CONFIRMATION HEARINGS FOR US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA NOMINEE RICHARD HOAGLAND TO BE HELD IN US SENATE
ArmRadio.am
28.06.2006 10:42
Confirmation hearings for US Ambassador to Armenia nominee
Richard Hoagland are expected today in Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. Armenian Organizations of America and Congressmen launching
pro-Armenian activity consider that John Evans is being recalled
ahead of time because of publicly recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
ANOTHER LETTER FOR ROBERT KOCHARYAN?
Lragir.am
27 June 06
On these days there has been a more intensive indirect dialogue
between Armenian and U.S. officials in the form of statements. The
new OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, Assistant Secretary of State Mathew
Bryza made several interesting statements. Namely, he stated that
democracy in Armenia falls behind of Azerbaijan. Bryza had also
revealed the details of negotiations for the settlement of the
Karabakh conflict. The reaction of official Yerevan shows how serious
these statements are. The press secretary of the president and the
Foreign Ministry tried to reply to Mathew Bryza, and the former even
threatened that Armenia would publish the history of the past 7-8
years of negotiations. In the meantime, the Lragir.am has learned
that besides statements the U.S. officials sent a letter to official
Yerevan. The letter is said to have been written by John Danilovich,
Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
There is information that Danilovich touched upon democratization in
Armenia, which is the main stipulation of the Millennium Challenge
Account. Moreover, he even said that the United States may reconsider
allocating 235 million dollars to Armenia.
Congressional Record: June 26, 2006 (Extensions)
SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
MEETINGS SCHEDULED
JUNE 28
2:30 p.m.
Foreign Relations
To hold hearings to examine the nomination of Richard E.
Hoagland, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador
to the Republic of Armenia.
27000 STUDENTS FINISH SCHOOLS THIS YEAR
Panorama.am
19:18 26/06/06
"Final exams at the republican schools are in process," Lilit
Galstyan, press secretary of ministry education and science told
Panorama.am. June 28 is the final day of the exams and the following
three days are for those students who have not passed their exams. The
ministry has not summed up the results of the examinations yet.
By July 3, 19000 students from regions and 12000 from Yerevan will
finish their schools and can apply to higher educational establishments
on the same day since applications are already accepted there.
Applications are accepted until July 15. From July 20 to August 16
entrance exams at higher educational establishments will start.
NKR PREMIER: INVESTMENTS IN NKR ECONOMY INCREASING YEAR BY YEAR
Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 22 2006
STEPANAKERT, June 22. /ARKA/. Investments in the economy of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) are increasing year by year.
Production process in a number of economic sectors have been modernized
due to foreign investments, NKR Prime Minister Anushavan Danielyan
stated at the international conference "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic:
past, present, future."
He said that a 3.7-fold increase in industrial output was recorded
in 2005 compared to 2000.
"In the first quarter of 2006 alone more industrial products were
manufactured than in 1999," he said.
According to Danielyan, the internal revenues have increase by 43.2%
on average over the last three years, and exports totaled $38mln.
The NKR Premier also pointed out that this made budget revenues
possible, which had a positive effect on the social sector.
"As regards the population’s cash incomes, they have increased 2.2
times since 2000," he said.
The NKR Premier said that social expenses budgeted in the NKR for
2006 have increased by almost 30% compared to 2005. About 3,500 jobs
were created in various economic sectors of the NKR in 2005.
Teachers’ salaries have been raised by almost 70%, and salaries of
medical and cultural workers by 30%. P.T. -0–
NEW SITUATION BEFORE 2007
Lragir.am
23 June 06
Surprisingly, the opposition does not criticize the changes to the
Electoral Code and even signed to it, said Member of Parliament
Shavarsh Kocharyan on June 23, who met with news reporters at the
Pastark Club. According to the member of parliament, this behavior of
the opposition is caused by its paralyzed state which is the cause of
their wrong approach towards the constitutional referendum. "I think it
is determined by a stage, which has not been overcome yet. It is the
paralyzed state that results from wrong behavior, wrong approaches,
the constitutional referendum," says Shavarsh Kocharyan. According
to him, the opposition was surprisingly against the constitutional
reform, which was definitely in their interests, but agreed to the
draft Electoral Code, which is against its interests. "In other words,
they go to extremes," says Shavarsh Kocharyan. But he is hopeful
that this state of the opposition will not last long, at least it
will not last untill 2007. "A quite new situation has occurred in
Armenia," thinks Shavarsh Kocharyan, believing that all the forces
will sooner of later realize the new situation. Shavarsh Kocharyan
thinks that the government realized the new situation the first, hence
the political shake-up inside the government. And the opposition,
according to Shavarsh Kocharyan, both is there and is not there. He
evaluates the state of Ardarutiun Alliance similarly. By the way,
it is interesting that Shavarsh Kocharyan is in the same alliance. It
is true that inside the alliance Shavarsh Kocharyan is not considered
opposition any longer, but Kocharyan thinks, nevertheless, that he
and his party are opposition. The opposition is the political force
which gives a more real evaluation of the situation, has a more clear
vision of solutions, says Shavarsh Kocharyan, adding that he does not
think they become opposition by declaring the time of the revolution.
Nevertheless, the leader of the National Democratic Party is guided
by the principle "every cloud has a silver lining." Shavarsh Kocharyan
thinks that the present state of the opposition will help realize and
fulfill the necessity of ideological alliances in the opposition. And
since there is not such a perception yet, Shavarsh Kocharyan is likely
to run in the election alone.
ANM BOARD DEPUTY CHAIRMAN IS SURPRISED WITH PRESENT POSITION OF RPA CONCERNING ISSUE OF DUAL CITIZENSHIP
Noyan Tapan
Jun 22 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian society does not display
a unequivocal approach towards the issue of dual citizenship. Samvel
Nikoyan, the RPA Deputy Chairman, the Secretary of the NA "RPA"
faction said about it at the June 21 debate. According to him,
a part of the society finds that dual citizenship is necessary to
unite all the Armenians and to create an all-Armenian potential. The
opposite side insists that it will bring to negative consequences,
will create a mess connected with the state-citizen legal relations,
citizens’ obligations and rights, and even will become a threat for
the state security.
Expressing his own viewpoint, the speaker mentioned that only Armenians
by origin may be given dual citizenship. Besides, a man must personally
come to Armenia to get citizenship, and some compulsory schedule for
visits and living in Armenia must be fixed to keep the right of dual
citizenship. He also attached importance to paying some taxes for
keeping the right of citizenship what must be much bigger than the
consular payment: this tax may be of different sizes for different
countries.
According to Nikoyan, if the electoral right is awarded to
all those getting dual citizenship, the issue of the state
political administration of Armenia may be solved by the U.S. and
Russia. Consequencly, not all dual citizens must get the right of
electing, and after adopting the law on dual citizenship, elections
must take place only in Armenia. The electoral code must be connected
with obligations as well, particularly with the compulsory military
service. According to the speaker, there are problems connected with
the land property. Becoming a dual citizen must not give a person an
unequivocal right to become a land owner. To get the right for land,
a person must have some instillations in Armenia.
Andranik Hovakimian, the Deputy Chairman of the ANM Board mentioned
that his party joint with the RPA was against the dual citizenship
in 1995, and that’s why he is surprised with the present position of
the Republican Party concerning this issue.
According to the speaker, the principal connected with Armenians by
origin, which is a national discrimination and may not be accepted
by the CE Venice Commission, is not understandable.
"In essense, there are two issues: one of electing and one of serving
in the army, or of obligations and rights, and whatever we do, we’ll
get two types of citizens what is inadmissible for any country and
especially for Armenia," Hovakimian emphasized. According to him,
the issue is mentioned as an argument that Diasporan Armenias will
become better with Armenia, getting dual citizenship. But it does
not correspond to reality as at present many Diasporan Armenians are
close with Armenia irrespective of anything and do their best for
the Fatherland within borders of their possibilities, and there are
opposite examples when people do not recognize their nationality and
even do no want to visit Armenia.
HAIL DAMAGED THE CROPS
A1+
[07:43 pm] 21 June, 2006
Yesterday at about 08:00 PM the villages of Haykasar, Pemzashen,
Hayrenyats, Bayandur, Lousakert, Saratak and other communities of
Shirak region suffered from a terrible hail.
According to Andranik Poghosyan, the head of the Rescue Administration
of Shirak region, the hail damaged the crops greatly. According to
preliminary information, 3-5% of the crops have been spoilt. The
roofs of many houses have also been damaged.
The volume of the losses will be clear after the check-ups of the
committee.
TV Company "Tsayg", Gyumri
REPORT ON AGO GROUP VISIT TO ARMENIA TO BE HEARD TOMORROW
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.06.2006 17:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Tomorrow a sitting of the Committee of Ministers
of the Council of Europe (CE) will be held in Strasbourg at the level
of permanent representatives. The oral report of the Chair of the Ago
monitoring group chair, Germany’s Permanent Representative to the CE,
Ambassador Roland Wegener on the outcomes of the visit to Armenia
June 9-10 and Azerbaijan June 13-14 will be heard at the meeting.
During its regional visit the Ago group studied the process of
fulfillment of commitments to the CE by Azerbaijan and Armenia.
GURGEN ARSENYAN CUT CIGARETTE PRICE
Lragir.am
20 June 06
"The currency of the Republic of Armenia is the dram. In the Republic
of Armenia prices are set and payments are made in drams.
Why should I worry about the depreciation or revaluation of a foreign
currency. I am not a representative of the Federal Reserve, the U.S.
House or Senate. I am a representative of the political sphere of
Armenia, a political party, its parliament faction." This statement
was made by a particle of the new parliament majority Gurgen Arsenyan
June 20 at the Pastark Club. Considering that Gurgen Arsenyan is
part of the political sphere of Armenia, the news reporters tried
to find out the attitude of this part towards the revaluation of
the dram and depreciation of the dollar. "As a society we appear
in a strange state, when we start considering the value of another
country’s currency in Armenia. It is another country’s currency. We
must be concerned about inflation, what costs how much in Armenia,
in drams. In Armenia salaries, pensions, benefits and other income
of the citizens of Armenia are in drams.
500 thousand people in the Republic of Armenia get salaries
and pensions in drams. Several hundreds of thousand people in
the Republic of Armenia receive their salaries in drams. We must
be interested in how much bread or fuel costs in drams. We must
be concerned about inflation, rising prices, not the correlation
between the dollar and the dram," said the leader of the Labor Party
Gurgen Arsenyan. He even says as a representative of the economic
sphere rather than the political sphere that he has cut the price of
imported products. "Over the past few months the company I own has
reduced the price of cigarettes by six-seven percent," says Gurgen
Arsenyan, adding that it is a reaction to the revaluation of the
dram, which renders imports more profitable. Gurgen Arsenyan says
he cut the sale price of cigarettes, whereas the price at which they
buy cigarettes abraod has gone up by 10 dollars. Perhaps the change
of price by Gurgen Arsenyan is the result of some other moral and
psychological change. The problem is that several months ago he dared
to announce that he drew huge profits from the revaluation of the
dram and depreciation of the dollar, and so huge that he felt ashamed.