Author: Nalbandian Albert

Sergei Ivanov: RF never used term `Axis of Evil’
06.06.2009 17:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RF never employed the term `Axis of Evil’, RF Vice
Premier Sergei Ivanov said at the conference on `Economic crisis and
new threats to global security’ organized within International
Economic Forum framework.
`RF never used the term `Axis of Evil’. We never labeled any country
as an outcast. We believe that double standards are inevitable, when
such terms are used, Ivanov said, adding that there are a lot of
unstable states in the world, but `it’s not their fault, but rather
misfortune’.

`For over 5-6 year we addressed US administration, expressing our
concern that Saakashvili’s regime will sooner or later turn into a
risky venture. We were assured that he wouldn’t dare to take any risky
step. Yet every one of us saw the consequences. But who is to take
responsibility?” Ivanov questioned.
He reminded that Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hanging on a charge
of barbaric murder of several dozens of Kurds.
`But who’ll take responsibility for the death of hundreds of Russians
(during Russian-Georgian conflict?’
He offered to refrain from making white or black lists and proclaiming
any state a `democracy champion’, Russian media reported.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
June 6 2009

Armenian, Azeri presidents meet in Russia

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Russia on Thursday in
their latest bid for a breakthrough in their bitter dispute over the
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan met his Azeri counterpart, Ä°lham
Aliyev, in talks brokered by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the
tsarist-era Constantine Palace near St. Petersburg. Medvedev’s
spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, said no breakthrough was made. "The
main thing is that Azerbaijan and Armenia are demonstrating their
readiness for dialogue," she said.
Later in the day, the three presidents met again for an evening boat
ride. Nagorno-Karabakh’s mostly ethnic Armenian population broke away
from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union
collapsed. It now runs its own affairs, with support from Armenia.

Fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the area ended in 1994
when a cease-fire was signed. The two sides are still technically at
war because no peace treaty has been signed.

06 June 2009, Saturday
REUTERS ST. PETERSBURG

EU TO OPEN INFORMATION OFFICE IN EASTERN TURKEY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
06.06.2009 13:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Union (EU) will open an information
office in an eastern Turkish province, an EU diplomat said on Friday.

Katerina Moravcona, the counsellor of the Czech Republic–the actual
president of the EU, to Turkey, said that the EU would inaugurate an
information office in the eastern province of Erzurum.

"We will open the office to cooperate with this region," she said
during her visit to the Erzurum Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The counsellors of 15 EU member states to Turkey are actually visiting
Erzurum to see the effects of Turkey’s membership negotiations on
the region.

The delegation later met Osman Demirdoven, the coordinator of the
European Union Turkish Business Center (ABIGEM), and the Association
of Entrepreneur Women in Erzurum.

The counsellors also visited some historical attractions in the city
including Cifte Minareli Madrasah, Yakutiye Madrasah and Tashan,
and later left Erzurum for capital Ankara, AA reported.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT RAISES STATE BUDGET DEFICIT LIMIT FROM 5% TO 7.5%

Noyan Tapan
June 3, 2009

YEREVAN, June 3. /ARKA/. Armenian parliament passed amendments to
the country’s law about budgetary system at its special session
Tuesday. The amendments envisage increasing the allowable limit of
state budget deficit from the current 5% to 7.5%.

Deficit to GDP relation is brought up to 7.5% due to finance budget
deficit and mitigate the global crisis effects.

The global financial and economic crisis had negative impact on
formation of income part and creates difficulties in implementing
the annual program, Davtyan said. In this respect he pointed out the
necessity to attract considerable additional borrowings. Armenian
Government is now actively negotiating over this, the Minister said.

Raising the limit will five the government flexibility in attracting
additional funds to meet on-budget expenditures and implement
the planned programs while promoting economic development, Davtyan
said. The new limit does not mean that this level must be reached by
the end of 2009.

"In the last years Armenian state budget deficit was not exceeding
3% against the planned 5% level, yet we have concerns that the 5%
limit will be exceeded due to the crisis, but we expect certain
improvement as early as in 2010," Davtyan said adding that if the
economic situation is improved deficit to GDP relation may be again
reviewed downward.

The 2.5pct increa se in deficit level mean raising the deficit by
70bln Drams only, as 1% deficit in relation to GDP is almost 31bln
Drams, the Minister said.

The decision on increase of the deficit points to availability of
financial sources. In particular, an additional of 300bln Drams or
about $100mln was attracted from four foreign sources, he said.

Davtyan also said that the increased deficit will have no effect
on the external debt that is about 13% today with maximum allowable
limit being up to 50%.

Chairman of the parliament commission for financial, credit and
budgetary issues, member of the Republican Party of Armenia Gagik
Minasyan said that the raising of the deficit will allow intensifying
the economy and help bring close the end of the crisis.

Members of the opposition "Heritage" parliament group considered
it unworthy to increase the deficit and advised to strengthen
administrative measures to ensure budget receipts.

Armenian state budget deficit (without funds from target programs
financed by international organizations and foreign countries) amounted
to 21.7bln Drams in January-April 2009 – 44.4% of the planned deficit
level for the first quarter.

State budget receipts were over 195.4bln Drams in Armenia in the
reporting period – a reduction of 9.9% or 21.5bln Drams as compared
with the same period of 2008.

On-budget expenditures totaled 217.2bln Drams in January-April – an
increase of 5.6% or 11.6bln Drams against the same period of last year.

According to Armenian state budget, total income was planned at 905bln
Drams, expenditures – at 945bln Drams and deficit at 40bln Drams.

($1=369.93Drams).

43% OF POLLED IN ARMENIA GAVE BRIBES LAST YEAR: TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL

ArmInfo
2009-06-03 14:11:00

ArmInfo. 43% of polled in Armenia gave bribes last year. Every 1 out
of 10 polled said that he or his family gave a bribe over the last
12 months, The 2009 Global Corruption Barometer, a global public
opinion survey released today by Transparency International (TI)
says. It found that over half (54%) of those polled believe that
the private sector uses bribes to influence public policy, laws and
regulations or, in other words, captures the state.

As illustrated in Figure 1, this perception is particularly widespread
in the Newly Independent States (NIS) : more than 70% of the surveyed
pointed to the existence of state capture in their countries.

Armenia is the second after Azerbaijan (46%) in the NIS by this
indicator.

Only 2% of the polled in Georgia said they gave bribes. So Georgia
is not the most corrupted country in the NIS. In roughly a fifth
of the countries and territories surveyed, including countries home
to some of the world’s major financial centres, such as Hong Kong,
Luxembourg and Switzerland, respondents identified the private sector
as the most corrupt institution (see Table 1). The Barometer also
showed that half of respondents are willing to actively support clean
business (see Table 2). Armenia is placed in a group of countries,
where 46-64% of the interviewed are ready to pay more to buy from
corruption-free companies.

All the polled indicated the police as an institute demanding
bribes more than others. One of four people having any relations
to police worldwide gave bribes last year. 20% of the polled bribed
representatives of the judicial system.

The poll showed that the governments do not take effective measures
to combat corruption, say 56% of the polled. In Armenia 48% share
this opinion.

Ukraine more than other states in NIS (73%) mistrusts in the fight
against corruption. Then go Azerbaijan (62%), Russia (52%), and Georgia
(21%).

The polled considered the most corrupt institutions the political
parties (68%), parliaments (63%) and civil service (60%). 33% of the
polled in Armenia called the judicial system the most corrupt. 18%
indicated at officials and 13% at mass media.

Only 1 of 4 people who gave bribes last year made an official
complaint.

This shows that few believe in efficiency of anti-corruption measures.

The survey, with more than 73,000 respondents from 69 countries and
territories around the world was conducted by Gallup International
as a part of Voice of the People Survey in 50 countries and by other
polling organizations in 19 countries between October 2008 and February
2009. In Armenia it was carried out by the Georgian Opinion Research
Business International organization for 1,000 respondents in the period
from January 25 till February 5, 2009 through face-to-face interviews.

ARMBUSINESSBANK (ARMENIA) OFFERS NEW DEPOSIT

/ARKA/
June 1, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, June 1. /ARKA/. From June 1, Armbusinessbank (Armenia) offer
a new fixed deposit, "Supper-2009". According to the information
available on the bank’s official website the annual interest rate
for AND deposits is 4% to 11%, for USD deposits, 1.5% up to 10%
and for EUR deposits, 1.5% up to 8.5%.

The period of deposit is 7-1,095 days, with no maintenance margin
requirement set.

The deposit can be replenished without any restrictions except for
the last 30 days before the deposit period expires.

The Summer-2009 deposit will be effective until 31, 2009. The
Armbusinessbank CJSC (Arminvestbank until August 26, 2006) was
incorporated on December 10, 1991. In 2006, Ukrprombank (Kiev)
purchased 35% of the bank’s shares, Alfa Garant insurance company
(Ukraine) purchased 35% and the Christie Management, 30%.

As of March 31, 2009, Armbusinessbank’s assets totaled 46.3bln AMD,
liabilities 39.5bln AMD, total capital 6.8bln AMD, with its authorized
capital being 5bln AMD, credit investments 26.4bln AMD, liabilities
to clients 23.9bln AMD.

The bank also provides fixed and call deposits for individuals and
legal entities.

THE KREMLIN ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO THE VERY FACT OF THE UPCOMING MEETING OF THE ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTS

ArmInfo
2009-06-02 14:45:00

The Kremlin attaches importance to the very fact of the upcoming
meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents at the Economic
Forum in Saint Petersburg, as well as to continuation of the dialogue
on the Karabakh conflict settlement and confirmation of Russia’s
mediation in this process, Natalya Timakova, Russian President’s
Spokeswoman told media, Tuesday, ITAR-TASS reports.

EU CONSIDERS ANY ELECTIONS IN SOUTH CAUCASUS ILLEGITIMATE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.06.2009 21:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The European Union does not accept the legality
of the ‘elections’, nor its results. The vote represents a setback
in the search for a peaceful and lasting settlement of the situation
in Georgia," runs the statement.

"The EU reiterates its firm support for sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders,"
Civil.ge reports, quoting Czech Presidency’s statement.

DID OBSERVERS FOLLOW THE ELECTION WITH STARING EYES?

A1+
05:35 pm | June 01, 2009

Politics

"Yerevan municipal elections were largely conducted in compliance
with European standards," says the Congress of Local and Regional
Authorities of the Council of Europe. The observation mission today
expressed its satisfaction with the electoral processes but their
words aroused doubt among the reporters.

"We are upset that you don’t believe us," head of the delegation
Nigel Mermagen declared.

"There has been no election in Armenia before, during which so many
cases of violence against reporters were recorded as was the case
with May 31 mayoral election. Does it meet European standards, too?

"It is outside our competence. But we have reached such information
and we will take it into account in our final report", said Nigel
Mermagen. The observers noted that their mission is aimed at disclosing
and recording election frauds and vote violations.

Reporter of "168 Zham" newspaper Armine Avetyan reminded Mr. Mermagen
that she had reported them on election frauds and beatings the
day before.

"You were listening to my story so indifferently that I became
convinced that the election would be rigged," said Mrs. Avetyan.

Note that yesterday while the observers were dining at the "Triumph"
cafe ballots were being stuffed in boxes.

A1+ wondered how long the observers had been out of polling stations.

In reply, Mr. Mermagen said that the observers had visited all polling
stations, followed the vote count with staring eyes and returned to
the hotel after midnight.

Mr. Mermagen couldn’t remember how many polling stations they had
visited. He also noted that the observation delegation had arrived
in Armenia on May 27 and they had been unable to follow TV coverage
of electoral processes.

Mr. Mermagen refrained to mention any shortcomings during the vote. The
final report will be presented at the PACE autumn session. "We have
to make a thorough report where we will present the details", said
the head of the CoE delegation.

Asked how they can assess the election outcome as positive if they
still have to make a final report, Mr. Mermagen said: "I am sorry
that you don’t believe us."

NO NEW VIOLATIONS

A1+
01:36 am | June 01, 2009

Politics

The violations registered at the polling stations until now are
classic violations. There were rumors that there would be new
violations during these elections, yet we haven’t seen such yet,"
"Civil Society Institute" representative, "hotline" coordinator Artak
Kirakosyan told "A1+".

As of 2 p.m., the "Hotline" had already received nearly 40 alarms
from observers, proxies and voters. In addition, 20 rapid reaction
automobiles were touring the polling stations without waiting for a
specific alarm.

Touring the polling stations of the Avan district, we found out that
the main electoral violations were connected with placement of voting
booths. For instance, the voting booths at the 1/1 polling station of
the district were clung to the wall and were facing the commission,
making the voter look towards the commission.

President of the polling station commission Vardan Muradyan assured
us that voters had a hard time moving around at the station due to
the small size of the station. That is why they had fixed a chain at
a 1.5-2 meter distance.

This is not a violation of the law. All commission members gave their
consent and it was the report was drawn up," assured the commission
president referring to the RA "Electoral Code".

It seemed that the area at the 1/2 polling station was rather large,
but the voting booths were installed in the opposite direction
again. President of this staton’s commission Hranush Khachatryan
assured us that they installed the booths like that because the tables
had to be at a distance of 1 meter.

We were caught by surprise at the 1/19 polling station. True, the
voting booths were installed by law, but they were near the door and
in front of the windows. President of the commission Tamara Vahanyan
assured us that it has been like that during all elections and there
have never been any problems. According to him, they hadn’t received
any warnings from the Central Electoral Commission. We talked about
ANC proxy Andranik Petrosyan, but he also didn’t see any violation
of the law.

The situation was more ridiculous at the 1/3 polling station. A young
man came out of the "Z" taxi with a list in his hand and tried to enter
the polling station. We asked him what the lists were and he said
that they were the lists of residents living on the 4th cul-de-sac
in Avan district, so that "the people at the polling station could
participate in the vote."

"We haven’t brought the list to the polling station. We are simply
checking to see that everybody comes to vote," said the young man.

Let us mention that as of 4 p.m, nearly 900 people had cast their
votes at this polling station and at 1 p.m., Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan came to the 10/21 polling station at the Levon Shant school
to cast his vote.

Journalist for "168 Hours" Armine Avetyan and "Transparency
International" representative Sona Ayvazyan were beaten up.