Author: Hambardsumian Paul

CHAIRMAN OF A COMMUNIST PARTY CALLS FOR UNIFICATION

Panorama.am
17:56 02/08/2007

"The most recent parliamentary elections signified that
non-consolidation resulted in wiping out of votes," Vazgen Safaryan,
chairman of Armenian Progressive United Communist Party (APUCP),
said at Club Pastark today. In his words, they did not participate in
those elections and left Armenia Communist Party (HKK) alone to show
that they will not achieve anything on their own, and, as a result,
HKK’s collected 0.63 percent of votes.

Even after that the leaders of the Armenian Communist Party "did not
take lessons," Safaryan said. In his words, two out of three communist
parties have expressed willingness to unite and only HKK demonstrates
"non-constructive approach."

"The time to become serious and take up constructive steps have
come,’ Safaryan said also saying if HKK refuses to take the path of
unification, the Communist Party members must "assess" their leader
themselves.

ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE APPLIES TO THE ECONOMIC COURT AGAINST ARARAT GOLD RECOVERY COMPANY

arminfo
2007-08-02 16:17:00

Prosecutor General of Armenia Gagik Jhangiryan has lodged against
Ararat Gold Recovery Company (AGRC) to the Economic Court of Armenia,
the Prosecutor General’s Office press-service told ArmInfo.

The source reports that the Prosecutor’s Office demands stopping
the contract of AGRC and the Nature Protection Ministry of Armenia
for exploitation of Sotk gold deposit in Gegharkunik region (dated
March 13 1999) ahead of schedule. Moreover, it requests the Ministry
of Trade and Economic Development to revoke AGRC’s license for mining
activities, which was granted on July 2004. At the same time, Solicitor
General asked the Economic Court to charge 4.6 million drams and $10
million from AGRC for the state budget and to arrest the company’s
property and bank accounts to cover the claim cost.

The claim is based on the inspection of the company’s activity for
2000-2006 carried out by the prosecutor’s office and revenue service
over the last 5-6 months. Materials submitted to the court contain
also resolution of an independent expert from Canadian Strathcona
Mineral Services Ltd for the last two months. AGRC will receive
official notification shortly.

It is noteworthy that Georgian Madneuli Company belonging to the
Russian Industrial Investors (Promyshlennye investori) Group, is
ready to acquire AGRC’s shares. The negotiated transaction cost is
some $80-100 million.

Earlier, AGRC Director General Balden Krishan Sharma told ArmInfo
that AGRC is on the final stage of talks for the sale of its shares.

CITIZEN CHALLANGES WRONG CALCULATION OF TRANSPORT PROPERTY TAX BY PREFECTURA

Noyan Tapan
Aug 2, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The statement of claim of citizen
Artyom Darbinian with regard to wrong calculation of the transport
property tax made by the prefectura was heard in the Court of First
Instance of the Ajaphniak-Davtashen communities of Yerevan with judge
Arthur Smbatian at the head on August 1. According to the plaintiff,
on account of the mistake made by the prefectura the property tax of
the "BMW 530i" car produced in 1994 was calculated 23 608 drams more
for 2006-2007. The plaintiff also challanged the illegality of the
penalty of 12 608 drams included in the above-mentioned additional
sum: according to the plaintiff, this sum has arisen on account of
the tax-payer’s not being informed by the order established by law.

The plaintiff called the court’s attention to the circumstance that
the RA Law on "Property Tax" has been infringed in the prefectura
of the Davtashen community , according to which in case a car
engine picks up speed not higher than 120 horesepower, 200 drams
is levied for each horsepower, and in case of 121-250 horsepower,
24 000 drams plus 300 drams for each horsepower, beginning from the
121st horsepower. Whereas, the prefectura has decided to levy 300
drams for each horsepower in case of 210 horsepower.

Marine Khachikian, a representative of the prefectura, objected to
this statement of claim, mentioning that the calculation of property
tax and the development of the information data of the property tax
is obligatorily implemented by the "Orakl" program provided by the
RA State Tax Service by an automatized order. She also considered
the plaintiff’s statement of claim concerning the illegality of the
penalty to be a groundless one: the representative of the respondent
side cited the provision of the RA Law on "Property Tax", according
to which "The handing-in of a notice later than the specified date or
the not handing-in of a notice does not completely exempt a tax-payer
from performing his or her tax duties." The plaintiff opposed to
this statement, saying that there is no word about penalties in the
above-mentioned law.

The Court of First Instance of the Ajaphniak-Davtashen communities
will bring in a verdict concerning this case on August 7.

TRAIN WITH RUSSIAN ARMOR LEAVES MILITARY BASE IN GEORGIA

RIA Novosti, Russia
Aug 2 2007

MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) – A train carrying military equipment
left a Russian base in Georgia early Thursday as part of a 2006 deal
to withdraw all Russian bases from the ex-Soviet Caucasus state,
a Russian military official said.

Colonel Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Ground Forces,
said the train was carrying two tanks, two armored personnel carriers,
and other military hardware from the 12th Russian military base in
Batumi on the Black Sea.

The official said another five trains and a truck convoy are scheduled
to remove part of the remaining military equipment from the Batumi
base to Russia and the 102nd base in Gyumri, Armenia, until the end
of the year.

Under an agreement between the former Soviet allies, Russia must
complete the removal of its base in Batumi by the end of 2008.

Russia completed the pullout of its military garrison from the Georgian
capital, Tbilisi, handing over control of its headquarters to Georgia’s
Defense Ministry last December, and formally handed over its military
base at Akhalkalaki in southern Georgia to Tbilisi in June, ahead of
the October 2007 deadline.

DAYS OF ARMENIAN ECONOMY TO BE HELD IN GERMANY IN AUTUMN

Noyan Tapan
Aug 1, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The German side aims to organize
an event "Days of the Armenian Economy in Germany" in the autumn
of 2007 with the participation of the delegation of high-ranking
Armenian officials, which will become an additional stimulus for the
development of economic relations, was stated at the August 1 meeting
of the Armenian prime minister Serge Sargsian and the delegation
headed by Gunther Pilarski, the Honorary Consul of the RA in Germany,
the founder and chairman of Cronimet Gruppe.

NT was informed by the RA Government Information and PR Department
that Serge Sargsian and Gunther Pilarski attached special importance
to activities of the Armenian-German intergovernmental commission,
whose regular sitting is scheduled for September.

ITALIAN UNDER 23 ROWERS BREAK GERMANY’S 15 YEAR RUN
By Melissa Bray

WorldRowing.com, Switzerland
July 31 2007

Four gold medals for Italy at the 2007 World Rowing Under
23 Championships spelt the end of Germany’s 15-year domination
of the U23 regatta. The Paolo d’Aloja Challenge Cup for the top
country overall had been in German hands since 1991 and through
the competition’s evolution from Match des Seniors (1976-1991), to
Nations Cup (1992-2000), to World U23 Regatta (2001-2003), to World
Rowing U23 Regatta (2004), to championship event (since 2005).

Italy’s lightweight men’s quad test the medals

In its third year as a championship event Strathclyde, Scotland hosted
over 700 athletes from 52 nations. At the end of the competition
Italy had taken away six medals including gold in the women’s four
(Anna Bonciani, Cristna Romiti, Carlotta Baratto, Anita Pinto), men’s
coxed four (Leopoldo Sansore, Vincenzo Capelli, Romano Battisti,
Andrea Palmisano, Leonardo Bellucci), lightweight men’s pair (Andrea
Caianiello, Armando Dell’Aquila) and the only crew to set a new
under 23 World Best Time at Strathclyde, the lightweight men’s quad
(Matteo Amigoni, Filippo Manfredi, Antonio Pizzurro, Daniele Danesin).

This year saw a more even medal spread than in former years with
20 countries earning medals. Last year, of the 20 events Germany
won medals in 12 of them. This year Germany finished up fourth on
the medals table with two gold medals. Also down in the rankings
was Romania who last year finished third but this year could only
manage15th =.

Behind Italy, New Zealand placed second overall with four medals, three
of them gold. The New Zealanders almost managed a clean sweep of the
single sculling events by winning the men’s single (Joseph Sullivan),
women’s single (Emma Twigg) as well as the lightweight men’s single
(Storm Uru).

Greece pulled in at third by earning three gold medals. Germany
finished with a total of ten medals, but as only two of them were
gold they ranked fourth overall.

Strathclyde recorded the largest number of competitors ever at an under
23 world event. The youngest competitor was Italy’s coxswain for the
men’s eight, Simone Peraz who was 13 years old. The youngest rowers
were all 17 years old and included Lithuania’s Nerijus Vasiliauskas,
Sargis Gharabaghtsyan of Armenia and Paschalina Karamytiliou of Greece.

WHO IS THE CHRISTIAN GEORGIA FOR ARMENIA?

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.07.2007 GMT+04:00

Due to its being equidistant from Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia
may play its role in the stability of South Caucasus.

The Armenian-Georgian relations have entered a new phase; not that got
worse, just changed. Georgia’s unconcealed wish to participate in all
the projects of the region, regardless of everything, gives rise to
a number of questions for the Armenian party, the most important one
of which is – who is the Christian Georgia for Armenia – a friendly
country or something else? It is quite obvious that there are no
eternal friends or enemies in politics, there are only eternal
interests.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ If Georgia’s interests lie in getting into
Turks’ embrace having freed itself from Moscow, everything is
clear. However things are hardly as straightforward as they may
seem. Armenia and Georgia need each other, and first of all for
resisting pan-Turkism. Yet the present powers of Georgia are guided
by momentary interests. Meanwhile it should be mentioned that due to
the open border with Turkey the Georgian economy suffered a collapse.

Georgia aims at NATO, in fact it’s no bad for Armenia either, but if
suddenly Azerbaijan also intends to head to the Alliance, Yerevan
will hardly find itself in an advantageous situation. According to
the representative of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee
on Foreign Affairs, Armen Rustamyan, if Azerbaijan integrates into
NATO and Armenia doesn’t, it will upset the balance of powers in the
region. "At present in the region of South Caucasus two tendencies of
development are observed; one tendency is directed to disentanglement
of the nations of the region, and the other one is directed towards
unification. Armenia must choose the second variant, which proceeds
from the national interests. In this case we will be able to meet
any challenge," said Rustamyan.

Due to its being equidistant from Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia
may play its role in the stability of South Caucasus. The truth is
though that the unresolved conflicts and rather tense situation in
the Armenian populated region of Samtske-Djavakheti create certain
difficulties for this role. The public policy of Tbilisi regarding
the national minorities and repatriation of Meskhetian Turks gives
not less reasons for anxiety. All the above mentioned factors have
their negative impact on the relations of the two countries.

At the end of October the ceremony of laying Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad
will be held. Presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia will be
present at the ceremony. The Turkish Minister of Transportation Ismet
Yilmaz announced that the construction of the main is put out to tender
and offers are accepted till the end of August. "Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
railroad will take Turkey to the 21st Century," said Yilmaz. "The
railroad that reaches Kars maybe connected to Erzrum’s line which
will enable cargo transportation from Marmara to London," states Day.az

The most interesting part of the whole thing is that Georgia,
without who the realization of the above mentioned project is
simply impossible, hasn’t been mentioned in Turkish Minister’s
announcement. However Ankara and Baku think that if $ 200 million
is assigned to Georgia almost for nothing, they don’t have to take
Georgian’s opinion into consideration. In fact, this is true. The New
"East Express" will be both longer and more profitable for all the
parties, except for Armenia. In this regard Georgia acts against us,
and if we recall the case with Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and
Baku Erzrum gas pipeline, we will see that this is not the first case.

HSBC ARMENIA BANK GRANTED DEALER STATUS

ARMENPRESS
Jul 30, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 30, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Central Bank said HSBC Armenia
Bank has been granted the status of dealer at Armenia’s long-term
state treasury bills market.

The Central Bank said the dealer status was granted by a trilateral
agreement signed July 24 by the Armenian ministry of finance and
economy (the issuer), the Central Bank and HSBC Armenia.

PROGRAMME ON CREATION OF DEPARTMENT FOR SICK NEWBORN BABIES IS IMPLEMENTED IN NAGORNO KARABAKH

arminfo
2007-07-27 13:05:00

The delegation of the Americana and British intellectuals, headed by
vice speaker of the House of Lords of the British Parliament, Baroness
Caroline Cox, being in Nagorno Karabakh, includes people who render
systematic assistance to the children’s hospital of Stepanakert,
"Arevik".

As ArmInfo’s special correspondent in Stepanakert reports, member
of the British organization Birtlink, a nurse Katei Malor assists to
development of the department of reanimation, intensive therapy and
the newborns of the indicated hospital. She said that a programme on
creation of department for sick newborn babies is implemented. She
also said that the Birtlink organization will keep on assisting the
Stepanakert children’s hospital within the next 5 years. The British
and American guests got acquainted with hospital conditions and the
process of children cure. Director of the hospital Armen Khachatryan
presented a memorable gift to Baroness Cox on behalf of the staff
of "Arevik". The delegation members also visited the Rehabilitation
Center in Stepanakert, named in honor of the Baroness, and the church
Ghazanchetsots in Shushi. This is the 63rd visit of Caroline Cox
to NKR.

DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN TAEKWONDO FEDERATION TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA

armradio.am
26.07.2007 16:45

At the invitation of the President of the Taekwondo Federation of
Armenia Edward Muradyan, the official delegation of the European
Taekwondo Federation headed by President Atanasios Pragalos (Greece)
will arrive in Armenia in September, Executive Director of the Armenian
Taekwondo Federation Vardan Gahramanyan told Armenpress.