Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

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.

WHAT RODRIGO KNOWS
James Hakobyan
Lragir.am
20 June 06
The IMF’s Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato announced June 18 in
Yerevan that the revaluation of the Armenian national currency
sustains the economy in Armenia, relieves the consequences of high
energy prices and investments grow, reports the news agency ARKA.
However, his assessment means it is time for de Rato to take up a
course in economy rather than the necessity for revaluation of the
Armenian dram. If the revaluation of the Armenian currency helps
eliminate the consequences of the high energy prices, de Rato should
have also said for who.
It is suggested that the consequences of the high energy prices
impact two main groups of consumers: people and industries. After the
revaluation of the dram people did not start paying less for energy.
So, the consequences of expensive energy were not relieved for
people. And those people whose income is in dollars have to spend more
dollars to buy drams and pay for energy. In fact, they suffer losses
due to the revaluation of the Armenian dram. As for producers, energy
prices did not change for them either. Moreover, if they export their
products, they also suffer losses from the revaluation of the dram,
for the cost of production increases. They sold their product abroad
for x dollars, in Armenia they exchanged x dollars for 2x drams and
paid taxes, for energy, salaries, etc. Now and after every stage of
revaluation of the Armenian dram they have 1x drams instead of the
former 2x drams. Therefore, one does not need sophisticated knowledge
of economy to realize that producers need to sell their product at a
higher price abroad or to invest part of their income to produce an
equal amount of products.
In fact, we deal with an obvious decline in production. For Rodrigo
de Rato, only he knows what he deals with. His assessment is probably
based on the calculation that the revaluation of the dram cut down
the prices of imported products because if formerly x drams revenues
of importers were exchanged for 1x dollars, after the revaluation of
the x drams revenues of importers are exchanged for 2x instead of the
former 1x drams. Hence, their income grows. They will keep these huge
profits to themselves or invest in importing business again, because
we saw that local production, to put it mildly, is not profitable. We
not only saw it but we hear it from local producers. The companies,
who sell their products in Armenia, may not suffer losses. On the other
hand, however, their business will not grow unless their production
is exported. It cannot grow for the simple reason that the Armenian
market is very small. So, if Armenian production is not exported,
the Armenian economy is unable to develop, because the market is very
limited. Hence, only de Rato knows how the revaluation of the dram is
going to develop the economy. As for the question why the price of the
imported fuel does not decrease in drams despite the revaluation of
the dram, it is known to someone else, and most probably Rodrigo de
Rato has had the opportunity to ask them in Armenia, because he met
with the government of Armenia. However, probably he did not ask them
anything, otherwise he would not have announced what he announced. And
he should not have announced what he announced, because in a healthy
economy the national dram would not revaluate and foreign currency
would not depreciate by several percentage points within only a
week. Such an economy cannot attract investments, and perhaps only
Rodrigo de Rato knows who would make investments in such an economy.

BAKU NOT STARTING WAR NOT OWING TO FEAR OF BLAME
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.06.2006 14:34 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ If Azerbaijan has not resumed hostilities against
Armenia, this is not owing to fear of someone’s blame, political
scientist Hrazdan Madoyan stated in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net.
In his words, on one hand, if Baku had had even 50% confidence in
victory, it would not take into account the US or NATO. On the other
hand, possibly the US and NATO vetoed the war, maybe with strict
sanctions, up to division of the country and depriving Aliyev of power.
“Resumption of hostilities was probable in Georgia: ambitious and
fascist Saakashvili, who considered himself a messiah and did not
fulfill any of his promises, needs a small but winning war for a small,
but proud bird, sorry, I mean country. It will probably end in the
same way as previous ones. Then it is not ruled out that he may try
to recoup himself on Javakhk, with the same outcome probably. Georgia
in its current borders is less viable than Azerbaijan, Georgians have
neither Turks’ cruelty, nor their number,” Madoyan underscored. He
remarked that “stopping artificial blood circulation, etc, the
country will be compressed to borders, which it is able to effectively
control.” He is sure Georgia is surviving now by stirring up Turks
against Armenians, but this cannot take place endlessly. “It has no
oil or gas, then it is not interesting for the international community
on the whole,” Madoyan said.