Author: Chalian Meline

NATO RENDERS ASSISTANCE IN CRISIS SITUATIONS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
03.06.2009 14:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ NATO information center hosted Wednesday a
meeting between NATO expert Jan Mulder and journalists, students and
specialists representing Armenian state agencies.

Presenting the reports on managing crisis situations and role of
media under the circumstances, Mr. Mulder said, "If Armenia faces
a crisis situation, it can appeal to the Euro-Atlantic Disaster
Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC), which is a "24/7" focal
point for coordinating disaster relief efforts among NATO member and
partner countries."

He stressed that collection and dissemination of information is
extremely important for Armenia in case of natural disaster.

He also said that the Alliance has changed since the end of cold war
and is now acting as political rather than a military organization.

TV CHANNELS WERE KIND

A1+
05:51 pm | June 01, 2009

Politics

The Yerevan Press Club today presented an interim report on the
coverage of the elections for the Yerevan City Council by 7 Armenian
TV channels. The monitoring was conducted with the financial assistance
of the Open Society Institute.

The monitoring was conducted in two stages – before the start of the
election campaign and during the campaign. The final report will be
ready in a few days.

Presenting the general content of the monitoring, President of the
Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan noted that the coverage of this
campaign differed from that of the presidential elections. According
to Boris Navasardyan, the materials presented by media and the
technologies used by the participating forces did not tend to prove
that the rival was worse. On the contrary, every political force had
the objective to prove that it was better.

The content of seven TV channels in Armenia was monitored. With
regard to the Public Television, Boris Navasardyan said: "This time
the Public TV ensured almost exemplary coverage."

Six other TV channels included the Second Armenian Channel, ALM (both
aired all over the territory of the republic), ArmNews, Yerkir Media,
Kentron and Shant. "This was a neutral, and even a kind campaign,"
this is the conclusion experts of the Yerevan Press Club drew.

Summing up the results, Boris Navasardyan stated: "This proves that
our electronic media can be rather unbiased if they want so. If they
are not neutral, then they don’t want to or are not allowed to."

THE ELECTION DAY AS ASSESSED BY PARTICIPATING FORCES
Siranush Muradyan

"Radiolur"
01.06.2009 13:08

The political forces are already speaking loudly about the election
results.

Leader of the People’s Party Tigran Karapetyan is not discontent with
the number of his vote, but is disappointed with the voting process,
as a whole. "I think my results were normal. But everything was turned
into a sale. It was not voting; it was bargaining. I’m content with
my results, but dissatisfied with the election process, as a whole."

ARF Dashnaktsutyun is still summing up the results. Artyusha
Shahbazyan, who was in charge for the election campaign, said: "We
have not analyzed the results yet. We still have to compare the facts
and numbers. There have been some infringements. We should discuss
to what extent they could have affected the outcome of the election."

Coordinator of the Armenian National Congress Levon Zurabyan said
they were dissatisfied with the whole election process. "Do you
know anyone besides the authorities that would be satisfied with
the process of elections? The authorities in power committed another
crime. During today’s rally we will speak about what we are going to
do," Zurabyan said.

Consumer prices index comprised 103.4% in May 2009 in Armenia
30.05.2009 12:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Consumer price index comprised 103.4% in May 2009 in
Armenia compared with May 2008. According to National Statistic
Service data, food products index (including tobacco and alcoholic
beverages) comprised 109.8%, non-food products index totaled 104.1%,
index for services – 109.8%.
In March-May 2009, 6.3% inflation was registered at Armenian consumer
market, inflation index for May came to 1.6% compared with April 2009.
In May 2009 food products prices (including tobacco and alcoholic
beverages) increased by 2.1%, non-food products prices grew by 2.6%,
and services’ prices – by 0.2 %, compared with April 2009 results.
In January-May 2009 average monthly increase of consumer prices
comprised 1.1%, which is 0.3% lower than last years results (1.4%).

CANDIDATE FOR YEREVAN MAYOR HEGHINE BISHARYAN HOPES FOR MAJORITY VOTES

ArmInfo
2009-05-29 14:42:00

ArmInfo. Vice Chairwoman of Orinats Yerkir coalition party (OY),
Head of OY parliamentary faction Heghine Bisharyan, who ranks the
first in the party list in the elections to the Elders’ Council of
Yerevan, hopes for a majority of votes due to the effective campaign
of the party.

H. Bisharyan told ArmInfo the campaign showed that OY members have
considerably grown in number. The elections are scheduled for May
31.Today is the last day of the pre-election campaign. Six political
forces and the Armenian National Congress bloc run for the Elders’
Council.

WASHINGTON’S OVER-STRETCHED FOREIGN POLICY ESTABLISHMENT
Gideon Rachman

FT
May 28, 2009 2:14pm

Visit the vast bureaucracies of the Pentagon or the State Department
and "under-staffed" is not the first word that springs to mind. But –
in fact – as the Obama administration grapples with the world, it is
short of key people in vital areas.

Take North Korea: the US’s special envoy for North Korea is Stephen
Bosworth, but he is only a part-timer. He divides his time between
the State Department and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
in Boston, where he is the dean. The lead State Department official
should be Kurt Campbell, Obama’s nominee for Assistant Secretary
of State for Asia – but almost six months into the administration,
he has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.

The whole confirmation business in unbelievably laborious and
time-consuming. When Obama visited Nato in April, neither his Nato
ambassador – Ivo Daalder – nor his Assistant Secretary for Europe,
Phil Gordon, had been confirmed so neither was able to travel with him.

Gordon’s six-month odyssey began last December when he was nominated
and ended a few days ago, when he was finally confirmed by the
Senate. His colleague Daniel Benjamin, who will be the State
Department’s counter-terrorism chief, has also only just been
confirmed.

The problem seems to be a mixture of crazed form-filling and domestic

politics. If you want to get security clearance for a top job at
the State Department, you have to list every foreign trip you have
taken for the last decade and every person you met on that trip. I am
astonished that anybody can meet a requirement like that – I couldn’t
tell you who I met last month. (You also have to list every investment
you have, including pension funds, in case you use your position to
trigger small wars that will benefit your investment portfolio.)

Then, if you are a former academic, you are likely to have left
a paper trail that could enrage domestic lobbies. Daalder had
written controversial things about turning Nato into a global
organisation. Benjamin had written a book on terrorism (a good idea
for a man taking his job, one might have thought). Gordon’s nomination
was held up for months because Armenian-American lobby groups were
unhappy with his writings on the Armenian genocide and managed to
mobilise some Senatorial opposition.

Gradually, all these appointments are slotting into place – so you
might think that Team Obama was finally ready to engage with the
world. But that could be over-optimistic. All these new appointees
will take a couple of months to settle in – and they also have to
appoint their own teams.

VICE SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AREVIK PETROSYAN MEETS WITH THE GRADUATES OF WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL

National Assembly of RA
May 27 2009
Armenia

On May 26 Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Mrs. Arevik Petrosyan
met with a group of graduate women of the stream Higher Political
Courses of Women’s Leadership School, which was founded by Women’s
Asscociation with university education. They are members of a number
of Armenian associations, NGOs and parties.

NA Vice Speaker Mrs. Arevik Petrosyan congratulated the graduates
on the occasion of completion of education and conveyed the
congratulations and warm wishes of the Speaker of the National Assembly
Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan.

Addressing the graduates he highlighted every step being undertaken
for the formation civil society, considering favourable in that respect
the role of the Women’s Leadership School, which has been functioning
for nine years. He expressed confidence that participating in the
courses they aimed at obtaining necessary knowledge, experience,
skills for literate and effective participation in political processes.

Mrs. Petrosyan underlined that within the framework of the courses
they have opportunity to establish contacts with each other, also
promoting with it the cooperation of different public-political
formats, mutual understanding, tolerance, which are one of the
necessary elements of ensuring political high culture. Touching upon
the problem of gender equality, the NA Vice Speaker noted that she
shares the European approaches on gender equality, according to which
this equality is an important index and precondition of full honouring
of human rights, democracy, poverty reduction and provision of social
justice and progress of legal state. Mrs. Petrosyan noted that in
the parliament enough attention is paid to the problems of gender
equality: it is designed to discuss The Concept of Gender Equality
and RA draft law on Provision of Women’s men’s equal rights and equal
opportunities. Mrs. Petrosyan considered expedient the continuity of
the meetings and cooperation over different issues.

Mrs. Petrosyan answered the graduates’ questions, at the request of
the founder of the Women’s Leadership School Mrs. Jemma Hasratyan, she
handed the graduate certificates, expressing hope that the knowledge
received while educating will be used for the sake of Motherland.

ARMENIANS IN EUROPE WILL FORM AN OPINION ON EU POLICIES AND TO USE THEIR VOTE KNOWINGLY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
27.05.2009 20:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian organization AGBU Europe has launched
a pre-electoral campaign asking candidates in the European elections
for their position on key issues. In June 2009, many of the one
million Armenians in Europe will have a chance to vote in the European
elections. Their vote could affect the future of Armenia or that of
the Diaspora: the European Union makes important decisions for all
Europeans, including Armenians around Europe. The campaign consists
in asking candidates in every EU country 7 questions on relevant EU
policies and in publishing their answers. This will provide Europeans,
Armenians included, with information to help them choose between
candidates on election day. Crucially, it will raise awareness
among candidates, and remind them that their electors care about
these issues.

Relevant EU policies include those that concern Armenia’s future
European integration and the newly launched Eastern Partnership,
policies on culture, language and freedom and justice; peace-making
in the South Caucasus and the future of Nagorno-Karabakh; and Turkey’s
accession prospects and the recognition of the Armenian genocide.

With this campaign, the organization hopes to encourage Armenians
in Europe to form an opinion on EU policies and to use their vote
knowingly. The campaign also intends to generate debate and raise
awareness among future members of the European Parliament about these
important questions, AGBU Europe reported to PanARMENIAN.Net.

27.05.2009 20:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian organization AGBU Europe has launched
a pre-electoral campaign asking candidates in the European elections
for their position on key issues. In June 2009, many of the one
million Armenians in Europe will have a chance to vote in the European
elections. Their vote could affect the future of Armenia or that of
the Diaspora: the European Union makes important decisions for all
Europeans, including Armenians around Europe. The campaign consists
in asking candidates in every EU country 7 questions on relevant EU
policies and in publishing their answers. This will provide Europeans,
Armenians included, with information to help them choose between
candidates on election day. Crucially, it will raise awareness
among candidates, and remind them that their electors care about
these issues.

Relevant EU policies include those that concern Armenia’s future
European integration and the newly launched Eastern Partnership,
policies on culture, language and freedom and justice; peace-making
in the South Caucasus and the future of Nagorno-Karabakh; and Turkey’s
accession prospects and the recognition of the Armenian genocide.

With this campaign, the organization hopes to encourage Armenians
in Europe to form an opinion on EU policies and to use their vote
knowingly. The campaign also intends to generate debate and raise
awareness among future members of the European Parliament about these
important questions, AGBU Europe reported to PanARMENIAN.Net.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CONGRATULATES ALL ARMENIANS ON THE FIRST REPUBLIC DAY

ArmInfo
2009-05-27 17:20:00

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan congratulates all his compatriots
on the First Republic Day.

In his felicitation the president says that the victories in May became
one of the brightest examples of national unification, and expressed
confidence that they will inspire more generations. "We see future
Armenia as a rich and defended country of political freedoms and
economic take-offs, being at international level in the science and
education, living in a peaceful and stable region", he says. He calls
on everybody to pay a tribute to the memory of heroes of Sardarapat,
Bash-Aparan and Gharakilisa. "May 28 is the evidence of the fact that
Armenian people are able to set themselves great tasks and carry them
out with the whole nation",- Sargsyan says. He wishes all Armenians
a peaceful sky, happiness, success and new achievements in the name
of Armenian people.

CBA’S VICE-CHAIRMAN: 7-8% ANNUAL ECONOMIC DECLINE EXPECTED IN ARMENIA

/ARKA/
May 26, 2009
YEREVAN

A 7-8% economic compression is expected to be recorded in Armenia
in annual terms, Vice-Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
Vache Gabrielyan said.

Estimates suggest that the country will most probably manage to
maintain the current level of the economy in the next two-three
years and no deeper decline is expected, he said at the international
economic conference on Armenia and its countermeasures against total
catastrophe

Gabrielyan pointed out that the large-scale measures implemented by
the Armenian Government envisage greater growth rates in the second
half of the year as compared with the first six months.

In this respect, the Central Bank is periodically reviewing its
monetary and credit policy as required by economic developments.

"We state that the second half of this year will be much more
essential, as considerable funds are to be directed to the economy,"
he said.

Armenian Gross Domestic Product reduced by 9.7% down to 638.9bln Drams
($1,894.4mln) in January-April 2009 as compared with the same period
of last year. The GDP produced in April is by 5.4% lower than the
level of the previous month.

A 9.3% economic growth was recorded in Armenia in January-April 2008.

According to the country’s state budget, GDP growth is expected at 9.2%
in 2009.