Author: Kafian Jirair

ARMENIAN EX-LEADER TO RESTORE "STATEHOOD" IF ELECTED – JAILED NATIONALIST

Aravot
Dec 21 2007
Armenia

The former Armenian president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who is running
for the 19 February 2008 presidential election, wants to restore
"our statehood and the constitutional order", a statement by
Zhirayr Sefilyan, coordinator of the public initiative In Defence of
Liberated Territories, has said.In a statement, issued from prison
where Sefilyan is serving a prison term for calls to overthrow the
current regime, he said he was against returning "the liberated
territories" to Azerbaijan. Sefilyan believes that if elected
president, Ter-Petrosyan would not consider the settlement of the
Karabakh problem as "priority".

PSYCHOLOGIST: YOUNG PEOPLE LIVE WITH THEIR PROBLEMS TODAY

Panorama.am
18:25 21/12/2007

"Today 57% of population lives in fear. It is a form of apathy that
"deprives" the society of civil disposition and active life. It
has great impact especially on youth," ethnic sociologist Mihran
Galstyan said. In his words, only minor part of the youth takes part
in politics. In his assessment, only those who want to make a career
get into politics. "Of course, there are young men who prefer to
join political parties and by doing so to find their place in life
but they do so from the fear of "staying out of the game," he said.

In the words of psychologist Karine Nalchajyan, the young people
are busy with everyday problems and are almost not interested in the
upcoming elections. "This is not very positive since the youth makes up
a considerable part of the society and it is important that they also
get involved in the internal life of the country," Nalchajyan said.

LOCAL BUDGETARY REVENUES DOUBLE IN TAVUSH MARZ IN 2007

Noyan Tapan
Dec 20 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. The work done in Tavush marz
in 2007 and the current problems were discussed at the December 20
working meeting of the Armenian president Robert Kocharian and the
Tavush regional governor Armen Ghularian. The interlocutors spoke
about capital constrcution, the growth of road consctruction, and
revenues of the community budgets.

According to the governor, the local budgetary revenues have doubles
as compared with last year, which allows to ensure high performance.

During the meeting, the work on development of viticulture and
fruit-growing in Tavush was discussed. This work, in the words of
the governor, has produced good results. Issues related to tourism
development were addresed as well.

According to the RA president’s press service, R. Kocharian instructed
the Tavush governor to pay attention to the problem of attracting
private investors to the tourism sector.

PROBLEMS CONCERNING PRE-ELECTION SITUATION IN ARMENIA, PACE CO-RAPPORTEUR SAYS

Azeri Press Agency
Dec 20 2007
Azerbaijan

George Colombier, co-rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary
Assembly (PACE) Monitoring Committee on Armenia expressed his
concern over the pre-election situation in Armenia, APA’s Europe
bureau reports.

The co-rapporteur said that there are problems in providing conditions
for the presidential candidates to use opportunities of Public
Television in a more balanced way. He also said that police threaten
and exert pressure on mass media.

"BARGAVACH HAYASTAN" A TRUSTWORTHY PARTNER
Harutyun Gevorgyan

Hayots Ashkharh, Armenia
Dec 19 2007

Interview with the Secretary of the Republican Party Parliamentary
faction Samvel Nikoyan

"Mr. Nikoyan the press belonging to Armenian Pan National Movement
spread information, saying that the process of forming united
pre-election headquarters, has brought "Bargavach Hayastan" face to
face with "de facto collapse". Does the Republican Party shoulder
the blame in this issue?"

"Even before the stage of the nominations for presidency leader of
"Bargavach Hayastan" party Gagik Tsarukyan has publicly announced
many a time that the party will be loyal to all the clauses of the
coalition agreement and will fulfill all the obligations undertaken.

In addition, during the political session of "Bargavach Hayastan" Party
it has been confirmed that the party won’t nominate a candidacy for
presidency and will support the candidate nominated by the Republican
Party, that is to say Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan.

Naturally this presumes a united pre-election-headquarter activity. The
leadership of "Bargavach Hayastan" party has already made a clear and
unhesitant announcement about this, before the pre-election phase,
giving emphasis to the expediency of the effective and mutually agreed
campaign activity.

The rumors about the "collapse" of "Bargavach Hayastan" party have
nothing to do with the reality, but it is not a result of ignorance.

It results from intentional spread of misinformation by one of our
partners and by the way for well-known reasons. A simple task is set:
to look for, or if there isn’t, to provoke contradictions either in the
party that has all the chances to win, or in the parties supporting it.

It is a quite predictable pre-election trick but meanwhile a waste
of efforts in their attempts to set two powerful parties such as
"Bargavach Hayastan" and the Republican Party against each other.

It is well known to everyone that during the parliamentary elections
the most unyielding political campaign was between the Republican
and "Bargavach Hayastan" parties, but still none of the parties went
beyond any moral limits.

The post-electoral developments formed a political atmosphere in
which the before mentioned two parties having obtained maximum votes
of confidence united and formed an indisputable majority. After
signing coalition agreement we formed a government and today both
the Republican and "Bargavach Hayastan" parties, with each member,
feel their responsibility towards the state and the people."

" What about the allegations, saying that the Republican Party seized
votes from "Bargavach Hayastan" during the parliamentary elections,
to humiliate the role of their future coalition partner?"

"In my view any sensible person can understand that no political
power is able to utilize election mechanisms for such purposes,
especially if the conversation is about the votes of "Bargavach
Hayastan" party. Gagik Tsarukyan has already given his responses to
similar questions, still in May and June, stating that no one has
taken any votes from their party.

It couldn’t have happened, because "Bargavach Hayastan" party had
their representatives in all the election committees. Besides that
similar cases have been recorded neither by the local, nor by the
foreign observation missions. It is also a pre-election advocacy trick,
which is aimed at creating misunderstanding.

In my view, similar publications will be very common during the
pre-election campaign. There will be no lack of estimations given
to the relations between the Republican and "Bargavach Hayastan"
parties. And there is a single goal – to discredit the Republican
and "Bargavach Hayastan" parties separately and the union of these
two parties. The forms of manifestations will be conditioned by the
perception of our partners regarding civilized elections.

The coalition agreement that has been formed between "Bargavach
Hayastan" and the Republican parties, I believe, has strong political
bases and won’t yield to absurd provocations. Our joint parliamentary
activity, our effective work is of high quality and level, which is
the guarantee of the continuation of these relations.

This will be confirmed not only by the coming session of "Bargavach
Hayastan" party, on December 20, but also by February 19 election
returns.

PPA LEADER BELIEVES THAT EX-PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA HAS REAL CHANCES FOR VICTORY

Mediamax
December 19, 2007

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Leader of the People’s Party of Armenia (PPA)
Stepan Demirchian stated in Yerevan today that the main struggle
during the presidential elections will develop between the Ex-President
Levon Ter-Petrosian and the Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

Mediamax reports that, speaking at a news conference in Yerevan today,
Stepan Demirchian stated that Levon Ter-Petrosian has real chances
for victory. "The Ex-President reconsidered the traversed path,
and his public statements evidence that", PPA Leader stated.

Stepan Demirchian noted that many aims of Levon Ter-Petrosian are
concordant with the problems, the solution of which PPA is trying
to reach: "full revelation of the case on the terrorist act in the
Armenian parliament, dismantling of the clan-oligarchic system,
liquidation of monopolies and provision of equal conditions for all".

According to Demirchian, "today’s mafia system has nothing to do with
the power, and it is necessary to get rid of it".

UNEMPLOYMENT LEVEL REDUCES BY 3% IN PAST SEVEN YEARS IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Dec 18 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Unemployment has reduced by 3%
in the past seven years in Armenia amounting to 6.9%. According to
Sona Haroutiunian, the Head of the State Employment Service agency of
the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues, at present the number of
people looking for a job in Armenia is 94 thousand and the number of
unemployed 75 thousand. She said this at the December 18 conference
under the title Labor Market in Armenia: Tendencies and Challenges.

S. Haroutiunian said that registered people looking for a job mainly
belong to 45-50 age group. According to her, the number of unemployed
women remains high, nearly 70% of the total number. Besides, the
number of young men being registered has considerably grown, reaching
from 1-2% to 21%. According to S. Haroutiunian’s observation, this
is conditioned by the fact that programs aimed at employment of a
larger number of young people are implemented in the recent years.

According to the estimation of the Head of the Agency, there is
non-correspondence of supply and demand on Armenia’s labor market in
the respect of territories, gender, age, professional abilities. In
difference to the regions, labor market is comparatively developed
in Armenia. 80% vacancies in Yerevan are workers’ specialities and
in the regions mainly specialities of teachers, doctors, accountants,
and lawyers.

TV PROGRAMS WILL BE TRANSMITTED TO ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRIES

KarabakhOpen
19-12-2007 13:30:28

The meeting with Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan was devoted to
the issue of transmission of Armenian TV programs. The director of
Artsakhkap Garik Grigoryan said half of the country cannot watch the
Public Television of Artsakh and the Armenian TV programs.

In the past month transmitters were installed in several areas, which
increased the area of transmission considerably but does not cover
the entire country. For this purpose the government will allocate 150
million drams in 2008. The prime minister instructed to complete the
program in a year and a half to broadcast TV programs in all areas.

Besides installation of transmitters, the option of satellite was also
considered. Specialists say this option is easier, cheaper and better.

The heads of the relevant agencies were instructed to work out the
project and timetable of activities, the department of information
and public relations of the NKR government reports.

VARDAN OSKANIAN: I DO NOT RULE OUT THAT NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT WILL BE SETTLED TILL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Dec 18 2007

I do not rule out that Nagorno Karabakh conflict will be settled till
presidential elections, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
stated, APA reports.

Foreign Minister saying that he is optimist said that all wish the
conflict sides to reach an agreement at least on settlement principles.

"I am optimist and regard that the whole nation wants the conflict
sides to reach an agreement at least on settlement principles.

Following this, we have to work seriously, as we have to prepare
30-50 page peace agreement on these principles. The earlier conflict
sides reach an agreement on the settlement process, the better it is,"
he said.

Vardan Oskanian refuted reports on Armenia’s leaving process of
negotiations.

"We have never made such statement. Armenia does not intend to
leave the negotiations. There is a concrete document composed of
the proposals of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on negotiations table,
and the negotiations are carried out around this document," he said.

Vardan Oskanian said that official Yerevan insists on the settlement
of the conflict on the principle of nations’ defining their fate.

"This conflict does not have religious bases. If both Azerbaijanis and
Armenians were Christians, or the basic principles of the conflict
remained as they were before, the essence of the problem would not
have changed," he said.

Economic News
December 14, 2007 Friday

RA Prime Minister Receives World Bank Vice-President

Yerevan. ">OREANDA-NEWS . December 14, 2007. Welcoming the guest,
Serzh Sargsyan noted that less than two months hade passed since
their Washington meeting of which he got very good impressions. Mr.
Kazu’s sufficiently favorable opinion of Armenia’s economy and those
reforms underway in our country inspired enthusiasm and strengthened
his conviction that Armenia is on the right path of development and
has all the possibilities for winding up the pace of development.
According to the Prime Minister, this implies a higher standard for
future programs to be implemented in Armenia.

The World Bank Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia reaffirmed
his opinion of our country and went on to note that Armenia has been
among those countries consistently displaying good performance over
the recent period. He said that considering the per-capita growth of
GDP in our country, there is a possibility of making a shift from the
IDA financing towards a joint IDA-IBRD financing scenario, followed
by an exclusively IBRD-financed scheme.

Shigeo Kazu advised that the World Bank was launching the preparation
of the 2008-2012 strategy of country assistance for Armenia, with the
resources to be committed implying that a focus was going to be
placed on the implementation of second- and third-generation reforms
and institutional transformations: Armenia must maintain its
competitiveness, Mr. Kazu mentioned while speaking about boosting
efficiency in public governance, ensuring higher transparency in the
work of public agencies, improving tax and customs administration,
combating corruption. According to him, competitiveness implies a
special focus upon logistics account taken of the set of challenges
facing Armenia due to the blockade. He said that more favorable
conditions should be created for the addressing of transportation
problems.

As railway is among the key mails of this chain, Mr. Kazu took the
opportunity to felicitate the Prime Minister on successful completion
of the competition process relating to Armenian Railways.

As the meeting drew to its end, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan thanked
Mr. Kazu for his kind remarks and the willingness of support and said
to be confident that having the assistance and advice of the World
Bank, the government of Armenia would be able to solve the mentioned
problems and push forward on with the reforms.