Author: Toneyan Mark

Unibank increased total capital twice up to $22,1 mln over the first
six years of 2007

arminfo
2007-07-07 12:20:00

Unibank increased total capital twice up to 7,525 bln drams ( $22,1
mln) over the first six years of 2007. As Arminfo was informed from
Unibank, assets of the bank grew by 54,1% ?Ñ?if compared with the same
period of 2006, and by 35,3% – over the first six months of the current
year reaching 41927 bln drams or $123 mln by July 1.

The source says that rate- sensitive liabilities of Unibank amounted to
34.403 bln drams or $100.9 mln by July 1 2007, increasing by 26,5% for
the first six months of the current year, and by 47,2% if compared with
the same period of 2006.

According to the data of Ranking of the commerce banks of Armenia
prepared by Arminfo, assets of Unibank amounted to $96.1 mln (7th place
in the bank system of the country), rate-sensitive liabilities-
$76.1 mln (7th place), total capital – $20 mln (6th place) by April 1,
2007.

PACE PRESIDENT REGRETS THAT ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN MATCHES WERE CANCELLED

armradio.am
06.07.2007 15:56

"It’s a pity that Azerbaijan-Armenia matches were cancelled," said
the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Rene van der Linden, Day.az reports.

Rene van der Linden noted that the decision of the UEFA to refuse
from the matches between Armenia and Azerbaijan scheduled September
8 and 12 was unexpected. PACE President underlined that sport is an
important field for improvement of relations. "Sport is an extremely
interesting sphere. At the same time sport is able to create ground
for the improvement of relations between peoples."

TURKISH COURT AGREES TO BROADEN INVESTIGATION INTO KILLING OF ETHNIC ARMENIAN JOURNALIST

AP Worldstream
Published: Jul 03, 2007

A Turkish court has decided to broaden the investigation into the
killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist to consider allegations of
official negligence in the slaying, a lawyer said early Tuesday.

After a 12-hour hearing on Monday, the court released four of the 18
suspects implicated in the killing of Hrant Dink, who was gunned down
on Jan. 19, until the resumption of the trial on Oct. 1.

The killing led to international condemnation and debate within
Turkey about free speech. Dink was hated by hardline nationalists for
describing the mass killings of Armenians early in the last century
as genocide.

The trial is taking place behind closed doors because the alleged
gunman, Ogun Samast, is a minor.

Lawyer Bahri Belen, representing Dink’s family, told reporters early
Tuesday that the court agreed to broaden the investigation.

Two of the key suspects, Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, claimed they
worked for the security forces. The alleged gunman had remained silent
during the trial.

Tuncel, who is suspected of masterminding the killing, reportedly
told the court that he was paid by police for gathering intelligence,
according to a lawyer who attended Monday’s hearing.

The court decided to ask police to provide a list of Tuncel’s
telephone calls.

Critics have accused authorities of failing to act on reports of a
plot to kill Dink, and it is unclear whether allegations that could
potentially be embarrassing for top officials will be explored in
the trial.

Hayal’s lawyer Fuat Turgut said that his client and the gunman were
"manipulated by certain forces because of their patriotic feelings."

Turkey had vowed a thorough investigation, and the governor and police
chief of the Black Sea city of Trabzon, the hometown of Samast, were
removed from office because of negligence. Some security officials
who posed for photographs with the gunman as he held a Turkish flag
were also dismissed.

There has been no evidence that directly implicates any police or
government official in the slaying of Dink outside his office, however.

Many Turks are convinced that a so-called "deep state" _ a network of
state agents or ex-officials, possibly with links to organized crime
_ periodically targets reformists and other perceived enemies in the
name of nationalism.

Dink sought to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. But
he was prosecuted under Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code, which bans
insults to Turkish identity, for his comments on the mass killings
of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century.

ARMENIAN COMMUNITY HAS BEEN ANXIOUS SINCE DAY OF HRANT DINK’S MURDER,
ROBERT HATTECHIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, JULY 5, NOYAN TAPAN. "The Armenian-Turkish relations had been
improved in the past 10-15 years, there was a sympathy for the
Armenians living in Constantinople, and writers and historians speaking
about the Armenian Genocide more boldly had appeared in the Turkish
media. It seemed to us that hatred for us had disappeared, but after
Hrant Dink’s murder such phenomena emerged, which reminded us that the
things are not this way at all," writer, publicist Robert Hattechian,
the editor-in-chief of the Marmara daily of Istanbul, stated in his
interview to Noyan Tapan.

In his words, thousands of people’s taking to the streets and saying
"We are Dinks, we are Armenians" after Hrant Dink’s murder (at that,
the number of Armenians was small among these people) did much harm to
the Armenian community. R. Hattechian said that Armenian schools and
churches are often threatened after that. "In the schools they have an
atmosphere of fear, and iron doors and video cameras have been placed
in front of editorial offices, as we are periodically warned that
something may happen at any moment. Today the Armenian community is
anxious, and everybody wishes to return to the days of past," R.
Hattechian said.

Touching upon the reopening of the repaired Surb Khach church of
Akhtamar, R. Hattechian said that the opening of the church as a museum
was a positive decision. "Of course, I would like it to be opened as a
church, but if it were this way, then only Armenians of Turkey would
visit it once a year, but now the whole world is interested in Surb
Khach church," the editor-in-chief of the Marmara daily said. In his
words, if more clergymen, scientists and intellectuals took part in the
church’s reopening, it would be a larger Armenian agitation.

Speaking about the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, R.
Hattechian said that Turks, in particular, Turks living in Kars and
Erzrum near Armenia, are for opening the border as soon as possible.
However, in the words of Marmara’s editor-in-chief, the border will not
be opened easily, as the Turkish authorities still have to get over
some obstacles, the first of which is the issue of the Genocide. "Of
course, we will wait very long, but the opening of the border is not
only for us, but for the Turkish public opinion," R. Hattechian said.

SERGE SARGSIAN: "AMENDED CONSTITUTION GIVES GREATER OPPORTUNITIES FOR
REALIZING NATIONAL GOALS"

YEREVAN, JULY 5, NOYAN TAPAN. Serge Sargsian, the RA Prime Minister,
sent a message of congratulation to the people of Armenia on the
occasion of Constitution Day. The message, which was provided to Noyan
Tapan by the Information and Public Relations Department of the RA
Government, runs as follows: "Dear compatriots, I congratulate you on
the occasion of Constitution Day. The significance of Constitution,
which is the main law of the country, is too important in the formation
and development process of any country. Constitution of the Republic of
Armenia is the principle legal, political, and ideological document of
the Armenian independent statehood, which became a basis for regulating
any kind of legal relations, foreseeing the process and development way
of our state. Constitution amended as a result of the national
referendum, which is based on the main principles and public goals of
the Armenian statehood, puts forward new problems and gives greater
opportunities for the realization of public goals, formation,
strengthening and development of Armenain statehood based on democratic
values, as well as for providing general welfare of people, in parallel
with the development of our state and the new demands of the time.

Cosiderable amendments, which are directed at the formation of not only
new legal institutions, but also for the implementation of reforms for
the second generation of our country and provision of a new quality of
life, are being made in the RA legislation as a result of
constitutional amendments."

"DISCUSSIONS ORGANIZED IN YEREVAN CONCERNING NKR PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTIONS ARE ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE ELECTION RESULTS," ARMAN MELIKIAN,
ADVISOR TO NKR PRESIDENT, BELIEVES

YEREVAN, JULY 4, NOYAN TAPAN. The discussions organized in Yerevan
concerning the forthcoming presidential elections to be held in the
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, moreover, on the initiative of an
organization, which is financed by a third country (Russia), are
inadmissible. This statement was made by Arman Melikian, the advisor to
the President of Nagorno Karabakh, at the July 4 press conference,
taking into consideration the round table organized the previous day on
the initiative of the Kovkas analytical center. In his opinion, it
casts doubt on the possibility of making a free choice at the best, and
is an attempt to influence and foresee the results of the forthcoming
elections at the worst.

In response to the question of how it happened that the President of
the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh was making a speech in the Slavonic
University at the same moment, A. Melikian said: "One should not
mistake a bicycle for a tank, as, in difference to the analytical
center, a university is an institution, which has no political
purposes." In addition to this, he believes that two of the experts of
the Kovkas analytical center are the supporters of one of the
candidates for the post of the President of Nagorno Karabakh, which
speaks about "the fact of direct and open intervention."

PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE DAY MARKED IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JULY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Prosecutor General, Aghvan
Hovsepian, during the official sitting dedicated to the 89th
anniversary of the Armenian Prosecutor’s Office, said that thanks to
close cooperation between the law enforcement bodies and the
Prosecutor’s Office, crime spreading in Armenia is considerably
inferior to the indices of many Council of Europe member-countries.

In his words, the new law "On the Prosecutor’s Office," which came into
force two months ago, is a law of a prosecutor’s office developing by
the democratic way, which "by its internal logic is aimed at the
protection of citizen’s rights and freedoms, as well as state
interests." A. Hovsepian said that proceeding from the new law’s
requirements, thay have established the structures of the Prosecutor
General’s Office and Military Prosecutor’s Office, have formed
prosecutors’ qualification and ethics commissions, and have made other
changes envisaged by the law. As he evaluated, taking the
investigator’s structure out of the system of the prosecutor’s office
will lead to department changes: that process will finish by December 1.

A. Hovsepian said that the RA Prosecutor’s Office is expanding its
foreign contacts: the Prosecutor’s Office cooperates with the
Prosecutors’ International Association, takes part in annual
conferences of Council of Europe member-states’ Prosecutor Generals, as
well in the proceedings of the Coordination Council of CIS Prosecutor
Generals. The latter’s regular sitting, as the RA Prosecutor General
said, is planned to be held in autumn this year in Yerevan.

Turkish Press
July 4 2007

Press review

MILLIYET

FIRST HEARING IN DINK MURDER TRIAL HELD

The first hearing was held yesterday for four defendants accused of
planning and carrying out the murder of Armenian-origin journalist
Hrant Dink this January. At the hearing, the court ordered the
release of defendants Irfan Ozkan, Osman Altay, Veysel Toprak, and
Salih Hacisalihoglu during the trial. Dink’s family attended the
hearing, which was closed to the press. The next hearing is set for
Oct. 1. /Milliyet/

BABKEN KARAPETIAN TAKES THIRD PLACE IN EUROPEAN YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP OF GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLING

Noyan Tapan
Jun 2, 2007

BELGRAD, JULY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The European Youth Championship of
Greco-Roman Wrestling finished in Belgrad on July 1. Among six
Armenian representatives Babken Karapetian (50kg, BKMA) was awarded
a bronze medal.

Six Armenian wrestlers to partake in athletic games in Trabzon

armradio.am
30.06.2007 14:33

Six young Armenian wrestlers will participate in the first athletic
games of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization member states
to be held in the Turkish city of Trabzon July 3-7.

The chief coach of the Armenian team is Edward Tunyants, the coach is
Zhora Hovhannisyan. The team comprises Valter Margaryan (46kg), David
Vaghinyan (50kg), Sasun Beglaryan (54kg), Sevak Sukiasyan (58kg), Edik
Davtyan (63kg) and Karen Lazarian (69kg).