Author: Tvankchian Parkev

TRANSPORTATION MINISTER COMMENTS ON ARMENIAN COMPANIES HANDED TO RUSSIA

RosBusinessConsulting, Russia
Oct 13 2005

RBC, 13.10.2005, Erevan 17:57:16.Russia has not met requirements to
utilize the capacities of Armenian companies handed to it to settle
Erevan’s state debt to Moscow, co-chairman of the Armenian-Russian
intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation Igor
Levitin, who is also Russian transportation minister, has told
journalists. According to Levitin, a working group has been created and
a protocol on enhancing the efficient operation of these companies has
been signed. Russia has made no decision on whether these companies
should produce civil or military goods, he added. In 2003, Armenia
handed 5 companies estimated at USD93.7m to Russia.

ARMENIAN-KAZAKH ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOCUSES ON MUTUAL COOPERATION

ArmInfo News Agency
Oct 12 2005

Yerevan, 12 October: The first sitting of the intergovernmental
commission on economic cooperation between Armenia and Kazakhstan
started in Yerevan today.

The sides discussed the current situation and prospects of
trade-economic cooperation between the two countries, specifically
the development of cooperation in the agricultural, transport and
humanitarian spheres.

The absence of direct transport links between the two countries
prevents the development of trade-economic ties, the Armenian deputy
agricultural minister and co-chairman of the commission, Samvel
Avetisyan, told our correspondent.

He said that Armenia exports mainly alcohol products to Kazakhstan and
imports oil products from there. The biggest project is the arrival in
the Armenian market of Kazakhstan’s TuranAlem Bank, which intends to
develop the mortgage loan market in Armenia, the deputy minister said.

HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER ARRESTED AFTER CHALLENGING GOVERNMENT
By Anna Saghabalian

Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 12 2005

A human rights lawyer who has helped Yerevan residents facing eviction
from their homes to sue the Armenian government has been arrested on
fraud charges which he believes were fabricated in response to his
activities, it emerged on Wednesday.

Close associates and clients of Vahe Grigorian, head of a Yerevan-based
law firm called Right, said he was detained by officers of Armenia’s
National Security Service (NSS) and promptly remanded in pre-trial
custody by a court on Tuesday.

The NSS opened a criminal case against Grigorian last May shortly
after raiding Right’s offices and confiscating some of its documents.

The Armenian successor to the Soviet-era KGB alleges that the lawyer
cheated a client, a charge he strongly denies.

Speaking at a news conference in June, Grigorian claimed that
the criminal proceedings were brought in retaliation for his legal
assistance to residents of old neighborhoods in central Yerevan that
are subject to demolition as part of its massive government-sanctioned
redevelopment. Many of those residents complain that financial
compensation offered to them by the state is extremely low because
of high-level government corruption.

Some of them have taken legal action against the Yerevan municipality,
but virtually all of those lawsuits were deemed unsubstantiated by
local courts. Grigorian and his firm have helped several such families
take their case to the European Court of Human Rights. in Strasbourg.

Minas Safian is a member of one of those families. He and other
remaining residents of Buzand Street in downtown Yerevan expressed
their solidarity with the arrested lawyer at an improvised open-air
news conference. “With Vahe’s arrest we lost our only source of hope,”
Safian told RFE/RL.

“He is one of the few lawyers who has protected our interests,”
said another resident.

According to Artur Grigorian, one of Vahe Grigorian’s defense counsels,
the NSS, which is supposed to investigate only grave crimes, has
failed to substantiate its charges. But the feared security agency
has previously denied any wrongdoing.

The Yerevan municipality, for its part, insists that the Buzand Street
protesters represents only a small minority of hundreds of dislocated
families which it says have been properly compensated.

However, the integrity of the process has been seriously questioned
by Armenia’s state human rights defender, Larisa Alaverdian.

Incidentally, Alaverdian earlier condemned the NSS actions against
Right. Her office has closely cooperated with the law firm.

(Photolur photo: A barricade built by Buzand Street residents in a
deseperate attempt to stop the ongoing house demolitions.)

UAE INTERESTED IN EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION WITH ARMENIA

Pan Armenian
11.10.2005 22:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian Deputy FM Gegham Gharibjanyan met
with Sharjah emirate emir sheik Sultan Al Qasimi’s Supreme Advisor
on Higher Education, Doctor Amr Abdel Hamid. The latter has arrived
in Armenia on the instructions of Sultan Al Qasimi, reported the
Armenian MFA Press Service.

Doctor Amr Abdel Hamid informed Gegham Gharibjanyan on the outcomes of
his visit, noting the interest of Sharjah sheik to develop education
and scientific cooperation with Armenia. He has also had business
meetings with President of the National Academy of Sciences and
Rector of Yerevan State University. Matters of bilateral interest
were discussed in the course of these. The parties discussed possible
cooperation directions, especially student and professor exchange
between YSU and Sharjah University.

ARMENIA NOT TO PROVIDE HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO PAKISTAN

Pan Armenian
11.10.2005 23:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia will not provide humanitarian assistance to
Pakistan due to the destructive earthquake in that country, Armenian
Deputy FM Armen Bayburdyan stated. In his words, Pakistan has not
requested humanitarian assistance from Armenia. The Armenian Deputy
FM reminded that no diplomatic relations were established between
Yerevan and Islamabad, reported Mediamax.

ARMENIAN CATHOLICOS OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO PAKISTAN, INDIA

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005

YEREVAN, October 11. /ARKA/. Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin
II has addressed a message of condolences to President of Pakistan
Pervez Musharaf and to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sinkkh on a
devastating earthquake in Kashmir, which claimed numerous lives. On
behalf of the Armenian people and on his own behalf Garegin II wished
India and Pakistan to overcome the consequences of the earthquake as
soon as possible.

A MAN TRIED TO BURN HIMSELF

Panorama
11:35 11/10/05

As the Department for Emergencies informed, on October 10 near
the Police Academy (Zovakal Isakov 29) was found 45 years old
man with number of burns on his body. He immediately was sent to
hospital. Doctors said that the man has the third-forth degree total
burns, health situation is very bad.

According to preliminary information, the man tried to burn himself
with help of petrol. If it so, anyhow it’s very strange the place
that he chose.

GOVERNMENT PLEDGES TO EXPAND FREE HEALTHCARE IN 2006
By Nane Atshemian

Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 10 2005

The Armenian government unveiled on Monday plans to expand the range
of medical services provided to the population free of charge by
abolishing next year all fees levied for disease prevention and
prophylaxis.

According to Armen Soghoyan, head of the healthcare department at
the Yerevan municipality, the measure will apply to all state-run
policlinics that are responsible for prophylactic treatment of most
diseases. He said it was made possible by a planned 21 percent increase
in government spending on healthcare in 2006.

The official could not say if the state will subsidize all drugs
prescribed to patients by policlinic doctors. “Only one thing is
known at the moment: policlinic service will be free of charge,”
he told journalists. “Nobody knows yet whether that includes drugs
or expensive check-ups.”

Public access to healthcare in Armenia has severely declined over the
past 15 year due to widespread poverty and corruption among medical
personnel. A nationwide household survey conducted by the National
Statistics Service in 2003 found that only one in three people visit
a medical facility once they have with problems with health.

The practice of informal payments thriving at virtually every
health institution means that Armenians have to pay even for
the few medical services that are officially free of charge. That
includes prophylactic treatment of oncologic, cardiac, infectious and
psychiatric ailments. Many Armenians are either unaware of that or
feel that they will not receive proper treatment without “rewarding”
doctors.

The informal payments typically range from 1,000 to 50,000 drams
($100). They go up sharply after hospitalization.

Soghoyan insisted that the government measure will complicate bribery
at the policlinics as it will apply to all services. “When we say
primary healthcare is free that means nobody can demand money from
citizens at the policlinics anymore,” he said.

However, some groups of the population such as children under the age
of 7 and pregnant women have long been entitled to free healthcare,
but many of them have been unable to make use of that privilege.

Maternity hospitals, for example, are among the most corrupt in
the country.

Soghoyan also admitted that the government’s modest healthcare budget
for 2005, projected at 38.4 billion drams ($86 million), will still
leave the quality of subsidized medical services much to be desired.

The figure pales in comparison with per-capital health expenditures
of the developed nations.

GEORGIAN GOVERNOR CRITICIZES POLICE FOR FIRING IN THE AIR DURING ARMENIAN RALLY

Rustavi-2 TV, Georgia
Oct 6 2005

[Presenter] Shots were fired in Akhalkalaki [mainly ethnic Armenian
town in southern Georgia] when the protest outside the district
administration building [on 5 October] turned into a mass riot.

People had been protesting about decisions made by the financial and
tax services. Officials had started auditing about 10 shops in the
town, prompting the shop owners to stage noisy protests.

In an attempt to ease tension, representatives of the Interior
Ministry’s emergency situations department fired several shots in
the air, causing a panic among the protesters, some of whom suffered
minor injuries.

Governor Goga Khachidze has been holding meetings in the region since
this morning. He says that the officials responsible for injuring
the protesters may have to answer for their actions.

[Khachidze, interviewed] There may have been an incident and there
may have been tension, but, in my opinion, they had no right to fire
shots, even in the air. They should certainly answer for that.

FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM HAS TO BE COMPREHENSIVE: SHEKHAWAT
Sunil Gatade

Press Trust of India, India
Oct 6 2005

Yerevan (Armenia), Oct 6 (PTI) Asserting that the fight against
terrorism has to be comprehensive and sustained, India today said
the elements who “instigate or assist” the menace in any form need
to be isolated as much as those who perpetrate it.

Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, here on a two-day visit on
the last leg of his three-nation tour, also said the UN needed to
be reformed urgently as the present system suffered from “democracy
deficit” and wanted the reforms, including expansion of the Security
Council, be carried out expeditiously to “judiciously reflect the
present global scenario”.

Addressing the National Assembly of Armenia, the Vice President
dwelt at length on the issue of terrorism, saying democaracies are
“haunted and threatened most by terrorism”.

He said the fight against the scourge has to be comprehensive and
sustained. “We need to isolate the elements who instigate, support
or assist terrorism, in any form, as much as those who perpetrate it.”

The Vice President, who earlier held detailed discussions with
Armenian President Robert Kocharian, said India greatly appreciated
Armenia’s support to its candidature for a permanent seat in the UN
Security Council.

He also thanked Armenia for its principled and consistent support to
India on the issue of terrorism and said that to accomplish the task
of development without any distraction or hindrance, an international
environment of peace conducive to growth was needed. PTI