Author: Chakrian Hovsep

75,689 ARCA PLASTIC CARDS IN CIRCULATION IN ARMENIA BY END OF 2ND QUARTER 2006
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug. 10, 2006
YEREVAN, August 10. /ARKA/. In the 2nd quarter pf 2006, the number of
local cards “Armenian Card” (ArCa) in circulation increase by 10,714
or 1.16 times and reached 75,689 at the end of June, 2006.
The Payment and Information System Development Department and the
Settlement System Department, Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) report
that During the period under review, a total of 331,729 transactions
worth AMD 9,828mln were effected by means of ArCa cards – an AMD
2,734mln or 1.31-time increase in volume, and 63,030 or 1.23-time
increase in the number of transactions.
Two transactions were effected a month on the average, with the
average volume of one transaction being AMD 29,000 – an AMD 2,000
increase compared to the 1st quarter of 2006.
The average share of one cash dispenser was 714 ArCa cards. A total
of 106 cash dispensers served ArCa cards.
At the end of the 2nd quarter of 2006, 19 commercial banks issued
and served plastic cards in Armenia, 17 of them were members of the
ArCa system.
During the period under review, the total volume of transactions by
means of all types of plastic cards was AMD 30,944, with the number
reaching 719,878. a total o 176,104 plastic cards were in circulation
at the end of June 2006, 19,430 more than at the beginning of the
2nd quarter of 2006. ($1 – AMD 399.66)

THE LEBANON WAR EXPOSES STRANGE RELIGIOUS BEDFELLOWS
CounterPunch, CA
Aug. 7, 2006
A New Kind of Bigotry
By GEORGE BERES
I’ve not been a target of religious prejudice during my 73 years–
except today, as I identify with growing tragedy in the Middle East.
“Are you Jewish,” I’m asked.
No.
“Are you Arabic?”
No.
The questions, natural and obvious, point up the problem: a hidden
religious prejudice. It has less to do with bigotry than with simple
historic and religious illiteracy among Americans. The impact on
me grows because I was born and raised in this country as a Greek
Orthodox Christian. I left the institutional church because of its
patriarchal prejudices. I’ve come to recognize something even more
destructive common to almost all faith-based sects: the belief they
are god’s chosen people– having a direct line to what “god” tells them
(or that they tell him?) is the truth.
Few in the evangelical church are free of such misconceptions. If
they choose to be what I view as delusional, that’s their privilege
in free societies. When it is forced on others, it becomes dangerous
and unjust.
Victims of such attitudes today are vulnerable Christian minorities
in Lebanon and Palestine, where entire societies are being attacked by
Israel armed by the United States. Over the centuries, these minorities
got benign treatment for their religious faith from Ottoman overlords
during a long period of Islamic dominance. There is nothing benign
about their contemporary mistreatment at the hands of what they see
as Western religion: Christianity with a fundamentalist jaundice,
and Judaism colored by Zionist extremism.
It’s a misconception to assume Lebanon and Palestine are exclusively
Islamic. More than 30 percent of Lebanon is Christian, virtually
all of the Eastern Orthodox faith. Most of Palestine’s four million
people are Islamic. 50,000 are Eastern Orthodox, 25,000 Roman Catholic,
25,000 Protestant and 1,000 Armenian Orthodox.
It has reached the point where the normally uninvolved Archbishop
of Greece’s Orthodox Church, Christodoulos, said in early August:
“Israel’s actions within its right to self-defense have long exceeded
any rational limit . . . This is not in Israel’s interest. Fear
God’s wrath.”
He failed to acknowledge what makes possible such “excessive” actions
by Israel: unstinting support from the United States. That is what
justifies– in fact, demands– I speak out.
The enmity of Arabic peoples toward Judaism dates from antiquity, the
days of the pharaohs. That with Christianity is more recent, inspired
by the Medieval Crusades, when Knights of Christendon used the cross
as a symbol to justify pillage and rape of Muslims defending Jerusalem.
Islam was not the only victim. Eastern Orthodox clergy were slaughtered
and their churches looted by Western armies identified more with
ambitions of war than goals of Christianity. That does not make it
easier for me to understand how avowed Christians from the U.S., with
their Israeli allies, can today freely victimize Orthodox Christians
as if they did not realize they exist in Islamic lands.
The true tragedy is Israeli policy, approved if not fomented by the
United States, that results in death for Lebanese and Palestinian
civilians, and in retaliation, death for innocent Israelis. Myopia of
the U.S., which identifies itself as Christian, is apparent in many
Christians being killed, even if Americans callously assume targets
are exclusively Muslim.
Though I’m of Greek heritage, I’ve long valued and interacted with
Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians. They were members of St. George
Anticochian Orthodox Church, which my family attended in Oak Park,
suburb of Chicago. Some of those close friends now face each day with
fear for relatives living in Beirut.
Such fear is not rooted in threats from Muslims, although that
reailty grows as civil war begins to engulf Lebanon and Iraq. Its
true source fuels my identity with the victims, and a sense that I
must speak out against actions of my country. My anger and suspicions
are directed toward leaders of my country and of Israel who devastate
many with preemptive war. Their actions suggest bigotry that threatens
me personally.
Irony of this destructive collaboration is that Israel welcomes support
of Christian fundamentalists for short-term advantages it offers. All
the while, Jews are familiar with historic betrayal at the hands of
Christians who have found various ways to disguise their hatred of
the so-called “Christ-killers.”
Most Jews know that in the long term, their evangalist benefactors are
interested only in setting the stage for what they see as the second
coming of Christ. That, they believe, can occur only when Israel gains
full control of Jerusalem. On that day of “rapture” in the Christian
lexicon, the church will offer Jews a choice. As a minister of a church
in Eugene, Ore., was quoted earlier this summer (The Register-Guard):
“Jews will have a chance to convert to Christianity and be saved with
us. If they refuse, they will be condemned with all other unbelievers.”
Few in America realizes how the Eastern Church, along with innocent
Muslims, is under attack in Lebanon and Palestine by this rare alliance
between Judaism and fundamentalist Christianity. I also am a target,
and am overdue in speaking out.
George Beres, retired in Eugene, Ore., once was executive director
of the Hellenic Foundation in Chicago in the mid-1970s. He can be
reached at: [email protected]
res08072006.html

Azerbaijani soldier killed in fire from Armenians: Baku
Agence France Presse — English
August 4, 2006 Friday 12:38 PM GMT
BAKU, Aug 4 2006 — An Azerbaijani soldier has been killed by fire
from ethnic Armenian forces near the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region,
the defense ministry in Baku said Friday.
The 20-year-old, Babek Mirzaliyev, died Thursday on the Azerbaijani
side of a ceasefire line that has been in place since a temporary
accord was reached between Baku and Yerevan over the disputed region
in 1994.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-year war over the Armenian-majority
enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, which seceded from Soviet Azerbaijan in
the early 1980s.
The conflict claimed 25,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands
of people, ending in the 1994 ceasefire.
Tensions have remained high and incidents occur regularly, with the
Armenian-controlled region’s status still unresolved.

ARTHUR BAGHDASARYAN HAD MEETINGS IN EUROPE
Lragir.am
02 Aug 06
We have learned that the leader of Orinats Yerkir Party has had
a series of meetings in Europe recently. During the meetings with
officials and representatives of different foundations promotion of
democracy in Armenia, free electons and freedom of the media were
discussed. In particular, the problem of A1+ was touched upon. In the
future the leader of Orinats Yerkir Party is going to visit a number
of European countries.

Armenpress
SMSE CONSTITUTE 39.6 PERCENT OF OVERALL GDP
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS: The share of small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMSE) in Armenia’s
overall GDP in the first half of the year rose 0.4
percent from a year ago to 39.6 percent.
Ishkhan Karapetian, the executive manager of the
National Center for Support of Small and Medium-Sized
Enterprises, said to a news conference today that the
share of small and medium-sized businesses in
Armenia’s exports in the first six months of this year
rose to 16.8 percent from 15.4 percent 12 month ago.
In the first half of the year there were 5,600
officially registered small and medium-sized
enterprises, while some 1,600 enterprises stopped
their activity.
Karapetian said the Center has given around 100
credit guarantees worth 325 million drams ($783,000)
since 2004. Their amount is expected to surge to 850
million in six months.

Andranik Margaryan: Closing of Upper Lars has brought about a number
of problems for Armenia

ArmRadio.am
29.07.2006 13:54
Closing of the Upper Lars checkpoint at the Georgian border has
brought about a number of problems for Armenia, RA Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan declared during an interview with `Regnum’ agency.
According to the Prime Minister, Armenian exporters and importers face
great difficulties, especially in this period of active export of
agricultural production. Opening of this checkpoint is important for
Armenia. IN this regard, RA Ambassador to Russia instructed to hold on
the talks in this direction. In Andranik Margaryan’s words, in case of
Norman operation `Caucasus-Poti’ ferry and `Lower Zamara’ checkpoint
can replace the Upper Lars with some reservations. The question can be
partially resolved also due to Poti-Novorosiysk and Poti-Ilyichevsk
ferry passages. In any case the situation may be completely normalized
only after opening Upper Lars checkpoint, head of the Armenian
Government remarked.

JAM Showbiz
Live Review: SOAD in Toronto
By Steve Tilley – Toronto Sun
TORONTO – It had to be the biggest, loudest, hardest, brightest, wildest
and (to use the proper vernacular) most completely f—ed up `see ya
later’ in modern metal history.
And if it had been an outright `goodbye’ instead, the Molson
Amphitheatre might have been levelled last night.
On their final visit to Toronto before a self-imposed hiatus that’s
expected to last at least a few years, System Of A Down closed out the
marathon of metal that is Ozzfest in a way that had to be seen and heard
to be fully appreciated. Even if it meant being both temporarily blind
and deaf, which a good portion of last night’s capacity crowd will be
today.
This Ozzy Osbourne-less stop on the tour did not suffer from the
grandpappy of metal’s absence one iota. Even Ozzy might have had
troubJle following System Of A Down’s enthusiastically received (read: A
massive, impromptu mosh pit breaking out on the mid-level concourse
walkway) headlining set, which drew heavily from last year’s Mezmerize.
Blame that giant photo of SOAD’s Serj Tankian to the right, but there
simply isn’t the space to touch on most of the acts that made up
yesterday’s 71/2 hour buffet of molten sonic energy. To try to do so
would do justice to none of them.
So, no disrespect to Norma Jean, Bleeding Through, Unearth, Atreyu,
Lacuna Coil, Hatebreed or especially Avenged Sevenhold and their awesome
giant, winged silver skull. You guys surely rock like the ves foundation
of the earth.
But the reality is the Amphitheatre didn’t get jammed all the way back
to the back of the lawns until Chicago foursome Disturbed took the stage
and unleashed more than an hour of aggressive yet melodic rib
cage-rattling metal, from Guarded to the band’s cover of Genesis’
still-relevant Land of Confusion to, of course, Down With The Sickness.
Uh-WAH-AH-AH-AH!
A bolder man might even say that Disturbed’s bald and barrel-chested
frontman David Draiman injected more raw passion into the evening than
System Of A Down’s Tankian did. Truly, one of the highlights of the
night was Draiman’s near-religious rant against bands who, in his eyes,
dilute the purity of genuine hard metal. It’s probably safe to say he
doesn’t have any posters of The Killers on his bedroom wall.
Still, there was no eclipsing the totality of System Of A Down’s
performance, from the hypnotizing lights aimed at the crowd to the
creative rearrangement of familiar hits (Violent Pornography started out
sounding suspiciously like a power ballad) to the fans’ rabid and
rapturous response.
Enjoy your time off, gentlemen. And if you think `so long’ was insane,
wait until you see `welcome back.’
l

Elmar Mammadyarov: “We are rather speaking of a poll”
Today, Azerbaijan
July 27, 2006
Elmar Mammadyarov comments the Minsk Group member countries’ positions.
Basic elements suggested by the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs and
discussed during the last negotiations “are acceptable if the basics’
essence is preserved that the conflict should be resolved gradually,
based on the principles and norms of international law,” Day.Az quotes
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov to comment
on the Minsk group member countries’ positions.
According to Mammadyarov, the international community has a clear
understanding that “when we speak of international law, the factor
of territorial integrity is primary,” whereas “the self-determination
principle does not imply breaking territorial integrity.” He brought
in this regard a number of examples of state structures where
nations determine themselves in the framework of states’ territorial
integrity. “I have continually spoken out of the examples of Tatarstan,
Bashkiria; there is Trieste and other instances,” Mammadyarov said.
As regards the acceptability of the Trieste model in solving the
Nagorno Karabakh issue, Mammadyarov was told that the model presumes
the existence of many elements that had been at some points offered to
the official Baku and were rejected, particularly, the availability
of an autonomy’s own army, state symbols, passports, currency,
etc. Azerbaijani minister said that there is a huge difference between
the Trieste in 1950s and in the 21st century.
Mammadyarov said that “thanks to the economic development and
normalization of the everyday life, the Trieste society starts to
react differently to sensitive issues. In this context, the problem
of Nagorno Karabakh was perhaps a problem of the Soviet totalitarian
regime under which all the population of the Soviet Union was in a
grave state.”
Mammadyarov says that in this context, taking into account Azerbaijan’s
building a law-abiding society, democracy, and market economy, the
situation changes drastically, therefore, one should look at the
prospect. On the first stage, it is necessary, of course, to solve
the issue of displaced persons, for the problem is serious enough,
as well as issues of security, economy, and communications.
Azerbaijan, co-chair countries, and EU member countries “explain
to the Armenian side that prolonging the destructive policy in the
region will make it difficult for them to expect a lively development
in the future.” “If they in Armenia think that they will be able
to preserve control over the occupied territories, this, I suppose,
would be equal to a suicide,” Mammadyarov claimed.
“We will persist in continuing our policy of developing Azerbaijani
economic and political systems, all its institutions, including
military ones,” Mammadyarov says. “To move forward, one needs to
understand the situation in the region, which will come at some point.”
Speaking of the possibility of holding in Nagorno Karabakh referendum
on its status, the minister said: “We are rather speaking of a poll.”
He specified that “this will become possible after the life of both
Azerbaijani and Armenian communities is normalized in Nagorno Karabakh
itself, after the Azerbaijani displaced persons have returned.”
What questions are to be asked in the poll, is, in his words, still a
matter of negotiations, “for if a question posed disputes territorial
integrity, the question can only be solved based on the Constitution
of Azerbaijan.”
Touching upon the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry position on journalists’
visits to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, the minister said; “Considering
that Nagorno Karabakh is an inseparable part of Azerbaijan, I do
not see a problem in the country’s representatives’ visiting the
region. But naturally, this depends on the level of cooperation. If
a need arises for citizens to visit journalists, NGO workers, even
official representatives we have no objection to it.”
“I think we have to overcome the barrier of hatred that exists between
Azerbaijan and Armenia on some issues. We are neighbors, and we will
have to deal with each other,” Elmar Mammadyarov concluded.
/Regnum/
URL:

U.S. House backs funding ban on Turkish-Georgian-Azeri rail link
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
June 26 2006
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation banning U.S.
government assistance to controversial plans for the construction
of a railway that would link Turkey with Georgia and Azerbaijan and
bypass Armenia.
According to RFE, a resolution approved by legislators late Tuesday
contains a provision which says that the U.S. Export-Import Bank
can not finance or promote “any rail connections or railway-related
connections that do not traverse or connect with Armenia, and do
traverse or connect Baku, Azerbaijan, Tbilisi, Georgia, and Kars,
Turkey.”
The provision was unanimously backed by the House Financial Services
Committee last month under pressure from Armenian-American lobbying
groups. Its main sponsor, Congressman Joseph Crowley of New York, said
the ban will “assist in promoting stability in the Caucasus region,
help in ending long standing conflicts, and save U.S. taxpayers the
responsibility of funding a project that goes against U.S. interests.”
Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of
America, also welcomed the measure, saying in a statement that it
“helps ensure that the U.S. will not be party to the flawed policies
of Armenia’s neighbors.”
The administration of President George. W. Bush did not voice
objections to the bill, indicating its opposition to the railway
project currently discussed by the governments of Turkey, Georgia
and Azerbaijan. “The proposed railway would bypass Armenia and thus
not be beneficial to regional integration,” Assistant Secretary of
State Daniel Fried said earlier this year.
Similar legislation is due to be debated in the U.S. Senate soon. If
passed, it will effectively block participation of U.S. companies
in the $400 million project that has prompted serious concern from
Armenia’s government.
However, Turkish and Azerbaijani officials have already downplayed
the impact of U.S. funding restrictions. “I think the three countries
have enough funds to finance [the project] in one way or another,” the
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Namik Tan, told RFE/RL on June 21.
The Armenian government argues that there already exists a railroad
connecting Turkey to the South Caucasus via Armenia and that the
regional countries should reactivate it instead of spending hundreds
of millions of dollars on building a new one. The Kars-Gyumri rail
link has stood idle more than a decade as part of the continuing
Turkish economic blockade of Armenia. Tan said it could be reopened
only after a resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijani wrestler becomes European champion defeating Armenian
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 26 2006
European teenage wrestling championship started in the Turkish city
of Istanbul (APA).
500 sportsmen from 35 countries are competing in the championship.
Azerbaijani team succeeded in the very first day. Our wrestler Khurshid
Babayev (42 kg) reached the final. He won the golden medal of the
European Cup by defeating Armenian Karapet Sarkisyan. Our wrestler
Orkhan Ahmadov (50 kg) won silver medal. He was defeated by Russian
Rasul Bekuha in the final meeting./APA/