Author: Karagyozian Lena

ACCORDING TO ARTUR BAGHDASARIAN’S PREELECTION PROGRAM, IT IS ENVISAGED TO FREE OF CHARGE GIVE APARTMENT AND CAR TO FAMILIES HAVING 6th CHILD

Noyan Tapan
Jan 21, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, NOYAN TAPAN. Bribery, corruption will be
liquidated, order will be established in Armenia in case Artur
Baghdasarian, the Chairman of the Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law)
party, a candidate for presidency, is elected. The OYP leader made
such a statement at the January 21 presentation of his preelection
program. In particular, he said that according to the results
of studies conducted by a number of international and Armenian
organizations, the tax and customs spheres are the most corrupted
ones in Armenia. According to A. Baghdasarian, especially in these
spheres we should consistently fight bribery.

The candidate for presidency stated that amalgamation of business
takes place in the recent years, in consequence of which small and
medium-sized enterprises are liquidated. According to him, the created
economic monopolies belong to the authorities or "oligarch groupings"
supporting them. As A. Baghdasarian stated, his preelection program
mentioned that the rights of importing monopolists should be limited,
local industry should be restored and export of local production
should be initiated. In response to the question of what he is going
to do, in case of being elected, for instance, with a monopoly company
importing granulated sugar, A. Baghdasarian said that the latter
will have a possibility to continue importing granulated sugar, but
a number of other individuals or organizations will be also engaged
in that business.

The OYP leader stated that he is very anxious about the current
demographic picture of Armenia. "Today death rate exceeds birth rate
and if it goes on like this, the RA population will decrease by nearly
600 thousand in several years," A. Baghdasarian said. He mentioned
that by his preelection program he proposes to establish a lump sum
aid of 700 thousand drams for the birth of each 5th child in a family
and 1m drams (nearly 3.3 thousand dollars) for the 6th child. Besides,
according to the program, it is envisaged to free of charge give an
apartment and a car to families having the 6th child.

Radio Netherlands, Netherlands
Jan 19 2008

Hopes fade for change in Turkey after Dink murder
Killing of Armenian journalist proves no watershedby Bernard Bouwman*

19-01-2008

The Turkish journalist of ethnic Armenian origin Hrant Dink was
assassinated in front of the offices of his Istanbul newspaper a year
ago by an ultra-nationalist Turkish minor. Images of his body lying
on the street shocked the country. One year ago, hundreds of
thousands of people demonstrated for a more open and tolerant Turkey
on the day of his funeral.

After the mass demonstrations many Turks believed that a turnaround
had taken place. They believed that the average citizens’ feelings of
revulsion to the tragic killing of Dink would make Turkey a better
country. They hoped the Turkish people would demand more democracy
and freedom.

Has Turkey become a better country? The answer is no. Nationalist
Turks still despise Armenians, who they consider traitors. Armenian
institutions in Istanbul still receive hate mail. A song which
glorified the killing of Dink quickly became a hit on the internet.

Attacks against Christians
It is not only the Armenian minority that continues to suffer. The
year 2007 saw a series of attacks against Christians. The most
shocking occurred in the city of Malatya, where people who printed
bibles had their throats cut.

Dink is said to have become a target because of his conviction by the
authorities under Article 301, which makes "insulting Turkishness" a
punishable offence. He was convicted for using the word genocide to
describe the mass killings of Armenians in 1915. The Turkish
government has repeatedly promised to abolish Article 301, but it
still remains on the books.

Complicity
An even more painful blot on Turkey’s democracy is that the police
appears to have been aware of plans to assassinate Dink. The Turkish
press received the transcript of an extremely incriminating telephone
conversation between a senior police official and one of the suspects
which took place after the killing. The official seemed to know the
details of the attack before it took place. Why was nothing done to
protect Dink? Was it due to complicity on the part of the Turkish
authorities who had no objection to the silencing of the journalist?

Perhaps the most tragic sign is that hardly anyone in Turkey believes
the case will ever be solved. The killing of Dink threatens to cast a
shadow over Turkey’s future.

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 18 2008

Nine presidential candidates registered in Armenia
17:32 | 18/ 01/ 2008

YEREVAN, January 18 (RIA Novosti) – Armenian election authorities
have registered nine candidates for the country’s presidential
elections to be held on February 19, a spokesman said.

The candidates to replace President Robert Kocharyan, currently
serving his final and second term, are:

Artur Bagdasaryan, a former speaker and now member of parliament, and
leader of the opposition party Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law)

Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia’s first president

Serzh Sarkisyan, prime minister and head of the ruling Republican
Party

Artashes Gegamyan, head of the National Unity party

Vazgen Manukyan, former premier and leader of the National Democratic
Union

Vaan Ovannesyan, deputy speaker and bureau member of the
Dashnaktsutyun

Tigran Karapetyan, head of the ALM television company

Aram Arutunyan, leader of the Soglasie (agreement) party

Arman Melikyan, former advisor to the president of breakaway Nagorny
Karabakh.

The election campaign officially kicks off on January 21 to last
until February 17.

Preliminary election results are to be announced on February 20, and
the final results will be officially made public on February 26.

Armenia held parliamentary elections on May 12. The Republican Party
and other pro-presidential parties won a majority in the polls.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Jan 18 2008

Washington Calls on Turkey to Stabilize Relations with Armenia
18.01.08 13:14

Azerbaijan, Baku, 18 January / Trend corr. Ê.Ramazanova / Turkey
should stabilize its relations with Armenia, Matthew Bryza, the
United States Co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group, stated to journalists
during his visit to Baku on 18 January.

Turkey closed its borders with Armenia after demanding liberation of
the Azerbaijani occupied territories. Turkey does not recognize the
accusations by Armenia regarding the so-called Armenian genocide,
which was committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. `We should settle
the Nagorno-Karabakh issue,’ Bryza said.

Discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, Bryza mentioned tackling the
Azerbaijani and Armenian positions in the negotiation process. `I
feel that has been both sides have been productive but there are
still problems to work over,’ Bryza noted.

No one may predict the results of negotiations before the
presidential elections in Armenia.

ARMENIAN BRANCH OF PROCREDIT BANK (GERMANY) TO OPEN OFFICIALLY ON
FEBRUARY 5

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian branch of ProCredit Bank
(Germany) will be opened officially on February 5, the Armenian
representative of the German bank Kreditenschaft fur Wiederaufbau (KfW)
Karapet Gevorgian announced during the January 18 press conference.

According to him, the Armenian branch will be 23rd in ProCredit Bank’s
international network. 17% of the Armenian branch’s capital will belong
to KfW and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
K. Gevorgian said that it will be the first case when KfW has a share
in the capital of an Armenian bank.

KfW’s representative said that in all likelihood, starting from late
2009 this bank will no longer finance the program on development of
stable housing financing market of Armenia, which is being implemented
under an intergovernmental agreement. It is envisaged that on a private
basis, KfW will provide credit resources to ProCredit Bank’s Armenian
branch, possibly to other Armenian banks as well, for small and medium
business and mortgage crediting. K. Gevorgian reminded that in 2006 KfW
allocated credit resources of 10 million dollars to ACBA Credit
Agricole Bank.

DINK’S LAWYERS SAY INVESTIGATION DEFICIENT AND LACKS DEPTH

armradio.am
18.01.2008 16:45

A report prepared by the lawyers of Hrant Dink’s family and presented
to the government almost a year after his murder argues that the
investigation into the murder of the journalist last January is
incomplete, with the lawyers noting that without a comprehensive
inquiry, concrete and correct results cannot be obtained, the Turkish
Daily News reports.

Dink was murdered in front of his newspaper, Armenian weekly Agos,
at 3:00 p.m. on Jan. 19, 2007 in Istanbul by a 17-year-old teenager
with nationalist sympathies. Hundreds turned out at Dink’s funeral
chanting, "We are all Dink, We are all Armenians."

The report, which highlights all the developments since the murder,
was presented to Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Å~^ahin and Interior
Minister BeÅ~_ir Atalay by the Democratic Society Party’s (DTP)
Diyarbakır deputy, Akın Birdal, who is also a member of Parliament’s
Human Rights Commission and a rights activist.

The report argues there were repeated cases of clash of interest,
with some state officials who faced investigation as part of
the case being allowed to work while providing evidence for the
investigation. It said: "The organized structure behind the murder
has not been uncovered."

The lawyers said the investigation phase of the case was kept secret,
with the victim’s side prevented from contributing to the flow of
information, something that resulted in clear deficiencies.

The report supported the indictment but argued that the murder alone
was just part of the process, with the serious ideological basis and
the preparations made before the murder not limited to those indicted
by the prosecutor.

–Boundary_(ID_p9EzMsegMk7+Fa/P77Cx3w )–

ROBERT KOCHARYAN: WE HAVE ENOUGH POLITICAL WILL TO CONDUCT FREE, FAIR AND TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS
Liana Sahakyan

"Radiolur"
18.01.2008 15:08

At the Yerevan City Hall President Robert Kocharyan held the annual
working consultation, during which the works done last year were
summed up and the programs for the current year were discussed. Among
other things, the President turned to the forthcoming presidential
elections. Robert Kocharyan noted that state agencies are doing
everything possible to organize proper elections. The President
underlined that we have enough political will to conduct free,
fair and transparent elections. We demonstrated the will during the
parliamentary elections and we realize that we simply have no right
to retreat.

We anticipate that party representatives included in electoral
commissions will go beyond the narrow party interests and will act
as members of a state agency and will work with this logic. Much will
depend on the quality of the Central and other electoral commission,
which are formed of party representatives.

"THEY CONFUSE BANANA WITH EGGPLANT"

A1+
[01:08 pm] 17 January, 2008

Yerevan citizens prefer not to do shopping in the streets or from
markets since fruit and vegetables are completely frosted and they
soften when you get home.

"I bought 2 kg apples yesterday but when I reached home I saw that
they were frozen", complained Margarita Hovhannisyan, who had done
the shopping in the market.

Julieta Nahapetyan says that she prefers buying food from stores or
supermarkets, since food sold in the streets is not merchantable.

We visited many markets in Yerevan and they all were almost empty,
you could hardly see one or two sellers and buyers.

"We are freezing here. We cover fruit and vegetables with blankets,
but the goods frozen, besides they are not sold", said a merchant
Lusine Sahakyan.

Some sellers even note that banana peelings have become black from
cold and people confuse them with eggplant.

Merchants doubt whether to stay at home or to come to work, since
there is no use of coming to work, besides they have to pay taxes.

MATTEW BRYZA: WE ARE READY TO GIVE TIME TO PRESIDENTS FOR ANALYSIS OF ANY PROPOSAL

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Jan 17 2008

Though we do not expect achievement of an agreement during the present
visit of co-chairs to region, we observe that Presidents have got
close positions on core principles," American co-chair Mattew Bryza
told in the press conference in Armenia, APA reports quoting Novosti-
Armeniya He stated that the factor of time does not play a great
role in the achievement of unanimous position between Armenia and
Azerbaijan on core principles.

"We do not want to fix artificial time for signing an agreement and
we are ready to give time Presidents for analysis of any proposal. We
should expect, because Presidents act properly," he said. French
co-chair Bernard Fassier added that after hearing position of each
side, co-chair will give explanation on some concrete theses of
document.

"We explained to the sides that, there is not a trap and ambiguous
point for anybody. These proposals are the best proposals that our
countries can propose in the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict,"
he said.

10 Directors to Watch
Anna Melikyan

Daily Variety
January 16, 2008
By Matthew Ross

Sometimes a wild imagination can get a young filmmaker into
trouble. For Anna Melikyan it seems to be her magic elixir.

With "Rusalka" (Mermaid), the 32-year-old helmer shows off an
astonishing combination of creative ingenuity and technical
expertise. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fable
"The Little Mermaid" but set in modern-day Russia, pic tells the story
of a girl named Alisa who is both blessed and cursed with a special
gift: She has the power to make wishes come true.

"Mermaid" does what every great fairy tale should do: transport its
audience to another place. As Alisa journeys from the run-down seaside
community of her childhood to Moscow, every frame seems to pulsate
with relentless visual inventiveness and a mischievous comic
tone. "Humor is my main instrument," Melikyan says. "I think that to
understand a subject completely, you should find something funny about
it."

Born in Azerbaijan and raised in Armenia, Melikyan moved to Moscow to
attend film school. After graduating, she honed her skills directing
fiction and nonfiction television before making her first feature,
"Mars," in 2004.

She found the inspiration for "Mermaid" in the form of actress Masha
Shalaeva, whom she’d known since college. "All these years, I’ve
wanted to make a movie with her in the lead, but there wasn’t a good
story," Melikyan explains. "And suddenly it came to me — ‘Mermaid’
would be for Masha. I could only see her in this role. The script was
very easy to write, because I wasn’t thinking about an abstract image,
but a specific person — her face, voice and attitude."

"Mermaid" makes its international premiere in Sundance’s World Cinema
Dramatic Competition program.

"The uniqueness of Anna as a filmmaker is that her films are without
national boundaries," says "Mermaid" producer Ruben
Dishdishyan. "(‘Mermaid’) is understandable and accessible to any
human being in any part of our planet."

VITAL STATS
AGE: 32
PROVENANCE: Baku, Azerbaijan
INSPIRED BY: "Italian films, especially neorealism, but Fellini
remains my favorite film director."
REPS: Film’s sales agent is Central Partnership