Author: Kanayan Tamar

ARMENIA’S PM TO BECOME A MEDIA MAGNATE?

16:00 / 18.09.2013

According to Nyut.am sources, big sums have ‘entered’ Armenia from
West for financing a number of mass media. A number of newspapers and
news websites will receive big sums to propagate the EU’s Association
Agreement. It is also planned to open a TV Channel.

Those who think that pro-EU figures have given up are wrong. In the
coming days the pro-Western figures will become quite active. The
sources say PM Tigran Sargsyan will coordinate these wide-scale
activities in the media field. Previously president’s son-in-law was
doing it, while now this activity will be implemented by the PM.

On the other hand, the West seems to prepare a ground for the future
opposition figure and if Tigran Sargsyan resigns he will be the one.

Especially in case when the political elite of the USA, Armenia finds
that there is a vacuum in Armenia’s opposition field and the PM may
become future leader without difficulties especially if he succeeds
to have his influence on the media field.

On the other hand, more probably the EU has not lost its hope to
attract Armenia.

In short, though not with his own means but soon Tigran Sargsyan may
become a media magnate.

Nyut.am

NKR FOREIGN MINISTER RECEIVED BRITISH PARLIAMENT MEMBERS

On September 18, NKR Foreign Minister Karen Mirzoyan received members
of the Armenian-British Friendship Group Stephen Pound and John
Whittingdale at the NKR Permanent Mission to RA.

The NKR Foreign Minister highly appreciated the British MPs’ interest
towards the Republic of Artsakh.

During the meeting, Karen Mirzoyan presented, on the request of the
guests, the process of state building in the NKR and the current
stage of settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Karabakh.

A range of regional issues was also touched upon at the meeting.

NKR MFA Press Service

18:48 18/09/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

ARMENIA NOT READY FOR ABOLITION OF TAXES FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES, HEAD OF NATIONAL CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SME SAYS

YEREVAN, September 18. / ARKA /. Armenia is not ready for abolition
of taxes for small and medium-sized enterprises, according to
Karen Gevorkyan, the deputy director of the National Centre for the
Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

“Tax exemption is a much more complex issue than it may seem. Of
course, everybody realizes that such a move could provide a strong
incentive for the development of SMEs. However, it should be enforced
based on serious research and preparedness of the system for it,”
he said to journalists.

According to Gevorgyan, there are various estimates indicating that
the tax burden is not the only obstacle to the development of SMEs.

He said the easing of the tax burden for SMEs needs to be done
gradually and step by step as the experience shows that when it is
done abruptly it has no effect.

Gevorkyan said as a provisional solution the government introduced
turnover tax and patent fees, which significantly reduce the tax
burden and simplify taxation administration.

On January 1, 2013 the government introduced turnover tax for small
and medium-sized enterprises with an annual turnover of up to 58.35
million drams, replacing by it the previous profit and income taxes.

The amount of this tax ranges from 3.5 % of the annual
income, set for trade outlets to, 20% for notary
offices. ($ 1 – 409.61 drams). -0- – See more at:

ARMENIA, RUSSIA STRATEGIC PARTNERS – DEFENSE MINISTER

15:59 18.09.13

At his meeting with teachers and students of Yerevan State University,
Armenia’s Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan addressed Armenia’s
decision to join the Customs Union.

He noted that Armenia and Russia are strategic partners, and “our
strategic ally is assisting us by supplying precision weapons.”

“Any strategic decision implies security problems. With the regional
conflicts, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, considered the
decision was made,” Ohanyan said.

“Some of the nations we are cooperating with think that we [Armenia]
are unwilling to cooperate with Azerbaijan,” he said.

As regards the withdrawal of snipers from the borderline, Minister
Ohanyan said: “We are ready to withdraw our snipers. We see it is
a normal step. On the other hand, we do not have any problems with
retaliation.”

“The year 2011 was the most successful for our armed forces. Last
year we preserved the result, and we have reduced incidents by 30%
this year,” the minister said. He pointed out the development of
air defense.

Asked about emigration from Armenia, Ohanyan said that it affects
Armenia’s army. “Emigration is a problem for all of us. And we want
the government-taken measures to produce results.”

Armenian News – Tert.am

SERZH SARGSYAN IS JUST AN EPISODE IN WEST’S TACTICS

Armenia is opened layer by layer

“But again Armenia will choose its path, and there’s nothing in the
Customs Union that’s going to prevent Armenia from taking the necessary
internal steps that the president, the prime minister and everybody
have publicly committed to take in terms of reform in all the key
sectors,” said the U.S. Ambassador John Heffern in an interview with
Radio Liberty, noting that he continues to think that the Western
path would be helpful to reforms in Armenia.

Ambassador Heffern announced that the United States will continue to
support reforms in Armenia. He stated that they are important of all.

In fact, the U.S. ambassador highlights that withdrawing Armenia
from the Russian orbit is of key importance to change of internal
life of Armenia, which will change society’s thinking, strengthen
state institutions and give them more independence and will to work
and make decisions proceeding from the interests of the society.

The “bid” on the government of Armenia was a tactical step by
the West. It would be ingenuous to think that Europe or the United
States believed sincerely in the irreversibility of Serzh Sargsyan’s
statement, that he would lead Armenia to the developed world. In this
meaning, it is ingenuous to think that Serzh Sargsyan has deceived
Europe or the United States.

This is just an episode of the Western tactics which was not quite
successful or effective. Although who knows the West may have squeezed
the most of this episode. After all, over the past few years the
process of association with the EU has left a trace in Armenia.

The strategy of the West with regards to Armenia is moving ahead
with small steps. The expectations are not great, especially that
a process of figuring out opportunities, will and principles is
underway. In other words, Armenia is given a chance to open up or
rather a situation is created which will not leave Armenia a way out
but open up layer by layer.

After figuring out the country’s state, social and political resource,
consequently the potential the West will come up with strategic
decisions or review on the next stage of work with Armenia.

However, most probably it will not take place soon, which is a real
loss for Armenia because it actually loses the prospect of being a
subject in geopolitical processes and remains in the capacity of the
Russian object.

Hakob Badalyan 17:30 18/09/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

OSCE INTERESTED IN AZERBAIJANI POPULATION SIZE FALSIFICATION WITH 36%; IT IS NOW IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP BAKU HOWEVER

15:58 18/09/2013 ” ECONOMY

Falsification of statistics of official state bodies of Azerbaijan
has long received publicity. It is noteworthy that the issues related
to serious falsification of the population of Azerbaijan have been
discussed even in the CEC of Azerbaijan and the OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

Thus, in June 2013, Akif Gurbanov, member of the Central Executive
Committee of Azerbaijan stated: “Population amounting to 9 million 356
thousand people are indicated in the State Statistical Committee’s
report on population of the country. In the same time more than 6
million 467 thousand people are aged above 20. In the CEC report, the
number of voters already reaches 4 million 986 thousand people. The
difference in numbers makes one and a half million. Where are these
voters?”

In July 2013, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights (ODIHR), expressed concern in its report about the fact that,
according to the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, the number
of people older than 20 years is more than the number of voters by
1.5 million, the Central Election Commission said.

According to the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, there are
6.8 million people aged over 18 living in the country. In the same
time, as news agency “Trend” reports, on May 29, 2013 Mazahir Panahov,
the head of the Central Election Commission, stated that the number of
voters in the country was 4,986,296 people. Thus, it becomes apparent
that the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan has overestimated
the number of citizens aged over 18 at a minimum of 1.8 million or 36%.

It is noteworthy that, according to Panahov, most of the voters are
in the 19-30 age group (1,317,353 people), and according to the State
Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, there are 2.15 million people
aged 19-30. That is, the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan
overestimated the number of citizens in this age category by 63% (!).

This situation would definitely lead to a serious scandal in almost
every country; in Azerbaijan, however, this difference of half-million
voters and the number of citizens aged over 18 is repeated from
election to election. Discrepancies in demographic statistics, however,
are found in other areas as well – for example, in education.

Thus, in July 2012 scandal broke out in Azerbaijan, concerning the fact
that 11 years ago 133 thousand children had entered public schools,
but had finished only 70,000 of them, which is less with 39%.

According to Azerbaijani expert Alovsat Osmanli the Education
Ministry of Azerbaijan has failed to explain where these pupils
have “disappeared”. However, the responsible officials faced no
consequences.

The reason for this situation is that the data on the Azerbaijani
population are falsely increased it by the order of the authorities
of the Republic, as the latter use “demographic superiority” factor
in the information war against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. President
of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly made statements saying that
“the population of Azerbaijan is growing, while it’s declining in
Armenia,” and this fact, according to him, is one of the components of
the forthcoming victory of Baku in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In
reality, Azerbaijan has had the advantage both in population and in
size of the armed forces during the wartime too. Despite this fact
Armenian soldiers took victory on the battlefield.

In general we can state that in the pursuit of a “virtual advantage in
number,” the Azerbaijani authorities have reached fantastic results
in the process of falsification of population of the Republic. Here
is just one example; as shown above, the number of people aged over 18
is overstated by 36% and the number of people aged 19-30 is overstated
by 63% (!).

In previous articles on this topic we have already presented that the
population of Azerbaijan is overstated by State Statistical Committee
of this Republic with about 37%. In the same time, the falsification
of the population is implemented in several main directions:

~U Millions of citizens who have left the Azerbaijani republic many
years ago are estimated among the main population.

~U The current migration from Azerbaijan, which reaches tens of
thousands of people, is not taken into account.

~U Overestimation of Data on fertility is being done, which allows
to “discount” hundreds of thousands of virtual citizens among the
Azerbaijan population, which did not ever exist in reality.

~U “Double-counting” of Azerbaijanis, who once lived on
Nagorno-Karabakh territory, is being carried out. Now they are
estimated both by their place of residence and the place where they
lived before 1994.

In fact, the calculations show that the population size of Azerbaijan
is overstated by the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan with
about 3.5 million people, and is unlikely to exceed 5.8 million.

Probably, the Azerbaijani authorities assess the potential of their
population so low, that the existing two-fold superiority in numbers
seems extremely insufficient to them. Over time, the data published
by the state structures of Azerbaijan get more and more detached
from reality, in the same time assuming fantastic scales. However,
the Azerbaijani authorities, who are engaged in information war with
Armenia, are not worried about it.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIA’S BUSINESS ACTIVITY INDEX SHEDS 1.5 POINTS TO 58.2 IN 2ND Q

YEREVAN, September 18. /ARKA/. Business activity index in Armenia sank
1.5 percentage points in the second quarter of this year, compared
with the previous quarter, to 58.2, the press office of the Central
bank of Armenia reports.

Armenia’s industry showed the highest quarter-on-quarter activity
index – 61 against 61.9% in the first quarter of this year.

Trade sector recorded 58.4 (1.2-point decline), services area 56.8
(a two-point decline) and construction 56 (a two-point decline).

Besides, business environment index stood at 53.7 after going 1.8
points down, compared with the previous quarter’s result, and showed
stable sentiments in business environment.

Industry was singled out for the highest business environment index
– 55.9, which rose 1.2 points in the second quarter, compared with
first quarter.

Construction recorded 50 (1.2-point decline), trade 55.4 (0.8-point
increase) and services 53.5 (8.2 decline).

Calculation of the business activity index is based on an averaged
method of respondents’ estimates and outlooks on industrial output
orders for output and changes in industrial reserves.

The business environment index is figured out by averaging
organizations’ estimates on changes of economic things and risks.

The Central Bank of Armenia started conducting its quarterly surveys
of financial, non-financial organizations and households in 2005 to
assess economic expectations of respondents and calculate indices.

—0—

– See more at:

NO ARMENIANS INJURED IN BOMBING OF ARMENIAN CATHOLIC PRELACY OF DAMASCUS

13:03 18/09/2013 ” SOCIETY

The Armenian Catholic Prelacy of Damascus became a target of bombing
on September 17, Nazaret Elmajian, a resident of Damascus, told
Armenpress. The building’s third floor as well as the “Luys” and
“Paros” colleges were damaged, he said.

No casualties are reported, he added.

Bombings also occurred in nearby Arab districts, leaving 5 dead. There
are no Armenians among those killed in the bombings.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIAN POLITICIANS’ VIEWS SPLIT OVER FUTURE PROSECUTOR GENERAL

11:34 18.09.13

The opposition and the ruling circles vary in their opinions on
the former prosecutor general’s work and the plans for appointing a
new successor.

Members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia share President
Serzh Sargsyan’s views, while those in the opposition say they do
not have any positive expectations.

An opposition representative speaking to Tert.am expressed a negative
opinion on Aghvan Hovsepyan’s tenure, condemning him for the presence
of political prisoners in the country.

“He is responsible for the presence of political prisoners in Armenia
as he failed to exercise a proper control over the institutions that
bring charges against innocent people.

“He actually contributed to the persecutions against innocent people
and their long-term imprisonment. So my opinion is strongly negative
in that respect,” said the source.

Meantime, Hovhannes Sahakyan of the ruling Republic faction in
parliament said he has no reason to disagree with the president.

“If Aghvan Hovsepyan has met with the country’s president, and the
president clearly expressed his opinion, we unquestioningly agree
with him and share his opinion,” he told our correspondent.

At a meeting with Hovsepyan on Thursday, the president thanked him
for his long-time service in the system and his efforts towards
strengthening law and order in the country.

Asked what features he expects the new prosecutor general to have,
Sahakyan answered, “Sharing and agreeing to the president’s view, it
is necessary to say that we are in for new challenges, new demands
and reforms. So I believe that the most important things under
the circumstances have to be the high professionalism and the very
principled character.”

Armenian News – Tert.am

SYRIE : ACCORD SUR LA QUESTION DES ARMES CHIMIQUES

Publie le : 18-09-2013

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
propose ce Communique de presse publie sur le site d’Amnesty
International le 14 septembre 2013.

Amnesty International

Syrie. L’accord sur la question des armes chimiques est “positif”,
mais doit etre suivi d’autres mesures

Amnesty International se felicite des mesures annoncees samedi
14 septembre en vertu desquelles les armes chimiques de la Syrie
pourront etre placees sous contrôle international et detruites. Cette
annonce fait suite a la decision prise par le gouvernement syrien,
au debut de la semaine, d’adherer a la Convention sur l’interdiction
des armes chimiques.

Amnesty International se felicite des mesures annoncees samedi
14 septembre en vertu desquelles les armes chimiques de la Syrie
pourront etre placees sous contrôle international et detruites. Cette
annonce fait suite a la decision prise par le gouvernement syrien,
au debut de la semaine, d’adherer a la Convention sur l’interdiction
des armes chimiques.

” Tout geste qui peut deboucher sur le retrait et la destruction
ulterieure d’armes interdites a l’echelle internationale constitue
indeniablement une mesure positive, meme si la mise en ~uvre de ces
mesures pose de serieux problèmes dans le contexte du conflit qui
perdure en Syrie, a declare Philip Luther, directeur du programme
Afrique du Nord et Moyen-Orient d’Amnesty International.

” Il n’en reste pas moins que des comptes doivent etre rendus en ce
qui concerne les attaques a l’arme chimique qui auraient ete commises
le 21 août ainsi que les autres crimes contre l’humanite et crimes de
guerre perpetres jour après jour en Syrie au moyen d’armes classiques.

” Les attaques ont provoque une prise de conscience, qui necessitait
peut-etre ce coup de semonce, en rappelant a tous que l’absence
d’action contre l’impunite en Syrie a eu des consequences de plus en
plus alarmantes. ”

Les mesures annoncees devront etre suivies par de nombreuses autres
actions concertees de la communaute internationale afin d’imposer
l’obligation de rendre des comptes et d’attenuer la crise humanitaire
qui sevit dans le pays.

Amnesty International est intervenue auprès du Conseil de securite
pour que ce dernier demande au gouvernement syrien d’accorder a la
commission d’enquete mandatee par les Nations unies en Syrie la
possibilite de mener des recherches sur les atteintes aux droits
humains commises par toutes les parties au conflit.

L’organisation a egalement exhorte le Conseil de securite des Nations
unies a deferer a la Cour penale internationale la situation en Syrie,
demande actuellement reprise par des gouvernements de plus en plus
nombreux.

L’accord conclu le 14 septembre doit egalement inciter la communaute
internationale a redoubler d’efforts pour remedier aux souffrances
des millions de civils touches par le conflit.

” La communaute internationale doit maintenant faire pression sur la
Syrie pour qu’elle accorde aux organisations et agences humanitaires un
accès totalement libre, avec la possibilite de franchir les frontières
et les lignes, afin qu’elles puissent porter assistance aux populations
civiles sans discrimination “, a conclu Philip Luther.

PRE01/466/2013 14 septembre 2013

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Source/Lien : Amnesty International