Author: Jidarian Alex

Armenian Banks’ Total Assets Reach AMD 800165.3 mln by Late March

YEREVAN, May 6. /ARKA/. Armenian banks’ total assets reached AMD
800165.3mln by late March after growing 4.7% or by AMD 37706 from the
beginning of this year, Central Bank of Armenia says in its review for
the 1st quarter of 2008.

The banks’ cash grew 2.8% or by AMD 1112.6mln to AMD 40204.1mln as the
corresponding accounts grew 14.3% or by AMD 5854.7mln to AMD
46679.2mln.

Demands to the Central Bank have reduced 25.7% or by AMD 19373.6mln
over the mentioned period to AMD 56103.2mln by late March while demands
to banks and other financial organizations grew 3.8% to AMD 33789.5mln.

Loans provided to individuals rose 12.1% or by AMD 24938.7mln to AMD
231194.2mln and those provided to individuals connected with banks and
banking workers grew 22.7% reaching AMD 12332.3mln by March 31, 2008.

Loans given to legal entities grew 12.7% or AMD 24354.8mln to 216779.1
million.
According to the Central Bank’s report, investment in state securities
grew 2.2% or by AMD 2480 million in total assets and reached AMD
109710.2mln.

The report says leasing and factoring operations grew 5.6% to AMD
8374mln while investment in other securities reduced 3.9% to AMD
2599mln by late March.

Armenian banks’ total assets reached AMD 42889.5mln by late March after
growing 0.8% over the quarter, gained interests totaled AMD 5578.5mln
and other assets AMD 3160.7mln.
The rest of reserve on possible losses totaled AMD 9228.3 million by
late March 2008 against AMD 7701.6mln earlier this year.

ARKA News Agency’s analysis singled out Ardshininvestbank with its AMD
104.6 billion, HSBC Bank Armenia with AMD 101.1bln, ACBA Credit
Agricole Bank with 85.8bln, VTB Bank (Armenia) with 84.6bln and
Converse Bank 56.2bln as the largest asset owners among Armenian banks.

22 banks with their 358 branches function in Armenia now. ($1 ` AMD
306.95). –0′

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PANTOMIME THEATERS TO BE HELD ON AUGUST
10-15 IN TSAKHKADZOR

YEREVAN, MAY 6, NOYAN TAPAN. An International Festival of Pantomime
Theaters will be held on August 10-15 in Tsakhkadzor on the initiative
of the RA Ministry of Culture, Yerevan State Theater of Pantomime,
Union of Theatrical Figures of Armenia and National Theatrical Creative
Union. As Zhirayr Dadasian, festival’s Executive Director, said at the
May 6 press conference, the festival will be held once every two years.

Pantomime theaters from Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, and other
countries have already submitted bids for taking part in the festival.
Armenia’s theatrical companies will also take part in the festival
presenting performances of that genre. The theatrical companies will
present their art during five days, in Tsakhkadzor streets in the
daytime and on the open-air stage of the festival in the evening.

The festival will be opened with a great festive parade with the
participation of theaters, circus groups, orchestras. Within the
framework of the festival Tsakhkadzor streets will be turned into
exhibitions, stages for puppet and circus performances, playgrounds,
and fairs.

Z. Dadasian also said that master-classes, forums, discussions will be
organized every evening, which, in his opinion, will give a possibility
to establish a direct contact between the spectators and companies of
actors. There will be party-concerts with live music and dance floors,
Armenian performers of folk, jazz, blues, hip hop, breakdance, and rock
will present their art.

According to the Executive Director of the festival, the festival’s
main goal is to establish cooperation with international theatrical and
cultural organizations, involvement in world theatrical processes, as
well as making accessible the best experience of pantomime in the
international sphere to spectators of Armenia and abroad.

Z. Dadasian considers that there are proper resources in Tsakhkadzor
that can provide conditions meeting international standards of culture,
creative work, and rest, and it will be interesting that cultural
traditions be also formed in that small town where sports events are
mainly organized.

LEBANESE ARMENIANS MEET WITH DEPUTY EDITOR OF MARMARA ARMENIAN DAILY
OF CONSTANTINOPLE

BEIRUT, MAY 6, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. A meeting-conversation on
the "The present of the Constantinople-Armenian colony: Alarms and
difficulties" subject with Makruhi P. Hakobian, the deputy editor of
the Marmara Daily of Constantinople, took place in the Armenian hall of
the Levon Shant cultural center of Hamazgayin on May 4.

The opening speech of the meeting was delivered by Raffi Demirchian,
metioning that the situation of the Constantinople-Armenian colony has
constantly been the focus of interest for Lebanese Armenians, meaning
that the anxieties, issues and alarms of the colony are unique in their
character and form.

The meeting was organized by the regional administration of Lebanon of
Hamazgayin and the Azdak Daily.

FORMER ITALIAN PRESIDENT TO KHABAT: KURDISTAN WILL BE AN INDEPENDENT STATE IN FEW YEARS

Khabat, Arbil
April 30 2008
Iraq

Interview conducted by Shorish Aziz Surmeh

In n exclusive interview with Khabat, former Italian President
Francesco Cossiga has criticized European policy on Kurdistan and
describing it as uncertain. About the future of Kurdistan, he said
that after a few years Kurdistan would be an independent state. In
the interview he looks back to history and criticized the way the
superpowers of the era of the two world wars run the world. He says:
"Unfortunately after the two wars the superpowers created the
borders in line with their own political, economical and military
interests. The Kurds are still paying the price of these borders."

[Khabat] President Cossiga, you are known as champion of the oppressed
peoples. You are well aware of the situation of the Kurdish people who
have been oppressed for many decades and their country was unjustly
divided up by victorious countries of the World War I. Do you think
that Europe should help the Kurds in this small part of their homeland,
Iraqi Kurdistan, to develop the process of democracy?

[Cossiga] Unfortunately, Europe does not have a firm policy on this
and furthermore for NATO Turkey is much more important than Kurdistan.

[Khabat] Mr President, it is the 21century now. Should in this age
a nation of 40 million people with their own land, history, language
and culture still fight for survival or should there be an independent
Kurdistan, which is much larger than Kosovo?

[Cossiga] I believe that within the next few years there will be an
independent Kurdistan and then there will emerge a balance in this
region with the support of the US and the Russian Federation. At
present, the Kurdish issue is tied to the issue of security in
Iraq. The US wants Turkey to stay in the NATO. This makes America
gives special importance to Turkey.

In the case of Kosovo’s independence, we see that Spain expressed
its opposition because they are afraid that accepting the right of
self-determination for a nation will open the door for the recognition
of self-determination for the peoples of Basque and Catalonia. We must
also notice that although Slovakia chose self-determination to end
the united Czechoslovakian state, it refrained from the recognition
of Kosovo for fear that this will lead to its own recognition of
self-determination of the Hungarian minority who compose 10 per cent
of Slovakia’s population who, although they have a lot of autonomy,
might ask for self-determination and reunification with Hungary. In
fact they were part of Hungary for many centuries. Unfortunately,
after the world wars the superpowers divided up nations and drew
borders in line with their own political, economic and military
interests. The Kurds are one of those nations that are still paying
the price of this policy.

We must also not forget that in Turkey it is still a crime to recognize
the genocide of the Armenians.

[Khabat] The Kurds were against the Saddam’s regime. Now this regime
has gone and the Kurds are working for a federal system in Iraq. What
do you think of the efforts of Turkey, Syria and Iran to undermine
the federal solution, and who are also accusing the Kurds of seeking
independence?

[Cossiga] I believe that the federal system is the only solution
to keep the integrity of Iraq as one state. It is known that this
system was created by Britain after World War I. Iran considers
itself the most powerful state in the Middle East. Syria hopes to
share Iranian power. They both want to create discord between Iraqi
political groups. They are openly against a federal solution and they
consider it a Kurdish plot. Turkey, too, opposes this solution with
American support because an autonomous Kurdistan region will become
a great pull factor for the Kurds of Turkey.

TRIBUTE TO GENOCIDE VICTIMS IS PERSONAL FOR SOME CORONA-NORCO STUDENTS
By Michelle L. Klampe

Press-Enterprise, CA
ews_Local_C_cflag02.43b19ce.html
May 2 2008

The Press-Enterprise

Amanda Thuch blinked away tears as she gazed at the field of small
white flags planted in front of old Corona City Hall on Thursday to
represent genocide victims in Cambodia.

The flags were just a few of the 3,400 flags planted by Corona-Norco
high school students in commemoration of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust
Remembrance Day, marked worldwide today.

"Looking at all these flags is pretty emotional," said Thuch, a
16-year-old sophomore at Orange Grove High School. "I prayed for them."

Story continues below

Paul Alvarez / The Press-Enterprise Santiago High School senior
Aaron Carriedo places flags in front of the old Corona City Hall on
Thursday as part of the third annual Field of Flags display. Students
from Corona and Norco high schools planted more than 3,000 flags to
honor Holocaust and genocide victims.

The third annual Field of Flags display honors Holocaust victims as
well as the victims of genocides in Cambodia, Armenia, Iraq, Bosnia,
Rwanda and Darfur. Each small flag represents 5,000 lives lost.

The tribute is constructed by high school students involved in the
Corona-Norco district’s Unity program, which helps students overcome
biases and understand social justice.

In previous years, the event was held at Santana Regional Park, but
it was moved this year to the lawn on Sixth Street so more members
of the community could visit the display.

"This is a chance for people to park their car and look," said Eliseo
Davalos, director of pupil services for Corona-Norco Unified School
District.

Student docents will be at the site today to talk to visitors. The
flags will remain through Sunday morning.

Story continues below

Among the genocides remembered in the Field of Flags display is the
1987-88 killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq.

Brianna McCullough, a 17-year-old Centennial High School senior,
said she did not know anything about the Armenian genocide, in which
more than 1 million people were killed starting in 1915, until she
researched it for the project.

"I think all of these people that died should be recognized,"
she said. "The only way you can stop stuff like this is by talking
about it."

The Cambodian genocide, which left an estimated 2 million people
dead at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, is more than just
an event in history for Thuch. Her parents were born in Cambodia,
and members of her family escaped the oppression, she said.

"My grandma was pregnant with my uncle and she walked for three days"
to escape, said Thuch, who wore a red T-shirt with an image of the
Cambodian temple Angkor Wat on the front. Her classmates sported
similar T-shirts on loan from Thuch’s mother.

The personal connections of students Thuch and Rawel Chanloeung, 17,
who was born in Cambodia and whose parents lived through the genocide,
brought the project to life for Orange Grove students, said counselor
Lynda Bowie.

"It was exciting," she said, "but it was also disheartening."

Reach Michelle L. Klampe at 951-893-2114 or [email protected]

RA FM: I AM HOPEFUL MEETING WITH MAMMADYAROV WILL END IN AGREEMENT TO CONTINUE TALKS

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.04.2008 19:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian is
hopeful that that his upcoming meeting with the Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will be rich in content.

"This will be a familiarization but I hope that the meeting will
end in agreement to continue talks," Minister Nalbandian told the RA
National Assembly Wednesday.

He said he will inform the MPs of the details of the meeting.

Mr Nalbandian also remarked that concerns over the boost of
Azerbaijan’s defense expenses are not interference in internal affairs
of that country.

"In one of interviews I expressed doubt that the international
community will turn a blind eye to tenfold increase of a country’s
military spending.

Azerbaijan described my words as interference in its internal
affairs. However, the defense budget is not meant for domestic use,"
the Minister said, Novosti Armenia reports.

EARTHQUAKE HAPPENS ON APRIL 29 IN ARMENIA-NKR BORDER ZONE

Noyan Tapan
April 29, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 29, NOYAN TAPAN. An earthquake with 3.7 magnitude
happened on April 29, at 10:20 by local time in the Armenia-NKR
border zone, 20 km to the east of the town of Vardenis. The earthquake
measured 5 in the epicenter.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the Seismic Protection National Service,
the earthquake was felt in a number of RA populated areas, in Vardenis
where it measured 4, in Jermuk, Martuni, and Karchaghbyur where it
measured 3.

ACCORDING TO SERGE SARGSIAN, MEANS DIRECTED AT SCIENCE TO ALWAYS BE INCREASED

Noyan Tapan
April 28, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 28, NOYAN TAPAN. To have a low quality of education in
the 21st century means to have a low living standard. This statement
was made by Serge Sargsian, the President of the Republic of Armenia,
at the annual general meeting of the RA National Academy of Sciences,
which was held on April 25.

He mentioned that in 2007 the government endorsed the complex program
of the reforms of the sphere of science and a State Committee of
Science was formed. "We expect that the strengthening of this link of
the state government is to have a considerable result in terms of a
more productive settlement of the problems of the sphere of science,"
Serge Sargsian said.

In response to the speeches of scientists, according to which the sums
allocated for science have been decreased, the President mentioned
that in 2008 the budget financing of science has increased by 18
percent. In addition to this, the size of the additional payments
given for degrees has been doubled and the financing fund of subject
studies has increased by 50 percent.

The President is sure that both the hard social-economic state of
scientists and the lack of a proper attention of the state have played
a role in the fall of the scinetific specialities and ratings. However,
in the opinion of Serge Sargsian, the careless attitude of certain
unconscientious scientists towards their work has also played its
great role. "For example, the significance of academic ranks has
seriously been endangered, the number of scientific councils has
increased turning out numerous candidates of science, who do not
correspond to the demands for that degree at all," he mentioned.

In the conviction of Serge Sargsian, the problems existing in the
sphere should, first of all, be settled with the help of scientists:
"It is easy to always criticise the authorities, but one should also
support. Offer a solution, display a civil posture, we are ready to
add the allocated means," Serge Sargsian said. The President mentioned
at the same time that they should be sure that the allocated means
are used productively.

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
April 26 2008

Meeting with New Armenian Minister Will be of Familiarization
Character: Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan (Interview)
26.04.08 14:27

Latvia, Riga, 26 April /Special corr. Trend News R.Ushakov / TrendNews
interview with the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov.

Question: Is any advancement expected to take place with regards to
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement in 2008, especially taking into
consideration the recent presidential elections in Armenia and
upcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan?

Answer: We always expect advancements to take place as long as this
conflict exists and continues, and the time in this case does not work
for settlement of the conflict in its own account, it needs to make
efforts for its settlement.

In the recent months, the understanding that the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict should be settled only within territorial integrity,
sovereignty and inviolability of borders has acquired new
approvals. Particularly, they are specified in the Resolution of the
UN General Assembly and closing declaration of the NATO Summit in
Bucharest as well as statements of the Minsk Group member and
co-chairman countries.

We consider that it needs to use the time exactly in the context of
new leadership of Armenia in order to understand that the conflict
should be settled on the bases of norms and principles of the
international law, i.e. within territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Question: A meeting is planned to take place between you and the new
Foreign Minister of Armenia within participation in the meeting of the
Council of Europe Committee of Ministers in Strasburg on 6 May. What
do you expect from this meeting?

Answer: I gave consent to this meeting before my visit to Latvia. We
shall see the results of the meeting, but in my opinion, it will be a
familiarization meeting. Firstly the familiarization envisages
studying the reaction of the new leadership of Armenia to the
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

Of course, we believe that Armenia will take more constructive
position on the conflict settlement, and the understanding that the
conflict should be settled based on principles of the international
law will grow.

No-one can forcibly change the borders and territorial integrity of
states via ethnic cleansing and later, make requirements to gain
self-determination. Here one mutually excludes other one. If firstly
you carry out ethnic cleansing and later speak about
self-determination, it is absolutely not an acceptable model according
to the international law. In this case, only after re-establishing the
situation in occupied territories and returning displaced persons to
Nagorno-Karabakh, it will be possible to speak about advancement in
status, but again the status of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of
Azerbaijan.

Question: What steps does Baku expect to be taken by the European
Union as well as EU member-Baltic states in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement?

Answer: The President of Lithuania made an initiative to establish a
Group of GUAM Friends in the European Union and this idea was
supported by other Baltic states, including Latvia. Poland, Romania
and other states also supported the Group. We consider that taking
into consideration our past ` Latvia, other Baltic states
and Azerbaijan ` our understanding and explanation of the
situation should be shifted to other EU capitals as well. We
understand that our position being accepted by our Latvian partners
will find its reflection in other European capitals.

Question: The meetings with the senior officials of Latvia also
focused on the energy issues. Were discussions held on realization of
Nabucco gas pipeline being lobbied by the European Union, as well as
Odessa-Brody-Plotsk-Gdansk Pipeline?

Answer: Debates were organized on Nabucco during negotiations because
the Latvian side asked to clarify our position on Nabucco gas
pipeline. Principally Baku’s position is clear `
the gas pipeline is very interesting project and I think that it is
possible to realize it. In this regard, I informed my Latvian
colleague that the gas volume in the region is sufficient to implement
the first phase of the Nabucco gas pipeline. The topic of
Odessa-Brody-Plotsk-Gdansk Pipeline was also discussed. As you know,
the next energy summit will take place in Kiev in May which will fully
focus on the results of the works being done after the similar summit
in Vilnius. The meeting with the Latvian colleagues also covered this
topic. Currently we expect the results of feasibility study which
should be presented by Sarmatiya Company.

Question: Your Latvian colleague informed of several bilateral
agreements that the countries will conclude. Can you provide details
on them?

Answer: There are 13 documents between Azerbaijan and Latvia, which
are under consideration currently. These agreements deal with economic
issues, mutual legal consultations, financial and banking system.

TORCH PROCESSION TOOK PLACE IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.04.2008 13:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Traditional torch procession took place in Yerevan
on the night of April 23-24 to commemorate the victims of the Armenian
Genocide.

After setting fire to a Turkish state flag, several thousands of
young Armenians marched with burning torches from Liberty Square
toward Tsitsernakaberd, the Memorial to Genocide victims.

The action initiators called on people, who couldn’t join the
procession, to light candles at the windowsills in their houses.

Torch procession has been held each year since 2000