Author: Kanayan Tamar

ARMENIA MIGHT BE LEFT WITHOUT BRIDES IN 15 YEARS

Vestnik Kavkaza

June 18 2012
Russia

In 15 years Armenian men will not be able to find a bride or men
with low education and income will not marry at all. The reason is a
possible deficit of females, as at the moment couples often prevent
the birth of girls, Aravot writes.

According to research conducted by the UN Population Fund, together
with the Armenian ministry of health and the Republican Institute
for Reproductive Health, the annual number of abortions connected
to the gender of the possible child reached 1400. The research shows
that now boys are born 15% more frequently than girls. At the moment
there are 118-120 newborn boys for every 100 girls.

According to experts, this might cause severe problems in the future.

Adult men unable to find a wife at home will have to migrate,
which will result in the population decreasing. On the other hand,
the situation will stimulate the growth of prostitution. It can also
strengthen female exploitation and gender inequality, as there will
be more pressure on women to perform their reproductive function.

Sociologist Artak Sagatelyan says that the preference given to the
boys is connected to the low living standards in Armenia. Respondents
explain their desire to have a boy by the fact that girls would have
problems finding jobs, while a boy can at least go abroad, while girls
will have to stay in Armenia and adjust. In addition, it is believed
that in the situation of the undeveloped pension and welfare systems,
boys will be taking care of their elderly parents while girls will
become a part of the other family after marriage.

GEOPROMINING ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF SALE OF GPM GEORGIA BV THAT REPRESENTS THE SALE OF MADNEULI AND QUARTZITE FOR A TOTAL OF US$120 MLN

arminfo
Monday, June 18, 20:43

GeoProMining (“GPM” or the “Company”) announces that on June 14,
2012, it completed the sale of GPM Georgia BV that represents the
sale of two Georgian companies Madneuli and Quartzite for a total
cash consideration of US$120m. This is reported by the official
website of the company, however, the buyer of these Georgian assets
is not mentioned.

The press release of GPM says that GPM acquired both the Georgian
copper-gold mining company Madneuli and the gold mining company
Quartzite in 2005 with the goal of becoming a leading gold producer
in the Caucasus region. Such strategy has been successfully executed
and these businesses have demonstrated growth in annual production of
five times under GeoProMining’s management. The divestiture is a direct
result of the Company decision to consider its strategic options for
these entities following the recent tender organized by the Georgian
government where Madneuli’s mining license was tendered and acquired
by a company not affiliated with GPM, effective from May 2014.

GeoProMining considers the divestiture as in the best interests of its
shareholders. The transaction will enable GPM to focus its regional
growth strategy on its subsidiaries in Armenia, namely GPM Gold and
the Agarak copper-molybdenum mine complex, and on its antimony-gold
assets in Russia, whilst at the same time substantially strengthening
the Company balance sheet.

GeoProMining’s CEO, Roman Khudoliy, commented on the divestiture:
“We have been working for the past few months to monetize our Georgian
presence and are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of these
efforts. Our key business priority is to now complete the expansion
of the Albion processing facility at the Ararat facility in Armenia,
which will transform GPM Gold into a world class asset, and support
our multi-year growth expectations.”

GeoProMining’s Senior Vice-President, Sergei Nossoff, added: “This
is a new beginning for GeoProMining and an opportunity to focus on
developing very promising projects in both Armenia and Russia and
in addition, to look at opportunities in new regions for GPM. We
believe our unique combination of gold-copper-antimony projects in
the CIS region is unmatched in the mining industry and we can use
this combination as leverage and foundation for future growth.”

VTB Capital acted as financial advisor on the transaction and Clifford
Chance acted as legal advisor to GeoProMining.

NEVA-RUS INVESTMENT COMPANY IS THE BUYER OF GEORGIAN ASSETS OF GEOPROMINING

arminfo
Monday, June 18, 20:42

The ultimate buyer of Madneuli and Quartzite enterprises, the Georgian
assets of GeoProMining Group (Russia) is Neva-Rus CJSC, another large
Russian investment company, reliable sources in Tbilisi told ArmInfo.

To recall, GeoProMining (GPM) has announced that on June 14, 2012,
it completed the sale of GPM Georgia BV that represents the sale
of two Georgian companies Madneuli and Quartzite for a total cash
consideration of US$120mln. However, the company did not specify
the counterparties to the transaction. According to ArmInfo’s
information, the counterparties are Georgian structures, whose ultimate
beneficiary is the St-Petersburg-based Neva-Rus CJSC. In 2010 the
investment company acquired the Metal Prince company in Armenia,
which was the owner of Akhtala mining and processing plant and Sagamar
company. Later, through Metal Prince company, the full block of shares
of Molibdeni Ashkhar company (World of Molybdenum) was acquired. The
latter develops the Dastakert mine. According to the company’s data,
the investments in the ore-mining sphere of Armenia have amounted to
100 mln USD.

Karen Kazaryan, Investment Manager of Neva-Rus CJSC, says that
the company’s portfolio in Russia includes the network of O’Kay
hypermarkets, St.Petersburg Bank, Mega Auto dealership network, as
well as the network of Chaynaya Lozhka (Tea Spoon) restaurants and
other assets. The range of interests and the geography of investments
cover Russia, the CIS countries, the Middle East, the countries of
Eastern Europe and Africa.

KANGAROO CONTEST WINNERS RECEIVED AT THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE

15:13 . 18/06

The five winners of Math Kangaroo International Contest were received
at the Ministry of Education and Science. About 36, 000 pupils from 905
schools of Armenia and Artsakh participated in the contest this year.

The director of Ayb Educational Foundation Davit Sahakyan says this
year the indicators of participation, positive results and award
winners were higher than last year.

Math Kangaroo International Contest is held in more than 50 countries
on the same day with the participation of about 6mln pupils. Books
including problems with their solutions are provided beforehand for
the pupils to get used to the logic of the problems. According to the
rules of the contest, the winners above 12 leave for an international
summer camp.

>From Armenia Erna Petrosyan from Gegharkunik region will leave for
Paris. The organizers mention mass copying as a serious problem because
of which schools are deprived of the opportunity to participate in
the contest.

“This year the schools which received a warning are 11 and we have
had to exclude 9 schools from participation for one year. It is a
disappointing fact. We are stating once again copying and prompting
are robbery and we do our best to keep children away from robbery
starting from an early age,” Davit Sahakyan said.

TURKEY WILL OPEN THE BORDER AND ESTABLISH RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA, JEWISH POLITICAL ANALYST SAYS
Gita Elibekyan

“Radiolur”
18.06.2012 16:59

“Turkey will open the border and will normalize relations with
Armenia,” famous Jewish political analyst Alexander Murinson
says. He currently teaches “Turkey’s Foreign Policy” at Tbilisi’s
Ilya Chavchavadze State University. “Turkey is just waiting for a
proper moment for that,” he said.

Relations with the countries of the South Caucasus play an important
role in Turkey’s foreign policy, Alexander Murinson is confident.

Noting that the Turkish principle of “zero problem with neighbors” does
not exist at all, he says Turkey has problems not only with Armenia.

“The protocols on establishment of relations between Armenia and Turkey
were not implemented, because the reaction of Azerbaijan affected
the political circles of Turkey,” Murinson says, adding, however,
that Turkey will pursue the opening of the border and normalization
of relations.

“Among other things it’s connected with domestic problems. Turkish
territories close to the border simply suffer because of undeveloped
economy. In this regard, the residents of Kars and other regions
stand for trade with Armenia.”

The processes taking place in the Middle East are in the focus of
attention of the world powers today, and being a neighbor of Iran and
Syria Turkey could not have stayed apart from the developments. “The
establishment of relations with Armenia is not a priority today in
the light of these developments,” Alexander Murinson says.

At the same time the expert emphasizes that Turkey will not do that
without preconditions. “Turkey will not refuse from its claims. They
expect the Armenian side to take concrete steps connected with the
Karabakh issue, after which they will normalize the relations.”

As for the Armenian Genocide issue, the analyst says Erdogan
understands the essence of the issue and has taken some minor steps in
that direction. “The Turkish press often refers to the question today.

This means the intellectuals are trying to make the Genocide issue a
topic of open discussions and research. There are political forces,
which attach importance to the issue. However, there are some
nationalist forces beside them, and it’s hard to say whether there
will be any progress on the issue before the balance changes in a
more liberal direction,” Murinson says.

HEAVYWEIGHT SUPPORT: OSKANIAN ENLISTS TSARUKYAN BACKING IN CONTINUING THINK TANK ROW

Politics | 18.06.12 | 11:04

Photolure

Gagik Tsarukyan (left), Vartan Oskanian

Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Chairman Gagik Tsarukyan met with
senior figure of his party Vartan Oskanian immediately after returning
to Armenia at the end of last week, Tsarukyan’s press office said,
adding that the meeting focused on the latest developments around a
think tank formerly headed by Oskanian.

Ex-foreign minister Oskanian, who founded the Civilitas Foundation
after leaving his state post in 2008 and led it until February this
year before joining the PAP, reportedly briefed Tsarukyan on the
situation involving money laundering charges against the foundation.

A spokeswoman said the PAP leader stressed that he will take “all the
steps prescribed by law in order to protect the rights and interests
of his fellow party members.”

The PAP chairman also reportedly appreciated the Civilitas Foundation’s
“activities toward establishing democratic values and pluralism
in Armenia.”

“And, if necessary, Gagik Tsarukyan expressed a readiness to also
invite a team of internationally-renowned lawyers and attorneys to
Armenia,” the statement said.

Oskanian insists that the current criminal proceedings on money
laundering charges are a retribution for his hard-hitting criticism
of the government in the lead-up to the May 6 parliamentary elections.

Some political observers also view it as a warning to Oskanian,
who has not ruled out the possibility of making a presidential bid
in 2013 in several media interviews.

Government representatives deny any political implications behind
the criminal investigation.

Meanwhile, Civilitas Foundation Director Salpi Ghazarian last Friday
was summoned to the National Security Service (NSS) to testify as
a witness.

Ghazarian, however, refused to give testimony, claiming that given
the nature of the NSS statement that refers to “committed violations”,
she was in a de-facto state of being a suspect rather than a witness
and, therefore, could refuse to testify.

Oskanian, too, had refused to testify after being twice summoned to
the NSS last week.

In her comments to media, Ghazarian insisted that the charges against
Civilitas, which she described as the most transparent foundation in
Armenia, were a “political order”. But the foundation’s representative
stopped short of naming names. In this regard, she brought up the
issue of CivilNet TV launched by Civilitas last September, implying
it could as well be a case of restricting freedom of speech. “But it
won’t work,” she concluded.

ARMENIA MUST STRIVE TO IMPROVE DISTORTED PERCEPTION OF KARABAKH CONFLICT – EXPERT

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 18, 2012 – 15:45 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia must strive to improve international
community’s distorted perception of Karabakh conflict, according to
the head of Political Research Academy NGO.

As Alexander Manasyan told a news conference in Yerevan, “over the
last 20 years, Azerbaijan has been instilling the notion of having a
legal right to reclaim liberated territories of Artsakh, with Armenia
not taking enough effort to refute Baku’s rhetoric.”

“Armenia must make the world aware that not an inch of Azerbaijan’s
legal territory was seized,” the expert said. “Back in 1921, when by
the illegal decision of Caucasus Bureau Nagorno Karabakh was passed
under Azeri control, the separate territories of Nagorno Karabakh
Autonomous Oblast were not stipulated. Only in 1923, Azerbaijan
separated Armenian-populated territories, with Nagorno Karabakh
Autonomous Oblast formed solely of the latters,” the expert explained.

Shakira, Rihanna to sing in Baku

tert.am
13:03 – 13.06.12

The world-renowned songs stars, Shakira and Rihanna. are going to
perform songs at the 2012 FIFA Women’s U17 World Championship in Baku.

Citing the Azerbaijani Football Federation’s association, 1news.az
sport reported that Rihanna is set to perform at the quarter matches
on October 5. Shakira’s will sing at the finals.

Jennifer Lopez was earlier reported to be selected as a guest singer
for the opening event.

The championship will run from September 22 through October 13. The
tickets will be available for sale beginning July 6.

Why Does the ARF Support Bako Sahakyan?

Saturday, 16 June 2012 22:13

Spokesman of the ARF Central Committee of Artsakh Davit Ishkhanyan
clarified the party’s decision of supporting Bako Sahakyan in the
upcoming presidential elections in the Central Committee’s official
website. The statements made, however, can hardly be perceived as
valid answers as they arouse many more questions. According to him the
CC has earlier convoked an extended conference participated by all the
party members holding different posts in the state system, members of
the NA ARF faction to discuss the issue of the party’s participation
in the elections. At its June 6 session the Central Committee together
with the ARF Bureau adopted a joint resolution to support NKR
incumbent President Bako Sahakyan’ s candidacy without taking part in
his pre-election headquarters, however, and to expel Vitali Balasanyan
from the NKR NA ARF faction.

To the question `Does the ARF office of Artsakh unconditionally trust
the current president?’ Davit Ishkhanyan answered, `The ARF office of
Artsakh is surely discontented with NKR President Bako Sahakyan’s
interior policy. Moreover, we consider highly unacceptable such
manifestations of his policy as the disregard of the role of the
political parties functioning in Artsakh in the state government
system, cadres policy, the activities aimed at resettlement and
finally the social atmosphere created in Artsakh where any possibility
of dissidence is ignored. The ARF CC of Artsakh has many times
addressed these concerns to the authorities at different levels.
Proceeding from the mentioned anxieties our support for Bako
Sahakyan’s candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections lies on a
conditional basis,’ Davit Ishkhanyan noted.

It is not clear why the ARF-Dashnaktsutsyun supports the incumbent
president if it is dissatisfied with the authorities’ activities in
the mentioned directions. Does this mean that the ARF office of
Artsakh does not attach so much significance to these directions some
which are of strategic importance for the country while the others may
carry fateful consequences?
The ARF spokesman made another announcement again during the interview
according to which the ARF will not constitute a part of election
headquarters explaining that `the officials who caused perversion of
the social atmosphere are active participants of Bako Sahakyan’s
pre-election headquarters. Out of this circumstance the CC has
determined to have no participation in Bako Sahakyan’s election
campaigns and his headquarters and challenged the ARF members not to.
We will set up our own headquarters through which we will systematize
our activities,’ Davit Ishkhanyan added.
I wonder what officials the CC spokesman means: those who supported
Bako Sahakyan during the previous presidential elections or those who
are still going to support him. Apparently Bako Sahakyan’s supporting
team will mostly remain the same; he will be surrounded by the Prime
Minister, the present day Mayor of Stepanakert who was the head of his
pre-election headquarters during the previous elections, a number of
ministers and other officials. If the ARF does not agree with the
policy carried out by these officials why has it decided to support
the same candidate who after the elections will be surrounded by the
same officials carrying out the same policy? Maybe the reason is the
personal sympathy towards the current president or maybe the aim of
the ARF members to save their businesses and posts they hold that is
why they make an unsuccessful attempt to conceal all these
considerations under the veil of having no participation in the
pre-election headquarters.
The ARF-Dashnaktsutsyun had better not express any dissatisfaction or
after such announcements it should have called on its members to free
ballot. The fact is that after the elections they will have to work
with the same team and bear responsibility for each step of this team.

Hetq Breaks Story: Police Promise to Investigate Missing Art from
National Gallery

hetq
11:03, June 1, 2012

Ararat Davtyan, Edik Baghdasaryan

After Hetq first broke the story about art going missing from the
National Gallery, the police promised to tell us why no one has ever
been arrested or charged with the theft.

The Police Department’s Public Affairs Unit contacted us today,
stating that an investigation into the matter and that it was likely
that criminal charges would be forthcoming.

We had also sent inquiries to the General Prosecutor’s Office, the
Ministry of Culture, the Prime Minister and Paravon Mirzoyan, who
heads the National Gallery. All responded except Mirzoyan.

The General Prosecutor replied by saying that the theft are registered
with the police and that we should direct our questions to them.
Deputy Minister of Culture Artour Poghosyan told us that it was true
that certain items had gone missing from the National Gallery and that
the administration had reported the cases to law enforcement.

Sargis Grigoryan, who heads the Prime Minister’s Control Service, told
us that his unit had not carried out any inspections of the National
Gallery during the period 2010-2011.

In his reply, Grigoryan wrote that the Control Service had taken color
photos of 29,906 objects at the National Gallery in July, 2009. He
went on to say that as of last month, some 16,000 of these had been
inputted into the digital data base.

Hetq had also written about a flood that took place in the National
Gallery’s 9th floor cafe that destroyed several paintings below.

And the reason for the water damage in the first place? The answer,
sadly, is typically Armenian.

The day of the flood, a film crew had been shooting in the Gallery.
Afterwards, there was a party upstairs in the cafe. Somebody forgot to
turn off the water faucet.

In October of 2011 a Hetq reporter conducted an interview with Paravon
Mirzoyan about a case involving two works by the artist Khachatur
Yesayan. The reporter also wanted to verify the news about the fold
and subsequent water damage.

Mirzoyan confirmed that a work entitled `Destroyers of Birds Nests’,
in the French exhibition hall had sustained water damage but refused
to go into details.

He did reject any allegation that a film had been shot at the National Gallery.

The following video is the trailer for the film “Here”. The scenes
shown from the 32-38 second are of the 9th floor cafe in the National
Gallery.