Author: Nadirian Emma

ARMENIA GDP TO CONTRACT 9.5 PCT IN ’09 -IMF
By Hasmik Lazarian

Reuters
June 24 2009
UK

YEREVAN, June 24 (Reuters) – GDP in Armenia is projected to contract
9.5 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday,
revising an earlier forecast of 5.0 percent.

The IMF on Monday approved an increase in lending to the former Soviet
republic by $283 million to $823 million, citing a sharp contraction
in economic activity, falling remittances, an increase in unemployment
and difficult conditions in credit markets.

‘We project GDP growth for 2009 to be minus 9.5 percent, but there
is a lot of uncertainty and the actual growth could be better or
worse depending on what happens to the world economy and in Russia
particularly,’ IMF resident representative Nienke Oomes told Reuters
on Wednesday.

After a period of strong economic growth, landlocked Armenia has
been hit hard by the global economic crisis and the impact of close
economic ally Russia sliding into recession.

In March, the Fund approved a $540 million standby loan arrangement
over 28 months to support the country’s 2009-2011 financing gap and
a drop in foreign exchange reserves. It followed the central bank’s
decision to float the dram currency.

GDP contracted 15.7 percent in January-May 2009 in comparison with 9.8
percent growth in the same period last year, the National Statistics
Service said this month. The central bank has forecast a contraction
of 5.8 percent this year, citing falling chemical and metal prices
on world markets.

‘We project a budget deficit of minus 6.5 percent because there is a
big drop in tax revenues,’ Oomes said, adding that the IMF programme
allows the government to maintain expenditures at a level ‘close to
the 2009 budget’.

‘We believe that during this time of crisis it is appropriate for
the government to increase the deficit to stimulate the economy and
to provide fiscal stimulus while protecting social spending for the
poor,’ Oomes said.

(Writing by Matt Robinson; editing by Stephen Nisbet) Keywords:
ARMENIA GDP/

EXPERT URGES ARMENIA TO BOOST INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR DYNAMIC TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

ARKA
June 23, 2009

YEREVAN, June 23. /ARKA/. Armenia’s tour operators need to foster
ties with international partners in order to achieve dynamic tourism
development, said Robert Minasyan, president of the Union of Incoming
Tour Operators of Armenia (UITO).

"Amid the crisis, our tour operators should bolster cooperation with
their offshore colleagues," he added.

Pointing out Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and China as
Armenia’s chief donors, he said the countries annually send millions
of tourists abroad.

Citing Turkey’s example, Minasyan said "the country is prospering
thanks to its tourism business."

He believes the crisis will have little impact on the country’s
tourism if local tour operators work properly, delivering high-quality
services.

Composed of 17 legal entities, UITO protects the rights of tour
operators and influences tourism legislation to boost tourism industry
in Armenia.

WEAKENING OF IRAN DEEMED AS PLEDGE OF PEACE IN MIDDLE EAST

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
24.06.2009 13:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Weakening of Iran is the pledge of peace in Middle
East, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced in Rome. "If
Iran is strong, the world moves away. If regime is weakened, we’ll live
in peace. Nuclear weapons in the hands of such a brutal regime could be
very dangerous to the entire world. We don’t want to be overrun by this
theocratic barbarism. We want a free life, we want a good life and we
want a peaceful life," newsru.co.il quotes Israeli official as saying

WIKIPEDIA WILL INTRODUCE VIDEO CLIPS FOR ITS USERS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
23.06.2009 20:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Wikipedia, the online user-edited encyclopedia will
introduce video clips for its users to run by the end of the summer.

Still, Wikipedia expects to launch the project with hundreds of
thousands of archival videos from three partners it has lined up:
the Internet Archive, which houses roughly 200,000 videos, including
documentaries, items such as 1950s educational clips; the Wikimedia
Commons, which holds 4 million media files, many of them video;
and Metavid, which archives Congressional speeches and hearings,
reuters.com reports.

Wikipedia is a free, web-based multilingual encyclopedia project
supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia’s 13
million articles (2.9 million in the English Wikipedia) have been
written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost
all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can access the
Wikipedia website.

FIRST MASS HELD IN ARMENIAN CHURCH OF LONDON

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.06.2009 14:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ First performance of the mass by the young Armenian
composer Tigran Grigorian at the Armenian Church in London was a
great success. The composition for chorus and organ was performed
by the St. Barabbas Church’s chorus guided by the musician William
McVicar. The Ambassador of Armenia to Great Britain and Northern
Ireland Vahe Gabrielyan and Primate of the Armenian Church of Great
Britain Bishop Nathan Hovhanessian, mentioned profoundness and
sincerity of the music.

Tigran Grigoryan, enrolled at the London-based Trinity College of
Music, studies piano and composition. He started composing music from
18 years when he studied at Junior Department of the Royal College
of Music. As the composer told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, he worked
most of time on the second part of the composition called "Gloria".

AL-ASAD AND SARGSYAN STRESS THE NEED TO ADVANCE SYRIAN-ARMENIAN RELATIONS

Syrian Arab news agency SANA
June 17 – 18 2009

Al-Asad: We are satisfied with steps that were taken to improve
Turkish-Armenian relations; there is no Israel partner for peace.

Yerevan, 17 Jun (SANA) – President Bashar al-Asad and Armenian
President Serzh Sargasyan held talks in the Armenian capital Yerevan
today. Members of the two delegations attended the talks.

At a news conference following the talks, President Al-Asad said he was
glad to visit Armenia, the friendly country, and to meet with President
Sargasyan. He noted that this is the fist visit by a Syrian president
to Armenia after its independence. He said relations between the two
countries, however, should be measured by their historical, popular,
cultural, and emotional dimensions, not their official aspects.

President Al-Asad said the two peoples went through tough historical
stages in the past centuries, which facilitated their meeting and
interaction. He noted that Syrians of Armenian origin have been
living in Syria as Syrian citizens par excellence since they came to
Syria and integrated with its culture, people, and traditions without
abandoning their mother culture, history, or causes. He said those
people created a unique model of communication between world cultures
and further enriched Syria’s culture.

President Al-Asad said: The solid foundation of the relations between
the two countries is already there. Through our meetings today and
the subsequent meetings we should accelerate the progress of these
relations. The meeting with President Sargasyan was rich in terms of
the topics we discussed. We dealt with many issues of concern to the
Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, and we expressed our
deep satisfaction in Syria with the steps that were taken regarding
the Turkish-Armenian relations.

He said Syria is willing to work to advance these relations out of
the strong ties between Syria and Armenia on the one hand and Syria
and Turkey on the other.

He added: I also heard President Sargasyan’s views on the thorny issue
of Karabakh. I hope this will not become a chronic issue because, as
we learned in the Middle East, chronic problems become more complex
and more difficult to solve.

He went on: I wanted to hear President Sargasyan’s viewpoint before
my first visit to Azerbaijan, which will take place soon, to see how
we can help solve this problem, if such help is needed.

He said he also explained to the Armenian president Syria’s views on
the issues of the Middle East, especially the stalled and paralysed
peace process. He stressed that there is no Israel partner for peace
at present. He added: We do not see this partner in the near future,
but this does not mean we will stop talking about or working for peace,
so that when the partner becomes available and ready, the peace plan
will be ready for direct implementation and time will be reduced.

He said the discussions also dealt with the Palestinian situation,
especially the great human suffering of the Palestinian people in
the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli siege and the lack of basic
services, which cause daily and continuous deaths among children and
old people.

President Al-Asad thanked President Sargasyan for inviting him to
visit Armenia and wished the Armenian government and friendly people
success and prosperity. [Passage omitted citing remarks by the Armenian
president and reporting President Al-Asad’s separate meetings with
the Armenian prime minister and the Armenian parliament speaker to
discuss political issues and economic cooperation]

[In a report the following day, the agency added: "Armenian Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that President Bashar al-Assad’s
visit to Armenia is very important and gives a strong momentum for
developing the relations between Syria and Armenia. In a statement
to the Syrian TV. Satellite Channel aired Wednesday night, Premier
Sargesyan added that "the Syrian-Armenian discussions focused on the
bilateral relations and developing them, particularly the economic
issues and the working plan which should be adopted for expanding
prospects of cooperation between the two countries". It added that
he had stressed the importance of Syrian-Armenian cooperation in the
banking field.]

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BOOK LAUNCH IN LONDON AND ANKARA

AZG Armenian Daily
19/06/2009

Armenian Genocide

The Gomidas Institute is pleased to announce the authorised Turkish
translation of The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire,
1915-1916: Documents Presented to Viscount Grey of Fallodon by
Viscount Bryce [Uncensored Edition]. The Turkish edition includes
an introduction by Lord Avebury (James Bryce and Arnold Toynbee,
"Osmanlý Ýmparatorluðu’nda Ermenilere Yapýlan Muamele, 1915-1916:
Vikont Bryce’ýn Fallodon Vikontu Grey’e Sunduðu Belgeler [Sansursuz
Basým]," Ara Sarafian (editor) and Lord Avebury (foreword), Gomidas
Institute, London, 2009, 654 pages, foldout. ISBN 978-1-903656-78-8).

This Turkish translation follows the Turkish parliament’s 2005
petition to the British parliament labeling this work a "propaganda
publication." British parliamentarians discussed the Turkish petition
and rejected it in 2006, inviting their Turkish colleagues to a
meeting to discuss differences. Turkish parliamentarians refused a
meeting. The new translation is scheduled to be released in London
and Ankara next week.

For more information please contact [email protected] or Gomidas
Institute, 42 Blythe Rd., London W14 0HA, UK, Roland Mnatsakanyan,
email: [email protected].

PETER SEMNEBY: TURKEY TALKS ON ARMENIA "PAUSED"

armradio.am
18.06.2009 13:25

Turkey has taken a "tactical step backwards" on normalizing relations
with Armenia because of hostile domestic reaction to the move, the
EU’s envoy to the region said in an interview.

"A step back was taken by the Turkish side … but this is not a
U-turn," said EU South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby. "We expect the
conversations will continue."

Semneby said in the interview, conducted at the end of a visit to
Moscow last week, that it was important the "pause" in the peace
process between Turkey and Armenia did not last too long because of
the risk that impetus would be lost.

"The normalization (with Armenia) became the subject of quite
widespread and heated discussion in Turkey," he added in earlier
remarks to a small group of reporters. "It seems to me, this discussion
became more heated than was expected." Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan promised Azerbaijan during a visit to Baku last month that
Ankara would not open its border with Armenia – closed since 1993 —
until Armenia ended what he termed its occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"I see this as a Turkish tactical step backwards," Semneby told
Reuters.

"But fundamentally, the new foreign policy that has been pursued by
the Erdogan government, I don’t see that this policy is changing."

Semneby believes real progress is being made in the Karabakh settlement
process.

"It is clear that if you look at the negotiating process, it is
intensifying," he told Reuters. "We had in a month two meetings and
there will be another relatively soon between the presidents."

Asked about the risk of conflict, Semneby said it would be foolish
to neglect it but he felt both sides understood the enormous costs
which would be involved in any large-scale military engagement.

"Even with this very dangerous posturing that we see sometimes and the
fact that the forces are not separated and there are incidents all the
time, the two sides are by now used to managing incidents," he said.

"If anything, the Georgia war (last year with Russia), demonstrated
the risks of military engagement … it was also a wake-up call to
both countries how vulnerable they are."

ARMROSGAZPROM LICENSED TO CONSTRUCT HRAZDAN-5 POWER PLANT IN ARMENIA

ARKA
June 17, 2009

YEREVAN, June 17. /ARKA/. The RA Public Services Regulatory Commission
licensed the ArmRosgazprom CJSC to construct the Hrazdan-5 electric
power plant in Hrazdan, Kotayk region, Armenia.

Head of the Commission’s Legal Affairs and Licensing Department
Hamayak Amragyan reported that the license will be effective until
December 31, 2011.

"The designed capacity of the power plant is 445MW," Amiragyan said.

He stressed that the Commission pledged not to license any other legal
entity for energy-generating activities in Hrazdan "if this activity
should affect the performance of the power plant."

Amiragyan also said that Armrosgazprom pledged to submit the project
and investment scheme to the Commission.

In 2006, the RA Government and the Gazprom OJSC signed an agreement
under which ArmRosgazprom was to purchase the assets of the Hrazdan
heat and power plant for US $248.8mln to complete its construction
and modernization.

Besides, ArmRosgazprom plans to invest US $150-170mln in the power
plant.

After the power plant has been put into operation, ArmRosgazprom will
have a considerable share on the Armenia energy market and be able
to increase energy supplies to the neighboring countries.

The Hrazdan-5 program is immediately linked with the Iran-Armenia
gas main.

Under the agreement, the electric power generated by the Hrazdan-5 pl
ant will be transmitted to Iran’s energy system as a means of paying
for the Iranian gas supplied to Armenia.

The ArmRosgazprom CJSC distributes Russian natural gas in Armenia. The
country receives gas through Georgia.

The company was founded in 1997, with Gasprom holding 80% of its stock,
and the RA Government 20%.

STUDIES FROM D.B. SAAKIAN AND COLLEAGUES YIELD NEW INFORMATION ABOUT PHYSICS

Science Letter
June 16, 2009

According to a study from Yerevan, Armenia, "Using methods of
statistical physics, we present rigorous theoretical calculations
of Eigen’s quasispecies theory with the truncated fitness landscape
which dramatically limits the available sequence space of information
carriers. As the mutation rate is increased from small values to large
values, one can observe three phases: the first (I) selective (also
known as ferromagnetic) phase, the second (II) intermediate phase
with some residual order, and the third (III) completely randomized
(also known as paramagnetic) phase."

"We calculate the phase diagram for these phases and the concentration
of information carriers in the master sequence (also known as peak
configuration) x(0) and other classes of information carriers. As
the phase point moves across the boundary between phase I and phase
II, x(0) changes continuously; as the phase point moves across the
boundary between phase II and phase III, x(0) has a large change,"
wrote D.B. Saakian and colleagues (see also Physics).

The researchers concluded: "Our results are applicable for the general
case of a fitness landscape."

Saakian and colleagues published the results of their research in
Physical Review E (Phase diagram for the Eigen quasispecies theory
with a truncated fitness landscape. Physical Review E, 2009;79(4
Part 1):1905).

For additional information, contact D.B. Saakian, Yerevan Physics
Institute, Alikhanian Bros St. 2, Yerevan 375036, Armenia.

The publisher of the journal Physical Review E can be contacted
at: American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, College Pk,
MD 20740-3844, USA.