Author: Hambardsumian Paul

TARIFFS OF SERVICES GROW BY 0.2% IN ARMENIA IN JANUARY

Noyan Tapan
Feb 4, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 4, NOYAN TAPAN. 0.2% growth of tariffs was
registered in Armenian market of services in January 2008 on December
2007, which was mainly due to a rise in tariffs of personal (0.2%),
medical (0.2%), public catering (0.3%) and transport services (1.2%)
(in connection with a 3.7% growth of air ticket prices).

Accoridng to the RA National Statistical Service, tariffs of housing
and municipal services grew by 0.1%, while tariffs of legal,
banking, cultural, communication, recreational services fell by
0.4-1.6%. Tariffs of educational services remained unchanged as
compared with the previous month.

Prosecutor General’s Office receives 17 applications on violations of
electors’ rights during presidential campaign

2008-02-01 13:41:00

ArmInfo. As of January 30 the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia
received 17 applications on violations of electors’ right during the
presidential campaign, including 11 of them were published in the press.

Prosecutor General’s Office press-service told ArmInfo 3 criminal cases
have been initiated on the basis of the applications on attacks on
campaign headquarters, electors bribing, attempts to collect passports
of electors, as well as on the procession by cars organized by the
supporters of the presidential candidate, first president of Armenia
Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

HRW REPORT: HUMAN RIGHTS TREND IS "RETROGRADE"

BIA
Jan 31 2008
Turkey

The annual Human Rights Watch Report on Turkey is pessimistic about
developments. The report condemns freedom of speech violations,
harassment of the DTP, violence against minorities and civilians.

Recent trends in human rights protection in Turkey have been
retrograde. 2007 saw an intensification of speech-related prosecutions
and convictions, controversial rulings by the judiciary in defiance of
international human rights law, harassment of pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP) officials and deputies, and a rise in reports of
police brutality.

The state authorities’ intolerance of difference or dissenting opinion
has created an environment in which there have been instances of
violence against minority groups. In January 2007 Turkish-Armenian
journalist and human rights defender Hrant Dink was murdered.

Armed clashes between the military and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) rose in the lead-up to elections in July and intensified yet
further in the second half of the year, with heavy loss of life;
some attacks-such as a suspected PKK bombing in Ankara in May-have
targeted civilians.

Prior to the general election, the Turkish military intervened directly
in the political arena by voicing opposition to the ruling Justice
and Development Party (AKP) government and by decisively influencing
a constitutional court decision to block the presidential candidacy
of the AKP’s Abdullah Gul. The AKP nevertheless won 47 percent of the
vote in the early general election precipitated by the presidential
crisis, and subsequently secured the election of Abdullah Gul as
president. The AKP government embarked on plans for a new constitution
to replace that put in place under the military regime in 1982.

Human Rights Defenders The criminalization of speech remains a key
obstacle to the protection of human rights in Turkey, contributing
to an atmosphere of intolerance that assumed violent proportions in
2007. On January 19 the journalist and human rights defender Hrant
Dink was shot dead outside his office. Dink came to public notoriety
because he was repeatedly prosecuted for speech-related crimes and,
in 2006, convicted for "publicly insulting Turkishness" under article
301 of the penal code. The trial of 12 suspects indicted for Dink’s
murder, among them the 17-year-old gunman, began on July 2, but the
authorities have to date failed to act on significant evidence of
negligence or possible collusion by the security forces.

Other public figures associated with human rights advocacy also
received death threats. Burdensome registration procedures and
legal restrictions on associations continued. The LGBT organization
Lambdaistanbul, for example, was prosecuted for having aims that were
against "law and morality" and faced possible closure.

Freedom of Expression and Assembly After its electoral victory
in July, the new AKP government failed to take immediate steps
to restart the stalled reform process by lifting restrictions on
freedom of expression such as article 301, and elements of the legal
establishment opposed to reform continued to prosecute and convict
individuals for speech-related offences, as well as for staging
unauthorized demonstrations.

Over 2007 hundreds of individuals, among them journalists, writers,
publishers, academics, human rights defenders, and, above all,
officials of Kurdish political parties and associations, were
prosecuted. Some were convicted.

In October 2007 Arat Dink, son of Hrant Dink and editor of the
bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos (Furrow), and the newspaper’s
owner Serkis Sarkopyan were given one-year suspended sentences for
"insulting Turkishness" under article 301. They had reported a July
2006 Reuters interview with Hrant Dink in which he had referred to the
"Armenian genocide." No other newspaper that reported Hrant Dink’s
words to Reuters has been prosecuted.

Officials of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)-which
stood independent in the election and gained 22 seats-were repeatedly
convicted for speech-related offences during the year. Some were
detained for several months pending trial. The number of prosecutions
was significantly higher than in previous years, lending credence
to suggestions that concerted efforts were being made to block
their political activity and restrict their freedom of assembly in
an election year. In November the closure of the DTP was pending
before the Constitutional Court. Officials of the Kurdish party
HAK-PAR were also sentenced for using the Kurdish language in their
political party activities; a Constitutional Court closure case is
still pending against the party.

Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Killings by Security Forces Ill-treatment
appeared to be on the rise in 2007 and was regularly reported as
occurring during arrest, outside places of official detention, and in
the context of demonstrations, as well as in detention centers. This
trend was further exacerbated by the passing in June of a new police
law granting wide-ranging powers of stop and search. After the new
law came into force, cases of police brutality were also reported
in the context of the routine identity checks permitted in the new
law. There were continuing reports of ill-treatment in prisons and,
in January, conscientious objector Halil Savda was ill-treated at
the Tekirdað military barracks.

Fatal shootings of civilians by members of the security forces remain
a serious concern. Although police typically state that the killing
occurred because the individual has failed to obey a warning to stop,
in some cases these may amount to extrajudicial executions. The fatal
shooting of Bulent Karataþ near Hozat, Tunceli, in September 2007,
bore the hallmarks of a summary execution. His companion, Rýza Cicek,
who survived serious gunshot wounds, explained how he was shot by
military personnel while on a beekeeping trip. Another suspected
summary execution was that of the villager Ejder Demir, shot dead near
Ozalp, Van, in September. Nigerian asylum seeker Festus Okey died of
gunshot wounds incurred while in police custody in Istanbul in August.

Attacks on Civilians Suspected PKK bomb attacks targeting civilians
have continued at intervals in 2007, including a suicide bombing in
May in the shopping district of Ulus, Ankara, which resulted in eight
deaths, and two bombings in Izmir in October, killing one man. In
September a minibus was fired upon near a village in Beytuþþebap,
Þýrnak province, killing five civilians and seven village guards. As
of this writing, the perpetrators had not been identified.

Impunity Turkish courts are notoriously lenient towards members
of the security forces who are charged with abuse or misconduct,
contributing to impunity and the persistence of torture and the resort
to lethal force. Many allegations of torture or killings in disputed
circumstances never reach the courts and are not investigated. Some
controversial court rulings in the first half of 2007 stand out.

In May the Court of Cassation quashed the 39-year sentences of two
gendarmerie intelligence officers for the November 2005 bombing of
a bookshop in the southeastern town of Þemdinli that resulted in
one death. This bombing was widely condemned by human rights groups
in Turkey as evidence of a resort to lawlessness in the name of
counterterrorism. Controversially the court ruled that the crime had
been committed in the course of a counterterrorism operation and that
the defendants should be retried in a military court. The decision
is on appeal.

In April a court in Eskiþehir acquitted four police officers for the
killing of Ahmet and Uður Kaymaz, in November 2004 in the southeast
town of Kýzýltepe. The court ignored substantial forensic evidence
demonstrating that the father and son may have been the victims of
a summary execution. The case is on appeal.

There was no progress in the investigation into the widespread
allegations of police torture following arrests during violent protests
in March 2006 in Diyarbakýr, into the deaths of 10 demonstrators
(eight shot dead) during the protests.

Key International Actors The European Union (EU) remained the most
important international actor in fostering respect for human rights
in Turkey. However, the December 2006 EU summit decision to partially
freeze membership negotiations because of Turkey’s relations with
Cyprus contributed to the perception in Turkey that EU member states
were reneging on their commitment to Turkey’s candidacy.

After the election in France of President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007,
who has repeatedly stated his opposition to Turkey joining the EU,
in June France used its veto power to block two minor chapters of
the accession negotiations. In its annual progress report, published
in November, the European Commission commented on the failure to
advance reforms in 2007, continuing restrictions on free speech,
the interference of the military in political affairs, the need to
strengthen the independence of the judiciary, and the failure to
further minority rights.

As of this writing, the European Court of Human Rights has issued
242 judgments against Turkey in 2007 for torture, unfair trial,
extrajudicial execution, and other violations. In an October judgment
that may have implications for the draft constitution, the court
found that the failure to grant an Alevi schoolgirl exemption from
constitutionally enshrined compulsory religious education classes
focused on Sunni Islam constituted a violation of the right to
education (Hasan and Eylem Zengin v. Turkey).

In a controversial decision in January the court ruled that the
existence of the 10 percent electoral threshold, which has been
argued to deprive in particular pro-Kurdish parties of political
representation in parliament, did not violate the right of the people
to freely express their opinion of the choice of the legislature
(article 3 of protocol 1 of the convention). Two judges dissented,
pointing to the fact that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe had in 2004 urged Turkey to lower the threshold, and that
the threshold was twice as high as the European average (see Yumuk
and Sadak v. Turkey). In November the case was heard by the Grand
Chamber of the European Court and judgment is awaited. (HRW/AG)

–Boundary_(ID_3KUen9JfrGn2na1JSUi5Cg)–

ALAS, IT LOOKS LIKE SHIITES VS. THE REST
By Michael Young

Daily Star
Jan 31 2008
Lebanon

The tragic and senseless killing of demonstrators in Shiyyah last
Sunday was, perhaps rightfully, seen as the opening shot in a new
phase of the Lebanese crisis that may turn much more violent. Who
was responsible for the crimes still remains unclear. But a cooler
analysis of what took place shows an equally disturbing reality:
Sunday was a political disaster for the Shiite opposition parties,
Hizbullah and Amal, whose inability to achieve their political ends,
but also to retreat from the brink, makes the likelihood of further
hostilities much greater.

After the end of the summer 2006 war and the growing confrontation
between the parliamentary majority and the opposition, Hizbullah
was always careful to place non-Shiites in the forefront of the
opposition’s actions. While Sunni representatives were anemic,
Michel Aoun was, for a time, someone who added credibility to the
claim that the opposition was multiconfessional. That argument took
a severe beating in the street protests of January 23, 2007, when the
Aounists were unable to block roads for very long in Christian areas
without assistance from the army. By nightfall, even that endeavor
had collapsed as roads inside the Christian heartland and between
Beirut and Tripoli were opened.

However, Aoun struck back in the Metn by-election last summer, when
he managed to get an unknown, Camille Khoury, elected to Parliament.

It was a pyrrhic victory to be sure. The vote tally confirmed that the
general had lost a sizable share of the Maronite vote; it showed that
he relied heavily on a unified Armenian electorate not particularly
committed to the general personally, that might vote very differently
in the future; but it also showed that Aoun was not out of the game,
as some had predicted.

However, from the moment the March 14 coalition decided to support
the army commander, Michel Suleiman, as its candidate for president,
Aoun’s situation changed dramatically. The general had calculated that
a presidential vacuum would enhance his chances of being elected, on
the grounds that the thwarted Christians would rally behind him. In
fact the exact opposite has happened. Provided with the option of
a potentially strong Christian president in Suleiman, displeased
with Aoun’s and his ally Suleiman Franjieh’s wanton attacks against
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, never really convinced by
the Free Patriotic Movement’s alliance with Hizbullah, the Christians,
many of whom voted for Aoun in 2005, have been steadily turning away
from the general.

A sure sign of this is the behavior of that cunning weathervane of
Christian opinion, Michel Murr. In recent weeks Murr has mounted
a very damaging internal rebellion against Aoun. He has defended
the Arab plan that seeks to bring Suleiman to power as "good for
the Christians," when Aoun’s greatest fear is that his community
will embrace such a line and abandon his own candidacy. Murr has
defended Sfeir against Franjieh’s attacks, even as most Aounist
parliamentarians who once made Bkirki their second home remained
silent. And Murr declared that the Metn would not participate in
opposition street demonstrations. This was an easy promise to make,
because Aoun doesn’t even have the capacity to organize protests in
areas his bloc members represent in Parliament.

The thing is, Murr’s attitude is popular among Christians. And last
Sunday, Aoun found himself in the worst possible situation when his
ally Hizbullah and the army – the one state institution in which the
general still retains some sympathy – clashed. For most Christians the
choice was an easy one to make: They sided with the army, particularly
after demonstrators were reported to have broken cars in the Christian
quarter of Ain al-Rummaneh, where someone later tossed a grenade
that injured several people. In that context, Aoun’s alliance with
Hizbullah now looks to many of his coreligionists like a bad idea,
one that might precipitate a civil conflict if the opposition pursues
its protests, which almost nobody seriously accepts as a demand for
more electricity and cheaper food.

But then put yourselves in Hizbullah’s shoes, and those of the Amal
movement. With your Christian partner neutralized, suddenly the
opposition looks mainly like a Shiite phenomenon. Worse, it looks
like a mainly Shiite phenomenon directed against the Lebanese Army,
a presidential election, and, by extension, the Lebanese state itself.

This is certainly not where Hizbullah’s secretary general, Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah, ever wanted to position himself; and it is, in a
word, suicidal for Shiites.

However, that apparently has not induced Hizbullah to backtrack. The
Sunday rioting was probably destined to discredit Suleiman. The
opposition’s follow-up criticism of the army commander as someone
who is no longer a consensus presidential candidate lends credence
to this theory. The Syrians have recently been trying to peddle
alternative candidates, via Qatar, to the French – which Qatari and
French denials in fact only confirmed. Suddenly, Hizbullah finds itself
in the uncomfortable position of blocking the election of a man many
Christians regard as a potentially strong leader, all because the
party won’t abandon Aoun, who is on the political decline. And why
won’t it do so? Because Hizbullah desperately needs the general as
an ally in a future government.

Whether Hizbullah’s calculations are mainly domestic, or are shaped
to a large extent by Syria is irrelevant. The party is, perhaps
unintentionally, pushing Shiites into a confrontation with the rest of
Lebanese society to protect itself, and nothing could be worse for the
community. Hizbullah’s inability to achieve any of its political aims
in the past 13 months has only increased its sense of frustration,
and the prospect of violence. The party is flailing, but March 14
must at all costs help think of creative ways to prevent the Shiites
from succumbing to a new "Kerbala complex," a sense that victimhood
is the historical lot of their community.

In 1975, the Christians had their own Kerbala complex, one that
dictated stubbornness in the defense of Christian prerogatives, which
at the time were regarded as an existential red line. In the process
they lost their control over the state. Hizbullah has made defense
of its weapons an existential red line for the Shiite community. But
Kerbala, as one astute analyst has put it, is hardly something the
Shiites should want to remember, as it ended in a massacre and
defeat. Nor is it something any Lebanese should want the Shiite
community to remember, or repeat.

The Christians learned to their detriment during the 1975-1990
conflict that a war against the Sunnis was also in many ways a war
against the Arab world. The Christian community never recovered from
that disaster. That’s a lesson the Shiite community should not have
to learn.

LIST OF 1000 BIGGEST TAX-PAYERS IN ARMENIA PUBLISHED

arminfo
2008-01-29 15:27:00

ArmInfo. The Tax Service of Armenia published the list of 1000 biggest
tax-payers upon the results of the financial year, 2007.

The list is headed by the Armenian "Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Complex"
CJSC, which paid taxes to the sum of over 33,6 bln drams to the state
budget. The second place is taken by the "ArmenTel" CJSC (a subsidiary
of the "Vympelcom" Russian Company), having paid 20,8 bln drams to the
state budget. The third place is taken by the "ArmRosgazprom" CJSC –
over 20 bln drams. The second cell communication operator, "K-Telecom"
CJSC, 80% of shares of which belong to the MTC Russian operator, paid
15,5 bln drams taxes and took the fourth position. The five of leaders
is concluded by the "Kagh Petrol Service" oil company – 10 bln drams.

To recall, upon the results of 10, 2007, the "ArmRosgazprom" was
the leader, the second place was taken by the "ArmenTel" CJSC and
the third place – by the Zangezour Copper-Molybdenum Complex. The
"Electric Networks of Armenia" took the ninth position.

President of Armenia: We strive for peace, but we are ready to give a
blitz response to any threat

2008-01-28 13:42:00

ArmInfo. Establishment of the Armenian army is one of the greatest and,
maybe, the most important achievements of our people, President of
Armenia Robert Kocharyan said at ceremonial awarding of a group of
servicemen. Armenia celebrates Army Day and the 16th Anniversary of
National Army.

‘Army is dear to all of us since it is an absolute value’, the
president said. He mentioned that all the sections of the population
had their contribution to the army establishment. ‘Today Armed Forces
are an important factor in our region. They guard our borders and
provide security and peace to our people. We highly appreciate peace,
and we strive for peace. Nevertheless, we are ready to make a blitz
response to any threat’, Robert Kocharyan said.

He also stressed that the efficiency of our army and the necessary
armament are improving day by day. The president called it the result
of both the effective work of services and permanent attention of the
authorities. Robert Kocharyan said the budget of the Armenian Army
exceeds the country’s budget for 1996-1997. ‘I do not remember the army
financing to be delayed for a day over the past 10 years. I think, it
is the best evidence of the authorities’ attitude to the army’, the
president said.

Religious Intelligence Ltd, UK
Jan 28 2008

Armenian monument desecrated
Monday, 28th January 2008. 5:09pm

THE WELSH Armenian community has been left reeling after a monument
to commemorate the 1915 genocide was desecrated in the early hours of
Holocaust Memorial Day.

The monument, which is situated at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff,
had its ornate Armenian Cross smashed by a hammer which was found at
the scene. Eilian Williams of Wales Armenia Solidarity condemned the
attack, which happened just hours before a memorial service in
remembrance of the 1.5 million Armenians killed in the genocide of
1915.

He said: `I call on Armenians and other sympathisers throughout the
world to send messages of support to Wales Armenia Solidarity which
we can send to the Prime Minister of the National Assembly of Wales.

`We shall repair the cross again and again, no matter how often it is
desecrated. `We also challange the UK government and the Turkish
Embassy to condemn this racist attack.’

ID=1516

Religious Intelligence Ltd, UK
Jan 28 2008

Analysis: Holocaust Memorial Day
Monday, 28th January 2008. 2:30pm

By: Rabbi Rachel Montagu.

In 1998 middle school students at Whitwell, a small town in
Tennessee, were bemused by the sheer scale of what they were learning
about the Holocaust in a course on tolerance.

Because during WWII some Norwegians wore a loop of metal as tacit
protest against the Nazis, they decided to collect a paper clip for
each Jewish victim of the Holocaust so they could see what 6 million
of anything looks like. After publicity about this project, many
people (including Presidents Clinton and Bush) sent paper clips. Then
they established the Children’s Holocaust Memorial; a railway goods
coach like the ones which ferried Jews to the camps, containing 11
million paper clips, 6 million for the Jewish victims, 5 million for
the non-Jewish victims including Roma and disabled. Any commemoration
which ignores the Jewishness of many of the victims is unrealistic
but so is any that suggests the Nazis murdered only Jews.

The mind-boggling enormity of the Holocaust is a difficulty for us
all. Lyn Smith’s anthology `Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust’
demonstrates that many of those going through it were also full of
disbelief that such things could be happening, such cruelty and
horror. Many theologians have wrestled with the difficulty of
offering any explanation. Rabbi Eliezer Berkovitz talks of God’s face
hidden at what human beings do with their God-given free will. But
the impossibility of understanding the Holocaust makes all the more
urgent the need to remember it.

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on January 27, the anniversary of
the liberation of Auschwitz. After it was instituted in Britain and
some other European countries in 2001, the United Nations passed a
resolution in 2005 designating January 27 International Holocaust
Memorial Day. It is often but mistakenly suggested that the Jewish
community lobbied for its creation.

Actually the government initially proposed it and the Jewish
community reacted cautiously. Jews commemorate the Holocaust on Yom
HaShoah, Holocaust Day, which usually falls in April near the
anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Why another day?
Eventually the Jews in Britain realized the importance of a national
opportunity for everyone to reflect on the significance of the
Holocaust and of all the other genocides commemorated. It is good
that this year the Muslim Council of Great Britain will be joining in
the commemorations.

How, if the Holocaust is beyond comprehension, can we commemorate it
before God? Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks described the Holocaust as
`a mystery wrapped in silence’. Rabbi Irving Greenberg wrote: `… over
a million innocent children were savagely killed. No statement,
theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible
in the presence of burning children. Any easy affirmation of God
would appear to mock the burning children. Any easy denial of God
would appear to turn the children’s deaths into a gigantic travesty.’

This sets a formidable challenge for any Holocaust Memorial Day
service. For those daunted by the prospect of creating such a
liturgy, The Council of Christians and Jews has produced resources.

Ever since Abraham asked God, `should not the judge of all the world
do justice?’ Judaism has had a tradition of prayer that challenges
God. A well-known story describes how one night, in a packed
concentration camp blockhouse, the prisoners put God on trial and
declared God guilty of permitting their terrible situation — then
prayed the evening service. A similar story by Elie Wiesel describes
a group of prisoners in Auschwitz who decided that they would eat
their usual meagre rations on Yom Kippur because fasting would hasten
their deaths. Their leader, who had encouraged the rest to eat,
fasted, later explaining that he had acted from defiance not
obedience: `Here and now the only way to accuse him is by praising
him.’

A story by Zvi Kolitz, titled Yossel Rakover’s Appeal to God
describes the last moments of a fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto: `It is
a time when God has veiled his countenance from the world … I cannot
extol You for the deeds you tolerate. I bless You and extol You for
the very fact of Your existence. … You may take from me all I cherish
and hold dear in the world… – I will believe in You, I will always
love You!’

If one of the strongest responses to the Holocaust was to say, `Never
Again’ to exterminating people because of their race, how are we to
understand those genocides which have happened since and the rape and
torture now happening in Darfur? Rabbi Hugo Gryn said that the real
question was `Not where was God in Auschwitz but where was man?’

The Sufi Muslim Council, Faith Matters and the Three Faiths Forum
have a current project, Bridging Beliefs, with the theme Never Again.
Up and down the country, meetings took place where a Jewish Holocaust
survivor and a Muslim Bosnia survivor described the atrocities they
had experienced because of their faith to a Jewish and Muslim
audience to create better relations between communities and help to
prevent potential deaths.

Yad VaShem UK has a project called Guardian of the Memory. Churches,
schools and individuals undertake to commemorate annually the death
of one person who was killed in the Holocaust. The inspiration was
David Berger, a boy who wrote shortly before the Nazis killed him in
Vilna in 1941, `I should like someone to remember that there once
lived a person named David Berger.’

The Holocaust and other genocides unquestionably show human beings at
their most vile but some people responded with great spiritual
nobility to the Holocaust’s challenge. Those who risked their lives
to hide and help Jews, described in books like Michael Gilbert’s The
Righteous. Those who refused to be dehumanized or to cease to
practice their religion, described in Eliezer Berkowitz’ book With
God in Hell: Judaism in the Ghettoes and Death Camps. Those who wrote
this prayer found at Ravensbruck: `Eternal, remember not only the men
of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the
suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we
have brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty,
our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart
that has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all
the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness.’

Jane Clements has written about the importance of education about the
Holocaust. Nothing can justify the Holocaust, nothing can excuse the
Holocaust, no one can comprehend the Holocaust, but if we can learn
something from it, then that may go somewhere to redeeming what
happened, and ensure that no one ignores or denies the Holocaust and
the other genocides, those of the Armenians, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda
and Darfur, commemorated on this day.

Yad VaShem UK Guardian of the Memory Campaign email:
office@yadvashem,org,uk 020 7543 5402

Council of Christians and Jews

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

RA PRESIDENT RECEIVES AMBASSADOR OF GREAT BRITAIN FINISHING HIS DIPLOMATIC MISSION IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Jan 25, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 25, NOYAN TAPAN. On January 25, RA President
Robert Kocharian had a meeting of farewell with Anthony Cantor, the
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to RA. Expressing gratitude to
the Ambassador for his efficient activity, the President wished him
success in his future activity.

R. Kocharian estimated the current level of Armenian-British relations
as stable and their volume as positive.

According to the report provided to NT by the RA President’s Press
Office, in his turn, Ambassador Cantor said that he leaves Armenia
with great impressions and is going to return here in he future
without fail.

MORE THAN 75 THOUSAND UNEMPLOYED IN ARMENIA

Panorama.am
16:40 25/01/2008

According to data released by Employment State Service for the last
year, 75,050 unemployed are registered at their agency. The level of
unemployment is 6.7%. Some 73% of the unemployed are women and 18.7%
are young.

In the course of the year, 8322 people have found jobs and 9100 have
found temporary jobs.

The indicator of those enrolled in employment programs has gone up
by 6.7% last year, making up 43.7% of those seeking jobs. Some 1179
unemployed, 4 pensioners seeking job and 66 disabled are enrolled
in 2007 Training Program of the agency. Instead of planned 1237,
1249 persons are enrolled in the professional training programs.

Some 62% of those who passed training in 2006 found jobs in 2007.