Author: Hakobian Adrine

2009 program of measures of Armenian Development Agency approved

YERE VAN, JANUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The 2009 program of measures of the
Armenian Development Agency (ADA) CJSC was approved at the January 16
sitting of ADA’s Council. The sitting was conducted by the the council
chairman, RA prime minister Tigran Sargsyan.

ADA’s CEO Robert Harutyunian said that the document includes some
interesting investment proposals which should be developed into
programs. The measures indicated in the program will be carried out
with the aim of encouraging investments and exports, improving the
business and investment environment, and assisting with development of
the IT sector.

The program envisages promoting exports through such measures as the
development of export-oriented enterprises and the preparation and
impementation of programs on marketing, as well as new export programs;
the study of needs of local market and enterprises and foreign markets
for assessing the export potential of enterprises.

Accoridng to R. Harutyunian, with the aim of improving Armenia’s
business and investment environment and the IT sector, continuous work
will be done with the business and IT communities, including with
working groups, in order to identify the existing problems, assess the
opportunities of their solution, develop the respective proposals,
discuss them and to approve the necessary measures in cooperation with
the Business Support Council and the IT Development Support Council.

NT was informed by the press service of the RA government that the 2009
estimate of expenditure of ADA CJSC was also discussed and approved
during the sitting.

OSCE TO PREPARE REPORT ON GARABAGH

AzerNews Weekly
Jan 14 2009
Azerbaijan

The OSCE is preparing a report reviewing the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper
Garabagh conflict settlement process. The document will appear after
the visit to the region by Goran Lennmarker, the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly rapporteur, on February 9-10. The goal of the visit will be
to discuss developments in the South Caucasus region and seek ways
of resolving the Garabagh problem.

IFEX – News from the international freedom of expression community
________________________________________ _________________________

ALERT – ARMENIA/AZERBAIJAN

15 January 2009

Television crews come under gunfire in Agdam region

SOURCE: Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Baku

(IRFS/IFEX) – According to information provided to IRFS by Lider television
station correspondent Habil Aslanoglu, on 14 January 2009, at approximately
4:30 p.m. (local time), employees of the Azad Azerbaijan (ATV) and Lider
television stations came under gunfire on the border between Armenia and
Azerbaijan, in the Agdam region of Azerbaijan. In addition to Aslanoglu
himself, the other media personnel affected by the incident were ATV
correspondent Hafiz Huseynoglu, ATV camera operator Eldaniz Valiyev and
Lider camera operator Ilgar Salmanoglu.

According to Aslanoglu, the journalists were assaulted by Armenian military
personnel while they were attempting to film the construction of a church
by Armenians in the occupied Shahbulag village. The journalists were able
to escape from the area when the Azerbaijani military responded with
gunfire.

As a result of a war that took place between Azerbaijan and Armenia from
1992 to 1994, the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh is now occupied by
Armenia. Although a cease-fire was declared on 12 May 1994, no peace accord
has been signed.

For further information contact Emin Huseynov, Chair, or Sarah Paulsworth,
Public Relations Coordinator, IRFS, 8 R. Behbudov St., Apt. 85/86, Baku,
Azerbaijan, tel: +99 412 418 0334, +99 450 398 4838; e-mail:
[email protected], Skype ID: irfs.az, Internet:

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of IRFS.
In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit IRFS.
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AWARDS TO PROMOTE CULTURE IN ARMENIA

Panorama.am
19:04 12/01/2009

The Ministry of Culture of Armenia prepares awards for the journalists
and mass media for covering cultural events. "The journalists
should help us, to analyze and show both the good and bad sides of
our work, of course based on facts," said the Minister of Culture
Hasmik Poghosyan.

The contest which started today will last till 3 May, the Day of
Press. The nominations are best TV program, best TV reporter, best
radio program, best newspaper, best print story, best internet story,
best column and critical story. The Minister said that the best
journalists will receive 200 thousands and the best mass media 500
thousands AMD.

"CRISIS" IN ARMENIAN SHOPS

A1+
[02:13 pm] 12 January, 2009

Today one can see few people in Armenian shops and
supermarkets. Salespeople say trade "stopped" after the New Year
holidays. People mainly buy dairy products, bread, mineral water and
coffee. Shop assistants get delighted whenever someone drops in.

"We don’t know how to spend our day as no one comes to our shop,"
said saleswoman Anahit. She says after the holiday people still have
much to eat at their homes. Besides, they have spent a lot of money
and try to suffice with the least.

"We still have meat in the freezer, and I cook meals with it. We still
don’t know how the global financial crisis will affect our budgets
and whether we shall be able to buy bread," said housewife Varduhi.

MATTHEW BRYZA: "WE HOPE THAT THE UPCOMING VISIT OF THE OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS WILL ESTABLISH A GROUND FOR THE MEETING OF THE PRESIDENTS OF AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA"

Today.Az
olitics/50007.html
Jan 8 2009
Azerbaijan

"We hope that the upcoming visit of the OSCE MG co-chairs on the
resolution of the Karabakh conflict in the region will create grounds
for the next meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia",
said US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza.

"During the visit we are planning to meet with the presidents and
foreign ministers of both countries. The main topic of talks will again
be the basic principles. I think some specifications and agreements
are needed in this issue. And I hope that in the first half of the
year we will manage to attain some agreements", said Bryza.

According to the co-chairs, the talks with the parties will be held
around the basic principles of the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

"I am not able to specify the date of the visit. This issue is being
discussed and depends on the work schedule of my collegues. But I
can say the only think – the co-chairs will arrive in the region in
the next two weeks", noted he.

Der Spiegel, Deutschland
29. Dezember 2008

"Größtes Tabu"

RUBRIK: Interview Panorama; Türkei; S. 93 Heft 1/2008

Professor Baskin Oran, 63, Politikwissenschaftler in Ankara, über
seine Kampagne, sich zur Verantwortung für den Völkermord an den
Armeniern zu bekennen

SPIEGEL: Seit dem Start Ihrer Unterschriftenaktion im Internet haben
sich mehr als 25 000 Türken für die osmanischen Kriegsverbrechen im
Ersten Weltkrieg entschuldigt. Damals kamen über eine Million Armenier
ums Leben. Ist das der Beginn einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit
der Vergangenheit?

Oran: Die Türken, die sich jetzt entschuldigen, sind nicht
verantwortlich für die Sünden von 1915. Es gibt kein kollektives
Verbrechen, aber es gibt ein kollektives Gewissen. Mit unserer Aktion
rütteln wir am größten Tabu in der Türkei. Aber eigentlich kommt die
Kampagne Jahrzehnte zu spät.

SPIEGEL: Türkische Nationalisten behaupten, dass Sie das nationale
Ansehen beschädigen. Davon ist auch Ministerpräsident Erdogan
überzeugt.

Oran: Nein, ich glaube, unser Ansehen wird in der internationalen
Öffentlichkeit sogar steigen. Außerdem geht es um die Enkel der
Armenier, die endlich eine Entschuldigung hören müssen – in einem Land
wie der Türkei, wo es keine "Kultur des Entschuldigens" gibt.

SPIEGEL: Welche Auswirkungen wird die Aktion auf das
türkisch-armenische Verhältnis haben?

Oran: Die Mehrheit der Armenier begrüßt unsere Initiative. Aber es
gibt auch Hardliner, die verurteilen, dass wir nicht ausdrücklich von
Genozid sprechen. Sie fürchten, dass wir mit der Entschuldigung
armenische Reparationsforderungen durchkreuzen könnten. Für diese
Leute sind wir nur Lakaien des türkischen Staates.

SPIEGEL: Welche Reaktionen bekommen Sie von den türkischen Bürgern?

Oran: Leider überwiegend schlechte. Ich selbst erhalte jeden Tag an
die 200 Hassbriefe. Viele sagen, ich hätte das türkische Volk
beleidigt. Aber man muss bedenken: Jedes Kind lernt hier schon in der
Schule, dass Armenier früher Muslime getötet haben. Unserer Erziehung
haben wir es zu verdanken, dass das Land unter einer kollektiven
Amnesie leidet. Im Osten der Türkei haben früher allerdings
tatsächlich viele Menschen unter armenischen Racheaktionen gelitten.

Hürriyet, Turkey
Dec 31 2008

Priest’s attacker sentenced to jail time

ANKARA – A Turkish court sentenced a man to four years in prison on
Monday for stabbing an Italian Catholic priest in 2007 in a case that
highlighted attacks against Christians in Muslim and secular Turkey.

A court in the coastal city of Ä°zmir in western Turkey passed a
sentence on Ramazan Bay for stabbing Adriano Franchini, the Anatolian
news agency reported. Franchini survived the attack.

Bay told the court he had been influenced by media reports of other
attacks against Christians, including the death by shooting of Andrea
Santoro, another Italian Catholic priest, in the Turkish Black Sea
city of Trabzon in 2006.

Turkey’s small Christian community has been targeted in a spate of
attacks over several years, prompting concern among human rights
groups and the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join. Three
Christians, two Turks and a German, had their throats slit by youths
who burst into their Bible publishing house in the southeastern town
of Malatya last year.

Hrant Dink also stabbed Turkish Armenian writer Hrant Dink was also
slain last year in Istanbul by a young nationalist gunman. A
prosecutor on Monday indicted a colonel for failing to provide
protection to Dink, who had received several death threats, Anatolian
said. Christians in Turkey barely number 100,000 in the population of
nearly 75 million.

ARMENIAN PM: MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS OF 2008 STATE BUDGET CONTAIN ANTI-CRISIS COMPONENT

ARKA
Dec 29, 2008

YEREVAN, December 29. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
thinks that the macroeconomic indicators of the 2008 state budget
contained an anti-crisis component.

"Those macroeconomic parameters that have been put in the 2008 budget
and implemented, laid a firm groundwork for warding off the financial
crisis. But our opponents play down this for some reason, omitting
the anti-crisis component", he told reporters.

The premier said that it was clearly mentioned in talks with World
Bank and International Monetary Fund that the implementation of
macroeconomic indicators means the creation of favorable environment
for resisting the impacts of the global crisis.

Sargsyan also said that considerable enlargement of tax inflow added
a great deal to the state budget in 2008.

"We have raised these indicators three times. These are special-purpose
indicators of our tax officers. In fact, we have corrected the budget’s
tax-collection sector – the actual GDP growth was higher than planned.

It means a new cost is being created in the country. Hence, tax inflow
has to intensify. That is why the government was raising control
figures on revenue and reducing expenses simultaneously", he said.

The premier said that expenditure reduction and revenue enlargement
gave the state additional strength and enabled it to resis t the
consequences of the crisis.

Sargsyan said that the government has displayed the same approach in
drawing the 2009 state budget.

"Very low deficit – 0.9% – has been put in the 2009 budget. This is a
very low indicator even compared with developed countries. It means
our country is precipitously growing strong and we can afford to
spend more money without fearing that this can affect macroeconomic
indicators", the PM said.

He said that the government has already started negotiating with its
strategic partners over attracting additional funds for large-scale
projects.

Sargsyan said that signs of deflation are already seen in Armenia.

"Inflation rate in November and December has never been as low as it
was in 2008".

The inflation rate recorded in Armenia in 2008 has come from the
world financial and trade markets.

"We brought 70% percent of the 2008 inflation from the outside, and now
these inflation risks have precipitously reduced thanks to the lowered
prices for bread, wheat and lubricants on world markets", the PM said.

"This creates a favorable environment for expansion policy".

A session of RA government’s charitable project coordination commission
took place, chaired by commission head Simon Ter-Simonyan.

3/
Friday, 26 December 2008

7 projects have been discussed. In particular, the following programs
have been approved: a charity catering project and an educational
program on the provision of tuition and scholarship to students from
vulnerable households as implemented by the Armenia branch of the
Armenian Relief Fund of America, the `Care-Free Childhood’ project to
be carried out in 2009-2010 by `Children First’ charitable society,
meant to support vulnerable households, single and needy elderly
people, perished freedom-fighters’ families and children.

The session similarly endorsed the `Care and Cure for Child Disability’
project to be implemented by the missioners’ charitable organization in
Yerevan for the period 2009-2011, the World Vision
International-implemented `Construction of Play-Grounds in Vardenis
Region’ program, as well as a Yerevan’s Physics Institute after A.I.
Alikhanyan SNCO-implemented program, sponsored by the National Fund for
Research and Advanced Technologies.

Another program as financed by Help Foundation will provide relief to
children suffering from blood diseases.

The meeting also discussed and approved several sub-programs under the
standing ones, as well as projects on import of charitable freight
destined to various organizations operational in Armenia.