MEETING IN CYPRUS DEDICATED TO SUMGAIT MASSACRES
AZG Armenian Daily
21/03/2008
Diaspora
On March 28, a political meeting dedicated to Sumgait massacre victims
and 20th anniversary of Artsakh liberation struggle will be held in
Utugian Hall of the Armenian Church of Cyprus.
The event is organized by Cyprus Democratic Liberal
(Ramkavar-Azatakan), Social Democratic Hnchakian and ARF
(Dashnaktsutyun) political parties, Cyprus-Armenian community informs.
AZERI SELF-DECEPTION CAN UNDERMINE KARABAKH PROCESS
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.03.2008 16:22 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian praised
the states which did not support the Azerbaijani resolution on
Karabakh.
"This is a non-binding, or consultative pronouncement by the General
Assembly. I don’t think it will have an affect the process, unless
Azerbaijan is engaged not just in deception but self-deception,"
the Minister said.
"It was unnecessary, ill-timed, mean-spirited, both as a process
and a product. If Azeris expect to use this for anything other than
their domestic purposes, if they have convinced themselves that the
international community truly supports the one-sided desires they
had enumerated in the text of this resolution, then this will cause
serious problems in the negotiations.
One thing must be clear for Azerbaijan – that no amount of
resolutions will make Nagorno Karabakh deviate from its path of
self-determination," he emphasized.
"Show me one example in history when a conflict has been resolved by
the passage of a document by an international organization or by third
countries. This has never happened and is not going to happen now. In
1948, the UN General Assembly resolution to partition Palestine didn’t
solve anything. Recently, the Security Council resolution on Kosovo
didn’t manage to bring the sides together in a meaningful way either."
"I remember Lisbon where the OSCE Chairman-in-Office made a statement
about Nagorno Karabakh. Azeri joy knew no limits then. It took years
for Azerbaijan to understand that the document had no value," the
Minister noted.
By insisting on this non-binding, non-collective statement, Azerbaijan
proved that it wants to retreat from the Minsk Group process, and
therefore from the content of the document on the table. This country
is ready to negotiate what it wants, but not to compromise," Minister
Oskanian said in an interview with Azdak Beirut-based newspaper.
IRAN SENDS OFFICIAL LETTER TO UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY VOTING FOR RESOLUTION ON AZERBAIJAN
Azeri Press Agency
March 19 2008
Azerbaijan
Baku. Elnur Mammadli – APA. Iran, which missed the voting of the
resolution on "The situation in the occupied Azerbaijani territories"
in the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, has sent an official
letter to the General Assembly voting for the resolution, Executive
Secretary of New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) Ali Ahmadov said, APA reports.
He said that Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UN Agshin Mehdiyev had
told him about it. Ali Ahmadov underlined that the position of the
neighboring state was appraised.
Iran missed the voting of the resolution on "The situation in the
occupied Azerbaijani territories" in the UN General Assembly.
ARMENIAN POSTER WINS FIRST RATE AWARD
ARMENPRESS
March 19, 2008
YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS: A poster of the Armenian nature
protection ministry was awarded first rate award of an international
competition announced to mark the 20-th anniversary of the Montreal
Protocol.
The Armenian National Ozone Protection Center, an affiliation of the
ministry, that designed the poster, received $500 award and a letter
of appreciation from the UNDP.
Asya Muradian, a program coordinator of the Center, said the money was
spent on buying home appliances for an orphanage in the town of Gavar.
Montreal Protocol is an international agreement on reducing substances
that deplete the ozone layer.
PRESIDENT-ELECT SERGE SARGSYAN TO VISIT RUSSIA
Armradio.am
20.03.2008 10:33
On March 24 RA Presidnet-elect, Prime Minister Serge Sarsgyan will
leave for the Russian Federatuon for a working visit, RA Governemnt’s
Information and Public Relations Department reported.
In the framework of the visit Serge Sargsyan will have meetings with
Russian Presidnet Vladimir Putin, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev
and Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.
A broad framework of issues of bilateral interest will be discussed
during the meetings.
ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT PASSED DRAFT LAW ‘ON ALTERATIONS AND AMENDMENTS TO LAW ‘ON RALLIES, DEMONSTRATIONS AND PROCESSIONS"
arminfo
2008-03-18 11:24:00
ArmInfo. Late at night March 17, at the extra session, RA Parliament
passed the second and final reading of the draft law "On Alterations
and Amendments to Law "On Rallies, Demonstrations and processions""
with 90 votes "for" and 6 "against".
One of the authors of the amendments, MP Rafik Petrossyan says
that the March 1 events in Yerevan have become a bitter lesson for
everybody. 8 people were killed and lots of people wounded on that
day, the state sustained big damage, the political situation in the
country was destabilized. The events have shown that the existing
law needs revision. It is necessary to revise some points of the law
so as to exclude the possibility of anti-constitutional actions and
to guarantee the safety of people in the future. The amendments are
based on the principles of human rights and freedoms, particularly,
the authors refer to articles 11 and 16 of European Convention n
Human Rights and considered the experience of such countries as Italy,
Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Finland, Romania, Moldova.
Particularly, the authors are planning to amend articles 9, 10,
12 and 14 of the law. Thus, according to the amendment to Article
9 the authorities can restrict organization and holding of rallies,
demonstrations and processions if in case of reliable information these
activities may threaten the state security, cause violation of public
order, and violation of the constitutional rights of citizens. It
is extremely important that the body restricting the organization of
the activities should possess absolutely reliable information. This
information must be told to the Police and the National Security
Service. At the same time, the organizers of the activities may dispute
the decision on legal waivers. In case of disorders, occurred as a
result of mass events, the authorities are entitled to refuse the
organizers of mass events to hold new rallies, demonstrations and
processions until completion of the criminal case. Moreover, a new
provision has been introduced in the document, according to which
it is banned to hold mass events, if all the other measures gave no
result. Mass events may be held only with written permission of the
authorized body. The terms of application submission for holding of
rallies, demonstrations and processions have been also revised. The
organizer of mass events undertakes to notify the authorized bodies
about it not three days before, as it has been fixed in the current
law, but five days before their holding.
STRENGTHENING ARMENIA’S SME SECTOR
The FINANCIAL
March 18 2008
Georgia
The FINANCIAL — To provide further support to small and medium-sized
enterprises in Armenia, the EBRD is providing a $5 million loan to
Cascade Bank, a dynamically growing, private Armenian bank.
The EBRD finance will help the bank expand its lending activities and
specifically target the SME sector, which holds the key to further
strong and sustainable growth in Armenia. The loan to Cascade Bank will
be complemented with an assistance programme sponsored by technical
cooperation funds to establish best practices at the bank.
Cascade Bank is a universal bank that offers a wide range of services
to commercial and private customers. The bank also has a significant
mortgage portfolio and is a member of the international MasterCard
system. Cascade Bank sees small and medium-sized enterprises as a
strategic growth area and is stepping up its efforts to reach out to
the sector.
Michael Weinstein, head of the EBRD’s Yerevan office, said that the
financing is expected to boost the development of SMEs in Armenia, as
the local banking sector still does not lend to SME’s on a sufficient
scale. "The SME sector is so important, because it is there that jobs
are being created, living standards are being raised and the middle
class is emerging", he added.
Jonathan Stark, chairman of Cascade Bank, said, "This credit line
further strengthens our relationship with the EBRD. It will support
Cascade Bank’s mission to offer innovative, affordable loans to a
broader client base and to act as a progressive force encouraging
investment into Armenia."
Aharon Levonyan, CEO of Cascade Bank, added: "Given the upward
trend in Armenian deposit rates, EBRD credit lines are an important
alternative source of funding which will help Cascade Bank continue
to offer lower lending rates to SME borrowers."
The EBRD loan comes under the Armenia Multi-Bank Framework Facility
II which continues the successful provision of funds to local banks
for on-lending to commercial customers. Armenia is part of the Bank’s
Early Transition Countries Initiative which follows a streamlined
approach to financing medium-scale private sector enterprises. The
programme recently topped the 100 marker with 105 projects.
The EBRD’s Early Transition Countries Initiative is supported by a
multi-donors fund which to-date has received almost ~@50 million from
12 donor governments. The fund which exists alongside bilateral support
funds provides financing for project preparation and implementation.
Azerbaijani party unhappy for India’s position in UN
2008-03-15 17:48:00
ArmInfo. ‘Azerbaijani Embassy worked much with the Indian party for the
latter at least to abstain when voting on the Karabakh conflict in UN’,
– Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to India Tamerlan Karayev said when
commenting on the voting results on draft resolution on Karabakh
conflict in UN where India voted "against".
As 1news.az reports, he also added that India did not listen to the
view of Baku. Karayev also said they had big plans regarding the
bilateral relations but by its yesterday’s step India broke everything.
‘At present Azerbaijani Embassy in Delhi is waiting for certain
instructions from Foreign Ministry, after which we shall officially
present our position to the Indian party’, – Karayev said. He also
added that the Azerbaijani party is unhappy for India’s position in UN.
‘It will seriously affect the Azerbaijani-Indian further relations’, –
the ambassador said.
ARMENIAN PRIME-MINISTER TO EXPLAIN SITUATION ABOUT SIMPLIFIED TAX TO MEDIUM BUSINESSES
ARKA
March 14, 2008
YEREVAN, March 14. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime-Minister Serge Sargsian
expressed his intention to clarify the situation about simplified
tax to medium businesses.
The legislative amendments passed in 2007 narrowed the limits of
imposing simplified tax on economic entities. Under the amendments,
commercial organizations and individual businessmen can pay simplified
tax payers only if they carry out commercial activities in one shop,
kiosk or through one trade facility.
"The simplified tax is not cancelled; the legislative changes are to
bring the major business to taxation framework. These amendments are
not against small and medium business. In the next three-four days
I will meet with representatives of medium business and will clarify
the issue to them in detail," the Premier said.
YEREVAN CENTRE TO GET WATER SUPPLY ON SCHEDULE BY MARCH 31
ARKA
March 14, 2008
YEREVAN, March 14. /ARKA/. The Kentron (Centre) District of Yerevan
will get water supply on the following schedule – from 7:00 a.m. to
12:00 a.m., and from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
This system of water supply will continue until March 31. Yerevan
Water Sewage Company says this is accounted for by many water system
failures caused by winter frosts.
The water supply schedule applies to the residential houses located
in Mashtots Avenue (34-37), Byron Street (4-12), Moskovyan Street
(4-38), Abovyan Street (26-34/1), Teryan Street (42-50), as well as in
Nalbandyan, Sayat-Nova, Parpetsi, Pushkin, Saryan, Buzand, Amiryan,
Koghbatsi, Zakyan, Agatangeghos, Khorenatsi, Kajaznuni, Vratsyan,
Kochar, Manukyan, Vardanants, Charents, Nar Dos and Aygestan.
The company apologizes for inconveniences and expresses gratitude
for understanding, the report reads.