Author: Kajoyan Gevork

ARMENIA IS INTERESTED IN DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONS WITH NORWAY IN BILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL FORMATS

ARMENPRESS
May 26, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS: Newly appointed Ambassador of Norway to
Armenia Knut Houg (residence in Moscow) handed today his credentials
to the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

Presidential Press office told Armenpress that congratulating the
diplomat on the post assumption President Sargsyan said that Armenia
is interested in the development and enhancement of relations with
Norway in bilateral and multilateral formats.

According to S. Sargsyan, the Armenian people have greatly formed their
idea on Norway based on the high mission of great humanist Frityof
Nansen. At the same time the President said that in our state with
gratification remember and highly assess the support of Norwegian
people to the restoration of disaster zone after the 1988 earthquake.

"There is the Norwegian village today in Armenia which permanently
reminds us of this great support and aid," Serzh Sargsyan underscored.

The Ambassador said that Norway also stresses the importance of
development of multilateral relations with Armenia and is ready to
undertake practical steps towards it.

President Sargsyan and Ambassador Houg stressed the importance of
efficient usage of the potential of the two states, further development
of political, economic and cultural relations and establishment
of legal-agreement field necessary for the cooperation. The newly
appointed diplomat assured that he will do his best to foster the
cooperation between the two states.

The interlocutors have also exchanged thoughts on the regional
issues. Ambassador Houg said that in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
regulation Norway supports the OSCE Minsk Group efforts and finds
that exceptionally through peaceful way and balanced negotiation
process it is possible to reach peace.

President Sargsyan highly assessed the Norwegian balanced attitude
towards the issues of our region in different international
institutions.

SERGEI ALEKSASHENKO: DEVALUATION OF NATIONAL CURRENCIES OF ARMENIA AND RUSSIA IS A LESSON FOR TWO COUNTRIES

Noyan Tapan
May 26, 2009

Yerevan, May 26, Noyan Tapan. The current world financial and economic
crisis is the first global recession, and no country can escape its
impact, told Sergei Aleksashenko, former First Deputy Chairman of
Russia’s Central Bank at the "Armenia: Weathering the Global Storm"
economic forum kicked off on May 25 in Yerevan.

International financial organizations and most economists predict a
deep and lengthy recession for a wide range of developed and developing
countries. As many of these states, Armenia will face the consequences
of adverse global trends, and in some ways is likely to be even more
affected owing to a dramatic economic slowdown in some of its main
trading partner countries.

According to Sergei Aleksashenko, similar crisis occurs from time to
time and result in elimination of weakest enterprises. "Governments
should prepare for next crisis and the resources of the Central Bank
should be used to resist it. In this respect the U.S. is in better
condition than Armenia and Russia," Sergei Aleksashenko said.

According to him, devaluation of the national currencies of Armenia
and Russia during global crisis by 20 to 40 per cent was a bitter
lesson for both countries, in any country fluctuation of exchange
rate is not used as economic policy tool. Sergei Aleksashenko called
on Armenian and=2 0Russian authorities to implement a policy aimed
at strengthening national currency.

Besides, in S. Aleksashenko’s opinion, institutional reforms should be
among main directions of governments of CIS countries. Although the
peak of recession has passed but the economy will be still retarded
by slowdown of anti-crisis and anti-corruption measures.

According to S. Aleksashenko over the first quarter of 2009 Russian
economy experienced 10 per cent drop, which is the highest rate among
20 world powers. This highest decline was conditioned by the dependency
of Russia on the world raw material markets and oil prices. In early
2008 the drop in demand for metals, products of chemical industry
resulted in the decline of Russia’s economy. In 2008 investments
reduced, since after Russian-Georgian was investors started to take
out their investments from Russia.

ULIKHANYAN ART CLUB TO HOST NEW QUINTET CONCERT TONIGHT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
25.05.2009 13:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A concert of New Quintet jazz band will take place
in Ulikhanyan art club today.

New Quintet consisting of well-known musicians Armen Usnunts
(saxophone), Vahagn Hayrapetyan (piano), Artem Manukyan (bass
guitar), Arman Jalalyan (drums) and Yervand Sargsyan (trumpet),
claims leadership among Armenian jazz bands.

Tonight’s concert the musicians eye as a creative process but not work.

New Quintet’s music is energetic, tuneful and powerful. The author
of majority of the compositions is Armen Usnunts.

FINCA INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS BUSINESS OF ARMENIAN BRANCH

ARKA
May 22, 2009

YEREVAN, May 22. /ARKA/. John Hatch, founder of the Washington-based
FINCA International Inc., plans to arrive in Armenia on May 24 on a
four-day visit to get closely acquainted with the activities of the
organization’s Armenian branch and meet with clients.

Hatch will meet with Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
Arthur Javadyan and WB Yerevan Office Head Aristomene Varoudakis.

On March 28, 2006, FINCA International established FINCA Universal
Credit Organization in Armenia.

FINCA International provides financial services to the world’s
lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets
and improve their standard of living. The organization has branches
in 21 countries.

FINCA UCO aims at backing small-to-medium-scale businesses, as well as
improving the living conditions and open new employment opportunities
in Armenia.

The organization has 16 offices across Armenia, offering services to
32,000 clients. FINCA’s loan portfolio amounts to 9bln drams. ($1 –
372.48 drams)

AZERBAIJAN SAYS NOT TO CLOSE TURKISH-FUNDED MOSQUE

Anadolu Agency
May 22 2009
Turkey

Baku authorities on Friday stepped back on the closure of a
Turkish-funded mosque after the huge reactions.

Baku authorities on Friday stepped back on the closure of a
Turkish-funded mosque after the huge reactions.

Baku officials had made a statement over the reports that Baku State
University Divinity School Mosque will be closed.

However, the officials denied the closure saying that the ban on
mosque is "not considered."

Generally, eight to ten thousands of people perform Friday prayers
in the Faculty Mosque, but it is expected that people from other
mosques in Baku will go to the mosque as a reaction today, at least
20 thousand people are expected to come together in prayer.

Azeris in Baku on Thursday said they would gather to perform Friday
prayer despite the possible closure.

Faculty and Mosque began their activities in 1992. Both faculty and
the mosque’s costs are covered by the Turkish Religious Foundation.

However, since the faculty opened, problems have never been
finished. The faculty can accept "only 50 students per year". Although
It is the only Divinity School in the country, the faculty still can
not have permission to open postgraduate, doctoral programs after
17 years.

Azerbaijan had destroyed a mosque that named after Prophet Muhammed
(PBUH) as well as another one in Petrol island, and shut down Sehitlik
Mosque, which was built by Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs.

A mosque was built on 28 June, 1995 beside the Martyrdom cemetery
erected in Baku in honour of 1130 Turkish soldiers died fighting
withing "Caucasian Islam Army" against Armenian and Russian soldiers
that occupied Azerbaijan in 1918.

VLADIMIR KAZIMIROV EXCLUDES ANY MILITARY SOLUTION TO THE KARABAGH CONFLICT

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2009-05-22 16:13
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

"Between mid-1993 and May 1994, short-term cease-fire was achieved
6 times, which was agreed by Baku and Stepanakert, under Russia’s
mediation. They were bilateral agreements, without Yerevan’s
participation", stated at his press-conference in Stepanakert Vladimir
Kazimirov – Deputy Chairman of the Russian Diplomats’ Association,
leader of the Russian mediation mission, Plenipotentiary of the RF
President on Nagorno Karabagh between April 1992 and September 1996,
and a member of the OSCE Minsk Group from Russia.

According to him, an agreement on long-term cease-fire in the
Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict was achieved under Russia’s mediation,
the initial priority of which was in the soonest cessation of the
large-scale hostilities.

The diplomat excludes any military solution to the conflict. According
to him, the international community will negatively respond to the
resumption of the hostilities.

"Military activities will hardly resolve the issue: a new turn in a
madness spiral will pass, and the parties will sooner or later have to
negotiate, the losses being quite great. The approximate balance of
forces testifies that no blitzkrieg, taken place in Serbian Kraina,
can be applicable for this region", noted the diplomat, adding that
there wou ld hardy be any great international powers fostering the
hostilities.

According to Vladimir Kazimirov, the Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict
is keener than any other one.

"It has a great pre-history and is considerably burdened with it. So,
the goal in this case is more complicated than lifting mutual claims in
the conflict. The matter is not only to suppress the conflict, but also
to cease the century-old hostility and conflicts between the Armenians
and Azerbaijanis, to find a way to their historical conciliation".

The diplomat considers that the region’s significance has considerably
increased for the last decades.

"The region is strategically significant and, at the same time,
highly explosive. These peculiarities of the region require extreme
caution in the actions", emphasized Vladimir Kazimirov.

SWISS DIPLOMAT BRIEFS AZERI MINISTER ON TURKEY-ARMENIA TALKS

Turan News Agency
May 18 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku, 18 May: The Swiss State Secretary of the Federal Department
of Foreign Affairs, Michael Ambuehl, has briefed Azerbaijani Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on the Bern-mediated negotiating process
between Turkey and Armenia.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s press service reported that, in
turn, Mammadyarov spoke about the course of talks on the Nagornyy
Karabakh settlement. "Recent events have shown that without the
consideration of Azerbaijan’s position, without the resolution of the
Karabakh conflict, it is impossible to achieve progress in the cause
of ensuring stability and security in the region," Mammadyarov said.

Issues related to the development of bilateral relations and topical
regional and international problems were also discussed during the
meeting.

The usefulness of consultations between the foreign departments of
the two countries in the development of Azerbaijani-Swiss relations
was noted.

AZERBAIJAN – ARMENIA: NOT A LOVE STORY.

3minutes.me
an-armenia-not-a-love-story
May 21 2009

Azerbaijan-Armenia gate….

The EBU reference group is going to investigate a complain
by the Armenian broadcatser about the Azeri broadcasting
cooperation. According to the Armenians the Azeri disturbed the
broadcasting in their country during the performance of the Armenian
act. Also the Armenian phone number wasn’t working.

On the other hand, while reading the Armenian votes Sirusho was
showing a picture of a sculpture in the province of Nagorno-Karabakh,
a disputed area between Armenia and Azerbaijan. (Source: NDR,
Songfestival.web-log.nl)

RUSSIA, ARMENIA SIGN $500 MILLION LOAN AGREEMENT ON 3% LIBOR PLUS RATE

ARKA
May 20, 2009

YEREVAN, May 20. /ARKA/. Russia’s Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin
and hi Armenian counterpart Tigran Jrbashyan signed today a 15-year
$500mln worth loan agreement on 3% LIBOR plus rate. The loan agreement
is an attempt to support Armenia amid the global financial recession,
RIA Novosti reports.

According to Kudrin, this is a lax credit with 4% annual interest rate.

"We grant a five-year grace period for Armenia to pay its main debt.

During this period, the country is to pay only interest rates,"
Kudrin was quoted saying.

According to RA Finance Minister Tigran Jrbashyan, the Russian loan
is a strong support for Armenia’s economy amid the global crisis. He
expressed a hope that Armenia would fulfill its commitments to Russia.

The loan funds will be allocated for infrastructural development
and small-to-medium-scale businesses. Kudrin said other countries
have requested loans from Russia, adding negotiations with Ukraine
are under way. He did not name any other countries, saying no final
decision had been made yet.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION COSPONSORS GROW TO 125

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
20.05.2009 14:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ With the addition today of Congressmen Bruce Braley,
Peter Defazio, Bobby Rush, and John Yarmouth, the number of U.S. House
cosponsors of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.252, reached 125,
reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The Armenian Genocide Resolution specifically "1) calls upon the
President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States
reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues
related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented
in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide
and the consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution;
and 2) calls upon the President in the President’s annual message
commemorating the Armenian Genocide issued on or about April 24, to
accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation
of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to recall the proud history
of United States intervention in opposition to the Armenian Genocide."

The measure was introduced on March 17th of the year by lead sponsors
Adam Schiff and George Radanovich, and Congressional Armenian
Caucus Co-chairs Frank Pallone and Mark Kirk. It is identical to
legislation in the House and Senate in the 110th Congress that was
adopted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and publicly endorsed
by then-candidate for President Barack Obama, current Vice President
Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

H.Res.252 has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.