Author: Nahapetian Boris

AMERICAN ORGANIZATIONS EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH PRESIDENTS’ INITIATIVE

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
29 Oct 2008
Armenia

The US Chamber of Commerce in Armenia and the American Business Forum
in Turkey express full support for the Armenian and Turkish Presidents
Serge Sargsyan and Abdullah Gul’s unprecedented initiative towards
the regulation of the Armenian-Turkish relations.

In the declaration signed by and between David Atanesyan, Chairman
of the US Chamber of Commerce in Armenia and Galip Soukaya, Head
of the Board of Directors of the American Business Forum in Turkey,
the Armenian and Turkish Presidents’ recent steps towards ensuring
regional peace, security and stability are considered as a proof of
a historical change in the relationship between the two countries.

ANCA ENDORSES ASSEMBLYMAN PAUL TONKO IN NEW YORK’S 21ST DISTRICT

armradio.am
28.10.2008 10:24

Armenian National Committee of Albany (ANC of Albany) Chairman Antranig
Karageozian and ANCA Eastern Region Director Karine Birazian met with
Assemblyman Paul Tonko and his staff at his campaign headquarters in
Albany, New York to discuss and educate him on issues of concern to the
Armenian American Community. Following their productive meeting, the
ANCA has endorsed the Assemblyman in the 2008 Congressional Election.

"It was a pleasure to meet Assemblyman Paul Tonko, commented
Karageozian. We want to thank him for taking the time to sit down with
the ANC of Albany and discuss issues pertaining to Armenian Americans
in the Capital District. We look forward to working with him and his
office over the next few years on a broad range of issues."

During the meeting, Birazian and Karageozian addressed the Armenian
American community in Albany, NY, the New York Congressional
delegation’s support on Armenian issues, Armenian genocide legislation,
the Turkish and Azeri blockade of Armenia, and Armenians for
Obama. "We hope to build a relationship with Assemblyman Tonko and
have him work to follow in Rep. McNulty’s footsteps on our issues,"
commented Birazian.

Tonko has served in the New York State Assembly for over 25 years,
is committed to public service, and has a strong background in
energy, transportation, agricultural, and economic issues in the
Albany area. "I look forward to following in Congressman McNulty’s
footsteps and fostering strong ties with the Armenian community. It’s
critically important to have an open and productive dialogue among
all communities in order to promote a fair and just society."

Interfax News Agency, Russia
Oct 23 2008

Former official jailed for participating in opposition protests in
Armenia

YEREVAN Oct 23

A criminal court in Yerevan sentenced former chief of the Penitentiary
Department Musheg Sagatelian to five years in prison for participation
in March protests in Yerevan.

Sagatelian was indicted of confronting and using force against a law
enforcement officer and illegal storage of a weapon.

The court also imposed a fine of 900,000 drams (about $3,000).

Sagatelian was a representative of the campaign headquarters of former
presidential candidate and leader of the opposition Armenian National
Congress Levon Ter-Petrosian.

As a result of clashes between opposition and law enforcement officers
in Yerevan on March 1 ten people were killed and over 200 injured. The
opposition was protesting the results of the February 19 presidential
election.

REVENUES OF 2009 STATE BUDGET TO EXCEED 2008 INDEX BY SUM EQUIVALENT TO 500 MILLION DOLLARS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 23, 2008

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, NOYAN TAPAN. By the bill on the 2009 state budget,
the budgetary revenues will make 905 billion drams (over 2 bln 938
mln dollars), which exceeds the 2008 index by a sum in Armenian
drams equivalent to 500 million dollars. The budgetary expenditures
are envisaged to make 946 billion drams, member of the parliamentary
"Prosperous Armenia Party" (PAP) faction Vardan Bostanjian stated at
the October 23 press conference.

According to him, the budget’s deficit is declining year by year. For
example, in 2007 it amounted to 76 billion drams, in 2008 – 40 billion
drams. V. Bostanjian said 30.5 bln drams of the 2009 deficit will be
covered at the expense of domestic sources and only 9.5 bln drams –
at the expense of foreign sources. The deficit will make up 1% of GDP.

V. Bostanjian expressed an opinion that the 2009 draft state budget
reflects the program goals of the government activities. As regards
the ambitions to become regional financial, business and other centers,
it is envisaged implementing such programs by 2012 inclusive.

ARMENIAN, AZERI LEADERS TO MEET IN RUSSIA TO DISCUSS KARABAKH – MEDVEDEV

Itar-Tass News Agency
Oct 21 2008
Russia

Yerevan, 21 October: Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev has announced
that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will soon hold a meeting
in Russia to discuss Nagornyy Karabakh.

"A meeting of the three presidents is to be held in the near
future. This meeting will be held in Russia," Medvedev said.

TURKS PICK OBAMA OVER MCCAIN FOR US PRESIDENT

Today’s Zaman
23 October 2008, Thursday
Turkey

Turks are widely indifferent toward the outcome of the upcoming
presidential election in the US, but those who care overwhelmingly
favor Democratic candidate Barack Obama over Republican John McCain,
an international survey has revealed.

Twenty-two percent of the Turks polled said they wanted to see Obama
elected as US president in next month’s election, while only 8 percent
supported McCain, according to a Gallup poll of 70 countries conducted
between May and September. Seventy percent of the Turks surveyed did
not state an opinion.

The results closely parallel findings across the globe. The poll,
published on Tuesday, revealed that around the world respondents
favored Obama four to one over McCain. Among the nations polled,
representing nearly half of the world’s population, 30 percent
of respondents say they would personally rather see Obama elected
president of the United States, compared with just 8 percent who say
the same about McCain. At the same time, 62 percent of world citizens
surveyed did not have an opinion.

People outside of the US seem more divided over whether the outcome of
the US election makes a difference to their country, with 31 percent
saying it does and 21 percent saying it does not. Nearly half of
those surveyed did not have an opinion. In Turkey, 32 percent said
the election outcome would make a difference, while 33 percent said
it would not. Thirty-four percent did not state an opinion.

Senator Obama is popular amongst Turks, but some are concerned
that relations with the United States could suffer a blow under his
presidency given his firm pledges of support for Armenian claims of
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, charges categorically
denied by Ankara. Obama also caused concern when it emerged that he
referred to Turkey as an "invader" in a letter to a Greek-American
group. McCain, on the other hand, is perceived as a follower of the
policies of the unpopular George W. Bush, and his hawkish stance on
Iran’s nuclear program raises fears of a clash between Washington
and Ankara over sanctions on Tehran.

Overall, people in Europe are the most likely to state a preference
for the next president of the United States and to think the election
makes a difference to their country. Sixty-four percent of French
respondents favored Obama, while only 4 percent expressed support for
McCain. In Britain, 60 percent favored Obama as opposed to 15 percent
for McCain. More than 70 percent of respondents in the Netherlands
and Norway picked the Democratic candidate.

In Asia, respondents turned out to be the least likely to state a
preference for the next president of the United States or to think
the election makes a difference to their country. In individual
countries, only Georgia, which fought a brief war against Russia over
the breakaway region of South Ossetia in August, Cambodia, Laos and
the Philip-pines prefer McCain to Obama.

In Canada, 67 percent chose Obama and 22 percent picked McCain. Also,
75 percent of Canadian respondents said the presidential election
would make a difference to their own country. The Democratic nominee
also enjoyed levels of support higher than 60 percent in Australia,
Ger-many, England and Japan, where the US election was viewed as
having a global impact.

POLITICAL SUICIDE
Armen Tsaturyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
22 Oct 2008
Armenia

The speech delivered by Levon Ter-Petrosyan during the October 17
meeting upset even his own supporters.

Thus his announcements to clarify the tactics of the congress and even
to make "sensational revelations" regarding Karabakh turned into an
average level and extremely tendentious geopolitical analysis.

We were facing a person who was offended by the West, which he
used to glorify for 20 years, a furious, upset individual who was
trying to basically change his own standpoint regarding the regional
developments, thus fishing in troubled waters, around Armenia.

It was for the realization of this task that Ter-Petrosyan was trying
to prove the correctness of the two fictions invented by himself,
to those, by the way far not ignorant participants of the meeting.

The first fiction was about breaching the principles of our balanced
foreign policy by President Serge Sargsyan, adopting pro-western
policy and "being disloyal" to our strategic ally Russia.

The second fiction was about the expected withdrawal of Russia and
France from the forthcoming negotiations, the false alarm about
signing a new "Dayton Agreement" by the mediation of the USA and
Turkey, which was voiced during the visit of RF President D. Medvedev.

We are sure even he himself doesn’t believe in what he said. Simply
the botched20"internal political" agenda faced by the opposition
headed by Ter-Petrosyan is based on two strongholds.

The first one is the "political capital" maintained after February 19
Presidential elections and particularly after March 1-2 tragic events,
which is based upon the "illegitimacy of the incumbent President.

The second is the conviction that the ruling power, like them in 1998,
can leave the political arena only and only in case of the coercion
of the anti-Armenian settlement of Karabakh conflict.

And because the before mentioned two "convictions" cannot be
linked with each other, because the latter’s statement regarding
the "legitimacy" completely lacks in Russia’s regional policy, the
only thing left to do for Ter-Petrosyan is to completely change his
standpoints regarding the developments taking place around Armenia
and invent the ridiculous version according to which President Serge
Sargsyan has surrendered himself to the USA and is planning to give
Karabakh’s keys to the USA and Turkey, to solve the issue of his
"legitimacy".

A question arises here, if this is really true, if an unprecedented
plot is hatched against Armenia’s national-state interests, a real
treachery, so why did Ter-Petrosyan make up his mind to stop the
demonstrations up to July and in addition to that he gives primitive
pieces of advice regarding the regulations of the clarification
of the Madrid principles. At the end he announced: "…frankly,
supporting both the settlement of Karabakh conflict and the swift
improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations, we don’t want to prevent
Armenian authorities from solving those issues.

So what! It turns out on the one hand Ter-Petrosyan accuses the ruling
power of hatching a plot against the country and on the other hand,
for unknown reasons, gives pieces of advice announcing that he doesn’t
have any intentions to hinder their activity that’s why he temporarily
steps aside.

At the end we would like to quote the only sentence from
Ter-Petrosyan’s speech, which radically contradicts the logic of his
whole lecture, including a certain malicious and conspiratorial but
still sincere element.

"If he (meaning Serge Sargsyan) thinks that by pleasing the West
and by displaying readiness for serious concessions he can gain time
and over again avoid the settlement of Karabakh conflict and later
somehow to find common language with Russia, this means he is quite
ignorant of politics."

Because after the visit of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to
Russia it comes clear for everyone that there is no problem in terms
of "finding common language with Russia", so when the delay in the
settlement of Karabakh conflict becomes evident, we will only ask
one question: "Who is quite ignorant of20politics?"

ROBERT SIMMONS TO VISIT ARMENIA

armradio.am
17.10.2008 16:26

October 19-21 the delegation headed by Robert Simmons, the Special
Representative of the NATO Secretary General for the Caucasus and
Central Asia, will pay a working visit to Armenia.

During the visit the delegation is expected to meet with the President
of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the
Minister of Defense, the Secretary of the National Security Council,
the Minister of Emergency Situations, the Chairman of the National
Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and
Interior Affairs and the Human Rights Defender.

The NATO delegation will discuss with senior officials of Armenia
the process and perspectives of the cooperation envisaged by the
Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP).

The delegation headed by Robert Simmons will participate in the final
events of the "Cooperative Longbow/Lancer 2008" military exercises
of NATO and the Euro-Atlantic Cooperation Council.

RUSSIAN ECONOMIST: IF WORLD FINANCIAL CRISIS ESCALATES INTO ECONOMIC, IT MAY AFFECT ARMENIA

ARKA
Oct 14, 2008

YEREVAN, October 14. /ARKA/. If the world financial crisis escalates
into economic, it may affect Armenia more or less, Dmitry Sorokin,
the first deputy director of Institute of Economy of Russian Academy
of Sciences, said on Tuesday in an interview with ARKA News Agency.

"Today crisis is seen in financial, not economic sector", he said in
his interview.

He thinks the world financial crisis will have no major impact on
Armenia, since the country’s involvement in the world financial system
is not so great – Russia’s involvement is greater.

Sorokin said that a new phase of economic cycle is expected to start
by late 2009 or early 2010. He thinks the world economy will grow
and things will change.

However, now global decline is seen.

Central Bank of Armenia says in its report on forecasts and monetary
policy for 4th Q that the new stage of the world financial crisis
brought volatility and new risks to financial and commodity markets.

Armenian market has not reacted to the fall in world prices, especially
food prices, despite the world prices started falling yet in the
second quarter.

The recent conflict in the region and problems with cargo
transportation added problems to some Armenian that were imperfect
and slow yet before that.

OFFICIAL: FRANCE TELECOM FILES HIGHEST BID FOR ARMENIAN GSM LICENSE

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
October 6, 2008 Monday 6:33 PM EET
Russia

France Telecom, which provides cellular services under the Orange
brand, has filed the highest bid for a GSM license in Armenia,
Andranik Manukyan, the chairman of the tender commission and an
adviser to the Armenian president, told reporters Monday.

France Telecom offered 51.5 million euros for the license, while
Sweden’s Tele2 offered 45.6 million euros and Anglo-Irish consortium
CEO Blackrock Communication offered 31.66 million euros, he said.

The license winner will be officially announced within three days,
Manukyan said.

"(Orange) will get a preliminary license for 10 days to register in
Armenia. All the formal procedures should be completed by December 15,"
Gurgen Sarkisyan, the transport minister of Armenia, said.

Armenia launched the tender for the country’s third GSM license in
June 2008. Seventeen companies applied for the tender, while only
three were shortlisted.

Armenia’s two GSM operators, ArmenTel and K-Telecom, are subsidiaries
of Russia’s VimpelCom and MTS, respectively.