Author: Tambiyan Samvel

Youth given a chance in Armenia
Wednesday 23 January 2008by Khachik Chakhoyan from
Yerevan

Artur Voskanyan has left Armenia for a new challenge
abroad (AFP)Ahead of the 2008 Bardzraguyn Khumb
campaign, champions FC Pyunik and runners-up FC
Banants have lost a number of influential players to
the lure of football abroad.

Impressive performances
Following Armenia’s respectable performance in their
UEFA EURO 2008′ qualifiers – including a notable 1-0
victory over Group A winners Poland – the country’s
leading players have attracted the attention of
foreign clubs. It is unlikely that the latest crop of
talent from the Pyunik and Banants academies will make
the grade immediately, meaning Armenia’s premier sides
face a tall order to repeat last season’s one-two.

Internationals lead exodus
FC Ararat Yerevan’s national-team midfielder Artur
Voskanyan was first to leave to Belarussian side FC
Vitebsk. His example set a precedent for the league’s
leading players, with international team-mate
Aleksandr Tadevosyan following from Pyunik. The
Armenian champions have since lost the services of
central defender Robert Arzumanyan earlier this month
on a one-year loan to Danish club Randers FC, and of
midfielder Levon Pachajyan following a successful
trial at Swedish side GAIS Göteborg.

Giving youth a chance
With Rafael Nazaryan, Arsen Avetisyan, Tigran
Karabagtsyan and Uruguayan Ignacio Bordat also making
an exit, Pyunik will be without some familiar faces.
Coach Armen Gyulbudaghyants said: "Of course, it’ll be
hard for us to repeat our success. However we’ve
already chosen our strategy at Pyunik – we’re betting
on youth football. Luckily, our academy is already
producing new talents. There’s an opinion in the
football world that time can iron out a player’s
flaws.

‘Trust the youngsters’
"Our young players will benefit from intense
competition for places while, by playing matches, they
will improve both their knowledge of the game and
their skills," added Gyulbudaghyants. "Last season
Artur Yedigaryan, Hamlet Mkhitaryan and Gevorg
Ghazaryan played UEFA Champions League qualifying
matches. I’m sure that this campaign they’ll do even
better, and the others will have a great example to
follow. This approach will help the Armenia national
team as well. We have to trust the youngsters."

Spine removed
Banants’ transfer policy is no different: experience
is making way for youth. The departures of Samvel
Melkonyan, Ararat Arakelyan, Ara Hakobyan and Karen
Simonyan – the spine of last season’s team – have all
moved abroad. However the blow will be cushioned
slightly with the acquisition of several seasoned
professionals from Moldova, Romania and Georgia. The
club have signed Bulgarian midfielder Marko Markov
while national-team midfielder Karen Aleksanyan has
been brought back home from Moldova.

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ICG: AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SHOULD RESUME TALKS

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.01.2008 13:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ If Azerbaijan and Armenia want a peaceful resolution
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the leaders of both states should
undertake to explain the advantages of the future agreement to their
publics, said Sabine Freizer, Director of the Europe Program of the
International Crisis Group.

The conflict will be settled after complete withdrawal of Armenian
troops from the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh and return
of Azeri refugees to their homes, according to her. "Only peace and
mutual trust can solve problems. It will certainly take a long time
but the Presidents should work for soonest resumption of talks,"
she said, 1news.az reports.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Jan 18 2008

Bernard Fassier: If war breaks out, irrespective of the winner,
problem will not be solved

[ 18 Jan 2008 18:20 ]

It is high time for preparing peace agreement on the settlement of
Nagorno Karabakh conflict, OSCE Minsk Group co-chair Bernard Fassier
(France) said a press conference in Baku, APA reports.

He said that Azerbaijan and Armenia were enemies in former times and
they are enemies at present.
`These countries will be partners soon, and they will be peace
neighbors after the conflict is settled,’ he said.
Bernard Fassier also commented supposition of the start of war again
between the two states.
`The war is not clever variant for the settlement of the conflict. If
war breaks out, problem will not be solved irrespective of the
winner, on contrary it will be deepened. War means suicide,’ he said.
Co-chairs said that they do not see any concrete model for the
settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict at present.
`The model of the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict may play
the role of model for other conflicts,’ he said. /APA/

Rosfinmonitoring delegation to arrive in Yerevan on January 21 at
invitation of Armenian CB Financial Monitoring Center

2008-01-18 19:02:00

ArmInfo. Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring)
delegation is to arrive in Yerevan on January 21at invitation of
Armenian Central Bank Financial Monitoring Center. Armenian CB
press-service told ArmInfo, meetings are expected with the heads of CB
and relevant services of CB as well as representatives of Prosecutor
General’s Office.

The source reports Oleg Markov, Head of Rosfinmonitoring, Chairman of
Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism
(EAG) heads the delegation. His deputy Sergey Osipov, Head of the
Rosfinmonitoring Department for International Relations and Vice
Chairman of CoE MANEYVAL Committee Vladimir Nechaev, as well as others
are in the delegation. CB Center of Financial Monitoring and Federal
Services of Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring) will sign a
cooperation agreement on January 22. Members of inter-department
commission on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism
(EAG) will attend te signing-ceremony. Rosfinmonitoring representatives
will organize seminars for law-enforcement and CB specialists at the
Central Bank on January 23.

The visit of the delegation will over on January 24.

FIRST ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETS OSCE OBSERVERS, JANUARY 18

arminfo
2008-01-18 21:19:00

ArmInfo. First Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan received Head
of OSCE/ODIHR’s observation mission to monitor the 2008 presidential
election in Armenia Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, Deputy Head of the mission
Paul O’Grady and political analyst Lolita Cigane, Friday.

As ArmInfo learnt from the campaign headquarters of the ex-president of
the country, head of the campaign headquarters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan
Aleksander Arzumanyan, director of the first president’s office Avetis
Avakyan were also present at the meeting. A practical talk took place,
which covered issues on the current pre-election situation in Armenia,
the course of presidential election, as well as the activity of the
observation mission.

LIBRARY OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION OF RA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE TO BE INCLUDED IN NETWORK OF IIEP DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES

Noyan Tapan
Jan 16 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The library of the National Institute
of Education of the RA Ministry of Education and Science will be
included in the network of depository libraries of the International
Institute for Education Planning (IIEP). NT correspondent was informed
by the PR department of the ministry that starting from this year,
the library will regularly receive IIEP’s publications. The National
Institute of Education has already received nearly 50 titles of
professional literature.

The IIEP was established in 1963 with the aim of developing the
planning and management capacities of the educational systems of
UNESCO member states.

Taking into account difficulties with obtaining professional literature
on education, the Paris-based IIEP created a network of depository
libraries in various countries in 1990. About 180 libraries in 80
countries currently receive a free copy of IIEP’s publications which
are released in English, French, Russian, Spanish, etc.

The institute offers annual courses, effective training, extension
programs and other courses on planning and management of education and
development of efficient educational policy. Since its establishment,
the IIEP has prepared about 6,000 education experts and executives.

GRAVES PLANNED TO BE CARRIED AWAY FROM NARIMANOV DISTRICT CEMETERY

Today, Azerbaijan
Jan 16 2007

Regular works on carrying graves away from the cemetery of the
Narimanov district of Azerbaijani capital will start on January 25.

"These works were to be initiated earlier, yet bad weather and ice make
grave digging difficult", director of the cemetery in the Narimanov
district Kamran Mamedov said.

He explained that the transfer of graves to Govsany from the other
part of the cemetery is caused by the plans of the city administration
to lay a new street of Teymur Aliyev on this territory.

The problem of this cemetery went beyond not only Baku, but also
Azerbaijan, as people of different nationalities, whose relatives
reside all over the world, are buried there. Many former Bakuvians,
whose relatives were buried at this cemetery, have settled in
Armenia. Therefore, the so called disrespect to the deceased in Baku
is discussed in the Council of Europe owing to the Foreign Ministry
of Armenia.

It is possible to understand workers, who carry out a heavy work of
digging out tens of corpses a day. If there are no relatives of the
deceased near the grave, the lower-paid salaried workers work without
due respect to the corpses.

But this does not relieve the pain of the relatives. The issue of the
attitude to graves on the Narimanov cemetery was officially raised
by the Coordination Council of Russian-language public organizations
in Azerbaijan, Russian and Ukrainian communities of Azerbaijan and
organization "Commonwealth". Before raising the issue on the European
level, these organizations sent an appeal to President Ilham Aliyev
with a request to carry out this process in conformity with the norms
of religion and morals.

According to Baku reporter Semen Kastrulin, who was directly connected
with the issue, previously the government allocated one free coffin for
each corpse, while now due to the absence of funds of the Executive
powers of the Narimanov district, the ready graves are not purchased
from the producer.

The relatives of the deceased can purchase coffins from the producing
firm at M.Gashgay street, corner of M.Akhundov street.

High quality coffins cost AZN 80 each. Kastryulin states that the
transfer of graves from the second part of the Narimanov district
cemetery started on December 15 of 2007.

K.Mamedov opposed Kastryulin’s words about the lack of funds in the
Administration of the Narimanov district for purchasing coffins. He
said the government undertook all expenses for the transfer of
graves. He also noted that the works are carried with due respect to
the national traditions of a family of the deceased.

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INECOBANK INCLUDED IN LIST OF 50 BEST MICROFINANCE ORGANIZATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.01.2008 18:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ranking 26, Armenia’s Inecobank entered the list
of top 50 microfinance institutions of the world, prepared by the
Microfinance Information Exchange under the direction of Forbes
magazine, Inecobank told PanARMENIAN.Net.

Forbes’ first-ever list of the World’s Top 50 Microfinance Institutions
were chosen from a field of 641 micro-credit providers. To qualify,
the institutions must have made available their audited financials
and must have passed review by a Forbes panel of advisers.

This sortable table gives the rank (out of 641) for the top
institutions according to scale, which is based on the size of their
gross loan portfolio; efficiency, which considers operating expense
and the cost per borrower as a percent of the gross national income per
capita of their country of operation; risk, which looks at the quality
of their loan portfolios, measured as the percent of the portfolio
at risk greater than 30 days; and return, which is measured as a
combination of return on equity and return on assets. Each category
is equally weighted for an institution’s overall ranking.

Mediamax, Azerbaijan
Jan 14 2008

Armenian leader back after eye surgery in France

Yerevan, January 14: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan underwent an
ophthalmologic surgery in Paris last week on eliminating pterigyum.

As the spokesman for the Armenian president, Viktor Soghomonyan, told
Mediamax today, "the illness does not create problems for sight".

"The president is recovering, he returned to Yerevan on Saturday
evening and continues working without any changes on the agenda," the
spokesman stressed.

6 LICENCES FOR AUDIT SERVICES GRANTED IN 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA ministry of finance and
economy granted 6 licences for providing audit services in 2007. In the
indicated period, 6 licences for audit services were cancelled, 7
licences suspended and one licence for providing audit services was
reformulated.

State duties of 8 mln 234.1 thousand drams were collected in order
envisaged by law in 2007, including duties of 8 mln 82.5 thousand drams
from audit companies and duties of 151,6 thousand drams – from private
auditors. Fines of 800 thousand drams were imposed.

Out of 27 applicants who took an auditor qualification examination, 5
received a qualification of auditor, while out of 78 persons who took
an accountant qualification examination, 33 a qualification of
accountant. State duties of only 315 thousand drams (about 1,000 USD)
were charged from the persons who took examinations for qualification
of auditors and accountants.

According to the press service of the RA ministry of finance and
economy, as of January 1, 2008, there were 29 licensed audit
organizations and 6 licensed private auditors in Armenia. As of the
same date, 157 auditors and 20 accountants had valid qualification
certificates.