Author: Jalatian Sonya

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WILL DO EVERYTHING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TO END ON FEBRUARY 19

armradio.am
11.01.2008 14:39

The Republican Party of Armenia will do everything for the presidential
elections to end on February 19, at the first round, Vice-President
of the Republican Party, NA Deputy Galust Sahakyan declared today. He
said "the Republican Party intends to use its whole political capital
and hold a good election."

According to Mr. Sahakyan, the guarantees of successful elections
"are the constant meetings with the electorate in the regions and
establishment of close ties with the population, since several speeches
on TV cannot create the atmosphere or trust which is formed during
immediate contact with people."

The Vice-President of the Republican Party expressed opinion that
there will the winner of the presidential elections, "but there will
be no losers, since the second and third places will have essential
importance for the future career of the politicians."

LEVON TER-PETROSIAN STATED THAT HE IS FAMILIAR WITH THE RECENT PROPOSAL OF THE MEDIATORS ON THE SETTLEMENT OF THE KARABAKH CONFLICT

Mediamax
January 11, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosian stated in Yerevan
today that he is familiar with the recent proposal of the mediators
on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Mediamax reports that, speaking at a news conference in Yerevan today,
Levon Ter-Petrosian stated that he does not consider himself having
the right to publicize the details. At that the Ex-President urged to
pay attention to the fact that "the recent proposal of the mediators
is the first written document after the conception of common state",
presented to the sides by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs in 1997".

The former President did not rule out that in case he is elected, the
"logic of the present process" will become a basis for continuation
of the peace process.

Levon Ter-Petrosian stated that the authorities of Armenia in the
course of the recent ten years "did nothing for the settlement of the
Karabakh problem". Answering the question on which exactly constructive
approaches he is planning to use for the settlement of the conflict,
Levon Ter-Petrosian stated:

"Constructive is the approach, which is not non-constructive. To reach
the settlement, it is necessary to change the philosophy and pass on
from torpedoing of the peace process to the solution of the problem".

Commenting on the statements, according to which only a few sentences
are devoted to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict in his
pre-election program, Levon Ter-Petrosian urged the journalists
to consider all his public speeches in the course of the recent 3
months, "the volume of which exceeds 300 pages" also components of
his pre-election program.

OSCE HOPES FOR FAIR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.01.2008 17:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights (ODIHR) opened an election observation mission today
for the presidential election in Armenia on 19 February.

"The mission will consist of 11 core staff based in Yerevan and
28 long-term observers who will be deployed throughout the country
on January 15. The mission members will attend all of 1923 polling
stations to function in Armenia on the election day," mission head
Geert Hinrich Ahrens told a news conference in Yerevan.

"We are hopeful that our mission will produce a preliminary conclusion
a day after the election.

OSCE’s resulting report will be issued two months after the election,"
he said.

EUROPEAN OBSERVERS EXPECT SERIOUS PROGRESS

Yerkir
10.01.2008 16:43

Yerevan (Yerkir) – Representatives of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic
Institutes and Human Rights told a news conference on January 10 that
they are beginning the monitoring of the February 19 presidential
election in Armenia.

"The election results are not in our mandate if the election was held
properly," Ambassador Gert-Henrich Arens said. The mission will publish
its final report two months after the election results are announced,
and will publish two other interim reports during that period. He said
the media’s role is very important. He also said he hoped Armenia would
show progress in this election, saying the monitoring will be conducted
in the same manner as it was in the May parliamentary election.

The mission comprises 11 key specialists, working in Yerevan and
28 long-term observers who will be sent to the regions on January
15. The observers represent 22 countries of the OSCE. He also said
that about 250 short-term observers will arrive in Armenia soon to
monitor the 1,923 polling stations. Arens noted that the media is
not covering the presidential candidates equally.

The mission members have met with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian and the Central Electoral Commission chairman, Garegin
Azarian, and have expressed wish to meet all nine presidential
candidates.

PARK CITY ’08: Don’t Overlook the World: 10+ International Films to Watch at Sundance ’08

Indiewire
by Anthony Kaufman
January 9, 2008

Next week, the global film industry will turn to Park City, Utah for
the Sundance Film Festival. But does Sundance, in turn, look back at
the rest of the globe? The answer, of course, is sort of. While press,
paparazzi and moviegoers will be tracking the every movement of this
year’s American celebs (Josh Hartnett, Charlize Theron and Jack Black,
just to name a few), Sundance has increasingly tried to boost its
international competition sections, with more prizes and more prestige
value for the festival’s global entrants.

While there are very few international breakouts at Sundance, they do
exist. Previously, Werner Herzog’s "Grizzly Man," critics’ favorites
"Live-in Maid," "I For India," "13 Tzameti," docs "In the Shadow of
the Moon" and "Manufactured Landscapes," and of course, John Carney’s
$9.5 million Fox Searchlight sleeper success "Once" have all recently
played in the world cinema sections. (Sundances long ago played host
to major UK successes such as "Shine" and "Saving Grace.") So what
global discovery will pop this year?

Of the 32 international documentary and dramatic features, here are 10
(plus a couple more) world films and trends that may pull viewers —
deservedly — away from this year’s over-hyped Amer-indies.

While cinema from the Middle East has rarely made inroads into the
U.S. marketplace, a record seven films from the area will screen at
Sundance this year. Programmers say the healthy Middle East contingent
wasn’t intentional. "We never go out looking for films from a
particular region, but every year an interesting regional out-cropping
seems to emerge," says programmer Caroline Libresco. "It seems to have
something to do with a ‘story-telling urgency.’"

Whether turmoil in the region has inspired filmmakers (the program’s
most prescient selection may be "Dinner with the President," which
examines life in contemporary Pakistan) or western producers’ interest
and investment in the region (the Sundance Institute has a 4-year-old
screenwriting lab in Jordan), proof may be in this year’s Sundance
selections.

If advanced blog-of-mouth is to be believed, AFI grad Amin Matalqa’s
"Captain Abu Raed" is one of the more attractive prospects. A Dubai
International Film Festival premiere, the rare Jordanian movie
chronicles an aging airport janitor who is mistaken for a pilot by a
group of children and tells them fantastical stories of his
adventures. One online fan of the film wrote, "I would say this movie
is a bit like ‘Monsieur Ibrahim’ – only more engrossing. It’s an urban
romance both humorous and melancholic, and a great antidote to
pretentious art-films and sickly-sweet family dramas." Sounds like
just what most U.S. distributors are looking for nowadays.

Also from the region, Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv’s "Strangers" has
been called the most hotly anticipated Israeli film of the
year. Developed out of their award-winning short film of the same
name, "Strangers" follows a love story between an Israeli man (Amos
Gitai regular Liron Levo) and a Palestinian woman ("Paradise Now’s"
Lubna Azabal, who won an award for Most Promising Actress at the
Jerusalem Film Festival). The two meet and fall in love during the
World Cup finals in Germany in 2006, but their affair is soon
complicated by the outbreak of war between Israel and Lebanon.

German original Veit Helmer (whose exquisitely photographed break-out
feature "Tuvalu" won several international awards, including a best
cinematography prize at Slamdance 2000) returns to Park City with the
world premiere of his latest, "Absurdistan," an "inventive and
allegorical comedy" about two childhood sweethearts in Azerbaijan who
must contend with a village-wide strike of "Lysistrata"-like
proportions. Picked up by major German sales company Beta Cinema,
"Absurdistan" may be too weird to crossover, but it’s likely to be on
critic’s watchlists.

Germany is also presented at this year’s festival with the world
premiere of Dennis Gansel’s "The Wave," about a high school teacher’s
experiment-gone-bad, where his students experience life under a
dictatorship. Recently picked up by top-notch international sales
company Celluloid Dreams, the film follows Gansel’s successful German
comedy "Girls on Top" and his more recent award-winner "Napola,"
a.k.a. "Before the Fall," which had a limited theatrical run in the
U.S. in 2006.

Another fanciful tale, Russian director Anna Melikyan’s slick modern
fairytale "Mermaid" should also garner buzz, having already received
strong praise out of Russian fests last year. Reviewing out of the
Vladivostok Film Festival, Variety’s Russell Edwards’s wrote the film
"has abundant charm and digital trickery in the ‘Amelie’ mold, but
also a winning personality all its own." As a young woman with
telekinetic powers making her way through contemporary Russia,
diminutive star Mariya Shalayeva has already received accolades (a
Best Actress prize at Sochi) and director Melikyan, a veteran
commercial filmmaker (whose 2001 short "Poste Restante" won a special
jury prize at prestigious Clermont-Ferrand film festival) reportedly
gives the film a breathtaking visual palette.

With Sundance often strong on Latin American cinema, this year’s
Spanish-language foreign production to watch is Colombian director
Carlos Moreno’s world premiere "Dog Eat Dog," a gritty crime thriller
about a small-town thug who is sent to collect money on behalf of his
boss, but decides to keep the cash for himself. Moreno is also an
experienced commercial director, whose won international awards for
his music video and ad spots.

In the documentary competition, British filmmakers dominate. From
narrative filmmaker Marc Evans ("Snow Cake," "My Little Eye") comes
"In Prison My Whole Life," an investigation into the arrest and death
sentence of Mumia Abu Jamal, which received mixed reviews out of
London, while James Marsh ("The King," "Wisconsin Death Trip") unveils
the world premiere of his "Man on Wire," a portrait of famed hire-wire
performer Philippe Petit, and the heist-like plan he and his team
pulled off to walk a wire suspended between the Twin Towers in
1974. Cinephiles will also want to check out veteran British director
Isaac Julien’s "Derek," a portrait of another UK director, the
legendary avant-garde master Derek Jarman.

Also from the U.K., award-winning music video, commercial and shorts
filmmaker Chris Waitt’s world premiere, "A Complete History of My
Sexual Failures" chronicles the filmmaker’s love-life, via interviews
with ex-girlfriends, medical practitioners and his mother. Recently
featured as one of Screen International’s "Stars of Tomorrow," Waitt
has won acclaim for his BBC puppet comedy "FUR TV," while his cloning
short "Dupe" won a BAFTA best short prize.

Last, but definitely not least, the world doc section’s most
celebrated film so far is Gonzalo Arijon’s "Stranded: I’ve Come From a
Plane that Crashed on the Mountains," the harrowing survival tale of
the 1974 Andes plane crash (later made into the fiction movie
"Alive"), which recently won the top prize at the IDFA documentary
festival. Reviewing for Variety, John Anderson called the film a
"cinematic tour de force" that "packs a knock-out punch." At Sundance,
Anderson suggested, "the deftly wrought tale will have audiences
eating out of its hand."

Indeed, with more than a dozen international films worth checking out,
on top of the many American must-sees, few moviegoers will be leaving
Park City hungry for more.

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
Dec 30 2007

Azeri premier meets Egyptian minister of international coop

Baku, Dec 30, IRNA

Azerbaijan`s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade met with Egypt`s Minister
for International Cooperation Faiza Abu El Naga, AzerTAc reported.

The Egyptian Minister expressed satisfaction with results of her
meetings in Baku.

Faiza Abu El Naga said Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev`s visit to
Egypt this year gave the impetus to the development of bilateral
relations between the two countries.

She added Egypt`s President Hosni Mubarak is also expected to visit
Azerbaijan soon.

Faiza Abu El Naga said there are huge prospects for future
Azerbaijan-Egypt cooperation.

The Egyptian Minister said during her talks in Baku, Egypt and
Azerbaijan agreed that her country will make investments in
construction of a pharmaceutical plant in the Azeri capital and
provide teaching aids on Arabian for Azerbaijani schools.

Artur Rasizade spoke of Azerbaijan`s economic development. He
informed the Egyptian Minister about regional economic and transport
projects.

On the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
the Azeri Premier said his country is making every effort towards
peaceful settlement of the dispute.

Faiza Abu El Naga said Egypt support Azerbaijan`s territorial
integrity and sovereignty, and that its stance will never change.

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Dec 28 2007

NKR’S justice minister appointed as supervisory chamber chairman

STEPANAKERT, December 28 . /ARKA/. The Minister of Justice of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Arthur Movsisian has been appointed
to the post of the Chairman of the Supervisory Chamber.

The nomination of Movsisian was passed by the parliament in a secret
vote with 24 votes `’for”, 3 `’against” and no one abstrained, the
Press Service of NKR’s Parliament reported.

As per the Constitution of NKR, Petrosian candidacy was suggested by
the President of NKR Bako Sahakian. -0–

President underlined importance of excavations in Tigranakert

28-12-2007 11:22:39 – KarabakhOpen

Yesterday President Bako Sahakyan met with Hamlet Petrosyan, head of
the expedition of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the
National Academy of Science, and Vardges Safaryan, teacher at Artsakh
State University.

They discussed a wide range of issues relating to excavations at
ancient Tigranakert in the vicinities of Stepanakert, and underlined
the importance of excavations. The president emphasized the necessity
to boost up the activities, the General Department of Information of
the president administration reported.

The president offered to set up closer cooperation with the Ministry of
Culture with our Diasporan compatriots and the media.

For the first time the government has assigned 30 million drams for the
excavations in Tigranakert.

THERE ARE NO FOREIGN PARTICIPANTS IN CAPITAL OF ONLY 2 OUT OF 21
ARMENIAN BANKS

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the deputy chairman of
the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Artur Javadian, the International
Finance Corporation (IFC) has a credit portfolio of 18 million dollars
in Armenia. He said at the December 26 press conference that three
groups of factors influnced the IFC’s decision to invest 25 million
dollars in Ardshininvestbank. The first group of factors includes the
stability, reliability and transparency of the Armenian banking system.
In particular, stability with respect to Ardshininvestbank is reflected
in 85% growth of the bank’s credit portfolio in 2007 as compared with
2006. Its reliability is seen in the fact that fixed-period deposits of
natural and juridical persons make up over 80% of the liabilities of
this bank. Its transparency is characterized by the fact that in 2007
Ardshininvestbank’s net profit amounted to more than 4 billion drams
(about 13 million USD), exceeding twofold last year’s net profit.

The second group of factors that condition large investments in the
banking system is related to attractiveness of Armenia’s economy and
banking system. It is expressed in a high level of repayment of
credits. 98.3% of Ardshininvestbank’s credits are classified as
standard ones. The third group of factors is reflected in the use of
corporate management principles especially in the banking system, as a
result of which assets and capitals of banks increase, the networks of
their branches expand, new institutional investors are attracted,
competition grows, interest rates are reduced and new financial
instruments are introduced.

In the words of the CBA deputy chairman, there are no foreign
participants in only 2 out of the 21 Armenian banks. On the whole, in
the past few years, participants of the Armenian banking system have
signed big deals of at least 80 million dollars with foreign partners.
It is planned that another 2-3 deals will be signed in early 2008.

Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
Dec 26 2007

Armenian security agency denies pressure on ex-president’s supporters

Yerevan, 26 December: The National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia
made a statement today in which it refuted the statements of
ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan who had said that the citizens of
the country were under the pressure from the employees of the NSS.

"The NSS officially declares that the given information does not
correspond to the reality. The NSS is an apolitical structure, and
the director of the service made it clear once again during his 18
December interview. The NSS once again declares that it functions
within the framework of its authority established by Armenian
legislation and it considers unsuccessful all the efforts to involve
the security bodies in the internal political struggle," the
statement reads.

Ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan said on 25 December that "for
already two months my allies have been summoned on the phone or
verbally to police and security service departments, where they have
been subjected to psychological pressure and threats to force them to
stop supporting my candidacy and participating in my rallies".