Author: Chakrian Hovsep

OSCE: SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES MUST BE SUPPORTED IN CRISIS

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.03.2009 21:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An OSCE-supported conference focusing on Armenian
and Russian perspectives on the global financial crisis took place
in Yerevan today.

The meeting, organized by the Armenian Russian (Slavonic) University
of Armenia and the Russian Academy of Science Institute of Economics
with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, looked at how the
effects of the crisis can be reduced.

The discussion paid particular attention to how the crisis affects
Armenia following the decision on Tuesday by the country’s Central
Bank to return to a floating exchange regime.

The Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, Ambassador Sergey Kapinos,
delivered a speech discussing the challenges facing Armenia because
of the world financial crisis.

"In a crisis situation, it is important to ensure competitiveness
and to support to small and medium-sized business. Such measures
in combination with effective economic policies may be decisive in
overcoming the negative impacts of the crisis," he said.

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan underlined the need to view the crisis
from various perspectives, including as an opportunity.

Several research papers were presented during the meeting.

THE MINSK GROUP BLAMES AZERBAIJAN ON OSCE MONITORING BREAKDOWN

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2009 22:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Charge d’Affaires of the US Mission to the OSCE,
Kyle Scott, issued the following statement in the OSCE’s Permanent
Council today on behalf of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,
Ambassadors Bernard Fassier of France, Yury Merzlyakov of Russia and
Matthew Bryza of the United States.

"On behalf of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, France, the
Russian Federation and the United States, I have the following
statement to make:

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs condemn the shooting incident near Goradiz
along the Line of Contact on February 26, when shots were fired during
a monitoring mission carried out by the Personal Representative of
the Chair-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

We call on the parties to adhere scrupulously to the ceasefire and
express our deep regret that over 30 people have died and 50 have
been wounded in 2008 as a result of ceasefire violations.

We condemn in the strongest terms the violation of the ceasefire during
the course of an OSCE monitoring mission, particularly given that local
commanders provided written security guarantees to the OSCE monitoring
mission just prior to their monitoring activities on February 26.

We call for an explanation from the parties for how such an egregious
violation of the ceasefire could have taken place.

We regret that not all of the parties agreed to the recommendation
made by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs at the Ministerial Council meeting
in Helsinki in December 2008 to pull snipers back from the Line
of Contact.

We express full support and admiration for the work of Personal
Representative Kasprzyk and his team, and underline the importance
of monitoring the Line of Contact as a confidence building measure
between the sides."

OSCE MINSK GROUP LOSES ITS PRESTIGE BECAUSE OF THE CO-CHAIRS’ FREQUENT VISITS TO THE SOUTH CAUCASUS
By Nairi Muradian

AZG DAILY
06-03-2009

Karabakh conflict

"Arantsk" analytical center held yesterday discussions on Karabakh
issue at "Noravank" educational foundation.

General Arkadi Ter-Tadevosian, historian Samvel Karapetian and
politician Stepan Grigorian were the quest speakers of the discussion.

OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ frequent visits to the South Caucasus
was the subject of the discussion.

Head of Globalization and Regional Cooperation Analytical Center,
politician Stepan Grigorian does not approve similar working style of
the OSCE Minsk Group. According to him, the OSCE Minsk Group loses
its prestige because of the Co-chairs’ frequent visits to the South
Caucasus. The politician doesn’t anticipate any progress in the
negotiation process in the nearest future, and according to him,
one of the reasons of it is that Karabakh does not participate in
the negotiation process.

"The way out of the conflict also depends on Russia-Turkey
relations. The history confirms that Russian-Turkish close relations
never serve the interests of the Armenian people", the politician
underlined.

In this sense, according to him, Armenia should strive to involve more
countries in the process of Karabakh conflict settlement, including
Iran, USA and EU.

"Besides, the conflict settlement will also depend on how Armenia
and Azerbaijan, as well as Russia and other countries will overcome
the global economic crisis", Mr. Grigorian said.

According to Arkadi Ter-Tadevosian, even the smallest change of the
border will lead to negative results. "We should make no compromise,
as we have already lost a part of Martuni, Shahumian, Getashen and
other territories, our compromise is already in the hands of our
enemy", he said.

According to Arkadi Ter-Tadevosian, we shouldn’t blame Russia and we
should understand that it has its own interests in the region. What
about the solution of Karabakh conflict through military way,
Mr. Ter-Tadevosian considers it as meaningless, mentioning that if
Azerbaijan tries to make an attempt, it will be defeated this time
as well.

Historian Samvel Karapetian said that our mistake is that we don’t
know our motherland well. According to him, motherland is not a
territory to cede.

"We are the owners of these lands. And compromise is out of the
question. What is Azerbaijani territorial integrity? A country that
did not have a name and lands, and stole its name from Azerbaijan
(Iran) today on our lands speaks of territorial integrity", the
historian said.

The historian reminds that we have lost the Northern Artsakh, our
ancient thousand-year-old villages Chardakhlu, Katnaker, Dzagir
(Shamkhor region), Banants, Khachakap (Dashkesan region), about 15
villages, and also Getashen, Shahumian and Artsvashen regions.

ARMENIAN PREMIER: RAISING OF GAS, ELECTRIC POWER AND WATER TARIFFS TO LEAD TO GROWTH OF EXPENDITURE OF POPULATION BY 2 THSD DRAMS AT AN AVERAGE

ArmInfo
2009-03-05 13:04:00

ArmInfo. Raising of gas, electric power and water tariffs will lead
to growth of expenditure of population by 2 thsd drams at an average,
Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan said in an interview with
Armenian Public TV.

He also added that when drawing out the draft budget 2009 they were
taking into account the circumstance that beginning from 1 April
tariffs for these services will grow, for this reason pensions
growing by 14% was scheduled. This will make it possible to mellow
consequences of the expected growth of tariffs a little. It is also
important that an arrangement was made with the strategic partner of
Armenia about raising of tariffs beginning from the second quarter
2009. This means to minimize possible negative consequences for the
budget of Armenian families, as the weather will be warm at that period
of time and the volumes of gas usage in April cannot be compared with
the volumes used in January-February. ‘Taking this factor into account
and raising pensions we are trying to neutralize this problem’, –
the premier said and added that financial and economic crisis will
undoubtedly affect socially unprotected layers of population.

Reduction of transfers by 20% in January also promotes this
affect. This means that the policy of the government of the country
should be of the social nature and be directed to resolving of problems
of about 118 thsd socially unprotected families.

CO-CHAIRS: PROBLEM OF REFUGEES ONE OF KEY ISSUES IN NEGOTIATIONS OVER KARABAKH

ARKA
March 3, 2009

YEREVAN, March 3. /ARKA/. Problem of refugees is one of the key
subjects of negotiations over Karabakh, Bernard Fassier, French
co-chair of OSCE Minks Group, said on Tuesday.

American Co-chair Matthew Bryza, in his turn, stressed the importance
of this issue.

He said that the organizations dealing with refugees’ problems have
taken part in negotiations in Stepanakert.

Bryza said that all refugees regardless of their national identity
have the problems waiting for their solutions.

Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Artsakh, mainly populated
by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority
of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result,
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions
adjacent to it.

On May 12, 1994 Bishkek cease-fire agreement, put an end to the
military operations.

Since 1992, negotiations over the peaceful settlement of the conflict
have been carried out under the OSCE Minsk Group’s mediation. The
group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France.

BSEC REPRESENTATIVES DISCUSS WAYS OF CULTURAL COOPERATION
Marianna Gyurjyan

"Radiolur"
04.03.2009 12:22

Two-day roundtable discussions dedicated to the founding of the
"Cultural news of the Black Sea region" periodical kicked off in
Yerevan today within the framework of Armenia’s Presidency of the
Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC).

Participants of the discussion focused on the Cooperation in the field
of maintenance and reconstruction of historical-cultural monuments
in the Black Sea Region."

Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan welcomed the "Cultural collage"
exposition under way parallel to the roundtable. It displays items
brought from BSEC member countries

An exhibition of children’s pictures titled "Sunny sky to the Black
Sea" will present works by young artists from Georgia and Bulgaria.

US REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN ARMENIA "BIASED" – RULING PARTY MP

Aravot
Feb 28 2009
Armenia

MP Eduard Sharmazanov of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia has
described the criticism of the US State Department 2008 Human Rights
Report: Armenia as "subjective and one-sided". Sharmazanov objected to
a provision in the report, which said that the Armenian government
"did not let citizens to freely exercise their right to change
the government", saying that elections are a way for changing the
government in Armenia and that Serzh Sargsyan was elected president
by the majority of votes in an election that "complied with all
accepted international standards". The following is the text of
Margarit Yesayan’s report by Aravot daily newspaper on 28 February
headlined "’Subjective and one-sided,’ this the way the spokesman
for the Republican Party of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov, describes
the US State Department’s annual report"

Under the US State Department’s 2008 Human Rights Report – the
situation in Armenia has essentially aggravated over the past year, the
authorities and their representatives numerously violated human rights.

According to assessments of Americans, corruption remains to be
a serious problem in the judiciary and legal systems, cases of
human rights violations were recorded; the conditions in prisons
are bad; suspects are intimidated; violence against convicts
continues. Representatives of the authorities do not accept these
strict evaluations of the Department of State’s report.

MP Eduard Sharmazanov, the spokesman for the [ruling] Republican
Party of Armenia, simply announced that that the State Department’s
evaluations are subjective and wide of the mark. The MP told Aravot:
"Agreeing that there are problems in different spheres in Armenia,
including in the sphere of human rights and others, however, I assess
the State Department’s latest annual report biased and one-sided."

Asked what arguments he has to prove the opposite, Mr Sharmazanov
said: "The report says that ‘the authorities did not let citizens to
freely practise their right to change the government’. I must inform
our American colleagues that they forgot very soon that our people,
the public changes the authorities via elections and as a result of
elections. Our election complied with all accepted international
standards, the then prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan , was elected
president by the majority of popular vote in the election; so in what
way apart from this should our citizens carry out their rights? I
would also like to remind that numerous ballot boxes were opened after
the election upon demands of the opposition representatives in their
presence, and Ter-Petrosyan’s votes did not grow as a result. The
report also says that policemen beat citizens, but there is no mention
of beatings of policemen. It is said that there was a revenge on the
part of the authorities, but according to an unclear logic, the State
Department turns a blind eye to fundamental principle of democracy –
Ter-Petrosyan’s steps to reject pluralism. I would like to remind
that he was rejecting the calls by the authorities for tolerance for
months – continuing to tend to revenge.

We reminded Sharmazanov that the State Department’s report spoke
quite a lot about non-free state of mass media, it says that the
equality was not ensured in the press and TV, the non-governmental
media outlets were silenced during the [1-20 March 2008] state of
emergency, and so on.

Sharmazanov opposed this approach, saying: "I would like to advise
them to once again objectively observe the Armenian press and TV of
that time and see that there is no place for more criticism; what
other way and how much one should criticize what was not done?; which
figures did not receive an opportunity to speak? I would like to say
also that our partners, who prepared the report contradict their own
previous evaluations. In particular, during the meeting with President
Serzh Sargsyan [former] US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
that Armenia is on the route of progress in democratic reforms,
probably taking into consideration the circumstance that starting
from the first day of President Serzh Sargsyan’s rule the political
will aimed both at carrying out legislative reforms in the TV and
radio sphere and at solving issues of comprehensive disclosure of
the 1 March and many other issues was apparent.

IMF FORECASTS GDP REDUCTION IN ARMENIA IN 2009

ARKA
March 3, 2009
YEREVAN

IMF forecasts a GDP deficit in Armenia this year, said IMF Permanent
Representative in Armenia Ninke Oomes.

According to IMF projections, red ink of Armenia’s GDP will reach 1.5%
this year. The country posted 7% GDP growth last year, compared to 14%
in 2007.

IMF forecasts 8% inflation in Armenia by end-2009, Oomes said.

Russia Today
March 1 2009

European women orchestrating sex slavery

01 March, 2009, 13:34

In Europe, most slaves nowadays are bought and sold for one reason ‘
sex, so it’s no surprise that most victims are women. What is
surprising is that sex slavery is an industry dominated by women.

One divorced mother from Armenia reportedly testified that out of
desperation she agreed to take a job in Dubai. She thought she was
going to be working in a store, but when she got to Dubai she found
out she would to be a prostitute.

`I visited several clients of different nationalities in the Al-Harmud
Hotel and had sex with them. I was in an impossible situation¦" she
said. Her passport had been taken, she couldn’t speak the language,
and she didn’t have any money.

Without further details, most people would likely assume that a man
was responsible for trapping this woman in such a demeaning
situation. However, she was recounting details in her testimony
against another Armenian woman, Marine Poghosyan, who was convicted
and sentenced for only 18 months.

Read more

Women exploiting women
This case from Armenia is not an isolated event. Several agencies and
organizations have details of women’s involvement in sex
trafficking. The problem is that there wasn’t a comprehensive method
to share and analyze that information’ that is until a report that was
recently released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC).

The reports shows that worldwide 60% of those convicted for human
trafficking are women. In some countries in Europe the figures are
higher.

Human trafficking is the politically correct term for modern slavery
and the most common form of human trafficking is sex exploitation,
which appears to be the ladies crime of choice in parts of Europe.

In many European countries men outnumber women in the sex slave
industry, but the UNODC report shows that women are convicted more for
human trafficking than for all other crimes. For example, in France,
women only represented 10% of the convictions for all other crimes,
but women represented 32% of the convictions over human
trafficking. Moving into East Europe, the differences become more
drastic.

Sex Slavery nothing new
The UNODC report didn’t unveil the problem of sex slavery in
Europe. Sex slavery is a problem that European authorities are well
aware of in their societies.

`It’s very common practice to persuade a woman that she can work in
Germany or the UK or France and she can earn 100 euros a day¦ and
the reality is that she will earn that money and probably much
more. However, she won’t see any of it,’ said Hamish McCulloch, the
former Assistant Director for Trafficking in Human Beings at Interpol.

Countries in Western, Southern and Northern Europe, such as the UK,
are recognized as sex slave destinations. Central and East Europe are
recognized as source countries and some have noted the visibly
diminishing numbers of young women.

What the UNODC report did was to unveil a trend that put a new face on
the perpetrators.

`Crime, organized crime in particular, is typically a male activity,’
the report said. `It might be assumed that human trafficking, where
violence and threats are keys to the business, would likewise be
overwhelmingly male dominated.’ Unfortunately, in regards to human
trafficking, this is not the case.

Michelle Smith for RT

/European_women_orchestrating_sex_slavery.html

Middle East and North Africa Report (Amman, Jordan)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
February 25, 2009 Wednesday

Dubai imports of toys and baby accessories worth over AED603 million –
Dubai Ports statistics

by Middle East and North Africa Business Report, Amman, Jordan

Feb. 25–A growing percentage of toys imported into Dubai remains
within the country for local consumption, as re-export of toys in the
GCC dropped continuously during the last two years, according to Epoc
Messe Frankfurt, organizers of the Middle East Toy Fair. "The latest
figures available from the Dubai Port has shown that more imported
toys remained in the country during the three-year period under review
from 2005 to 2008, as the amount of re-exported toys declined during
the period," said Ms. Elisabeth Brehl, Managing Director of Epoc Messe
Frankfurt, organizers of the Middle East Toy Fair.

"The GCC toy market relies heavily on imports as there is hardly any
regional production of toys. With most of the worldwide production
facilities for toys in Asia, the majority of toys are shipped from
that region. However, 7% are imported directly from Europe and 3% from
the US and Canada."

Ms. Brehl added that the import of toys to Dubai has grown over 16% in
2007. Re-exported toys in 2007 equated to a value of over AED 334
million. This figure emphasizes the role of Dubai as a distribution
hub in the region. In the past years, the city has established itself
as the central logistic and trading hub for the Middle East region
because of the relatively simple import and re-exports procedures at
the Dubai Ports. Countries like Iraq or Libya, which are difficult to
reach directly for manufacturers, are served from Dubai through
various distributors, exporters and other trading companies.

"The increased demand for toys and baby accessories are an indicator
of the increased population and favorable demographics in the United
Arab Emirates."

According to the latest available figures compiled by the Dubai Port,
in 2006 and 2007, the toy imports were valued at AED 518 million and
AED 603 million respectively, indicating an increase of 7%. In 2005,
2006 and 2007, the re-exports were valued at AED 348 million, AED 339
million, and AED 334 million respectively; or a decline in the value
by 2.65% (2005) and1.3%(2006).

Dubai’s top 12 major re-export destinations in the GCC, CIS and
African countries, in this order of importance are — Iran, Iraq,
Algeria, Kuwait, Libya, Pakistan, Armenia, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan,
Bahrain, Azerbaijan, and Sudan. While the top countries exporting
toys, and baby accessories to Dubai are China, European Countries, US
and Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

In view of the increase in toy imports in this country, the
international exhibitors wishing to tap the growing economy of this
region stand to gain. Ms. Brehl said "The GCC and the Gulf countries
are slightly affected by the economic downturn, but its growing young
population ensures that there will be continuing growth and demand for
toys, baby accessories and school stationery."

"These past few years there have been concerns about unsafe toys
manufactured in Asia. The issue of toy safety and age appropriate toys
was emphasized by members of the Toy Industry Association (U.S.)
during the Middle East Toy Fair exhibition; as well as the continued
presence of the Dubai Municipality."

The Middle East Toy Fair is the region’s biggest trade exhibition for
toys, baby and infant products, stationery and back-to-school
products, games, hobbies, gifts, apparel and licensing. The specific
areas will give visitors and exhibitors a place to source products and
build new business relationships.

It is a unique platform for exhibitors to network with one another and
meet major buyers, key industry players, and educators involved in the
shaping of the Middle East toy market.