Author: Frangulian Shushan

ECOGLOBE COMPANY TO IMPLEMENT CERTIFICATION OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURAL FOODSTUFFS

Noyan Tapan

Jan 19, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, NOYAN TAPAN. Henceforth Ecoglobe company
will implement certification of organic agricultural foodstuffs in
Armenia. The director general of the company Nune Darbinian said at
the January 19 press conference that organic agriculture is a pure
agricultural activity which is mainly based on production of food
and raw materials without mineral fertilizers and chemical methods.

The RA deputy minister of agriculture Samvel Avetisian said that
there are currently about 40 farms engaged in organic argiculture
to some extent or another in Armenia. However, not all companies
have certificates, that is, the right to be engaged in organic
agriculture. According to him, some of the foodstuffs with "Bio" or
"Eco" marking sold in shops today are produced by companies that
do not have the right for it. Ecoglobe is competent to provide a
recognition document to such companies, and these documents will
be valid in other countries as well. The deputy minister reminded
that in May 2008 the RA National Assembly adopted the Law on Organic
Agriculture that will take effect in May 2009.

Ecoglobe is the first company in the region to be recognized by DAP
company (Germany) as a company competent to implement certification
in agriculture and food processing sector.

Playbill.com, NY
Jan 17 2009

Neeson, Moore and Seyfried Set for Egoyan Film "Chloe"
By Adam Hetrick
12 Jan 2009

Academy Award nominees Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore will join "Mamma
Mia!" star Amanda Seyfried for the new film thriller "Chloe."

Variety reports that Moore has signed to portray a doctor who suspects
her husband of having an affair in the film directed by Atom
Egoyan. To test his fidelity she hires an escort, played by Seyfried,
to seduce him.

Erin Cressida Wilson penned the script; Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock,
Jason Reitman and Dan Dubiecki produce. Shooting begins Feb. 9 in
Toronto.

Neeson, a two-time Tony nominee, has appeared on Broadway in The
Crucible, The Judas Kiss and Anna Christie. His noted screen credits
include "Kinsey," "Love Actually," "Gangs of New York," "Nell" and
"Leap of Faith."

Moore’s stage credits include The Vertical Hour, Vanya on 42nd Street,
Gate|Beckett, Surviving Picasso and Serious Money. On screen she has
appeared in "I’m Not There," "Laws of Attraction," ""The Hours,"
"Boogie Nights," "Far From Heaven," "The End of the Affair,"
"Magnolia" and "Hannibal."

Amanda Seyfried starred in the 2008 movie adaptation of "Mamma Mia!"
Her screen credits also include "Big Love," "CSI," "Wildfire" and
"Mean Girls."

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ARMENPRESS

PACE TO DISCUSS IMPLEMENTATION OF 1609 1620 RESOLUTION BY ARMENIA JANUARY 27

STRASBURG, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS: The main issues which will be
discussed in the winter session of the PACE which kicks off January 26
will refer to the situation created in Gaza, international financial
crisis and implementation of 1633 resolution on the consequences of
Russian-Georgian war, Council of Europe press service told Armenpress.
The implementation of PACE 1609 and 1620 resolutions by Armenia
will be discussed at January 27 session.

Control Chamber of Armenia reveals violations in environmental
protection sphere

YEREVAN , JANUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. During the January 14 sitting, the
Board of the RA Control Chamber approved the current reports on the
results of checks in environmental protection and several other spheres
in 2008. The chairman of the Control Chamber Ishkhan Zakarain said
following the sitting that the board plans to sum up the work done last
year at the upcoming 1-2 sittings, and the first results of the studies
under the 2009 program will be presented in April.

Presenting the reports approved on the same day, I. Zakarain said that
the examination of some programs implemented in the environmental
protection sphere in 2006-2007 revealed various violations of 226
million drams committed by the RA Ministry of Nature Protection. Most
violations were related to inefficient expenditures, and 63 million
drams will be paid back to the state budget. This type of violation was
mainly related to upward distortion of volumes during mine exploration,
inventory making and metrological measurements.

Violations were also revealed as a result of checks on the provision of
lands for use in the Sevan National Park and the collection of
payments. In particular, out of the total number of 904 land users in
the park, 492 did do any work in 2006-2008. The remaining 412
implemented work of various kinds, and only 25 of them did legal
construction work. 227 of 412 land users implemented work in areas
smaller than the permissible 1,908 meters under a governmental
decision, including 142 unauthorized structures, and 13 cases of
illegal land occupation.

Increase of budget expenditures and the world economic crisis
17.01.2009 14:36

Hasmik Dilanyan
`Radiolur’

Still at the end of 2008 people in Armenia were predicting that 2009
would be hard economic year. This time the world crisis is guilty. It
becomes clear from the words of our officials that there is no need to
worry. Moreover, they say 2009 is going to be a year of an `ambitious
budget that will combine the wishes and the opportunities.’ In 2009 the
judges and MP will be more secure. If everything proceeds according to
the predetermined scenario, at the end of the year corruption risks
will reduce in Armenia and better laws will be worked out.

At the time when the world financial crisis was storming all over the
world, our senior officials were saying Armenia was not concerned.
Moreover, upon his return from Washington Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan noted during his meeting with reporters that we could even
draw benefits from the world economic crisis. There is no more
financial stability on the world economic market. How will it affect
the financial stability on the Armenian market? In this regard PM
Tigran Sargsyan said: `We need to maintain the trust in our financial
institutions without expectations that are far from reality.’

Latter the main financial document ` the State Budget ` was put on
discussion. According to officials, it is socially targeted. Right at
the moment when the world was searching for ways to overcome the world
economic crisis, the expenditures of our state budget increased.
Opposition leaders were continuously stating that the buget included no
concrete steps for overcoming the world crisis. Instead, it envisaged
raise of judges’ salary, for example.

Again due to budget allocations, for the first time every MP will have
an assistant with the salary of 80 thousand AMD. Chairman of the
National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance-Credit and Budgeting
Issues Gagik Minasyan compares the salaries and expenditures of
Armenian Deputies with foreign MP, and considers that the opportunities
of Armenian MPs are very poor. `The countries with smaller budget
create more favorable conditions for Deputies. In this regard, the
adoption of the Law on assistants to Deputies was very fair,’ he said.

Will the high salaries and Assistants to MPs contribute to the
reduction of corruption risks in our country, elaboration of
practically applicable laws, overcoming the world crisis? It’s hard to
say now.

B92, Serbia
Jan 17 2009

Turkey: Armenia relations may normalize

17 January 2009 | 15:53 | Source: Reuters

ISTANBUL — Relations between Armenia and Turkey as well as Azerbaijan
and Armenia could be normalized this year.

"I can easily say we have never come this close to a plan regarding
the final normalization of relations with Armenia," state-run news
agency Anatolian reported Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan as
saying.

The step up in diplomacy comes as Armenia may be eyed as a transit
route for energy pipelines shipping oil and gas from the Caspian Sea
to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, helping to make Turkey a key energy
hub.

"It’s not a dream, it’s a realistic estimate to see the normalization
of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as Turkey and
Armenia," Babacan said.

Turkey closed its border with former Soviet Armenia in 1993 in a show
of solidarity with Azerbaijan, a Turkic-speaking ally which was
fighting Armenian-backed separatists over the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population broke away from
Azerbaijan in a war as the Soviet Union fell apart.

Turkey showed a willingness to step up diplomatic efforts to normalize
relations between Ankara and Baku and Yerevan last year when President
Abdullah Gul visited the Armenian capital for a soccer match between
Turkey and Armenia.

The countries have also participated in three-way talks on normalizing
relations.

Relations between the two have been strained by accusations Ottoman
Turks committed genocide by killing ethnic Armenians in World War I.

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ARMENIAN EMBASSY IN WARSAW CELEBRATES NEW YEAR

Panorama.am
19:30 14/01/2009

The Embassy of Armenia in Warsaw celebrates New Year holiday with
the participation of graduates of Armenian-Polish educational center,
reports the press and information department of the Foreign Ministry
of Armenia.

According to the source, the Ambassador of Armenia to Poland,
representatives of Armenian Community and other guests were invited
to be present at the New Year Party on 11 January.

RA NAS NEWLY ELECTED FOREIGN MEMBERS TO TAKE PART IN ACADEMY’S GENERAL ANNUAL MEETING

Noyan Tapan

Jan 14, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The newly elected foreign members
of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia have been officially
invited to take part in the RA NAS 2009 general annual meeting. The
issues of holding the meeting and Diasporan Armenian scientists’
participation were discussed at RA NAS presidium’s sitting on January
14 with the participation of RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobian.

According to RA NAS Press Service, NAS general annual meeting with take
place on April 21-23, during which Diasporan Armenian scientists will
make scientific reports. It is also envisaged discussing directions
of NAS and Diasporan Armenian scientists’ cooperation. Diasporan
Armenian scientists will give lectures at universities.

VALLEY OF DECEIT

Sabah
Jan 13 2009
Turkey

Yesterday, as Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Donmez turned himself in,
police who excavated the location noted in his agenda found 30 hand
grenades and numerous ammunition.

THE MAP WAS FROM SAKARYA The same day Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa
Donmez was taken under custody, police conducted an excavation of a
site mentioned in his journal. In the excavation, which took place
in Zir Valley, located in Yenikent, Ankara, 30 hand grenades, 9 smoke
bombs, 2 flares, 12 booby traps and almost 800 G-3 bullets.

THEY HAVE SERIAL NUMBERS The hand grenades found in the garden of an
empty building in a location, know as being an Armenian graveyard,
had serial numbers. It has also been revealed that Ankara’s Zir Valley
has been used as training grounds for the Special Department of the
Ministry of National Defense since the 1950’s.

THE DIG LASTED FOUR HOURS Police initiated the excavation, which took
place in the garden of a deserted home in Zir Valley at 18:00 and
had accessed the arsenal an hour later. A second excavation, which
was started 200 meters distance from where the weapons were found,
was concluded at 22:10, to be continued today.

THE ERGENEKON CASE: A BRIEF SUMMARY

BIA
Jan 12 2009
Turkey

The tenth wave of detentions has been followed by some arrests and
some releases.

The investigation of the clandestine nationalist Ergenekon organisation
is now in its 19th month. The media has become used to counting the
waves of detentions which have been following each other, and on
Wednesday, 7 January, the tenth wave was carried out.

Police operations in six different cities resulted in the detention
of 37 more people.

Going back to Susurluk

The Ergenekon organisation has been likened to the clandestine
paramilitary Gladio organisation in Italy. The case has been labelled
the "case of the century", but it is not uncontroversial.

Some believe that this organisation is linked to many extrajudiciary
killings and has its roots in the Susurluk network which was exposed
in 1996 but never prosecuted in a satisfactory manner. Others believe
that the investigation has become a smoke screen for the ruling
party’s persecution of political opponents.

The Ergenekon organisation is said to be dedicated to toppling the
government of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), since the
members see themselves as defenders of secularism. Western influence
in Turkey is also scorned and an isolationist attitude prevalent.

Weapons and extrajudiciary killings The first notice the Turkish
public took of this organisation was when a weapons arsenal was
found in a house in Umraniye, Istanbul, in June 2007. Subsequently
the organisation has been linked to bomb attacks on the Cumhuriyet
Newspaper in 2006 and the attack on the Council of State in 2006
(where one judge was killed).

The indictment has claimed that the organisation has also had a hand
in the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, the
priest Andrea Santoro in Trabzon in 2006, as well as three Christians
in Malatya in 2007. Other extrajudiciary killings have been laid at the
organisation’s door, and it is claimed that they were planning to kill
further Alevi and Armenian community leaders, as well as intellectuals.

The indictment states that when all the incidents are taken together,
it becomes clear that the goal was to create internal conflict, chaos
and terror in the country so that the conditions would be just right
for a military intervention.

Journalists, academics, generals, …

In the waves of arrests, Turkey has seen politicians, journalists,
academics and retired generals arrested. The actual trial began
in October 2008, when the indictment of over 2,000 pages was read
out. Currently, there are 86 people on trial, 46 of them in detention.

Some arrests in tenth wave After the tenth wave of detentions on 7
January, Prof. Dr. Yalcın Kucuk and retired Colonel Mustafa Levent
GöktaÅ~_ have been arrested. Others arrested were Ä°brahim Å~^ahin,
the former head of Police Special Operations, teacher Oguzhan
Sarıoglu, Special Operations police officer YaÅ~_ar Oguz Å~^ahin,
as well as six others.

In addition, the Alevi leaders Ali Balkız (of the Alevi BektaÅ~_i
Federation) and Kazım Genc (of the Pir Sultan Abdal Culture
Association) have been provided with police protection, following
claims that they were to become targets of the Ergenekon organisation.

Retired General Tuncer Kılınc, as well as retired Colonel İlyas
Cınar and retired Major General Erdal Å~^enel were released. The
son of former Istanbul mayor Bedrettin Dalan, BarıÅ~_ Dalan, as well
as Bedrettin Dalan’s driver CoÅ~_kun Umur, have also been released,
together with three others. They are to be tried without detention.

In all, sixteen people have been released and another 17 been added
to those previously arrested in the Ergenekon investigation.

–Boundary_(ID_qsKMIgag5WxfyTRYrgd feQ)–