Author: Vasilian Manouk

ARMENIAN ACADEMICIAN HAS BECOME LAUREATE OF INTERNATIONAL CONTEST "THE BEST 100 SCIENTISTS OF THE WORLD"

Yerevan, December 21. ArmInfo. Yuri Shukuryan, Academician of the
Armenian National Academy of Sciences, has become a laureate of the
international contest "The Best 100 Scientists of the World", organized
by the International Biographical Center of Cambridge, England.

The press-service of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences told
ArmInfo that the Armenian scientist has been awarded this title for
important contribution to engineering education and science. As one of
the winners of the contest, Yuri Shukuryan has been given a Medal of
Honor of the Cambridge IBC. According to the congratulatory message of
the IBC, this title is awarded to the personalities who have reached
unique achievements for the welfare of the international community.

STATE BUDGET TO BECOME A HOME POLITICAL EVENT

A1+
[01:24 pm] 21 December, 2006

Government Gets Strictures on Leaving Debates on the state budget
continue in Stepanakert and promise to become a home political
event. At least, the attitude of the members of parliament shows this.

Vahram Atanesyan, the leader of the Democratic faction, had criticized
not only the draft budget but also the government’s economic and tax
policies of the past 6 years in an interview with the KarabakhOpen.com
before the parliamentary debates started.

The leader of the faction of the parliament majority over the
past 6 years stated that there is no development in the country,
Karabakh has taken the track for a country of consumers, which is
not appropriate for a state which was proclaimed sovereign by its
constitution. Despite the double-digit indexes, everyone can see
that the economy is not developing, Vahram Atanesyan said. He noted
that the tax policy conducted by the government from 2000 to 2005 was
not effective. 70 percent of the budget is foreseen for entitlement
programs, and only 800 million drams for the development of small and
medium-sized business. It means that the economy is not developing,
Vahram Atanesyan says.

Budget receipts total 33 billion drams. The government supplies 11
billion. Nagorno Karabakh will get an interstate loan of 19 billion
drams from Armenia. "We heavily rely on the interstate loan. But who
knows what will happen in Armenia after the parliamentary election,
who knows what force will come to power?"

Vahram Atanesyan said.

Nevertheless, the Democratic faction did not ask questions to the
government during the debate on December 19. Instead, the members of
the Hayrenik faction kept the minister of finance Spartak Tevosyan
at the rostrum for an hour and a half, who was dissatisfied about
this. Moreover, the questions were rather sharp. For instance,
why has the government foreseen 400 million drams in 2007 for the
construction of the new home of the National Assembly if building is
over, and only the interior furnishing remains?

The three members of ARF Dashnaktsutyun-Movement 88 were quiet. They
did not need to speak because the parliament majority assumed the role
of the opposition and were criticizing the government. As if this
majority had not approved the previous budgets of the government,
adopted amendments to the tax legislation and heard the budget
statements.

What has changed now? Why did the political parties start criticizing
the government? We can only make suggestions. According to the NKR
Constitution, soon the government must abdicate responsibility and
a government with a new structure must be formed. In addition, the
parliament will have more powers in forming a government (according
to the Constitution, the head of state names prime minister with the
approval of the parliament).

Perhaps the political parties have aspirations to the executive
body although the government is not formed by the parliament
majority. At the same time, they are also trying to solve the problem
of propaganda. Hence, the uncertainty in Armenia apparently causes
disturbance in Karabakh. And since nothing is clear, everyone will
be thinking about their interests, and if necessity arises, they may
sacrifice their teams for their interests.

PSYCHOLOGY THAT IS STRONGER THAN MIND
James Hakobyan

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 18 2006

The diminishing activity of Armenia in the talks over Karabakh had
been expected before the recent interview with Robert Kocharyan when
different officials in Karabakh and Armenia, including the speaker of
the Armenian parliament, started developing the theory of "not a patch
of land". Hence, Robert Kocharyan only summed up these statements. And
these statements were rather interesting. First of all, it is evident
that Armenia’s standpoint contains certain threat.

Robert Kocharyan’s words on avoiding active talks, i.e. signing of an
agreement, was addressed to the opposition, and maybe also the part
of the government who were thinking about coercing Robert Kocharyan
using the agreement and making him accept their rules of the game.

Meanwhile, Robert Kocharyan’s statement contained elements of coercion
which are evidently directed against the mediators in the talks for the
settlement of the Karabakh issue. They are known to have stated several
weeks ago that the Armenian parliamentary election cannot obstruct the
negotiations. In fact, Robert Kocharyan shows that it can obstruct. And
the purpose is clear. By questioning the talks the Armenian president,
in fact, wants to extort guarantees of reproduction of government from
the mediators to have them shut an eye on the quality of the election
in 2007. Therefore, Robert Kocharyan is stating that he will not sign
anything until the election in 2007. At the same time, an atmosphere
of not returning the territories is being created in Armenia to boost
the value of the government who return the territories and convince
the mediators that eventually the reproduction of this government is
the right thing.

However, the intention of the Armenian president has another nuance.

After the recent negotiations the co-chairs and Azerbaijan became
more optimistic, and Mammedyarov even stated that Lachin and the
status are not a reason for disagreement. This shows that Azerbaijan
may have finally adopted a milder standpoint. And the standpoing of
the Armenian side over these years has been based on one thing – the
intolerance of Azerbaijan. Yerevan, which was ready to return these
territories for the sake of a status, perhaps does not have a vision
of bringing this formula into being, but is saying that hopefully
Azerbaijan will never accept it. Hence, the optimism of the mediators
and Azerbaijan allows supposing that Azerbaijan has become milder in
its standpoint. In this case, the Armenian side would have to replace
words with actions, and shift the issue of returning territories
to a more practical level. And it would mean sentencing the present
regime led by Robert Kocharyan without pardon. The regime which is
almighty in all the questions does not have hegemony over the issue
of the territories. All Yerevan can do is coercion. And it means a
new promise. In other words, the mediators approve reproduction but
they stipulate that an agreement must be signed after the election in
2007. In this case, the question occurs what’s the difference when
the "sword" of signing will hang above Robert Kocharyan, after the
election or before the election.

The difference is significant. Kocharyan is rather weak before the
election so that he has to "shout" regularly that everything happens
with his approval to overcome his fear. It is not a secret that the
Armenian opposition expects assistance from the outside without
having an idea what he should do for victory, and when it is not
there, 150 thousand people are sent home. Hence, the election is
vital energy for Robert Kocharyan if he can prevent the West from
interferening. After getting this energy he can carry on the tactics
in the talks over Karabakh used since 1998 for both the inside and the
outside. This is a situational solution and does not seem to contain
any prospects. But the problem is that Robert Kocharyan does not have
opponents who work out and pursue far-reaching problems.

There is competition in situational solutions, and here Robert
Kocharyan has not only a psychological advantage over his opponents,
which makes mental exercise obsolete.

VARTAN OSKANIAN AND PETER SEMNEBY DISCUSSED KARABAKH PROCESS

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.12.2006 15:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian met
with EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby,
reports the RA MFA press office. The parties discussed the EU-Armenia
relations, specifically the implementation of the Action Plan within
the European Neighborhood Policy.

Besides, Vartan Oskanian and Peter Semneby referred to the upcoming
parliamentary election and noted the importance of its accordance with
international standards. The Armenian Minister confirmed the stance
of the RA leadership to sent invitations to international observers
in the near future.

The interlocutors also exchanged views on Armenia’s relations with
neighbor states. Touching upon the Armenian-Turkish relations Mr
Semneby represented the EU’s position quoting the October report
of the European Commission on Turkey’s progress, which stresses the
necessity of opening the border with Armenia. Mr Semneby briefed on
the outcomes of the meeting with NKR President Arkady Ghukasian after
what the interlocutors focused on the current stage of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement. German Ambassador to Armenia Heike Renate
Peitsch was also present at the meeting. It’s worth mentioning that
Germany will assume presidency in the EU January 1, 2007.

220 FAMILIES TO RE-SETTLE IN KARABAKH IN 2007

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 14 2006

The NKR state budget has foreseen 1 billion drams for the re-settlement
program. 800,7 thousand drams will be allocated for building houses
for re-settlers.

1700 families of refugees will get one-time aid. 127.5 million drams
is foreseen for assistance.

ARF MEMBER DOWNPLAYS INTERNATIONAL REACTION TO KARABAKH REFERENDUM

Armenpress
Dec 13 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS: Vahan Hovhanesian from the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation drew a clear difference between
the constitutional referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh on December 10 and
referenda in some other post-Soviet unrecognized republics, saying
the people of Nagorno-Karabakh voted for building a sovereign and
independent sate while others voted for joining others (Russia).

Speaking to a group of journalists today Hovhanesian said the
referendum in Karabakh will further regulate relationships between
different branches of power. Hovhanesian downplayed the negative
reaction of some international organizations which said they would
not recognize the legal validity of the December 10 referendum. But
Hovhanesian said this reaction has no significance to the people
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

He said the ARF had helped a monitoring team to travel to Karabakh
to watch the referendum as ‘their opinion means to us more than what
Terry Davis (secretary General of the Council of Europe) says."

Preliminary results show the referendum passed with the support
of almost 99 percent of the 78,389 Karabakh voters taking part –
a staggeringly positive result that did not come as a surprise for
most residents and observers.

The 142-article document describes the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as
"a sovereign, democratic legal and social state." It establishes a
broad range of generally defined rights, from the direct election
of the country’s president, parliament and local governments, to the
presumption of innocence and freedom of assembly, speech, and religion.

"I am confident that the adopted document will reinforce
Nagorno-Karabakh statehood and deepen democratization processes going
on here," Arkady Ghukasian, the Karabakh president, told reporters
in the Karabakh capital after the vote.

IMF PROVIDES ABOUT 5 MILLION DOLLAR CREDIT TO ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Dec 13 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 13, NOYAN TAPAN. The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) provided an about 4.9 mln dollar credit to Armenia within the
framework of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth Program. Nienke
Oomes, IMF Yerevan Office Resident Representative, said at the
December 13 press conference that by this 19.5 mln USD out of the
34.3 mln USD envisaged by the three-year program have already ben
provided to Armenia. The program will finish in 2008.

According to N. Oomes, the IMF Executive Board assessed positively
the "reasonable monetary-credit and fiscal policies" of the Armenian
authorities that promoted the two-digit economic growth, poverty and
unemployment reduction and low inflation. The IMF Executive Board
approved the 2006 fiscal policy as well. It qualified the 2007 state
budget as a document consistent with economic stability. At the same
time, according to the board, although in recent years the GDP/taxes
ratio has notably improved in Armenia, it is still lower than the
indices of other regional countries. For this reason the IMF Executive
Board calls on the Armenian authorities to abolish tax privileges
of foreign investors in accordance with the envisaged schedule and
to increase the tax bodies’ powers of checking transactions and
tax-payers.

SHAVARSH KOCHARIAN: HENCEFORTH TWO ARMENIAN STATES SHOULD COMPETE IN ISSUE OF BEING LAWFUL AND DEMOCRATIC

Noyan Tapan
Dec 12 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. The constitutional referendum
in Nagorno Karabakh is a historic event, the significance of
which is difficult to estimate for the present. RA National
Assembly deputy Shavarsh Kocharian reported this at the December
12 press conference. He had participated in the referendum as
an observer. In his words, henceforth the two Armenian states –
Armenia and NKR should compete in the issue of being more lawful
and democratic. In Sh.Kocharian’s words, in this respect NKR’s
Constitution surpassed the Armenian one. Besides, in difference
to Armenian political forces, the Artsakh politicians manifested
unity at the Constitutional referendum. Sh.Kocharian also said
that unlike Armenia, no one forced Karabakh to adopt the path of
democracy or to have a Constitution. Touching upon the process
of Nagorno Karabakh settlement, Sh.Kocharian said that mediators’
optimism on breakthrough in this problem in 2006 had no ground and it
was obvious that the Prague process would not have any result. In the
MP’s words, the reason of such conviction is the bellicose atmosphere
in Azerbaijan. In Sh.Kocharian’s words, it is obvious that Baku is
inclined not to solve the problem, but uses the negotiations process
for its agitation and for gaining time.

NO MORE EXCUSES
By Ed Fu, Daily Targum

Daily Targum , Rutgers Univ. NJ
December 5, 2006 Tuesday

When I was learning about the Holocaust in grade school, the underlying
subtext was always that we, as civilized human beings, could never
let such systematic violations of human rights happen again. We look
back and with that historical retrospective smugness ask, "How could
those people have let that happen? How could those people have been
so indifferent to the suffering?" We’ve watched "Schindler’s List,"
toured the Holocaust museum and took college seminars. We’ve learned
the lessons of this singular crime. Never again, we solemnly promise
– never again could such a crime against humanity happen. Not in our
world. We know better.

Or do we really?

It is strange the United States has never intervened to stop
genocide. It’s not as if the 20th century has had a lack of genocides
to intervene in – Armenia, Pol Pot, Bosnia, Rwanda, even Saddam Hussein
and his gassing of the Kurds. We were acutely aware of each of them
yet remained bystanders. At times, we even assisted. In 1988 Jesse
Helms sponsored a bill in the Senate that would have penalized Saddam
by cutting off the generous U.S. aid then being supplied (including
some of the chemical weapons being used). It failed, of course, thanks
to powerful lobbyists and the Ronald Reagan administration. So it is
too late now to save the Kurds, or the 2 million murdered Cambodians,
or the 800,000 Rwandan Tutsi or the 200,000 Bosnian civilians.

But it is not yet too late for another ongoing crime against humanity
– North Korea. In a world where certain basic freedoms are taken for
granted, North Korea is almost alone in its shocking oppression.

Though the country’s constitution contains clauses guaranteeing freedom
of speech and assembly, they are in practice nothing but a laughable
farce. The government dominates the media, to the point where citizens
are only allowed to own government-distributed radios and televisions,
which are hardwired to accept only the official propaganda broadcasts
(including tales of how General Kim’s military genius led to North
Korea defeating the Japanese to end World War II). Severe punishments
are meted out for even trying to open the sealed instruments in an
attempt to allow them to receive broadcasts from other sources. Each
party cell head in every neighborhood and village in the country has
been trained on how to verify that none of the seals has been broken.

Freedom of religion is likewise officially guaranteed and likewise
systematically trampled upon. Entire families (including children)
have been imprisoned in horrifying slave labor camps for a single
family member’s "crime" of practicing Christianity. Owning a Bible
is illegal – the only sanctioned houses of worship in the country
seems to be three Christian churches located in the capital that are
part of the official tour for foreigners, to demonstrate to the rest
of the world the ostensible religious freedoms that North Koreans
"enjoy." Independent reports indicate the sermons delivered, like all
other cultural works of the country, are almost entirely political or
devoted to Kim Jong Il, and most pastors seemed to have no interest
or training in religion at all.

It doesn’t even seem real any more. It doesn’t seem possible for a
country in today’s modern world to practice this kind of 1984-esque
wholesale deception and personality cult. The whole thing is almost
funny in a very dark sort of way.

But North Korea’s human rights record doesn’t end there. We have known
since 1998 that a government-induced famine, still ongoing throughout
the country, was killing at least 800,000 people every year. Escapees
tell heartrending stories of desperately trying to collect handfuls
of fertilizer leaking out of trains in order to sell on the black
market; when that fails, they have no choice but to turn to eating
tree bark to survive. The massive amounts of foreign aid supplied to
North Korea never seems to get to these people. One refugee reports
when UN ships arrive, the military dresses as civilians and comes to
claim everything.

Moreover, vicious prison gulags, similar to those constructed by
Stalin and Mao, routinely use torture, starvation, rape, murder and
forced labor and hold several hundred thousand inmates; many more
have perished over the years. Recent refugees have even told us the
government operates concentration camps, complete with suffocating
gas chambers and sadistic experimentation (including the effects of
poisoned food upon prisoners). And of course, North Korea is developing
nuclear weapons.

We blithely talk of the Holocaust as something that cannot happen in
today’s world because we know better. We smugly say to ourselves that
if something like it happened today, we would undoubtedly intervene
to prevent yet another humanitarian catastrophe. But something like
it does happen today. While it is no longer entirely clear what
differentiates Kim Jong Il’s rule from that of Adolf Hitler’s,
we continue to do little more than impose economic sanctions
and indifferently hold talks with their legendarily irrational
leadership. Do you think those sanctions would have been an adequate
response to the Holocaust? Would future generations think them an
adequate response to Kim Jong Il?

During World War II, Arthur Koestler described the frustrated few
who spoke up against Nazi atrocities as "Screamers." The Screamers
succeeded in reaching listeners for a moment, Koestler wrote, only to
watch them shake themselves "like puppies who have got their fur wet"
and return to the blissful place of ignorance and uninvolvement. "You
can convince them for an hour," Koestler noted, but then "their mental
half-defense begins to work and in a week the shrug of incredulity
has returned."

Surely we cannot give Kim as much reign as we did Hitler. Never once
have we shown that we have learned anything from the horrors of Nazi
Germany. And if we do not act soon, North Korea will become another
opportunity wasted, another crime against humanity left unaddressed,
another Rwanda or Cambodia or Armenia. The ongoing suffering of
millions will be reduced to just another historical statistic. What
will future generations think of this period in American history,
where we calmly stood by ignoring some of the most horrifying acts
against humanity? How many more victims we will allow Kim Jong Il to
claim before we cry out "never again!" – and mean it?

CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM. KARABAKH ASSERTED RIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.12.2006 16:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The voting on the NKR draft Constitution was held
with unprecedented inspiration, said chairman of the RA NA standing
commission on foreign relations Armen Rustamian, who attended the
referendum as an observer. In his words, the people of Karabakh
asserted their right for independence. "I think it will become a
recurrent message of Artsakhi people expressing desire to live freely,"
he said.

"Azerbaijan should take into account the reality.

"Ostrich policy" cannot be pursued all the time.

Azerbaijan will not benefit from distorting history and neglecting
the reality," he remarked.

In his opinion, the adoption of the Constitution will have crucial
importance and the NKR Organic law is more progressive than
Azerbaijan’s.

"Building its independence and state in the course of 15 years the
people of Nagorno

Karabakh realized that this should be done abiding by the Organic
Law. It’s fully concordant with all international norms and criteria,"
Armen Rustamian resumed, reports newsarmenia.ru.