Author: Mamian George

ANNUAL MINIMAL CONSUMER BASKET TOTALS AMD 277,718.5 IN ARMENIA IN FOURTH QUARTELY PERIOD OF 2007

ARKA News Agency
Feb 1 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, February 1. /ARKA/. The annual minimal consumer basket totaled
AMD 277,718.5 (about $73) in Armenia in the fourth quarterly period
of 2007, the RA National Statistical Service reports. The monthly
minimal consumer basket amounted to AMD 23,143.2 (about $73) in the
reporting period.

The annual minimal consumer basket (including the actual price in the
fourth quarterly period of 2007) totaled AMD 430,463.7 ($1,357.6)
in the reporting period (the monthly minimal basket totaling AMD
35,872 or $113.1 monthly).

Bellow is the annual rate of products per capita: bread-made products –
AMD 49,808.4 (the share of bread being AMD 32,868 with 91.3kg annual
consumption), meat – AMD 56,385.2 (36.5kg), milk products – AMD
54,864.8 (milk – AMD 21,761.3 with 73 liters of annual consumption,
ghee – AMD 16,249.8 with 7.3kg annual consumption, cheese – AMD
11,674.4 with 9.1kg annual consumption), potatoes – AMD 17,018.3
(91.3kg), vegetables (cabbages, onions) – AMD 15,319.1 (109.5kg),
fruit (apples) AMD 26,243.5 (182.5pcs), vegetable oil – AMD 6,755.4
(7.3kg), margarine – AMD 3,275.6 (3.7kg), fish – AMD 33,028.6 (11kg).

The RA Ministry of Health helped form the consumer basket. The latter
is based on the World Bank’s (WB) survey of 6,816 households carried
out from April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005. This consumer basket
significantly differs with its constitution from the previous ones.

According to WB, the monthly consumer basket should amount to AMD
17,877.4 ($56), the minimal consumer basket totaling AMD 27,710
($87.4).

In Armenia, the share of the basic salary (AMD 20,000 or $63) in
the minimal consumer basket, minimal food basket and average monthly
salary is 55.8%, 86.4% and 23.2% respectively.

The share of the average monthly salary in the country’s minimal food
basket was 240.7% in 2007.

According to NSS, GDP per capita totaled AMD 973,021 ($2,844), the
basic average monthly salary amounting to AMD 76,922 ($225).

1mln 168,000 people were economically active in Armenia in 2007
with 92.9% (1,085.3) being involved in economy. 82,500 people were
unemployed in the reporting period. Armenia’s resident population
totaled 3mln 229,900 on January 1, 2008 ($1 – AMD 306.84).

ARMENIAN ELECTION TO COMPLY WITH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
January 31, 2008

The Armenian presidential election will meet international criteria,
President Robert Kocharian said.Governmental agencies have done
their best to prepare the election in keeping with the schedule,
the presidential press office said.

The president told EU ambassadors that the government would prevent
any harm to the daily routine of the election campaign. Armenia is
living through a very important period, he added.

The authorities want to hold a really good election, he told a
delegation of election observers from the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) led by John Prescott. We think that
election observation missions will also make a contribution, he said.

Prescott voiced hope that the upcoming election will be a step forward
in Armenian development.

Armenia will hold the election on February 19. The Central Elections
Commission has registered nine candidates. Four international
organizations and five local non-governmental organizations have
been accredited to monitor the ballot. In total there will be several
thousand election observers.

‘I’M HAPPY IN THIS COUNTRY’

BBC NEWS
/7220956.stm
2008/01/31 20:11:53 GMT

As the government announces that unaccompanied youngsters – denied
the right to stay in this country – will now be deported, Aram,
who came to Britain from Armenia, tells in his own words the story
of his journey to the UK.

My name is Aram. I am 16 years old. I came in this country 10
months ago.

When I came in this country, someone take me to social services – some
adviser from Refugee Council. When they take me to Refugee Council,
I met one man who take me to hotel.

In the hotel, I stay nearly two weeks. And in that two weeks, I was
getting everything I need in social care. After two to three weeks,
a lady called me. A Russian lady was interpreting.

They talked to me and they were very rude to me. I asked for water
because I felt bad when I was talking about my life.

They said they had no water. It was very hard for me. After two hours,
I was feeling very bad, they go out – after 15 minutes they said
‘we think you’re 18 years old’.

And they take me to [word unintelligible] and I was crying so much,
I didn’t know where to go or what to do.

After that a man took me to a hotel and it was very hard for me because
I don’t know how to cook, I don’t know how to look after myself and
I was very bad. I was crying too much and I tried to do bad things
to me, I was scared too much.

So after that I made Refugee Council – I was coming here all the time,
I live here because they never leave me. And I am very happy for them,
because this is my family – a very big family.

I like people, I love people – I’m very happy in this country, because
this country is peace – no-one attacks no-one, everybody lives,
no-one can take your life for nothing.

And I’m very happy for these people, because these people they help
me so much.

I’m very young and I want to be useful. I don’t want to be very bad
people, I want to help people because I can. I don’t want to waste
time sitting at home. I decided to come and help them, so I want to
be very useful.

I don’t like war, I don’t like when people die. I like this country
too much, because in this country people don’t die. In this country I
learnt to play football – I went to Refugee Council team in Kennington
Park [south London]. Every Friday we’re playing football and I’m very
happy for this.

I love books, I have two library cards. I’m learning English and I’m
learning books.

LABEL GANGS AND HIM
Kerim Balci

Today’s Zaman
Jan 29 2008
Turkey

Turkey is failing to create its own brand names, but the labels
this country sticks to itself are quite durable. The justice
minister’s recent sarcastic self-critique could not have better
expressed our reality: "If 301 was a brand name, it wouldn’t need
any advertisement." Well, congratulations my nation! We now have a
new famous name: Ergenekon.

It would make a great label for torture devices, retired army personnel
equipment, know-how companies targeting Third World countries with
coups, midnight memorandums, ground-setting strategies for military
intervention and psychological warfare. Back to the times when the
most famous Turk in the world was Mehmet Ali Aðca, the unsuccessful
assassin of the pope!

The name Ergenekon is a telling one. Ergene meant "steep" in old
Turkish and Kon meant "gangway, mountain pass." This "steep mountain
pass" refers to an old legend about Turks being stuck in a valley
surrounded with iron mountains and an ironsmith managing to open a
passage through by burning huge numbers of trees. In the case of the
Ergenekon Gang the mountains refer to the Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) and the growing awareness of civil society of its
duties and rights. The ironsmith is the 33 member-gang and "them."

The trees to be burned are the religiously observant, Kurds, Alevis,
Armenians, civilians, democrats… In short, "us!"

I used to be a fan of Cartoon Network’s "Powerpuff Girls." In
this cartoon series there are several bad guys. But one is so bad
and so dreadful that it cannot be named. The girls refer to this
soft-speaking evil that plays with good people’s dreams as simply
"Him." Him penetrates into people’s consciences; Him plays the role
of the best of the good; all other bad guys simply make noise, kick
people, spit at the street, torch cars and houses, burglarize banks…

Their faces speak to the fact that they are bad. But Him! Him makes
strategies. For its evil ends, Him may do good at some stages. Him may
fight against evil together with the Powerpuff Girls and befriend them,
but just to squeeze the power-giving Molecule-X off their bodies in
the end. Him never makes coalitions with other bad guys.

Because Him does not like to share the post of extreme evilness.

Who is Turkey’s Him?

Play the game yourself. Just fill in the blanks with names: "…~E. is
the mastermind of the Ergenekon Gang." When does your voice grow
weak? When do you feel afraid to pronounce the name and would rather
say "Him"?

Let me help you more.

One of the evil acts of the Ergenekon Gang — so we are told — is
to label university personnel. Why label university professors if you
are just planning to prepare the pretext for a coup? Why not label the
army personnel and decide who will be with you when the time for the
coup comes? Why not label the columnists and journalists and decide
who will applaud your intervention and who won’t?

Two things are obvious: The gang people were planning a pre-coup or
post-coup cleansing in the universities; and there is a link between
labeling and coup-preparing. The reverse logic does not need to work
here, but it may well work: "Whoever prepares for a coup labels" is
a true proposition. Is "Whoever labels prepares for a coup" also true?

Ret. Maj. Gen. Veli Kucuk, the alleged leader of the Ergenekon Gang,
is also the alleged founder of an illegal intelligence unit in the
gendarmerie, the existence of which is denied by officials. The
gendarmerie happens to be Turkey’s prime-labeler, as recent labeling
scandals disclosed. We may come to a point to claim that labeling
is a virus that leads to the disease of coup-provoking. Shouldn’t we
open the old accounts and ask whether our other labelers are involved
with these labelers?

For the university professors who have been labeled by the Ergenekon
Gang, I have bad news: Labels are shared. Somewhere in deep/high your
names are coupled with labels and put in front of Him.

Beware; you may be a good friend of Him!

–Boundary_(ID_3zp4+boDhEnZOpPYHGTT7g)–

WORK OF KAPAN HEADQUARTERS OF CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENCY LEVON TER-PETROSIAN STOPPED

Noyan Tapan
Jan 29, 2008

KAPAN, JANUARY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The work of Kapan preelection
headquarters of Levon Ter-Petrosian, a candidate for presidency, was
stopped on January 28. The representatives of Police Syunik Regional
Department and Kapan Department entered the headquarters that day
demanding vacating the territory. According to the law enforcement
bodies, the apartment’s owner, Manushak Antonian, applied to them
saying that she did not know that the apartment will be used for
political purposes.

According to the members of the headquarters, they have arranged
about renting the apartment with the landlady’s husband, who knew for
what purpose the territory was rented. "We have not signed a written
agreement, we have just agreed orally and paid 160 thousand drams in
advance for two months," Rafik Asrian, a member of the headquarters,
said in his interview to journalists. He asserted that they have
applied to Kapan Mayor’s Office asking them to give a territory for
the headquarters. "There is no answer from Kapan Mayor’s Office yet,"
R. Asrian said.

After a long argument they agreed that within 48 hours the members
of the headquarters are to vacate the territory. "I am a RPA member
and it does not lie heavy on my conscience to leave people in the
street. I have given time to them, so, let them find a territory and
promote activity there," M. Antonian stated.

However, after the apartment owners left, the policemen forcibly made
them vacate the territory and sealed the door. Thus, the work of L.

Ter-Petrosian’s preelection headquarters is stopped at the moment and
the members of the headquarters are looking for a tent to put up in
the town’s square.

The OSCE long-term observer has been informed about the incident. He
visited the headquarters and followed the development of the events.

THE MORTGAGE LOAN PROCEDURE HAS NOT BEEN AFFIRMED

KarabakhOpen
29-01-2008 12:54:31

The program of subsidizing mortgage loan has been extended to the
government, the head of the Artsakh Investment Fund Karen Yesayan
said in an interview with Karabakh-Open.com. He emphasized that as
soon as the program is affirmed, it will be released through the media.

According to the head of the Fund, the issue of financing has been
solved, preparations have been done.

According to the program, the NKR citizens can get a loan for
construction of houses at a 6 percent interest. According to an
agreement between the banks and the government, interest on loan will
be 12 percent, but the government will subsidize 6 percent from the
special fund.

THE CAUCASUS RESEARCH RESOURCE CENTERS WILL PRESENT THE DATA INITIATIVE 2007 SURVEY

armradio.am
29.01.2008 13:27

On January 30th the Caucasus Research Resource Centers will present
results from the Data Initiative (DI) 2007 survey, which represents
the 4th wave of information gathered via 300 questions addressed
to adults from over 8000 households randomly selected in Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The CRRC DI survey provides a unique opportunity to follow the
socioeconomic, demographic and political developments during the last
4 years. The dataset also allows analysts to make parallels between
the three countries of the South Caucasus and the developments
between rural and urban areas within each country. It also sheds
light on migration patterns in the region by providing comprehensive
information on both returned migrants and migrants residing abroad.

Relevant to the current Armenian political environment, the dataset
provides new insights into Armenian political attitudes. About half
of the respondents in Armenia say they are â~@~not interestedâ~@~]
or â~@~hardly interestedâ~@~] in national politics. Of those who
are interested in politics, 36% stated that â~@~quite oftenâ~@~]
or â~@~alwaysâ~@~] national politics seems too complicated to
understand. Moreover, only 38.6% of those who are interested in
national politics claimed that national politics was going in the
right direction. According to DI 2007 data, 42% of the respondents
in Armenia trust the President, 19% – the National Assembly and 27%
– the Government. In the meantime, only 17% of the respondents in
Yerevan trust the Government (vs. 12.3% in 2006), while more people
in other cities and rural areas trust the Government (26% and 36%
correspondingly). It is also worth noting that about 36% of the
respondents in Armenia answered that they have little control over
their life, while in Georgia (21%) and Azerbaijan (30%) think so.

The data also gives insights into converging and diverging social
values across the Caucasus. In all three countries hard work and a
feeling of responsibility are among the three most valued qualities
that both male and female children should be brought up with. The
third most wanted characteristic for male children in Georgia and
Azerbaijan is independence (61% and 66%, respectively), while in
Armenia it is tolerance and respect to other people (70%). The third
most important characteristic for female children is modesty for the
respondents in Armenia (75%) and religious faith for those in Georgia
(56%), and thrift – in Azerbaijan (49%).

In terms of labor market development, in Yerevan, 35.3% mentioned
personal networking as the most important factor for obtaining a good
job, while the respondents from other cities and rural areas ranked
education as most important. Meanwhile, the survey revealed that 54%
of Armenian respondents did not speak any other foreign language but
Russian; only 21% have some computer skills, and only 14% are able
to use Internet and e-mail. Marked differences also appear between
Yerevan and the regions.

–Boundary_(ID_tAYs9O/Qi3bJQGjJt5iY/Q)–

The Ark still not in the water

De Twentsche Courant Tubantia (Dutch regional newspaper)
28 January 2008

ALMELO – One needs a license to exhibit an art piece in the city’s pond.

Noah’s Ark, Petros Margosyan’s art piece, should have been in the pond near
restaurant Kreta last summer. But official regulations delayed the placing.
Margosyan first had to apply for a license at the municipality of Almelo. It
would cost him more than 250 euros to receive the right to exhibit his art
piece in the pond. An amount that the artist cannot afford so easily.

"That is why I asked the City Fund for a contribution, but my request was
denied. It did not coincide with the causes of the City Fund." Margosyan
finds it ‘strange.’ But he has accepted the fact and has been trying to
collect the money by selling his art. Until March 3 Margosyan will be
exhibiting almost thirty of his art pieces in nursing home Eugeria. "Almelo
enjoys looking at his art, but buys too little," the artist of Armenian
descent laughs. Two other Armenian artists are exhibiting their works
opposite to the nursing home, in care center De Klokkenbelt.

Margosyan came to the Netherlands twenty-four years ago from Armenia. Not as
an artist but as a maker of fur coats. He was discovered as an artist only
five years ago by Ger Bonsink. Margosyan now has a permanent spot in the art
workshop on the Vissedijk. Although the artist feels Dutch, he will always
be connected to his homeland Armenia. For this reason, Margosyan wants to
bring Dutch people in touch with Armenian culture. "I would like to build a
bridge between the two peoples through art. That is why I would like to hold
a yearly exhibition in Kunsthal Hof 88 with Armenian artists from all over
the world. The exhibition will last a month and will be held in July or
August. The first edition will be held this year," Margosyan says
confidently. The negotiations have not yet been settled, but Margosyan is
convinced that everyone supports his plans.

Margosyan will also bring the two Armenian artists Bogosyan and Agabekyan to
partake in the Workshop Route.

Petros Margosyan’s exhibition in Eugeria will run until March 3. Noah’s Ark
is expected to be released in the water on the Thursday before Easter, on
March 20. Until then, the work can be seen at Music School Twente.

PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Torrey Swan
DATE: January 28, 2008
TEL: 416-250-9807

Responding to Ethnic Tension and Genocide: Lesson from Rwanda for Darfur

Toronto, Canada- The 1994 Rwandan Genocide sheds much light onto the
ongoing genocide at work, a few hundred miles north, in Darfur. It is a
powerful case study in how and why genocide takes place, but it is also
a stark reminder of how easily the world can ignore such brutal
suffering and injustice. This is why Genocide Studies and Prevention: An
International Journal (GSP), has just released a special issue dedicated
to the Rwandan Genocide.

This special issue of GSP provides:

· original, ground-breaking research on the Rwandan Genocide
and its aftermath;

· a symposium on a pivotal book on the Genocide;

· a scathing commentary on our efforts at preventing genocide;

· and two informative books reviews.

This issue includes three articles based on field research conducted in
Rwanda. Reva N. Adler et al., a professor of clinical medicine,
contributed, "A Calamity in the Neighbourhood: Women’s Participation in
the Rwandan Genocide," which focuses on why women assaulted or murdered
targeted victims during that genocide and found that four experiences,
in various combinations, shaped the female perpetrators’ decision to
participate in the 1994 genocide.

Anuradha Chakravarty, a PhD candidate at Cornell University, in
"Inter-ethnic Marriages, the Survival of Women, and the Logics of
Genocide in Rwanda," examines why Tutsi women married to Hutu men appear
to have had a better chance of survival than Tutsi women married to
Tutsi men, or even Hutu women married to Tutsi men.

Scott Straus, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at
Madison, delineates some of the many key findings of his book, The Order
of Genocide: Race, Power and War in Rwanda which raises critical
questions about previous assumptions about the 1994 genocide and also
provides new insights into how the killing process spread across Rwanda
and why.

Straus’ work is critiqued by three specialists on the Rwandan
Genocide-Lars Waldorf, who is currently Lecturer in International Law
and Human Rights at the University of London and is writing a book on
Rwanda’s gacaca process; Thierry Cruvellier, a journalist and justice
expert who has written a book on the ICTR; and Lee Ann Fujii, a
political scientist at George Washington University, who is in the
process of writing a book on the Rwandan Genocide-noting key strengths,
any weaknesses and gaps, and the likely ramifications of the findings.

This issue includes a commentary, "Rwanda (and Other Genocides) in
Perspective," by long-time Africanist Gerry Caplan, which examines the
reluctance of the international community to prevent mass suffering and
genocide, and demonstrates that not to do so is a conscious choice, a
choice citizens need not accept.

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal was co-founded
by the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the
International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (A
Division of the Zoryan Institute) and is published by the University of
Toronto Press. The journal’s mission is to understand the phenomenon of
genocide, create an awareness of it as an ongoing scourge, and promote
the necessity of preventing it. For more information, contact the
IIGHRS, [email protected], Tel: 416-250-9807.

Morning Star, UK
January 28, 2008 Monday

Britain – Armenians heckled at memorial event

Turkish nationalist protesters heckled Armenians attending the
Holocaust Memorial Day event in Cardiff on Sunday.

The wreath-laying event, held outside the Temple of Peace in Cathays
Park, attracted the displeasure of the self-styled Committee for the
Protection of Turkish Rights, which previously sent 100 protesters to
disrupt a requiem service organised to consecrate the Welsh National
Armenian genocide monument outside the temple on November 3.

Some Turkish nationalists are furious at attempts to remember the
Turkish government’s attempt to wipe out its Armenian population in
1915.

A spokesman for the Welsh Armenian group at Sunday’s event explained
why they were attending Holocaust Memorial Day.

"This is the only public genocide monument in Wales, even in the UK,"
he said.

"We hope that it will become a focus for every other group which has
suffered or has been persecuted.

"Also we hope that Armenian-Jewish friendship will be promoted by
this."