of fish products grew by 30.8% in August 2006 on
the same month of last year. The increase in the price of granulated
sugar made 35.2% over the same period, and 30.7% in August 2006 on
December 2005. The prices of meat products grew by 2.6% in August
2006 on December 2005 and by 4.7% on August 2005. The average price
of eggs grew by 14.4% in August 2006 on the same month of last year.

BREAKDOWNS IN E-MAIL SYSTEM OF RA FOREIGN MINISTRY MAKE RA CITIZENS UNDOCUMENTED
Yerevan, September 4. ArmInfo. “RA embassies to a number of foreign
countries create problems for the Armenian citizens whose passports
have already expired during their stay in a foreign country. Levon
Nersesian, head of “Armenian Center for Human Rights after A. Sakharov”
organization.
Nersesian brought examples of several cases when the diplomats
demanded presents in the cases with expired passports. In particular,
he described a case of an Armenian citizen who failed to get a new
passport though he had submitted all the required documents to RA
Embassy to Kazakhstan in time. In a letter to L. Nersesian, the
unlucky citizen stated that he would have to give bribes to get the
new passport quickly. The correspondent of ArmInfo represented the
situation to RA Foreign Ministry and asked to explain the reason for
the delays or complications in the given process. Vladimir Karapetian,
Press Secretary of RA Foreign Ministry, stated that the issue was
settled and the abovementioned citizen may already get his documents
at RA Embassy to Kazakhstan. Besides, Karapetian explained the delay
with the documents by technical breakdowns in the e-mail system of
RA Foreign Ministry.

ROMANIAN DM TO VISIT ARMENIA
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 4 2006
YEREVAN, September 4. /ARKA/. A Romanian delegation headed by Minister
of Defense Teodor Atanasiu is to arrive for a 3-day visit to Armenia
on September 6, 2006.
Press Secretary of the RA Minister of Defense, Colonel Seyran
Shahsuvaryan reported that on September 7 the Romanian delegation is
to hold meetings with RA President Robert Kocharyan, Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan, Minister of Defense Serge Sargsyan and Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan.
The Romanian delegation is to visit the Institute-Museum of the
Armenian Genocide and lay a wreath in memory of the victims.
On September 8, the Romanian delegation is to visit the Mother See of
Echmiadzin and the institute of ancient manuscripts Matenadaran.

RA DM TREATS PUBLICATIONS OF HOME MASS MEDIA ABOUT DETAILS OF ARMENIAN
AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENTS’ MEETING IN SOCHI WITH HUMOR
Yerevan, September 1. ArmInfo. RA Defense Minister Serzh Sarkissyan
treats with humor the publications in home mass media about the
details of Armenian and Russian Presidents’ meeting in Sochi, where,
according to publications, his candidacy as a future President of
Armenia was allegedly discussed.
In today’s talk with journalists, he noted that he wonders at
shortsightedness of some politicians and journalists, but he treats
everything with humor since he knows what is a twosome talk of
Presidents of two countries. “It means this man, who had introduced
this information in Mass Media and who misled the public, thinks he
has more possibilities than the special services of the world and he
may have such an information. Such people have one purpose, they want
to come to the power top and to influence the public”, Sarkissyan
said.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Sept 1 2006

Azerbaijan Shall Increase Warfare Budget as Much as Needed to Free
Grounds From Armenian Occupants – MP Aydin Mirzazadeh

Source: Trend
Author: J.Shahverdiyev

31.08.2006

Azerbaijan should increase its warfare budget as much as needed to
release our grounds from Armenian occupants, said MP Aydin
Mirzazadeh, member of Political Council with New Azerbaijan Party,
Deputy Chairman of permanent commission for defense affairs, reacting
to words said by Benito Ferrero-Valdiera.
Speaking at «Caspian Outlook-2008» forum in town of Bled (Slovenia),
the EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Benito Ferrero-Valdiera
called Georgia and Azerbaijan to retrain from increasing the warfare
budget.
Mirzazadeh said this demand was not possible to accept as `20% of
Azeri grounds have been occupied by Armenians and Georgia is
currently unable to control is two autonomous entities. History shows
that a country under occupation shall increase its military budget.
Nevertheless, Azerbaijan’s military budget totals 8 percent against
30 percent in Armenia», he said.
Mirzazadeh also said the EU Commissioner’s opinion on Azerbaijan is
not clear. «The Commissioner says nothing of Armenia’s collaboration
with the EU but much of some claims to Azerbaijan», he underlined.