Author: Kalantarian Kevo

AUGUST 5TH PROCLAIMED AS "GENOCIDE AWARENESS DAY" IN COLORADO

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
06.08.2009 12:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. joined with the
Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action (CCGAA), today,
at a press conference proclaiming August 5th as "Genocide Awareness
Day" in the state, reported the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA).

"We’re here today to raise awareness that Genocide is a real thing
where real people are affected in traumatic ways and because as part
of the fraternity of man or in solidarity with our fellow human beings
around the globe, we say we can’t tolerate it, that it should not be
part of our world in the twenty first century," said Gov. Ritter. "The
first recognized genocide of the twentieth century took place in
Armenia, with the slaughter of more than a million Armenians, and we
have seen it again and again since. It is imperative that we recognize
what has happened, so we can ensure it will not happen again."

"We salute the efforts of Governor Ritter, the Colorado Coalition for
Genocide Awareness and Action and Colorado’s exceptionally vibrant
Armenian community for their ongoing commitment to ending the cycle
of genocide – through education and action," said ANCA Executive
Director Aram Hamparian. "From standing up against the denial of the
Armenian Genocide to divestment from the genocidal regime in Sudan –
Colorado leaders have proven that each state can play a vital role
in stopping genocide."

ELENA OBRAZTSOVA HONORED WITH RA CULTURE MINISTRY GOLD MEDAL

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
05.08.2009 11:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Currently in Yerevan, renowned Russian opera
singer Elena Obraztsova was honored with the Gold Medal of the
Armenian Ministry of Culture for the contribution to operatic art
and development of Armenian-Russian cultural relations, reported the
press office of the RA Ministry of Culture.

ALL TOURISTS ARRIVING IN ARMENIA EXAMINED FOR SWINE FLU

/ARKA/
July 31
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, July 31. /ARKA/. All tourists arriving in Armenia are examined
for A/H1N1 swine flu, said Liana Torosyan, Chief Expert of Sanitary
and Epidemiologic Inspectorate, Armenian Ministry of Healthcare.

They fill in special questionnaires on health status in Zvartnots
International Airport and at the frontier points. Those who are found
to have high temperature undergo additional medical examination and
are hospitalized if required, Torosyan said. She also added that
a special thermometer is installed at Zvartnots airport to measure
temperature of people at a distance without giving a trouble.

Special attention is paid to tourists arriving from the USA, Mexico,
Spain and Germany.

Armenian and Georgian foreign ministries are cooperating in resisting
the swine flu, Torosyan said.

Torosyan also said that newcomers are asked about their temporary
residence and are registered in local outpatient clinics for seven
days as the latent period of the disease is seven days.

In speaking about possible introduction of restrictions on arrival
of tourists in connection with the epidemic Torosyan pointed out that
the World Health Organization (WHO) has not given such recommendations.

According to WHO, so far 134,503 swine flu cases were recorded in
the world so far, 800 of them with lethal outcome. No swine flu cases
have been recorded in Armenia. Two cases have been recorded in Georgia.

ARMENIAN LEADER URGES "REAL STEPS" FROM TURKEY ON MENDING TIES

EasyBourse.com
July 28 2009

YEREVAN, Armenia (AFP)–Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said
Tuesday he won’t accept an invitation to visit neighbouring Turkey
unless the government there takes "real steps" at mending fraught ties.

As part of recent efforts aimed at ending decades of enmity between the
two neighbours, Turkish President Abdullah Gul has invited Sarkisian
to attend a World Cup qualifying football match between the countries’
national teams in Turkey in October.

Gul attended a first match between the teams last year, becoming the
first Turkish leader to visit Armenia.

"I will only accept this invitation if previously made agreements
are fulfilled, if there are real steps. I will visit Turkey if we
have re-opened the borders and if we are on the verge of an end to
the blockade," Sarkisian said at a press conference with Serbian
President Boris Tadic.

"We expect that we will soon see constructive steps our (Turkish)
colleagues will make to create the conditions for the Armenian
president’s visit," he said.

Gul’s visit to Armenia last year kicked off a flurry of diplomatic
activity aimed at normalising relations.

After months of talks, Armenia and Turkey said in April that they
had agreed to a road map for normalising ties, but there have been
few signs of progress since the announcement.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic links with Armenia over
Yerevan’s efforts to have World War I-era massacres of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks recognised as genocide – a label Turkey strongly rejects.

Turkey also closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
ally Azerbaijan over Yerevan’s backing of ethnic Armenian separatists
in the breakaway Nagorno Karabakh region.

ARMENIAN ENTREPRENEUR ACCUSED OF MAKING PROFIT ON ARIN BERD CULTURE PRESERVE RECONSTRUCTION

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
28.07.2009 23:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The office of the Armenian prosecutor general has
detected doctoring in Aragatsotn CJSC reports.

A criminal case was initiated against director of Aragatsotn CJSC
director L. Ghukasyan. The entrepreneur is accused of making profit
on Arin Berd culture preserve reconstruction and appropriation of
AMD 1.196 million.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT IS SURE THAT THE SERBIAN PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO ARMENIA IS DIRECTED BY THE SINCERE WISH OF STRENGTHENING ARMENIAN-SERBIAN HISTORICAL, FRIENDLY TIES

ARMENPRESS
July 28, 2009

YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS: Serbian President Boris Tadic has today
arrived in Armenia on a 2-day official visit at the invitation of
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

Armenian Presidential press office told Armenpress that in the
presidential residence the official ceremony of welcoming the top
guest took place, which was followed by the face-to-face talk of
Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Boris Tadic.

"Honorable Mr. President, it is a great honor for me to welcome you
in the Republic of Armenia. This is the first visit on the level
of the head of the country and I am sure that it is directed by the
sincere wish of strengthening Armenian-Serbian historical, friendly
ties in inter-governmental relations. Unfortunately our relations
have been weakly developed by now, which corresponds neither to our
historical relations, nor to the current possibilities. I think the
present geographic-political situation not only gives the opportunity,
but also imposes to convey a new quality to our relations. It is
by that wish that I have invited you to Armenia and I am confident
that your visit will stimulate the development of our relations", –
Serzh Sargsyan said.

The face-to-face talk of the heads of the two countries was followed
by the extended meeting of official delegations with the Presidents’
participation. President Sargsyan noted that Armenia is ready to
become friends with Serbia and exert efforts in that direction. Serzh
Sargsyan proposed to activate spiritual-cultural relations for the
beginning noting that it will be basis for reveling the possibilities
of cooperation in different spheres.

Boris Tadic welcomed Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s proposal
saying that the assignments on beginning works in that direction will
be given to the corresponding departments, and during the Armenian
President’s visit to Serbia the first results will be already visible.

The sides also referred to the development ways in the spheres of
transport communication, economy, noting that the economic ingredient
will greatly promote the development of Armenian-Serbian relations.

Boris Tadic said that Serbia intends to open an Embassy in Armenia
in near future, which will enable the Ambassador in Athens residence
to promote the development of Armenian-Serbian relations on place.

Presidents Sargsyan and Tadic exchanged ideas on the current issues in
Caucasian and Balkan regions and their ways of their solution sharing
the same viewpoint that they are possible and should be solved only
by means of negotiations and peaceful processes.

OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS UPDATE MADRID DOCUMENT

ArmInfo
2009-07-28 12:24:00

ArmInfo. International mediators have modified their proposed
framework peace agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh to increase chances of
its acceptance by Armenia and Azerbaijan, a top U.S. official said
on Monday, Radio Liberty reported.

The three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group representing the United
States, Russia and France met in the Polish city of Krakow at the
weekend to discuss ways of pushing the Karabakh peace further forward
following fresh talks held by the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents
in Moscow on July 17-18.

In a joint statement issued ahead of those talks, the presidents of
the three mediating powers said they have instructed the co-chairs to
present the conflicting parties with an "updated version" of their
basic principles of a Karabakh settlement that were formally put
forward in Madrid in November 2007.

"As directed by our three presidents in their joint declaration of
July 10, 2009, we prepared an updated version of the Madrid Document,"
the U.S. co-chair, Matthew Bryza, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service,
commenting on the Krakow meeting. He described the meeting as
"productive and creative."

"We now have a chance to finalize the Basic Principles," said Bryza. He
praised Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders for being "constructive"
and making "significant progress" in the long-running peace talks.

"The co-chairs also express their thanks to former President [Robert]
Kocharian and Foreign Minister [Vartan] Oskanian whose thoughts
and efforts helped lay the foundation for the Madrid Document,"
added Bryza. "We have now moved beyond that document under Armenia’s
current leaders, President [Serzh] Sarkisian and Foreign Minister
[Eduard] Nalbandian, who have helped elicit progress in tough but
constructive negotiations over the past year."

Sticking to the confidentiality of the long-running peace process, the
U.S. official did not specify whether the basic principles underwent
significant changes. He said only that he and fellow co-chairs Yuri
Merzlyakov and Bernard Fassier "carefully considered the views
expressed by the sides since we presented the Madrid Document in
November 2007."

Contrary to the mediators’ expectations, Sarkisian and Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev failed to bridge their remaining differences
over those principles during their July 17 one-on-one discussion in
Moscow. According to Merzlyakov, the two leaders made more progress
when they met in the presence of their Russian counterpart, Dmitry
Medvedev, the next day.

"There are interesting solutions which the presidents found in the
trilateral format," Merzlyakov told the Azerbaijani Trend news agency
on July 22. "I think that this could produce a positive result in
the future."

ARMENIAN "AMERIABANK" PLANS TO RELEASE BONDS FOR CORPORATE CLIENTS IN AMOUNT OF COUPLE OF BILLION DRAMS BY END OF YEAR

ARKA
July 24, 2009

YEREVAN, July 24. /ARKA/. Armenian "Ameriabank" is planning to release
bonds for corporate clients in the amount of couple of billion drams
by the end of the year, the director of the Development department,
Tigran Jrbashyan, told the journalists.

"We are trying to put into work hedging mechanisms and think that
the capital market will be more active by the end of the year. The
bank is conducting preparatory works towards promoting the market
and we will be able to release those bonds by October or November,"
Jrbashyan informed.

The director of the Development department said that the profit that
can be derived from those bonds depends on the development of the
market since it is forecasted that there will be a decline in the
interest rate connected to Armenia’s Central Bank’s decrease of the
refinancing rates.

Jrbashyan noted, "It is hard to predict what kind of an influence
the interest rates will have and by how much the interest rates are
going to decrease but it will be easier to forecast the situation by
the end of September.

Overall, we are expecting a tendency in the form of a decline of the
interest rates." He informed that Ameriabank will bring up mechanisms,
which will give the investors the opportunity to=2 0invest in Armenia’s
bond market and will demonstrate certain hedging mechanisms related
to the exchange rate risks. According to the bank representative,
the following service will be in great demand.

"I think that the regulator will also bring in refinements in the
law field, which will expand the bond market," Jrbashyan said.

The Ameriabank CJSC (former Armimpexeconombank, renamed last May)
was founded in July 1992 using the facilities of the Armenian branch
of the USSR Vnesheconombank. On September 8, 1992, the Central Bank of
Armenia (CBA) issued a banking license to Ameriabank. In August 2007,
TDA Holdings Limited, affiliate of the Troika Dialog investment and
banking group (Russia), purchased the bank’s shares. On November 3rd,
2008 JSC "Armenian Stock Exchange" awarded JSC "Ameriabank" the status
of market maker of the bonds of IMEKS Group.

As of June 30, 2009, Ameriabank’s assets reached 86.2bln AMD,
liabilities 65.4bln AMD, total capital 20.7bln AMD, authorized capital
18.2bln AMD (first largest authorized capital in the Armenian banking
system), credit investments totaled 31.6.2bln AMD, liabilities to
clients 60.4bln AMD and net profit (January-June 2009) 554.9mln AMD.

The bank has one branch in Armenia.

GRANT THORNTON AMYOT SIGNS CONTRACT WITH NATIONAL BANK OF KYRGYZSTAN

ARKA
July 23, 2009

YEREVAN, July 23. /ARKA/. Grant Thornton Amyot LLC, the Armenian
member of Grant Thornton International, has signed a contract with
the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic for the audit of financial
statements of the Bank for year 2009.

The firm was announced as the winner of the tender for audit services
in June and further approved by the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic
in the capacity of the auditor of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz
Republic for the fiscal year 2009. Grant Thornton Amyot has also been
the auditor of the Central Bank of Armenia for a number of years,
including 2008.

Grant Thornton Amyot operates since early 1990’s providing audit
and professional advisory services to a vast number of local and
international organizations, large enterprises, banks and other
financial institutions.

The firm’s clientele includes financial institutions in Armenia,
Georgia, Tajikistan and other countries, among which are the Central
Bank of Armenia, over a dozen commercial banks annually, as well
as a number of credit organizations, funds, insurance and brokerage
companies.

OSCE SEES "MADRID PRINCIPLES" AS ACCEPTABLE FOR BOTH SIDES

AzerNews Weekly
July 21 2009
Azerbaijan

The Madrid principles for resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict
over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, being discussed by the sides, should
be sufficiently acceptable for both Baku and Yerevan, OSCE Secretary
General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut told a news conference in Baku
on Friday.

The leaders of the countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group mediating
the peace process adopted a joint statement on the Madrid principles
at a recent G8 summit in Italy. US President Barack Obama, France`s
Nicolas Sarkozy and Russia`s Dmitry Medvedev called on Armenian and
Azerbaijani leaders to resolve their differences and move towards
a final accord on the long-standing conflict. The three presidents
indicated that they were instructing their mediators to present to
Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian "an updated version of
a proposed peace outline brought forward in the Madrid Document of
November 2007."

Brichambaut said it was possible to foster rapprochement in the
positions of the sides based on the Madrid principles.

"Naturally, these principles cannot satisfy both sides to the same
extent. But talks can be carried on regarding these principles…The
parties should take advantage of these opportunities. There is
potential to reach peace."

Brichambaut said the leaders of the Minsk Group co-chairing states
are not trying to put pressure on the conflicting sides by elaborating
on the mentioned set of basic principles for the conflict settlement
presented in the Spanish capital, and their only goal is to persuade
the societies of Azerbaijan and Armenia that a peaceful solution of
the dispute is possible.

The OSCE secretary general said the peace process has been intensifying
of late, emphasizing that President Aliyev is interested in continuing
negotiations. "He hopes that outstanding challenges will be overcome,
while taking into account Azerbaijan`s interests, and there will be
progress in the peace process."

According to the US State Department, among the principles called for
in the Madrid Document were "the return of the territories surrounding
Upper Garabagh to Azerbaijani control and an interim status for Upper
Garabagh providing guarantees for security and self-government." It
also embraced "a corridor linking Armenia to Upper Garabagh" as well
as a future determination of the final legal status of Upper Garabagh
"through a legally binding expression of will" and the right of
"internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former
places of residence."

Meanwhile, Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian claimed that
the Madrid principles were merely proposals.

"These are just proposals, and some of them are currently under
discussion, while others are not," he said after meeting Bako Saakian,
the leader of the self-proclaimed Upper Garabagh republic, in Khankandi
on Thursday.

Armenian media quoted him as saying, while commenting on the provision
in the Madrid document stipulating the return of Azerbaijanis ousted
from their homes during military action in the early 1990s, that the
issue of the displaced persons` return to Garabagh was not currently
being discussed.

"We can go back to discussing this issue only after a complete solution
of the problem is achieved," he said.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said earlier, while
commenting on the issue of Upper Garabagh`s status, that it could be
tabled only after Azerbaijani IDPs return home.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus republics reared up
in the late 1980s due to Armenia`s territorial claims. Armenia has
been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan`s internationally-recognized
territory since the early 1990s in defiance of international law.