Author: Madatian Greg

CATHOLICOSATE OF THE GREAT HOUSE OF CILICIA IN ETCHMIADSIN

AZG Armenian Daily
13/03/2008

Post-election

Delegation of Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia arrived in
Echtmiadsin to express support to Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin
II, as well as the families of the victims and the wounded of March
1 incidents.

According to Armenpress agency, Sepuh Archbishop Sargsian and Narek
Bishop Alemezian are also in the delegation.

Aram I Catholicos once more mentioned that today when the motherland
faces difficulties the sons of our people should put aside secondary
issues and unite around national values and interests.

DEMOGRAPHIC INDICES GROW

KarabakhOpen
12-03-2008 12:33:35

According to the NKR National Statistics Service, in January
and February of 2008 the rate of birth in Karabakh was up by 31
percent. Over the past two months 375 children were born, which is up
by 89 compared with the same period in 2007. 37.6 percent of babies
were born in Stepanakert, 16.8 percent were born in Martuni.

The rate of death was 284 which is up by 63 or 28.5 percent compared
with last year. The natural growth of the population is 91 and has
grown by 26.

The mechanical growth is 132. 47 have left and 179 have arrived in
Karabakh (internal migration excluding).

It is notable that over the past two months 1414 marriages were
registered compared with 97 marriages last year. If this is explained
by the law which encourages marriage, what is the cause of the growing
rate of divorce then?

Over the past two months the rate of divorce was 21 against 4 last
year.

Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (FIDH)

Résolution du Bureau international de la FIDH sur la situation en
Arménie
Le Caire, 8 mars 2008 – Le Bureau international de la Fédération
internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (FIDH), réuni au Caire
du 6 au 8 mars 2008, exprime sa vive préoccupation concernant la
situation en Arménie.
La répression des manifestations de protestation contre les
résultats
des élections présidentielles du 19 février contestés par
l’opposition,
s’est soldée par 8 morts et 130 blessés.
L’Etat d’urgence introduit par le président Kotcharian jusqu’au 20
mars
2008, viole de façon flagrante les libertés et les droits
fondamentaux :
les libertés de mouvement, d’expression, de la presse et d’association
sont violées de façon systématique.
Les associations ne peuvent plus publier de communiqués de presse,
seuls
les médias officiels peuvent couvrir les événements. L’existence
des
institutions démocratiques en Arménie est menacée.
D’après les informations reçues par la FIDH, la vague des
arrestations
arbitraires a touché non seulement des leaders des partis d’opposition
et des manifestants, mais également des témoins des fraudes
électorales.
Le Bureau international de la FIDH exige la levée immediate de l’Etat
d’urgence et la libération sans condition de toute les personnes
détenues arbitrairement.
Le Bureau international de la FIDH exprime sa solidarité à son
organisation membre en Arménie.
—

Satrapi marjane
Karine Appy
Attachée de presse
Press Officer
FIDH
17 passage de la main d’or
75011 Paris
France
Tél : 00 33 1 43 55 14 12
Fax : 00 33 1 43 55 18 80

Worker of office of prosecutor should be model of lawfulness

07-03-2008 16:11:24 – KarabakhOpen

On March 6 the NKR President Bako Sahakyan met with the College of the
NKR Office of Prosecutor General led by Prosecutor General Arshavir
Gharamyan.

The head of state said to expect participation of the office of
prosecutor general in entitled spending of public funds in cooperation
with other agencies, namely the Supervision Chamber. The president also
underlined the importance of reforms inside the office of prosecutor
general. In this connection he said the workers of the office of
prosecutor general should be models of lawfulness.

During the meeting the salary of the staff of the office of prosecutor
general, efficiency of experts, investigation of scandalous crimes and
other issues were discussed.

GOVERNMENT ENVISAGES FULLY SUPPLYING ARMENIA WITH OWN PRODUCTION WHEAT
IN NEXT TWO YEARS

YEREVAN, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian government has initiated
two programs aimed at supplying the country with grain. According to
the RA minister of agriculture Davit Lokian, one program envisages
starting production of corn in Armenia, while by the other program it
is expected to fully supply Armenia with wheat of own production in the
near future.

Under the first program, the goverment has proposed cultivating fodder
corn in Tavush and Lori marzes: villages with 50 and more hectares sown
with corn will receive subsidies. Such villages will also get
privileges in terms of crop sale. So far preliminary agreements have
been prepared for 15 thousand ha.

The other program of the government envisages a sharp increase in wheat
production in Armenia in order to deal with the problem of growing
wheat prices in international market. D. Lokian said that the domestic
demand for wheat makes at least 450 thousand tons a year, including 370
thousand tons for bread, whereas only 180 thousand tons is produced.
The government plans to encourage wheat production so that up to 150
thousand ha will be sown with wheat in the country and the crop yield
of one hectare will increase from the current 25 centners to 30
centners. For this purpose the government envisages importing
high-quality seeds, set up local production of such seeds and provide
subsidies to wheat producers. Besides, the government envisages to give
guarantees for the purchase of crops at quite high prices. In the words
of the minister, it is possible to achieve wheat self-sufficiency in
2010.

D. Lokian said that this year additional amounts of fertilizer will be
given to farms which have not been provided with fertilizer on time.

Day.Az, Azerbaijan
March 5 2008

Armenian opposition leader’ "main battle to come" – Azeri political
expert

Text of interview with political expert Zardust Alizada

[Correspondent] Zardust muallim [mode of address], what is behind
surprise intensification on the front lines in Tartar and Kalbacar
districts? Why does Armenia need it?

[Alizada] I deeply regret for our soldiers who are dying there.
Nevertheless, I do not see far-reaching consequences of the
skirmishes. The Karabakh clique ruling over Armenia is completely
dependent on the USA, Russia and Europe, and they, in their turn, are
pursuing only a sole aim – to freeze the conflict. Here is the gang
of Kocharyan-Sargsyan, who has usurped power and is just making time!
They are happy about this – they view Armenia as their sinecure.

[Correspondent] What is your attitude towards [former Armenian
president] Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s appeal to wait till the state of
emergency is over? Is this step correct?

[Alizada] The matter is that Ter-Petrosyan is a decent, pragmatic and
clever man with his ethical norms and morals. He does not want to
send Armenian people under bullets of the Karabakh swines – who do
not eight or 80 of their own citizens are killed. At the same time,
the state of emergency will not continue eternally, so Levon
Ter-Petrosyan’s main battle is to come.

[Correspondent] What is his trump-card?

[Alizada] Apart from his doubtless personal qualities, it is a fact
that the Armenian society has split and the abyss is growing. The
cultural layer of the Armenians has been tired of supremacy of those
from Karabakh, those pseudo-patriots-roarers! What have those
babblers done for them?

At the same time, we should admit that the Armenian public is now
reaping fruits of its own mistakes. When in the early 1990s
Kocharyan, Sargsyan and others were killing Azerbaijanis many people
in Armenia were bashfully justifying them, saying it was necessary
for national interests. And now they started killing Armenians and
this is a clear manifestation of the existing bloody regime in
Armenia.

[Correspondent] Has the regime been allocated historically much time?

[Alizada] No, similar regimes are unproductive, ineffective and
unstable. If the Armenian diaspora and the USA stop giving money to
Armenia, these authorities will burst like a soap-bubble. The
Karabakh clique exists at the expense of this money. As soon as
geopolitical realities change – they will be ousted.

Kocharyan himself admitted that he delivered 15,000 Karabakh
residents and appointed them to senior posts. This means there are
maximum 70,000 residents in Karabakh, plus 40,000-45,000 people leave
Armenia annually. How do you call it? You are right – a catastrophe!

"SLOVAKIA ENVISAGED TO ENACT LAWS DEFINING IMPRISONMENT FOR REFUSAL OF
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, AS WELL AS LAWS RECOGNIZING INDEPENDENCE OF
ARTSAKH," HEAD OF ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF THAT COUNTRY SAYS

YEREVAN, MARCH 6, NOYAN TAPAN. "I hope that we will be able to hold the
adoption of the resolution on the recognition of the independence of
Artsakh in the parliament of Slovakia within a year," Ashot Grigorian,
the Head of the Armenian Community of Slovakia and the Chairman of the
Forum of the Armenian Unions of Europe, stated at the press conference,
which was held on March 5.

He mentioned that Slovakia is one of the few countries of the European
Union, which did not recognize the independence of Kosovo. In the
opinion of the Head of the Armenian community of Slovakia, "Slovakia
had a right to refuse the independence of Kosovo as it is a very
Christian country and was against the existence of one more
incongruously created Moslem country and said his word like a real man.
And Slovakia speaks out for Armenia, which was the first to officialy
adopt Christianity, to be supported by the Christian countries of
Europe."

He mentioned that the visit of the Slovakian delegation to Artsakh will
be organized in July. It was mentioned that an implementation program
of Slovakian investments in Artsakh has been implemented since February
of this year. The investment activities of Slovakian companies in
Artsakh, in which a number of Armenian banks have involved, will be
credited by Slovakian banks in the ammount of 30-50 million euros. "We
will also implement the political program taking that economic
activities as basis. Slovakia will become one of the greatest friends,
if not the greatest one, of Armenia in the European Union," the Head of
the community of that country mentioned.

According to A. Grigorian, steps have been taken with regard to the
enactment of the law on pursuing the refusal of the Armenian Genocide
in Slovakia. He is speaking about defining a punishment of 5-year
imprisonment for such a deed. In his words, the draft law condemning
the refusal of the genocide is already in the government of Slovakia,
that issue is touched upon by the press of Slovakia. He assessed the
possibility for the enactment of the bill to be 99 percent, taking into
consideration the lobbyist steps to be taken by the Armenian community
of Slovakia. It was mentioned that due to such steps, the parliament of
Slovakia adopted a resolution condemning and recognizing the Armenian
Genocide in November 2004.

MONETARY BASE DECLINES BY 8.2%, BROAD MONEY BY 4% IN ARMENIA IN
JANUARY 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 6, NOYAN TAPAN. As of January 31, 2008, the monetary
base made 391 bln 987 mln drams (over 1 bln 277.5 mln USD) in Armenia,
declining by 35 bln 131 mln drams or 8.2% on the previous month.

According to preliminary data transferred by the Central Bank of
Armenia to the RA National Statistical Service, as of January 31, 2008,
broad money amounted to 663 bln 417 mln drams, declining by 27 bln 926
mln drams or 4% on the previous month.

The balance of the population’s deposits with banks made 169 bln 924
mln drams as of January 31, 2008, declining by 3 bln 121 mln drams or
1.8% on the previous month. The balance of deposits with banks grew by
46 bln 716 mln drams or 37.9% as compared with January 2007.

ACCORDING TO ROBERT KOCHARIAN, AMONG CADRE SUGGESTIONS MOST INEFFECTIVE IS SUGGESTION ON CANDIDATURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER

Noyan Tapan
March 5, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 5, NOYAN TAPAN. "My impression is that the Human Rights
Defender has not taken and is not taking control of the situation
at all," Robert Kocharian, the President of the Republic of Armenia,
declared at the press conference, which was held on March 5, making
commentaries on the statement of Armen Haroutiunian, the RA Human
Rights Defender, in which the Ombudsman introduces his position with
regard to the sitution created in the country.

According to the President, many things, the Defender has written
about, show that the latter does not understand what he is speaking
about. "One should have a little sense of responsibility and think
that he, however, is an RA official and not an official of Strasburg
and and RA citizen," the RA President declared.

In the words of Robert Kocharian, "among cadre suggestions, it is,
perhaps, the most ineffective one: I cannot say anything else."

KOCHARIAN’S SPOKESMAN DOUBTS CHANCES OF DIALOGUE WITH OPPOSITION

ARMENPRESS
March 4, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS; A spokesman for Armenian president
blamed today the opposition for rejecting all opportunities of
launching dialogue with the authorities to resolve disputes in a
civilized manner.

Speaking at a news conference Viktor Soghomonian said there were such
opportunists both before the February 19 presidential election and
after it.

He cited ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian and his close allies as
ruling out a dialogue or reconciliation with authorities.

Soghomonian said after March 1 unrest in Yerevan it was difficult to
say whether there was now an opportunity for dialogue, especially in
the Ter-Petrosian-authorities format. Soghomonian said he could not
see such an opportunity.

He said he had watched a great deal of amateur and police video images
of the March 1 unrest ‘and when you see 30 people beating one police
officer it is difficult to find a subject of conversation with the
riot’s organizers."

He said all people responsible for the unrest- provokers, masterminds
and participants will be punished with all the severity of the
law. He said Ter-Petrosian and his allies should know that the entire
responsibility for the unrest and the death of eight people is on them.