Author: Virabian Jhanna

Gulf News, UAE
May 31 2009

Switzerland seriously considering UAE’s candidature for Irena headquarters

By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
Published: May 30, 2009, 23:15

Abu Dhabi: Switzerland is seriously considering the UAE’s candidacy in
the race to host the headquarters of the International Renewable
Energy Agency (Irena), Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss President, told Gulf
News in an interview during his official visit to the UAE.

"I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the country –
as the world’s sixth largest oil exporting country – on its visionary
thinking in promoting new energy technologies and for supporting the
sustainable development with the Masdar project [proposed zero carbon
city in Abu Dhabi]," he said.

Switzerland welcomes the UAE’s commitment to become a global centre
for renewable energy research, development and innovation, Merz said.

Several Swiss companies, which have earned a sound reputation
worldwide for their sustainable business solutions, and some Swiss
world-class universities have expressed their interest in becoming
actively involved in the development of the Masdar initiative, the
president said.

"Irena is a very future oriented and important project which I fully
support. Concerning the headquarters, Switzerland is considering
seriously the candidature of the UAE," Merz said.

Meanwhile Armenia, a founding member of Irena, has decided to vote for
the UAE in its bid to home the Irena headquarters in Abu Dhabi, the
Armenian Ambassador to the UAE told Gulf News.

The Armenian government has taken the decision to support the UAE,
Vahagan Melikian said. Irena will have detailed plans to support the
countries to develop renewable energy sources and the UAE can do a lot
by hosting its headquarters, he said.

"We are seeking active cooperation with the UAE in the renewable
energy sector as the country is a frontrunner in the sector," Melikian
said.

The Masdar initiative and The UAE’s Irena bid prove that the
leadership is psychologically and philosophically ready to face the
future challenges in the energy sector, according to Melikian.

ent/10318480.html

RPA leading as of 00:00 a.m. according to preliminary data of RA CEC
01.06.2009 00:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ According to the first and initial data of the
Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia, as of 00:00 a.m. the
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is leading. 16803 ballot papers have
been processed by now collected from 21 polling stations, 447 out of
them have been invalidated.
As RA CEC reports, votes have been distributed the following way: RPA
– 8079 votes, `Prosperous Armenia’ – 3482, Armenian National Congress
– 3236, ARF Dashnaktsutyun – 606, `Orinats Yerkir’ – 497, People’s
Party – 384, Armenian Labor Socialist Party – 70 votes.

ROLE OF TEKEYAN ASSOCIATION IN PRESERVING ARMENIAN CULTURE IN DIASPORA DISCUSSED IN CHAPTER OF ASSOCIATION IN BUENOS AIRES

Noyan Tapan
May 29, 2009

BUENOS AIRES, MAY 29, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The president of
the Montreal chapter of the Tekeyan Cultural Association Arto Manoukian
visited the Tekeyan Cultural Association headquaters in Buenos Aires
and met with Nahabet Nahabetian, the honorary president of the South
American region of Armenian Democratic Liberal Organization and the
editor of the Sardarabad weekly, Prof. Diana Der Garabetian.

During the meeting, opinions were exchanged regarding the role of the
Tekeyan Cultural Association in preservation of the Armenian culture
in the Diaspora.

Manoukian attached importance to the activity of the Sardarapat
weekly and indicated the importance of its cooperation with the
Abaka newspaper.

According to him, that cooperation will be more stable thanks to
Internet.

Finally, accompanied by Nahabet Nahabetian, Manoukian met with members
of the Armenian General Benevolent Union.

FREEDOM HOUSE CALLS ON ARMENIA TO CONDUCT DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
29.05.2009 21:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Mayoral elections in Yerevan will become the first
significant voting since Serzh Sargsyan’s victory in presidential
elections last year, Freedom House official website reports.

According to the statement, last years’ election results caused
accusations of voting falsifications and lead to collision between
police and opposition demonstrators. According to Freedom House
European Department Director, Vladimir Shkolnikov, Municipal elections
in Yerevan open wide possibilities to restore the citizens’ trust
towards democratic process.

After independence declaration in Armenia, Mayoral elections in Yerevan
will be the first ones conducted via voting, instead of presidential
appointment. Millennium Challenge Corporation, which has frozen part
of USD236 million financial assistance package after RA Presidential
elections, will be observing the election process 3 candidates are
running for Yerevan Mayor. First runners-up are Republican party’s
candidate, City Administration employee Gagik Beglaryan and RA
NC candidate, ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was the main
competitor of Sezh Sargsyan at last year’s presidential elections.

EU FULLY SUPPORTS EFFORTS BY OSCE MINSK GROUP IN KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PROCESS

ArmInfo
2009-05-29 11:52:00

ArmInfo. European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus:
"EU strongly supports a stable South Caucasus region with open
borders, taking advantage of all opportunities for prosperity",
OSCE press-service reported.

"The launch of the Eastern Partnership in Prague three weeks ago makes
it abundantly clear that the EU’s commitment to the region has been
raised to a new level of ambition," he added. The conflicts continue
to present a fundamental obstacle for the stabilisation, political
reform and economic development of the South Caucasus and regional co-
operation is crucial.

On the Geneva process, which the OSCE co-chairs together with the EU
and UN, Semneby said that it was "imperative that the discussions start
producing tangible results". So far one of the positive outcomes of
the Geneva talks was agreement on the Incident Prevention and Response
Mechanism (IPRM) between all sides.

On Nagorno-Karabakh, Semneby said that the EU continues to fully
support the OSCE Minsk Group efforts. "The EU stands ready to offer
support and any assistance necessary, in particular through stepping
up our own efforts in promoting confidence-building measures and
people-to-people contacts," Semneby added.

ARMENIAN PM: ARMENIA IS EXPECTED TO RAISE $810 MILLION IN 2009 TO OVERCOME CRISIS

ArmInfo
2009-05-29 17:01:00

ArmInfo. Armenia is expected to raise 300 billion drams credits (nearly
$810 million) in 2005 to finance anti-crisis measures, Tigran Sargsyan,
Prime Minister of Armenia said at the Government, Friday. He said
loans are expected from Russia, World Bank, Asian Development Bank
and International Monetary Fund. These funds will help us increasing
the budgetary deficit and expenditure. ‘We have no intention to cut
expenditure because of the crisis’, the premier said. He highlighted
that the main incomes of the budget are tax revenues.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES THE STAFF OF "ARMENIA" SAILING VESSEL

ARMENMPRESS
MAY 28, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS: The round-the-world sailing of "Armenia"
sailing vessel kicks off May 28 from the Spanish Valencia town. During
the tour which will last for nearly one year the "Armenia" sailing
vessel will stop in five continents, will pass through waters of three
oceans – Atlantic, Pacific and Indian, and will be in all those places
where Armenian community exists.

Presidential Press office told Armenpress that before the tour the
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan received the members of staff of
the sailing vessel. Noting that today most people may be suspicious
whether such difficult tours are important in the 21st century when
there no more exist close territories on the world map the President
of the republic said: "Our nation’s fate arranged in a way that there
are Armenians in all the sides of the world and the map of our national
identity, the map of our cultural heritage and the map of history of
Armenian communities are extremely important for us."

According to Serzh Sargsyan, the key objectives of this sailing
are to newly discover the world and enrich it. "You are going to
give a new charge and to convey the breath of the homeland to our
communities, to give a new meaning to the formula of our identity and
the cultural institutions spread in all the continents," S. Sargsyan
underscored. The Armenian President gave the state flag of Republic
of Armenia to the staff of the sailing vessel: after their return
the flag will according to the tradition be handed to the President.

President Sargsyan wished the members of the staff of the sailing
vessel a favorable wind, successful sailing and secure return.

Writer-publicist Zori Balayan, who is a member of "Armenia" sailing
vessel, expressed gratitude to the President and said that from time
to time they will report on the course of the sailing.

AMNESTY IS A SIMPLE POLITICAL CALCULATION

LRAGIR.AM
13:03:51 – 27/05/2009

The Head of the Heritage faction, Armen Martirosyan, on May 27,
extended hope that the information on the possible amnesty by the
president will come true on May 28. Armen Martirosyan stated that
according to the information he has, even in his first message on
October 2, which was made at the National Assembly, Serge Sargsyan
had intentions to declare an amnesty, which did not take place for
some reasons.

Armen Martirosyan also stated that there are problems with the foreign
policy connected with the PACE June session, where the resolution on
the political prisoners is going to be circulated. All this creates
grounds for Armen Martirosyan to suppose that the amnesty is necessary.

"Even a simple political calculation will show that it will be every
good if an amnesty is declared within these two days. The political
prisoners will not be set free until the Yerevan Mayor election for
them not to be a resource for the opposition. But an amnesty is logic
in this situation", stated Armen Martirosyan.

ARMENIAN GLOBAL BANK SEEKS TO TAP RESOURCES OF DIASPORA

2009/0 5/26 | 09:54

Finances

An article entitled "Banking on Armenia’s diaspora" appears in
the May 26 issue "businessnewseurope" focusing on plans by the RoA
government to set up a global retail bank aimed to tap the wealthy
Armenian diaspora.

The Armenian government has already contributed $20 million to
the capital of the bank, which has already been set up but not yet
operational. The plan was to raise another $80m from Armenians around
the world.

The article notes that with three times more Armenians living ouutside
the country than in it, remittances make up the single biggest hard
currency earner for the country.

The government wants to capitalise on this and instead of waiting for
the money to be sent home, it will go out and get it by setting up a
bank with branches all over the world. "It is a global retail bank that
will target Armenians living overseas," Armenia’s minister of economy,
Nerses Yeritsyan, tells bne during May’s annual meeting of the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. "Imagine if only
1% of all Armenians take a credit card from the new bank, then that
will generate enough money for us to say goodbye to [international
financial institution] funding forever."

However, the crisis threw a wrench into the plans, as most of the
commitments – which came from both large Armenian-owned businesses
and private individuals – have been put on hold after markets
crashed around the world at the end of last year. "We took the
bank on a road show last year and found there was a lot of support
amongst the diaspora," says Yeritsyan. "However, these commitments
have been withdrawn for the moment while everyone is assessing their
position. But we are confident that they will return and we can push
ahead as planned with the bank."

In the meantime, the government has hired head hunters to find a top
quality international CEO, as the tricky bit of making a global retail
bank work is that it will have to compete with high street banks in
the US and UK in terms of the quality of its service. It won’t be easy,
but Yeritsyan is literally banking on the loyalty that Armenians feel
towards their homeland to give the bank a competitive edge.

COMMANDER OF FRONTIER SERVICE OF RUSSIAN FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICE IN ARMENIA INVITES CONSCRIPTS AND CONTRACT SOLDIERS TO SERVEON THE BORDER

ArmInfo
2009-05-27 16:05:00

"I would like to invite citizens of Armenia, conscripts and contract
soldiers to serve at the Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Iranian border",
– Commander of Frontier Board of Russian Federal Security Service to
Armenia, Lieutenant-General Sergey Bondarev said to journalists today.

‘About 600 conscripts from Armenia are serving in the Russian frontier
troops in Armenia. Some part serve as contract soldiers. If to take
correlation between Russian and Armenian citizens in the frontier
troops of Russia at the territory of Armenia, the number of Armenian
citizens exceed 50% of the military personnel’, – he said.

‘At present total number of the military personnel of Russian Security
Service in Armenia is 5thsd soldiers and officers, and we are not
going to increase or decrease this number’, – Bondarev concluded.