Author: Toneyan Mark

OSCE CHAIRPERSON-IN-OFFICE DORA BAKOYANNIS: "I AM SATISFIED WITH THE PROGRESS REACHED IN THE NEGOTIATIONS OVER THE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT"

APA
02 Jul 2009 12:48

Baku. Elnur Mammadli -APA. I was very satisfied with the progress
reached in the negotiations over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, as well
as with the constructive discussions", said OSCE Chairperson-in-Office,
Foreign Minister of Greece Dora Bakoyannis in a joint briefing with
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku,
APA reports.

She said everyone is interested in secure, sustainable and strong
Europe and Azerbaijan is one of the countries playing important role
in the security issues. "Dialogues should be held between the OSCE
countries, our neighbors and even inside our countries as well. Of
course, the dialogues are the basis of democracy".

NO RESPITE FOR SWEDISH STARLETS
by Sujay Dutt

uefa.com
Thursday 2 July 2009

Three members of Sweden’s UEFA European Under-21 Championship squad
could be back in action this evening after less than a week off as
Helsingborgs IF kick off their UEFA Europa League bid against FC MIKA.

U21 duty Goalkeeper Par Hansson, defender Joel Ekstrand and midfielder
Andreas Landgren all featured in the squad as the hosts bowed out to
England in the semi-finals. The club’s stadium, the Olympia – venue for
tonight’s opening first qualifying round tie against their Armenian
opponents – has also been busy, hosting four games including the U21
semi-final between Italy and eventual winners Germany only last Friday.

Legendary Larsson However, while the stars of tomorrow have an
increased profile in Sweden, it is striker Henrik Larsson who continues
to command the most attention at Helsingborg. Now 37, the man capped
105 times by Sweden has been struggling with a groin injury in recent
weeks, but trained on Wednesday and is eager to get involved in the
new competition.

Swedish first Fourth in the Allsvenskan last season, Helsingborg
are the first Swedish side to play in the UEFA Europa League, with
second-placed IF Elfsborg and third-placed IFK Goteborg entering the
fray in the second and third qualifying round respectively. Third
after 12 rounds of the 2009 season, their last game on Sunday saw
them beat Syrianska FC 3-1 after extra time in a cup game.

Lower tempo While Larsson was rested against Syrianska, Erik Sundin
scored twice and looks set to partner the former Feyenoord, Celtic
FC, FC Barcelona and Manchester United FC striker against MIKA,
who Helsingborg sporting director Jesper Jansson watched in Armenia
recently. "Their football is different," he said. "They aren’t as
organised as we are used to and the tempo is lower." Helsingborg’s
U21 stars may appreciate that.

AZERBAIJANI DELEGATION IN KARABAKH FOR A FAMILIARIZATION TRIP
Lusine Avanesyan

"Radiolur"
03.07.2009 11:44

A group of Azerbaijani public figures and statesmen has arrived
in Nagorno Karabakh for a familiarization trip. They are expected
to meet with NKR President Bako Sahakyan. Azerbaijani Ambassador
to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu and Russian President’s Special Envoy
for International Cultural Relations, Co-Chair of the Interstate
Humanitarian Cooperation Fund Mikhail Shvidkoy, are among the
guests. For the first time they arrived in NKR crossing the border
of Nagorno Karabakh.

Another delegation of public and political figures has arrived in
Nagorno Karabakh from Armenia. The Armenian delegation is headed by
Armenian Ambassador to Russia Armen Smbatyan.

The visit is aimed at establishing an atmosphere of trust between
the peoples of Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh. The visit has been
initiated by Ambassadors Armen Smbatyan and Polad Bulbuloglu.

Today the Azerbaijani delegation is expected to visit Shoushi.

AN UNLIKELY VOICE MUST BE SUPPORTED
By Avedis Kevorkian

AZG Armenian Daily
30/06/2009

Armenian Genocide

It isn’t often that the Armenians have the opportunity to influence
a court case that concerns the Armenian Genocide and in which no
Armenian is involved.

Just such an opportunity has now arisen and it is incumbent on
Armenians to get involved-at the very least, to submit amicus curiae
[friend of the court] briefs in support of the defendant.

The defendant in this case is an unlikely one and is being sued by
someone who is among the leading denialists of the Armenian Genocide.

Known for its studies of hate groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center
(SPLC) published an article, "State of Denial," last year, in which
it criticized Guenter Lewy, saying that "Lewy is one of the most
active members of a network of American scholars, influence peddlers
and website operator, financed by hundreds of thousand of dollars
each year from the government of Turkey, who promote the denial of
the Armenian Genocide." The other statement to which Lewy objects,
in his lawsuit, says, "Lewy makes similar revisionist claims in
his 2005 book The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed
Genocide,’ and in frequent lectures at university campuses across the
country. . . . Revisionist historians who conjure doubt about the
Armenian genocide and are paid by the Turkish government provided
politicians with the intellectual cover they needed to claim they
were refusing to dictate history rather than caving in to a foreign
government’s present-day interests."

Charging the SPLC with defamation, Lewy is reported to be seeking
millions of dollars, claiming the statements "are defamatory because
they falsely impute to Plaintiff academic corruption, fraud and
deceit. . . ." As a result of the accusations, the suit says that Lewy
has had his "scholarly credibility" hurt and has lost book sales and
speaking engagements.

There is no need to go into more detail, since most Armenians know–or
should know-Lewy’s denialist views.

This lawsuit is somewhat reminiscent of the case brought by David
Irving against Deborah Lipstadt, in 1996, in London, because she
had said some things about Irving and his denial of the Genocide of
the Jews, in World War Two. He, too, sued. However, in that case,
Jews from around the world rallied to Lipstadt’s cause. One famous
Hollywood personality sent the Lipstadt Defense Fund a check for
$750,000 with a note "more if you need it."

(I remarked at the time, if an Armenian found himself in the same
situation as Lipstadt, would any Armenian send a check for $750,000,
or $75,000, or $7500, or $750, or $75, or $7.50? We know the answer
to that.) The SPLC is always in need of money in its fight for
the good cause, but whether or not the SPLC is seeking funds in its
defense of the lawsuit, I know it won’t get it from the Armenians,
however, there is no reason why our "advocacy" groups in Washington,
for instance, should not get involved with the "friend of the court"
briefs. There is no reason why other Armenian organizations should not
get involved, similarly. There is no reason why individual Armenians
should not get involved.

We know that when push comes to shove, the lip-service politicians
aren’t worth a damn, else I would suggest that they be contacted
to also act in support of the SPLC’s statements about Lewy and his
"scholarship."

Someone should send a copy of the statement by the International
Association of Genocide Scholars, and a copy of the report from
the International Center for Transitional Justice to the court–or,
at least, to the SPLC.

We Armenians must not assume that the SPLC will have the kinds of
facts and information we know exists. The lawyers among us should know
what is needed and how that "what" can and should be presented. But,
individual Armenians should also show their support of the SPLC.

Lewy is being supported, in his lawsuit by the Turkish American Legal
Defense Fund, and his lawyer is Bruce Fein who, himself, has written
extensively denying the Armenian Genocide.

By the way, for those with short memories, David Irving lost his case,
and the judge possibly went beyond the bounds of decorum by saying
some nasty things about Irving.

Arthur Abraham retains IBF middleweight title over Mahir Oral
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 27, 2009 8:10 p.m.

BERLIN – Undefeated Arthur Abraham successfully defended his IBF
middleweight title with a technical knockout of fellow German Mahir
Oral in the 10th round on Saturday.

Abraham improved his record to 30-0 with his 10th consecutive defence,
though none have been against top-level challengers since he won the
title in December 2005.

Armenian-born Abraham knocked down Oral in the fourth, sixth and 10th
rounds, the last forcing the referee to call the fight.

The defeat was Oral’s first in 19 bouts since his only previous loss,
to Malik Dziarra in 2004.

ISRAEL’S DEFENSE MINISTRY CLOSES ITS "IRANIAN DEPARTMENT"

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
25.06.2009 15:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Israel’s Defense Ministry has decided to close
its subdivision for Iranian affairs. The decision was made within
the frames of budgetary curtailment program. The department’s annual
budget comprised USD 1 million.

An "old-generation agency" headed by Uri Loubran and a confirmed
opponent of military operations against Iran, the "Iranian" department
maintained ties with Iranian diaspora representatives and mass media,
and was in charge of broadcasting a Persian language program ("Voice
of Israel") for Iran and South Lebanon.

There are several Foreign and Defense Ministry subdivisions tackling
Iranian problem in Israel. Information on nuclear facilities is
collected by military and foreign intelligence services. Foreign
Ministry conducts explanatory activities and maintains international
contacts. And Loubaran’s subdivision occupied its own place within
the hierarchy.

For several years, Loubran’s assistant was former "Mosada" agent Iskhak
Barziley who participated in secret operations in Europe and later –
in Iran. After retirement, he continued to work for Iranian department,
Haaretz reports.

RAISING THE SHARE OF DOMESTIC ORDERS FROM 1/3 TO 1/2 WILL ADD STEADINESS TO ARMENIAN IT INDUSTRY

ArmInfo
2009-06-24 11:05:00

ArmInfo. Raising the share of domestic sales from something like
1/3 to ? of total IT industry sales will add steadiness to Armenian
IT industry, said Hayley Alexander, Chief of Party of USAID/CAPS
(Competitive Armenian Private Sector) project, at the 2nd Armenian
DigiTec Business forum, which was assisted by CAPS. "One third of
income generated within the local market is too low to support the
industry as a whole, because then it relies too heavily on export
sales. In these uncertain times in the international economy this is
not a great position to be in. So we’d like to see that one third of
the local market at least become a half within the next three years
or so. The DigiTech Business Forum could be a considerable boost for
this sort of activity", noted H. Alexander.

There are certain areas which could particularly benefit from employing
new IT solutions, including the tourism and pharmaceutical industries.

"Yesterday we organized the annual Tourism Competitiveness
Conference. One of the focuses during that day was emphasizing to
tourism services providers that they need to widen their web-based
promotion to reach clients worldwide, who in turn rely heavily on
the internet to plan travel. These sorts of conferences and forums
are designed specifically to develop the local market for IT services
while improving technology usage by some of Armenia’s key industries,
such as tourism and pharmaceuticals.

But there is more to IT technology than internet promotion. Industries
also may have to start looking toward IT solutions in areas like
customer relations management", he said. At the present stage, however
odd it may seem, the domestic market for suppliers to the Armenian
tourism industry – like IT solutions providers – is too small and
new to invest too much in custom made products. "There are so many
different programs out there that can be adapted, under license, to
suit the specific needs of tourism providers. But this still requires
a knowledgeable IT solutions provider to adapt the available products
and train in their best use.

Today, in the tourism industry, most travel arrangements are made
on the Internet. "So if you don’t utilize Internet based systems
to promote your products and services there’s very little chance
to enlarge your market share and attract new customers. So it’s
absolutely critical on the revenue generation side for Armenian
tour operators to be able to utilize web-based marketing solutions",
he added. On the cost saving side, CRM comes in handy for instance,
for pharmaceutical producers. "If you don’t have a sense of who buys
your products, what their customer profiles look like, you’re wasting
a huge amount of information that can help you reach your target
audience more cost effectively than mass market promotion through
say TV or radio. With proper software a pharmaceuticals producer may
explore particular groups of persons buying medicine in particular
pharmacies and create individual profiles for each client type. If
you can do that, it helps the producers to tailor a message to their
customers that will have impact. It can be much less expensive than
to maintain a huge sales force collecting all that data", he noted.

Using less costly methods, like simply distributing emails or creating
databases in Microsoft Office programs is an option for a company that
doesn’t need very sophisticated solutions. "But even making a database
usually requires assistance from somebody to help you figure out how
to set it up and what attributes it should be tracking. More likely,
rather than taking a lot of time to do that, you’d probably better
going to somebody – an IT solutions provider with an understanding of
a given software’s capability – who’s got a simple program designed
to do exactly what you want", summed up H. Alexander.

DEFENSE MINISTER OF ARMENIA TO ATTEND THE EURO-ATLANTIC PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL SECURITY FORUM

armradio.am
23.06.2009 11:09

The delegation headed by Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan
will visit Astana (Kazakhstan) from June 24 to 25 to participate in
the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council Security Forum.

The Forum will bring together the Foreign and Defense Ministers of
the Euro-Atlantic region, the Secretary Generals of NATO and other
international organizations, other senior officials.

The participants will exchange views on different security-related
issues including energy security and formation of a stable atmosphere
in the South Caucasus.

On the sidelines of the forum the Armenian Defense Minister is
expected to meet the Chairman of the Committee of Chiefs of Staff,
acting Defense Minister of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Altinbayev. Issues
related to cooperation in bilateral format and within the Collective
Security Treaty Organization will be discussed.

IMF APPROVES INCREASE IN FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO ARMENIA TO US$822.7 MILLION

armradio.am
23.06.2009 11:21

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today
completed the first review of Armenia’s economic performance under
a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) and approved an increase in the IMF’s
financial support to an amount equivalent to SDR 533.6 million
(about US$822.7 million; or 580 percent of Armenia’s quota). These
decisions enable the immediate release of SDR 102.7 million (about
US$158.3 million), bringing the total disbursed to SDR 264.2 million
(about US$400 million). The Board also granted a waiver of performance
criteria on net banking system credit to the government and the
program’s fiscal balance.

The revised arrangement will support the government’s economic
program amid a sharperthan- expected impact from the global financial
crisis. The 28-month SBA was approved on March 6.

The key objectives of the program are to help Armenia adjust to the
external shock, maintain confidence in the currency and the financial
system, and protect the poor. The sharp contraction in economic
activity, the fall in remittances, an increase in unemployment,
and difficult conditions in credit markets require an easing of
macroeconomic policies and the implementation of several measures to
stimulate domestic demand and create new jobs.

The main policies under the revised program are:

â~@¢ Mo netary conditions will be eased, including by widening
the range of central bank instruments to provide longer-term dram
liquidity to banks, and by increasing targeted onlending to small
and medium enterprises.

â~@¢ Fiscal policy will also be eased. Despite the fall in fiscal
revenue, the government will aim to maintain its overall expenditure at
a level close to the original 2009 budget, protecting social spending
while increasing expenditure on high-priority infrastructure projects,
financed in large part by bilateral donors.

â~@¢ Reforms will focus in particular on the continued strengthening
of financial sector supervision and improving tax administration.

â~@¢ Social safety nets will be enhanced by targeting social services
to the poor. Following the Executive Board’s discussion on Armenia,
Mr. Murilo Portugal, Deputy

Following the Executive Board’s discussion on Armenia, Mr. Murilo
Portugal, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, noted:
"Since the approval of the stand-by arrangement in March 2009,
the external economic outlook has deteriorated significantly
for Armenia. Falling private transfers and capital inflows have
aggravated external imbalances and affected household incomes and
investor confidence. Construction activity, the main driver of growth
in previous years, has collapsed, and the economy is experiencing a
deep contraction.

"The additional financial assistance from the Fund will help cover
Armenia9 9s growing financing needs, while the recalibration of the
authorities’ economic program will help them better respond to the
deepening downturn.

The program envisages an easing of monetary and fiscal policy to
mitigate the severity of the crisis, while laying the ground for future
fiscal consolidation primarily through one-off investment expenditures
and measures to strengthen tax policy and administration. The
authorities remain firmly committed to achieving the program’s
objectives of adjusting to the changed external environment, supporting
confidence in the currency and the banking system, and protecting
the poor.

"Following the successful return to a flexible exchange rate, monetary
policy will focus on maintaining low inflation. With the fall in
inflation rates, the recent reductions of policy interest rates are
appropriate. In addition, the authorities are taking active measures to
provide liquidity to the banking system and help resume lending. Fiscal
policy will provide crucial support by accelerating growth-enhancing
investment in infrastructure and strengthening social safety nets.

"As external conditions improve in 2010, growth is expected to resume
gradually. The shortterm outlook remains, however, very challenging.

Continued reforms will be necessary to boost the medium-term growth
potential of the economy, including efforts to improve the business
climate, completion of the unfinished tax policy and tax administration
reform20agenda, and progress on financial sector reforms."

ARMRUSGASPROM COMPANY ANNOUNCES FOLLOW-ON ISSUE OF SHARES FOR $548.8 MILLION

ArmInfo
2009-06-23 19:18:00

ArmInfo. ArmRusgasprom announced follow-on issue of shares for $548.8
million in 2006-2008, Karen Karapetyan, Chairman of Board -Director
General of ArmRusgasprom CJSC, told ArmInfo.

The follow-on issue increased the authorized capital of the company
nearly to $1 billion, he said. The share of Gazprom OJSC in the
authorized capital of the company grew from 50% to 80% and the share
of the government fell from 50% to 20%. The funds were invested in
big projects, particularly, in construction on Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline and modernization of the 5th power unit of Hrazdan TPP
(Hrazdan-5). K. Karapetyan said modernization of Hrazdan-5 will be
completed in 2010.

ArmRusgasprom General Assembly of Shareholders was held on June 22. The
company reported that the Assembly took note of the resolution by the
Revision Commission on revision of the financial and economic activity
of ArmRusgasprom CJSC for 2008 and approved annual report and balance
sheet of the company. The activity of the company was discussed as
well. The shareholders highlighted the positive results of dynamic
development and the achievements that created serious preconditions
for ArmRusgasprom Company to extend positions and prove its authority
of a reliable business partner.