Author: Nahapetian Boris

ORINATS YERKIR SET UP OFFICES IN ALL REGIONS

Lragir
Jan 7 2008
Armenia

On January 7, 2008 the Orinats Yerkir Party started political life.

The deputy leader of the party Heghine Bisharyan who is also the
head of the election headquarters of Arthur Baghdasaryan held
a news conference at the National Assembly. With regard to the
presidential election of Armenia she said if the conduct of our
election resembles that of the Georgian election, that is with water
cannons and irregularities, the election will be held in half a round
rather than one round.

Noting that the government often mentions victory in one round,
Heghine Bisharyan concludes that there is intention to rig the
election. She says in that case the opposition will go on protest
because it is the only way to fight fraud. Heghine Bisharyan says
the government’s candidate Serge Sargsyan’s rating is not that high
to get 700-800 thousand votes at once.

In answer to the question for whom Arthur Baghdasaryan will call
voters to vote if Serge Sargsyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan run in the
second round, Heghine Bisharyan said: "Certainly for the candidate
of the opposition." In answer to rumors that the Orinats Yerkir is
likely to hold rallies to oppose to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Heghine
Bisharyan says this is clear provocation. "We have nothing against
Levon Ter-Petrosyan. We do not do anything against anyone, we do it
for ourselves," says the deputy leader of the Orinats Yerkir Party.

She says they are ready for any scenario, including black PR against
them, especially that the Orinats Yerkir Party has such a "bitter
experience".

The head of Arthur Baghdasaryan’s election headquarters also stated
that they have set up offices in all the regions but declined to
note the exact number, saying only that the team of the leader of
the Orinats Yerkir Party encountered problems with rent of offices,
as well as advertisement. By the way, the Orinats Yerkir Party had
encountered problems with ads in the parliamentary election as well.

OPPOSITION CANDIDATE PUBLISHES MANIFESTO FOR ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
by Natalia Leshchenko

Global Insight
January 8, 2008

A key contender in the Armenian presidential election, former president
Lev Ter-Petrossian has published his election manifesto.

The 16-page document pledges three directions of economic reform: a
level playing field for all businesspeople, fair economic competition,
and absolute protection of private property.

Ter-Petrossian also targets large corporations to improve collection
of taxes, promising to raise the share of large corporate tax payers
in the state budget revenues from the current 22% to 75%. At the same
time, Ter-Petrossian promises to help small companies by shortening
the requirements for the qualification of the "simplified tax",
as introduced from 1 January 2008. These measures, the candidate
claims, would double Armenia’s GDO and triple its state budget in
the next five years, according to Radio Liberty. On foreign policy,
Ter-Petrossian pledges efforts to normalise relations with Turkey
and Azerbaijan, without specifying ways to achieve settlement in the
Armenia-supported Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway province of Azerbaijan.

Significance:Ter-Petrossian’s manifesto is full of bitter criticism
of the ruling government and his electoral rival Serzh Sargsyan,
currently the prime minister. It is still not clear what audience
Ter-Petrossian targets in this campaign. Accusations of corruption
and promises of higher state revenues at the expense of corporations
are supposedly addressed to the poorer social strata, whereas the
economic reform agenda is rather liberal and business-friendly.

Overall, politicians’ personal images tend to overwhelm their political
pledges in defining the electorate’s priorities, and Ter-Petrossian
now faces the task of galvanising the population and harnessing any
protest sentiments against the Sargsyian government.

This may matter more than electoral manifesto pledges.

NATO WILL ASK TBILISI TO HAVE PATIENCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.01.2008 14:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Any vote on Georgia’s accession to NATO will not
be decisive. Besides, with speeding up the accession process, West
would have to make certain sacrifices.

Caucasus is an outpost of the fronts "open" for Russia. This is an
energy front, since Georgia is the main transit for oil delivery to the
Black Sea and then to western Europe. It’s an ethnic front with strong
Russian minorities. And, finally, it’s a military front because Russia
rates deployment of a NATO base nearby its border as inadmissible.

According to Le Temps, NATO’s restraint is conditioned by the
U.S. twofaced policy. The current administration, devoted to Ramsfeld’s
doctrine on deployment of military bases close to the seat of threat,
considers Georgia’s – Russia’s immediate neighbor – as a possible
stationing of U.S. troops.

However, the American diplomats do know that Moscow’s retaliation
will be shattering in two directions: Kosovo, where over 15 thousand
NATO military are deployed and the Iranian nuclear program.

"NATO is most likely to ask Tbilisi to have patience.

The Alliance will hardly dare to add "Caucasian spice" to the agenda
of the summit due in Bucharest in April.

Saakashvili can make use of his good relations with NATO to strengthen
his legitimacy. But there is a risk to see the President elect
remarkable for his rudeness towards Abkhazians and Ossetians and
as a leader in siege imposed by them their patron, Russia," the
newspaper says.

ARMENIA POSTS TRADE DEFICIT

RosBusinessConsulting
Jan 8 2008
Russia

RBC, 08.01.2008, Moscow 11:37:34.Armenia’s trade deficit amounted to
just shy of $1.81bn, or 22.9 percent of GDP, from January to November
2007, ARMINFO reported. According to the republic’s National Statistics
Service, Armenia’s foreign trade grew 39.1 percent in the first 11
months of 2007 and 10.8 percent in November alone, to $3.933bn. Trade
with the EU rose 37.3 percent to $1.497bn, with exports amounting
to $516.6m and imports $981m. Trade with countries outside the CIS
reached $1.147bn, and $1.288bn with the CIS.

Armenia’s key trade partners in terms of exports are Russia (17.3
percent of Armenia’s overall exports), Germany (14.5 percent),
the Netherlands (13.4 percent), Belgium (8.8 percent), Georgia (7.5
percent), Switzerland (4.6 percent), and the US (4.3 percent). The
primary importers to Armenia are Russia (15.6 percent of total
imports), Ukraine (7.8 percent), Kazakhstan (7.3 percent), Germany
(6.8 percent), China (5.9 percent), and the US (4.6 percent).

TIGER MAULING SURVIVORS’ LAWYER IS AT HOME IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Kevin Fagan, [email protected].

San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Jan 7 2008

Pit bull. Hollywood. Showboat.

All of these have been used to describe Mark Geragos, the attorney
who jetted up from Los Angeles last week to represent the two brothers
who were mauled in the Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco
Zoo. And does that bother Geragos?

Hardly.

"It’s all about the client," he said. "So if they want to say I do
everything I can for my client, fine."

Indeed, in between the showboating jibes, they do say that – meaning
everyone from other lawyers to the galaxy of cable-show talking heads
who book him to fill the airwaves with opinion, from Larry King to
Geraldo Rivera.

"Like they say, any publicity is good publicity, and Mark has certainly
had a lot," said Gary Bostwick, another Los Angeles attorney who
draws from the same sort of client pool, having represented baseball
great Steve Garvey and the infamous "Fatal Vision" killer, Jeffrey
MacDonald. "But that’s not the only thing he is about. Defense lawyers
like Mark who do these kinds of unpopular cases are on a mission that
is like tilting at windmills, like it’s a duty to find justice. He
works very hard."

Before Geragos, 50, rose to national celebrity status in 1998 with
his successful fight to win acquittal for Clinton Whitewater figure
Susan McDougal, he was known mostly as a Los Angeles workaholic who
was good at keeping accused murderers and swindlers out of prison.

A parade of stars, from actress Winona Ryder and singer Michael Jackson
to Laci Peterson’s convicted husband, Scott, followed McDougal’s case,
and with each case – win or lose – Geragos’ star ascended further.

The San Francisco Zoo’s tiger case, which has grabbed international
headlines for more than a week, was a natural fit.

Multimillion-dollar lawsuits are almost certain to be filed against
the zoo for not properly enclosing the tiger.

Geragos said he signed on to represent Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and his
23-year-old brother, Kulbir, because they were being smeared in the
press and by the zoo when what happened to them was "mind-boggling."

The most important fact in the entire affair, Geragos said, is that
zoo enclosures are supposed to be so secure that animals can’t escape,
no matter how provoked they are.

"Trust me, when the zoo goes on the stand to defend itself about what
happened, it’s going to look pretty bad," he said.

Practically from the moment the two were taken to San Francisco
General Hospital after the evening attack that left their friend
Carlos Sousa Jr. dead and the brothers clawed and bitten, accusations
and implications have swirled that they taunted the tiger Tatiana
into launching her rampage. If true, the pair could be guilty of a
misdemeanor under San Francisco law that prohibits disturbing zoo
animals. It didn’t help, image-wise, that the Dhaliwals have had
allegedly drunken scraps with the police and are despised as noisy
boors by several of their neighbors.

"The bottom line is that these boys were doing no taunting,
and the fact that they are being attacked (with allegations) is
unconscionable," Geragos said. "I wouldn’t accept anything coming
out of the mouth of anyone associated with the zoo."

No zoo officials have openly accused the brothers of taunting the
tiger, but high-profile crisis consultant Sam Singer of San Francisco
has carefully treaded toward that edge, saying leadingly that "all
of the facts still aren’t out" about the incident. Because of this,
Geragos takes special aim at Singer, calling him a "so-called crisis
manager who has been peddling rumors."

Singer fires back that "anything that a defense attorney says has to
be taken with not a pinch of salt, but a ton of salt."

It’s all par for the course for Geragos, say those who know him.

"Mark was born to be a lawyer," said Loyola Law School Professor
Laurie Levenson, who has known Geragos for years and had him talk to
her classes. "It’s all he ever wanted to do. Doing a personal injury
case like (the tiger attack) is a little unusual for him, but he’s
a smart guy, so you can bet he won’t miss any details. And he likes
the high-profile cases – the higher the better."

In his national spotlight cases, he’s had a mixed scorecard.

Ryder was convicted of shoplifting, Peterson went to Death Row and
baseball slugger Barry Bonds’ trainer Greg Anderson was unable to
avoid jail for contempt. But then again, U.S. Rep. Gary Condit was
never charged in connection with the death of his mistress and intern
Chandra Levy. Geragos also helped win $37.5 million for victims in the
century-old Turkish genocide of 1.5 million Armenians, and prostitution
charges were dismissed against James Bond film director Lee Tamahori.

Sympathetic client, famous client, seemingly dirtbag client – they’re
all the same to Geragos. The only important thing, he has consistently
said for years, is that he believes the client has a case. And if
that’s so, he’s in it to flat-out win.

"Every case has a life of its own," Geragos said. "You take them one
at a time."

RA President signs edict on adoption of Military Doctrine
26.12.2007 18:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ December 25, Armenian President Robert Kocharian
singed an edict on adoption of the RA Military Doctrine, the
President’s press office reported.

The Doctrine is a concept of state defense, structure, problems and
aims of the Armed Forces, neutralization of military threats. The main
purport of the Military Doctrine is to fix the threats and prevent
them. It also embraces trends of organizations of military security
system. The Doctrine is the guideline for all state bodies responsible
for the military security system. International experience and
documents of various states were used for its elaboration. It’s a
document that would meet Armenia’s demands and peculiarities and would
be comprehensible for the international community.

ARMENPRESS

NEW DOCUMENTARY ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SHOT

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: A new documentary
on the Armenian genocide, made in the German language
by a film director, Karen Gevorkian, is called
`Genocide without comments.’
The director told Armenpress that the film was
presented to a dozen of TV companies in Europe. He
said the film is not for screening in cinema houses.
The Armenian language version will be ready by
mid-February. The director said the first intention
was to shoot the film in seven languages and screen it
in Europe and the US.
He said before shooting the film he studied
carefully a string of materials on Armenian genocide
kept in German archives. Parts of the film were shot
in Western Armenia (now in eastern Turkey).
Karen Gevorkian said the film features a prominent
German intellectual Wolfgang Gust, who dedicated many
years of his life to revelation and publication of
documents evidencing the Armenian Genocide.

ARMENPRESS

EBRD EXTENDS CREDIT TO ARARATBANK IN ARMENIA TO
PROMOTE MSME FINANCING AND TRADE

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS; The European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (ABRD) said it is
extending a USD 5 million credit line and a USD 1
million limit under its Trade Facilitation Program to
Araratbank, a privately-owned Armenian bank set up in
1991.
It said the financial package will be complemented
by a technical cooperation grant for institution
building.
The loan, which comes under the Armenian Multi-Bank
Framework II, will be provided to Araratbank for
on-lending to micro, small and medium-sized
enterprises, thereby addressing a major constraint for
economic growth.
Despite strong growth in recent years, Armenia’s
economic potential remains constrained by difficulties
in access to medium and long term finance.
The trade finance limit will allow Araratbank to
roll out its trade finance operations and to start
offering these products to clients.
Armenian banks still have very limited access to
the international trade finance markets. The EBRD
financing to Araratbank will also allow for more
competition among local banks and more choice for
local customers, EBRD said.
Michael Weinstein, Head of the EBRD Resident Office
in Yerevan, said the EBRD funding will allow
Araratbank to significantly expand its longer term
lending activities, particularly in the country’s
regions.
`This is a very important contribution to the
growth of Armenia’s enterprise sector as at present
the local banking sector does not deliver finance to
micro and small enterprises on a large and sustainable
basis’, he added.
Ashot Osipyan, CEO of Araratbank, stated: `We are
very glad that the EBRD continues its cooperation with
our bank, which is the most dynamically developing
bank in the country. We are confident that the
agreement will contribute to the fulfillment of our
strategic plans. Araratbank holds a stable position in
Armenia’s banking system and we are aiming to reach
the leading position in the future.’
The Armenian Multi-Bank Framework, launched in
March 2006, aims to support the increase of financial
intermediation of Armenian banking system and bolster
economic growth by making much needed medium-term
funding available to micro and small businesses
through credit lines to selected Armenian commercial
banks. The EBRD works with most of the leading local
banks, however this is the first project with
Araratbank.

OLLI REHN: ARTICLE 301 POISONING TURKEY’S RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.12.2007 18:07 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey is preparing to amend a controversial law on
freedom of speech that has been criticized repeatedly by the European
Union and could slow EU accession talks with Brussels.

The Justice Ministry will hand the draft amendment to article 301 of
the Penal Code, which makes it an offence to "insult Turkishness",
to the cabinet within 15 days, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin told
reporters on Tuesday.

It was not clear when the cabinet would approve the amendment.

The European Commission’s annual progress report on Turkey, published
in November, called on Ankara to make "significant further efforts"
on freedom of expression and religion, and noted that more people
had been prosecuted under article 301 last year than in 2005.

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has recommended that the EU not
extend accession talks to the key areas of justice and human rights
until the article is changed.

EU officials said the law was poisoning Turkey’s relations with
Armenia.

Ankara began EU accession negotiations in 2005 but the EU suspended
talks last December on eight of the 35 chapters or policy areas into
which EU law is divided after Ankara refused to open its ports and
airports to traffic from Cyprus, Reuters reports.

SERBIA DOESN’T HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN EU AND KOSOVO

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.12.2007 17:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Serbia’s future lies within the European Union and
its eventual entry into the bloc must not be tied to developments
in Kosovo, the Foreign Ministers of Bulgaria, Romania and Greece
said Saturday.

"Nobody wants to put Serbia into this kind of dilemma (to choose
between EU entry and holding on to Kosovo).

These are two separate issues; any attempt to link Serbian accession
with developments in Kosovo would be wrong and counterproductive,"
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis told reporters in a joint
news conference with Bulgaria’s Ivailo Kalfin and Romania’s Adrian
Mihai Cioroianu.

Greece, which has consistently opposed any change in Balkan borders
over the past couple of decades, opposes recognizing an independent
Kosovo state if the Albanian majority in the province unilaterally
declares independence from Serbia. Greece fears this could undermine
the Balkans’ fragile stability.

Romania, which has a substantial Hungarian minority, shares Greece’s
position.

Bulgaria looks more favorably at the idea of an independent Kosovo, but
Kalfin did not openly disagree with his two colleagues. He agreed that
"any solution not based on compromise is bad" but said EU membership
"is a community of values" to which the Serbs must adhere. Both the
Serbs and Kosovars must show "commitment to a political process and
(avoid) recourse to violence," he added.

Cioroianu said that "we need a democratic Serbia sparing no effort
to implement reforms" that will help it join the EU.

Kosovo Albanians have threatened to declare independence unilaterally
if the U.N. Security Council remains deadlocked on the issue. Russia
threatens to veto any Security Council resolution that is not supported
by the Serbs, and the latter continue to reject an independent Kosovo,
offering broad autonomy within Serbia instead.

Asked directly whether Greece and Bulgaria would recognize an
independent Kosovo, Bakoyannis said that "we are not there yet. … We
will evaluate the situation on the ground (and) we must strive for a
unified EU position." Bakoyannis and Kalfin agreed the EU must strive
to keep communication channels open between the Serbs and the Kosovo
Albanians "to keep the region as peaceful as possible".

Serbia should be ready to take the first step toward EU membership
by signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU
in January 2008 and achieve candidate status later that year, the
ministers said. "Serbia has no alternative to a European perspective,"
said Cioroianu.

The meeting was part of the three countries’ regular rounds of
consultations. The foreign ministers will meet early next year in
Bucharest to prepare a summit meeting of their respective heads of
state and government in Sofia next year, The Associated Press reports.