Author: Kafian Jirair

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JOURNALISTS RIGHTS TO BE LIMITED
[07:21 pm] 02 March, 2007

`The rights of journalists will be confined’, says Ashot Melikyan,
head of the Committee protecting the right to expression. On March 2,
he met the representatives of mass media in the `Yerevan hotel’.
Mr. Melikyan urged all the Armenian journalists to struggle for their
rights rather actively.

The report was made by the legal service of `Internews’. Lawyer Olga
Safaryan and David Sandukhchayn, head of the legal department,
presented the incidents hindering journalists’ legal activity in 2006.

According to the statistics, there were 16 cases in 2006 and most of
them remained unpunished.

`Journalists are not protected as the people breaching their rights
don’t bear punishment’, says Olga Safaryan.

To note, the violation of journalist’s activity is considered a crime
under the Penal Code and is forbidden by law.

GROSS AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT GROWS BY 3.5% IN ARMENIA IN JANUARY 2007 ON SAME MONTH OF LAST YEAR

Noyan Tapan
Mar 01 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, NOYAN TAPAN. In January 2007, the gross agricultural
output of Armenia made 14 bln drams (about 40 mln USD), exceeding
by 3.5% the index of January 2006. According to the RA National
Statistical Servcie, the gross output of plant growing amounted
to 67.6 mln drams, exceeding by 53.3% the respective index of 2006,
while the gross output of livestock farming – to 13 bln 954 mln drams,
growing by 3.4%.

Fish catching made 117.8 mln drams in the country in January of this
year, exceeding by 46.4% the index of the same month of last year.

OMX AB COMPANY SUBMITS BUSINESS PROPOSALS ON DEVELOPMENT OF ARMENIA’S SECURITIES MARKET

Noyan Tapan
Feb 27 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, NOYAN TAPAN. OMX AB, a Swedish-Finnish company
of financial services, has submitted to the Central Bank of Armenia
(CBA) its business proposals on development of the Armenian Stock
Exchange (ASE) and the results of its studies on development of
Armenia’s securities market.

CBA Chairman Tigran Sargsian stated this at the February 27 press
conference.

According to him, OMX submitted a package of 70 measures envisaging
legislative amendments for development of the securities market, which,
in particular, are related to granting tax privileges. "By means of
such tax privileges we will promote operation of those enterprises
which are willing to work in a transparent way and will undergo ASE
listing. It means that these enterprises will come out of the "shadow"
and issue their own securities," T. Sargsian said.

He noted that OMX programs have been discussed and positively assessed
during a consultation with the participation of representatives of
the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic Development and the RA Ministry
of Finance and Economy. It is envisaged that at the initital stage
of the program, OMX will become one of the owners of the ASE and the
Central Depositary, then – their 100% owner.

It was noted that if ASE is managed by OMX, securities listed at the
stock exchange may be sold and placed on international markets.

In response to NT correspondent’s question, CBA chairman said that
OMX uses the machanism of privileges in Baltic countries, getting good
results. In his words, it is expected that at the end of second year
of the OMX program’s implementation, the annual turnover of Armenia’s
securities market will make 500 mln dollars, and at the end of the
fifth year – 5 bln dollars.

To recap, stock exchanges of Sweden, Finland, Copenhagen, Vilnius,
Tallin and Riga operate as part of OMX. OMX is implementing a project
on development of stock markets in Macedonia and plans to implement
such projects in Ukraine and Bulgaria.

As the CBA chairman said previously, studies were done on 25 Armenian
companies which are prepared to ratify the transparency of their
accounting through the conclusion of an audit company and then to be
listed at ASE in accordance with OMX procedure.

ARMENIA IS INTERESTED IN RELATIONS WITH POLAND

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.02.2007 16:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met with
Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga, the Presidential Press Office
reports. At the meeting the two sides highly appreciated the current
level of bilateral relations, underlining the great potential of its
development. Robert Kocharian stated that Armenia is interested in
large scale relations with Poland-the largest East European country. He
said, in order to give more business character to bilateral relations,
some institutional steps are necessary, particularly to finish the
formation process of Armenian-Polish intergovernmental commission as
soon as possible. The Armenian President underlined the importance
of relations between the two countries in the context of Armenia’s
European integration policy. Stressing that the main development
resource of the country is realization of effective reforms, he said,
"We aim at full and effective usage of possibilities offered by the
European Neighborhood Policy, and we see Poland as one of our main
partners in this context."

At her part Anna Fotyga expressed confidence that in the result of her
visit to Armenia friendly relations between the two countries will
continue to enlarge and deepen, involving more and more spheres of
cooperation. The two sides also discussed regional issues, Armenia’s
relations with her neighbors and the process of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict settlement.

SELF-ARSON ATTEMPT AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE

A1+
[01:32 pm] 27 February, 2007

Today at about 11 am a man of about 40 has made a self – arson attempt
in front of the Government house, adjacent to the fountains. A1+
was only able to find out through the Emergency board that the name
of the injured was 47 year-old Jivan Hakobyan.

The witnesses heard the man complain against the acting government,
then he poured some petrol on him and burnt himself. Several passers-by
tried to put down the fire by covering him with clothes.

Right after the accident, the injured was taken to hospital. According
to the preliminary information, Jivan Hakobyan has got 4th type of
cauterization.

Doctors in Reanimation department claim that there is no hope for
the injured. We tried to clarify things through Mary Harutyunyan,
government PR chairwoman.

The latter informed that they got neither complaints, no petition about
the case. The man did not do anything special to attract attention. He
didn’t even approach the policemen and asked anything.

In fact, Mary Harutyunyan mentioned that the arson was not in front
of government house but the square fountains.

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Feb 23 2007

Police detains one person in relation to Dink murder

Anti-terror squad brought Veysel T. to an Istanbul court on Friday
morning before being formally arrested.

Güncelleme: 15:35 TSÝ 23 Þubat 2007 CumaISTANBUL – Turkish police
have detained another person in connection with the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Authorities have only identified the man taken into custody Friday as
Veysel T. He was reportedly detained due to his connection to Hayal
Yasin, the man arrested on charges of being the mastermind behind
Dink’s murder.

Prosecutors questioned Veysel T. before requesting the court to
formally charge him over his involvement in the killing.

Dink was shot outside the offices of the Armenian language newspaper
Argos on January 19.

New York Sun, NY
Feb 22 2007

Turkey Up in Arms Over House Resolution Against Armenian `Genocide’
By ELI LAKE

Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 22, 2007

WASHINGTON – Turkey was so alarmed by a proposed House resolution
calling the mass slaughter of Armenians by Turks during World War I a
"genocide" that it dispatched its foreign minister to persuade
American Jewish leaders to lobby against it.

At a suite at the Willard Hotel in Washington on February 5, Abdullah
Gül met with representatives of the Anti-Defamation League, American
Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, Friends of Lubavitch, Jewish Institute for
National Security Affairs, and United Jewish Communities. According
to one participant in the meeting, the Turkish foreign minister "made
a hard sell," against House resolution 106, whose short title is
"Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide
Resolution."

This participant, who asked not to be named, said Mr. Gül appealed to
the assembled Jewish representatives by noting the singularity of the
German genocide against the Jews and warning that the House
resolution, if passed, would rupture American-Turkish relations.

The Turks have reason to be worried. Although the resolution has
faced opposition from the House leadership in previous congressional
sessions, the current speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of
California, is said to support it. Indeed, Ms. Pelosi has supported
similar resolutions in the past. The resolution is now before the
House Committee on Foreign Affairs, whose chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos
of California, has supported the Armenian genocide resolution in
recent sessions, though he opposed it in the past.

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IN PUBLIC RADIO COMPANY DIRECTOR’S WORDS, TECHNICAL SPOILAGE IS REASON
OF TEMPORARY IMPEDIMENT OF BROADCAST OF RADIO LIBERTY

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Broadcast of the morning news
prepared by Radio Liberty Yerevan editorial office was almost
completely failed on February 23. But, as Armen Dulian, the
editor-in-chief of the Yerevan Bureau of the radio station informed
the Noyan Tapan correspondent, one must not observe the happened as a
display of opressive policy towards the radio station as, in his
words, Radio Liberty "does not present any danger" for anybody.
According to the explanation of Armen Amirian, the Public Radio
Company Director, the reason of temporary impediment of broadcast was
technical spoilage: the cable broadcasting sound signals was
damaged. At the same time, A.Dulian did not disprove the information
of the "Haykakan Zhamanak" (Armenian time) daily that Radio Liberty
was consistently deafened on the threshold of the 2005 Constitutional
amendments. He qualified publication of "Haykakan Zhamanak" and the
case of impediment of today’s broadcast as "a strange coincidence." In
A.Dulian’s words, "the political situation always straines on the days
preceding the elections."

ARMENIA HAS GREAT POTENTIAL FOR INCREASING GERMAN INVESTMENTS IN COUNTRY’S ECONOMY

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Feb 22 2007

YEREVAN, February 21. /ARKA/. Armenia has great potential for
increasing the volume of direct German investments in the country’s
economy. This proves the progress of the Armenian-German relations,
Armenian Ambassador to Germany Karine Kazinian told journalists.

Direct German investments in Armenia exceed EUR200mln, she said
pointing out the numerous possibilities for the progress in the field,
particularly in Armenia’s chemical industry and machine-building
industry.

According to Kazinian, the greatest German investment has been the
investment made to Kajaran-based Zangezur copper-molybdenum factory,
which was also the largest direct foreign investment in Armenia
till recently.

Kazinian added that the turnover between Armenian and Germany totaled
EUR 400mln in 2006.

The Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Factory CJSC is Armenia’s major mining
and smelting enterprise. On December 14, 2004, Armenia’s Government
made decision to privatize the factory. Under the privatization
agreement, 60% of shares were transferred to the German "Cronimet"
company and 15% to the "Yerevan Factory of Pure Iron" OJSC. "Armenian
Molybdenum Production" and "Zangezur Mining" CO Ltd received 12.5%
of shares each.

The investment program of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Factory
totals $240mln and will be implemented in two phases – in 2005-2008
and 2008-2020.

Total of $157mln is to be invested at the first phase – $20mln in 2005,
$47mln in 2006, $63mln in 2007 and $27mln in 2008.

According to Armenia’s National Statistical Service, the turnover
between Armenia and Germany totaled $293.5mln, with the exports from
Armenia making $148mln and imports $145.5mln.

ARMENIAN LEADER SEES NO ACHIEVEMENTS IN KARABAKH PEACE TALKS

Arminfo
20 Feb 07

Yerevan, 20 February: One cannot not speak about serious achievements
in the issue of the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement process, however,
neither Armenia, nor Nagornyy Karabakh doubt that the problem can
have some "other" solution.

President Robert Kocharyan said this at a meeting with representatives
of the Armenian diaspora in France.

He pointed out that the Armenian people has already solved the
Karabakh problem, and a task now is to make the Karabakh republic as a
fully-fledge entity. The aim of the negotiations today is to legitimate
the current situation in the "Karabakh land", Kocharyan said.