Author: Jidarian Alex

ARMENIAN ELITE SHOULD HAVE SINGLE IDEA TO UNITE SOCIETY: PRIME MINISTER

ARKA
July 18

Armenia should find the best way to form a single idea among the
representatives of society’s elite to gather the people around,
Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan believes.

"We have no such single idea today dominating in society. Instead,
we have plenty of mutually exclusive ideas leading to splits," the
premier told Armenian TV5 channel. According to Sargsyan, only those
nations who are able to unite around one single idea usually prove
to be successful.

"A good example of this is Germany. In quite a short period of time
it was not only able to reconstruct its ruined economy, but it could
turn from an aid-receiving country into an aid-rendering country in
only 20-30 years.

This happened due to the ability of the German people to unite around
a single idea guiding their leaders," the Armenian premier said.

The premier said the modern world has reached the development phase in
which spiritual values are put first, one of the priorities considered
to be the civilization dialogue.

"If we want a real boom than we must focus on the mentality of the
ruling elite in spiritual values rather than in business or management
skills," he emphasized.

Sargsyan also stressed the necessity changing the people’s mentality
which is quite a problem in Armenia now.

The premier said the speeches of the representatives of Armenian
elite are usually rich in artificial clichés from modern manuals
which means they do not quite understand the meaning of their own
statements, but use them to please the foreign influential forces
rather than the people of Armenia.

"This is a very dangerous phenomenon. Mentality enables us to
differentiate between the discussed idea and the form of running the
discussion. Unfortunately, people who are responsible for decision
making are trying to introduce bookish truths into Armenian society
which leads to grave problems," the premier said.

Sargsyan believes such ideas can be called to life only when we manage
to form the elite which would be guiding the people and would itself
be guided by these ideas.

–Boundary_(ID_QE3OymL07mRPtrED6BFZfA)–

TURKEY, ARMENIA HOLD TALKS TO `NORMALIZE’ TIES, BABACAN SAYS
Ayla Jean Yackley

Bloomberg
July 18 2008

July 18 (Bloomberg) — Turkish and Armenian officials have held direct
talks in an effort to "normalize" relations, Turkey’s foreign minister,
Ali Babacan, said.

Officials from both sides have met "from time to time" to discuss ways
to improve links, Babacan said today at a televised news conference
in Ankara. He also said he and his Armenian counterpart, Edward
Nalbandian, have exchanged greetings at international gatherings.

Babacan said Turkey favors dialogue with Armenia to resolve their
disputes, including a disagreement arising from Armenian allegations
that Turkey committed genocide against its own Armenian community in
World War I. Turkey denies the accusation and opposes the Armenian
presence in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Senior diplomats from Turkey and Armenia held secret talks in the
Swiss city of Bern on July 8, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper said today.

COLORADO SPRINGS INDEPENDENT, CO

Lamborn’s flip-flops
July 16 2008

LETTERS

It is imperative that candidates seeking public office, requesting the
trust and faith of the citizens they represent, uphold that pledge
with fortitude. First-term congressman Doug Lamborn has failed
that test. Months after being sworn into office in 2007, Lamborn
co-sponsored a resolution to reaffirm the Armenian genocide. Within
months, he floundered and withdrew his support. This was the first
in a series of flip-flops on an issue of conscience.

Historical records describe the 20th century’s first genocide, the
Armenian genocide, as a campaign of race extermination. In all,
1.5 million Christian Armenians perished by order of the Ottoman
Empire. It was, in fact, the first "final solution" of the century
and Hitler, on the eve of his 1939 invasion of Poland, said, "Who,
after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

In May, under great public pressure to blunt criticism of his
withdrawal from the Armenian genocide resolution and facing the threat
of a vigorous Republican primary, Lamborn issued a Congressional
Record statement acknowledging the Armenian genocide. This was his
second flip-flop.

His third and final flip-flop came in his response to an
election-issues survey sponsored by a national American-Armenian
organization. He placed a stipulation — a caveat, if you will —
on his support for future Armenian genocide reaffirmation resolutions.

Genocide is not an issue that allows for clarification or equivocation.

Lamborn’s challenger, Jeff Crank, in contrast, has pledged
unequivocally to support congressional efforts to re-establish
United States foreign policy recognizing the Armenian genocide. If
he’s elected, the American-Armenian community of Colorado will hold
Crank to his word. Isn’t that what all citizens should expect of an
elected member of Congress?

BOXING WITH CORRUPTION
Karen Nahapetyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 17, 2008
Armenia

In essence there has been no serious attempts to bring corruption
under control, in our reality. Time after time you can notice certain
livelihood in this term, but very soon everything becomes quiet.

Partially it is because they do these steps in the wrong sequence,
at first they announce about fighting corruption then they start to
think of how to do it. In such circumstances the issue of diagnosis
remains unanswered.

Today when fighting corruption is really in process, it is very
important to understand which is the principal goal of this struggle.

The first version is the formation of the personal agenda and a
personal political figure by the new ruling power. In that case PR
is extremely important, the actions that most probably won’t change
the situation, but instead they will help consolidate the power and
will become noticeable for the society.

The second version is that the ruling power really wants to fight
corruption. What should they do?

There are lots of recipes about how to fight corruption, but those
scenarios that exist in the world don’t suit Armenia, because there
are lots of peculiarities. We must simply choose the best one.

For example lets take the formation of electronic government from
Estonia, the correlation of social security with spotless service
-=2 0 from the USA, the free opportunity of the civilians to use
information services – from Scandinavian countries, the control on
the low ranking officials – from Singapore, South Korea, etc.

We must be realistic. The key element of fighting corruption is
political rivalry. We should have healthy mechanisms replacing
corrupted high-ranking officials. It is difficult to expect that one
day this political rivalry will appear in our reality.

Yes we must impartially exercise rights; something that has never
existed in our reality and it is hard to expect that one day it
will appear according to the law or the decree of the President. At
present we must employ comparably simple tools: for example reforming
the selection of judges, punishing for corruption in law enforcement
structures, etc.

Whereas we must understand that in our country it will be very
difficult to live without the tradition of taking and giving bribes. So
we don’t exclude the demonstrative arrests of famous figures, but
hardly will they reduce the number of corruption cases.

By the way we must also take into account the fact that the society is
absolutely not enthusiastic about this demonstrative struggle against
corruption. They are too experienced to understand the difference
between the real struggle against corruption and the shows on TV how
they catch certain officials red handed.

If in our reality fighting corruption moves i n its worst version:
if they don’t put emphases on juridical reforms, protection of small
and average business and political rivalry, everything will be worse,
and corruption risks will only increase.

In our view it is high time to restrict the rights of all the
officials by law. Particularly it would be helpful to clearly
characterize all the restrictions and requirements towards the
high-ranking officials. This will be a litmus test for the recent
anti-corruption initiatives.

If the ruling power fails to control the activity of the high ranking
officials and their income, fighting corruption will again be postponed
for a certain period of time.

ARMENIAN FM CONTINUES HIS MEETINGS IN WASHINGTON

ARMENPRESS
JULY 16

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian delivered speech on July
15 in Washington at the "Karnegin" Foundation. The speech referred
to Armenia’s foreign policy.

Armenian Foreign Ministry press service told Armenpress
that in his speech E. Nalbandian particularly referred to the
Armenian-U.S. relations, issues on ensuring stability and security in
the South Caucasian region, process of Karabakh conflict regulation and
Armenian-Turkish relations. Afterwards the foreign minister answered
to a number of questions connected with Armenia’s foreign policy.

Armenian foreign minister met with the U.S. Assistant State Secretary
on Human Rights David Cramer. During the meeting the sides discussed
a number of issues connected with the processes which take place in
Armenia for consolidation of democracy.

Minister Nalbandian, presented the steps the Armenian authorities
are carrying out towards the implementation of PACE 1609 and 1620
resolutions and noted that democratic reforms are the choice of
Armenia and the country’s leadership is resolute in continuing to
deepen the process.

D. Cramer shared the opinion of Nalbandian and said that as Armenia’s
friend USA wants it to overcome the created difficulties and continue
the development of democracy. He added that USA is ready to support
Armenia in doing it.

At the meeting with the director of "Millennium Challenges"
corporation John Danilovich, E. Nalbandian discussed issues connected
with re-starting the programs carried out in Armenia. The minister
underscored their economic and political importance in the pre-context
of Armenian-U.S. bilateral relations.

Ambassador Danilovich said that the specialists of the corporation
effectively assess the joint work carried out in Armenia and expressed
hope that in September the executive board of "Millennium Challenges"
corporation will have an opportunity to re-confirm that Armenia
corresponds to the standards of the corporation.

Armenian Foreign Minister noted that Armenian government has decided
in its last session to release 17 million USD with the aim of
implementation of the commitment assumed by "Millennium Challenges
Foundation-Armenia" for the construction of inter-village roads,
which, the minister said, is another expression of determination of
the Armenian authorities to promote the continuation of the program.

On the same day E. Nalbandian visited U.S. Congress where he met
with the Congressman Joseph Knollenberg of the U.S. Congress’ House
of Representatives Armenian Caucus and its members.

Armenian foreign minister thanked the congressmen for their activity
and underscored the role of the caucus in the consolidation of
Armenian-U.S. relations.

With the request of the congressmen the minister presented the recent
developments over Nagorno Karabakh conflict regulation, Armenia’s
approaches towards the prospect of regulation of Armenian-Turkish
relations as well as democratic reforms taking place in Armenia.

KARABAKH’S PRIME MINISTER, LOCAL AUTHORITIES DISCUSS FALL SOWING

July 16, 2008
ARKA

Prime Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Ara Harutyunyan
and local authorities discussed this week the fall sowing and harvest,
the NKR press service reports.

The NKR Premier charged relevant authorities to ensure good
harvest. "We need to work with farmers more effectively," Harutyunyan
said.

Local authorities are to sum up in 20 days credit applications for
the autumn sowing.

The NKR government plans to allot 500mln drams ($1,650) by September
20 for local farms and privatized lands.

NATIONAL REPORT ON ARMENIA’S COMPETITIVENESS PRESENTED IN YEREVAN

ARKA
July 16

The presentation of a new national report on Armenia’s competitiveness
was held Wednesday in Yerevan.

Manuk Yerghnyan, the director of Economy and Values research
center, said at the presentation that the center’s report contains
macroeconomic indicators and shows their development from 1990s
to 2007.

The report also shows competitive ability of Armenia in the world.

"Some macroeconomic indicators of Armenia are quite high. In
particular, the country’s per-capita GDP is the second in the
world. However the country is placed 93rd in competitiveness
ranking. Armenia’s business competitiveness is 108th among 131
countries", Yerghnyan said explaining that he referred to the World
Economic Forum’s 2007/2008 ranking.

Official figures show economic growth in Armenia was recorded at 13.7%
in 2007 and per-capita GDP $2844.

Yerghnyan thinks that to improve its competitiveness, Armenia must
develop in two directions – to seek a "strategic breakthrough".

He finds policy of clusters supplemented with application of
innovations and advanced technologies can produce a considerable
effect.

The report points out the necessity of attracting direct foreign
investments, creating a business network of Armenian communities
worldwide and implementing strategic programs in the education sector.

Armen ian Economy Minister Nerses Yeritsyan said that relevant
state agencies will mull over the center’s proposals and make their
strategic conclusions.

"If we see particular plans of achieving this goal in the next
report, well place on record a practical result in competitiveness
enhancement", he said.

The report is prepared with the help of local and foreign experts.

In this report, Armenia is considered in comparison with SIC countries
as well as Central and East Europe and the Middle East.

Vice Speaker of Armenian Parliament: Political fight shouldn’t be held
at personal level

2008-07-13 17:43:00

ArmInfo. The coalition can’t be characterized the way as if all the
four political forces in it have the same position in both foreign and
domestic policy, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, member of ARF
Dashnaksutyun Party Hrayr Karapetyan told ArmInfo correspondent.

According to him, each coalitional political force conducts its own
specific policy and, certainly, takes into account the principal items
of the coalitional agreement. "In this respect, ARFD can resemble
neither oppositional political forces, nor pro-governmental ones. With
other coalitional forces we reached agreement on the issues lying in
the basis of the government’s programs and other strategic programs",
Karapetyan stressed.

Touching upon the radical opposition, he noted that today the
Pan-Armenian National Movement is radical opposition, which strives to
come to power again. "Unfortunately, this party shows no new
approaches", he said and added that PANM is trying to make use of the
discontent part of the society and return to power. Karapetyan also
pointed out that strong political forces needn’t fight against persons
to come to power, they should present specific political programs. "We
haven’t seen any such programs so far, there is only criticism against
the present authorities, and the political fight shouldn’t be held at
the personal level", he said.

POLITICAL FACTIONS REPRESENTED IN THE NEW CABINET

NaharNet
July 11 2008
Lebanon

The 30-member government of national unity and the first under
President Michel Suleiman brought in new ministers and a change of
portfolios for some old ones.

Suleiman nominated State minister Yusuf Takla (Greek Catholic, new),
Defense Minister: Elias Murr (Greek Orthodox, unchanged) and Interior
Minister: Ziad Baroud (Maronite, new).

The new cabinet saw the representation of MP Michel Aoun’s FPM for
the first time by Social Affairs Minister Mario Aoun (Maronite,
new), Deputy Prime Minister: Issam Abu Jamra (Greek Orthodox, new),
Telecommunications Minister: Gibran Bassil (Maronite, new).

Al-Mustaqbal Parliamentary Bloc was represented by Premier Fouad
Saniora, the first woman to hold the education ministry and sister
of assassinated Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, MP Bahia Hariri (Sunni,
new), Finance Minister: Mohammed Shatah (Sunni, new) who was Saniora’s
advisor, and State Minister: Khaled Qabbani (Sunni) who held education
ministry.

MP Walid Jumblat’s Progressive Socialist Party was represented
by State Minister Wael Abou Faour (Druze, new), Public Works and
Transport Minister: Ghazi Aridi who held the information post.

Lebanese Forces was represented by Justice Minister: Ibrahim Najjar
(Greek Orthodox, new), and Environment Minister: Antoine Karam
(Maronite, new).

Phalange Party was represented by Tourism Minister: Elie Marouni
(Maronite, new), whose brother Nasri Marouni was shot dead in Zahle
months ago during a Phalange party event.

Qornet Shehwan Gathering was represented by ex-MP, presidential
candidate State Minister Nassib Lahoud (Maronite, new). He replaced
social affairs minister MP Nayla Muawad.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal movement was represented by
Industry Minister: Ghazi Zoayter (Shiite, new), Foreign Minister: Fawzi
Salloukh (Shiite) who returned to the post he resigned in 2006, and
Health Minister: Mohammad Khalifa (Shiite) who also retains his post.

Hizbullah was represented by Labor Minister: Mohammed Fneish (Shiite)
who held the energy portfolio in Saniora’s resigned government.

Tripoli Gathering was represented by its leader Mohammed al-Safadi
who now is Economy and Trade Minister: Mohammed Safadi (Sunni)
instead of Public Works and Transport portfolio.

Armenian Tashnag party was represented by Energy and Water Minister:
Alan Taborian (new).

Armenian Henchak party was represented by State Minister: Jean
Oghassabian who held the Administrative Development portfolio.

Democratic Party was represented by its leader Sports and Youth
Minister: Talal Arslan (Druze, new).

Popular Bloc was represented by its leader Agriculture Minister:
Elie Skaff (Greek Catholic, new).

The Syrian Social National Party was represented by its former leader
State Minister Ali Qanso (Shiite, new).

Independents are: Information Minister: Tareq Mitri (Greek Orthodox)
who was education minister in the resigned government, Culture
Minister: Tammam Salam (Sunni, new), Displaced Persons Minister:
Raymond Audi (Greek Orthodox, new) who was nominated by March 14
forces.

Administrative Development Minister: Ibrahim Shamseddine (Shiite,
new) is also an independent minister nominated by March 14 Forces
and whose nomination Speaker Berri reportedly fiercely opposed.

ANCA: HALACOGLU ISSUES PUBLIC STATEMENTS WHICH ALWAYS PROVE UNTRUE

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.07.2008 13:51 GMT+04:00

Yusuf Halacoglu issues a public statement every few weeks, every
one of which proves, after the minimum of research, to be untrue,
said Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America.

"Halacoglu is a combination publicity-hound and serial liar," Aram
Hambarian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Earlier, Yusuf Halacoglu, head of the Turkey Historical Society,
stated that AFR Dashnaktsutyun members propose him to investigate
into the past events. "It’s not easy to force Turkey to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. It’s not easy for Armenians to hush up the scandal
they caused. Proposals come from the West but not from Armenia. As
you now, the Armenian Diaspora centers are located in France and
the U.S. We will see how sincere they are. We eye Serzh Sarsgyan’s
proposals in the same context," Halacoglu said.