INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION DECLINES BY 0.9% IN ARMENIA IN JANUARY-OCTOBER 2006 ON SAME PERIOD OF LAST YEAR

Noyan Tapan
Dec 06 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. In January-October 2006, industrial
production of 523 bln 619.6 mln drams (about 1 bln 231 mln USD)
was manufactured in Armenia. Industrial production of 537 bln 88.1
mln drams was sold, including production of 45 bln 588.9 mln drams
– in CIS countries, that of 143 bln 689.4 mln drams – in other
countries. According to the RA National Statistical Service, the
physical volume of industrial production declined by 0.9% in the
first ten months of 2006 on the same period of last year, while
the industrial production without production and distribution of
electricity, gas and water – by 0.4%. With respect to 78 out of the
124 main goods produced in January-October 2006, the level of the
same period of 2005 was either achieved or exceeded, including 46
out of the 71 goods of production and technical significance and 32
out of the 53 consumer goods.

ESTONIA FOR MIN INVITES HIS ARMENIAN COLLEAGUE TO VISIT ESTONIA

Baltic News Service
December 5, 2006 Tuesday 3:07 PM EET

Meeting with his Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanyan in Brussels on
Monday, Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet invited the Armenian
minister to come to Estonia on a visit.

During the meeting that took place on the sidelines of the ministers
meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), Paet and Oskanyan spoke about relations between the two
countries, the EU neighborhood policy action plan for Armenia and
the conflict over Mountain-Karabakh.

The ministers stated that while relations between the two countries
are good, there’s a lot of room for development, spokespeople for
the Estonian Foreign Ministry said.

They agreed that political consultations between the two ministries
will be held next year to evaluate the state of affairs in relations
and set out plans for the future.

Paet invited his Armenian colleague to visit Estonia.

The ministers expressed their satisfaction with the EU neighborhood
policy action plan’s being very precise with regard to Armenia and
focusing on concrete activities.

Paet said implementation of the action plan would have a substantial
effect on the development of the countries of South Caucasus and a
positive effect on the entire region.

The Armenian foreign minister described Estonia’s reform experience
as in every way valuable and welcome for Armenia.

CBA LEAVES REFINANCING INTEREST RATE UNCHANGED

Noyan Tapan
Dec 06 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. At the December 5 sitting,
the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Board left the CBA refinancing
interest rate unchanged – 4.75%, NT was informed from the CBA
press service. According to the CBA Board, although the inflation
pressures coming from the external sector and related to high
international prices of power bearing substances and some other
goods (particularly granulated sugar) formed this year still remain,
inflation pressures expected to come from this sector in the next 12
months will be milder. A high economic growth continues, mainly in
the construction and service sectors. The expected increase in the
population’s incomes due to the economic development, combined with
growing remittances keep moderate inflation pressures. At the same
time, under conditions of the continuing dramization of the economy
and the seasonal increase in demand for the Armenian dram at the
end of the year, the CBA’s meeting this demand by purchasing foreign
currency will cause a liquidity surplus. The CBA Board takes the view
that neutralization of this suplus is possible at the current level
of the interest rate. If the current prospects of economic development
continue, the CBA Board does not rule out that the interest rate will
be changed in the coming months.

ONLY ARSHAK HAYRAPETIAN STANDS ON PEDESTAL OF HONOUR OF ROSTOV TOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
Dec 06 2006

ROSTOV-ON-DON, DECEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The free-style
wrestling international tournament finished on December 5 in
Rostov-on-Don. Armenian sportsmen are also among representatives of
5 countries. Only Arshak Hayrapetian (66 kg, Yerevan) stood on the
pedestal from them. He won the 3rd place.

SARATOV TOURNAMENT IS OF PREPARATORY CHARACTER FOR GABRIEL SARGSIAN

Noyan Tapan
Dec 06 2006

SARATOV, DECEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. International tournament in the
memory of famous chess figure Aratovski finished in the city of
Saratov, RF, on December 6. More than 2 dozens among 148 participants
were grand masters.

Representative of Armenia Gabriel Sargsian had the highest rating. He
got 5.5 points from 9 possible ones and shared the 24th-43rd
places. The tournament was of preparatory meaning for G.Sargsian,
as in a month the Armenian grand master will take part in the B
tournament of the Wijk Aan Zee traditional festival.

International master Arman Pashikian shared the 3rd-11th places
with 6.5 points, and Aghasi Inants shared the 43rd-72nd places with
5 points.

SLOVAK PARTIES DIVIDED OVER TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP
by Igor Stupnan

Sme, Bratislava, Slovakia
Dec 1 2006

"Even Pope does not change KDH’s opinion on Turkey"

Even the Pope’s visit to Turkey and his words that Ankara should
enter the European Union have not changed the opinion of Hrusovsky’s
Christian Democratic Movement [KDH] and Slota’s Slovak National Party
[SNS]. They still reject the admission of Muslim Turkey to the EU.

Other parliamentary parties say that if Turkey meets the criteria
for entry, there is no reason to prevent its integration.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after the meeting
with Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday [28 November] that the head of the
Catholic Church wanted his country to enter the EU. The Vatican did
not refute the prime minister’s statement, but its spokesman was
more cautious and explained that the Pope did not have any power
to influence Europe’s decision to admit Turkey, but he supported
Turkey’s integration.

KDH leader Pavol Hrusovsky says that he does not have enough
information on whether the Pope said that he wanted Turkey in the EU.

According to Hrusovsky, someone has just "understood" his words,
taken out of context, in this way. The KDH sticks to the opinion,
which has also been recommended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
that Turkey should become a privileged partner of the EU.

The KDH would not change its opinion even if it heard the Pope clearly
say that Turkey should enter the EU. "Our political standpoint does
not have to change along with the Holy Father’s opinion. The Holy
Father is representing the church, while I am representing a political
party, and these opinions do not have to be identical at all times,"
said Hrusovsky.

Rafael Rafaj, chairman of the SNS deputies’ club, said that Turkey
had a serious deficit in democracy and European traditions, which
is why it would be premature to speak about its entry. Rafaj thinks
that "zero tolerance" should also apply to privileged partnership,
because if the door is only slightly opened for someone, it will
never be closed again.

Prime Minister and Direction [Smer] leader Robert Fico supports EU
enlargement by countries that are prepared for it. "For me, it is not
decisive at all what religion a country is practising. Sometimes I
have a feeling that this is currently a decisive topic that influences
some countries’ behaviour."

Movement for a Democratic Slovakia [HZDS] deputy Zdenka Kramplova said
that the set criteria were decisive for entry. However, she does not
think that Turkey will meet these criteria sooner than in 20 years.

Gyula Bardos, head of the Hungarian Coalition Party [SMK; MKP in
Hungarian] deputies’ club, also said that Turkey must first fulfil
the EU criteria and religious belief should not play any role.

Slovak Democratic and Christian Union [SDKU] Deputy Chairman Pavol
Kubovic noted that his party supported the commencement of open-ended
accession talks with Turkey and nothing has changed about this.

Former Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda said during the previous
election period that if Turkey, as well as the countries of former
Yugoslavia, were in the EU, Europe would be safer.

A Eurobarometer survey of last year showed that 50 per cent respondents
in Slovakia were against Turkey’s entry into the EU. On the initiative
of the KDH, Parliament adopted a resolution that the Ottoman Empire
had committed genocide against Armenians.

ARMENIAN YOUTH JUDO TEAM TO TAKE PART IN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN ORENBURG

Noyan Tapan
Dec 06 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian youth team of judo
wrestling will leave for the city of Orenburg, RF, on December 7. 9
members of the team headed by senior trainer Tigran Babayan will take
part in the international tournament to be held in that city. It will
finish on December 10, after what the team will hold a joint teaching
and training gathering with sportsmen of this type of sport of the
tournament member countries.

RUSSIA, WEST DISAGREE ON ROLE OF ODIHR AT OSCE SUMMIT IN BELGIUM – PAPER
by Jorn De Cock

De Standaard website, Belgium
Dec 5 2006

"This evening’s truth is not necessarily tomorrow’s truth," a
philosophical Karel De Gucht said yesterday evening [4 December] on
the first day of the OSCE ministerial conference at Heizel. What he
meant by that was that the outcome of the two-day summit yesterday
was meagre, but today there is hope for a little bit more.

The conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) marks the conclusion of the Belgian chairmanship
of the organization. But it was primarily discomfort that reigned
yesterday among the representatives of the 56 countries of the OSCE,
from North America, Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.

In his opening comments Chairman Karel De Gucht was positive about
ODIHR [Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights], the OSCE’s
human rights office, which among other things monitors election. The
observers generally clash with Russia, which has its own idea about
democratic elections.

The Russian minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Lavrov, was
surprised about the positive comments of De Gucht, among others. A
self-evaluation by the human rights office presented to the ministers
"does not succeed in giving adequate answers to Russia’s numerous
objections," Lavrov said.

The Russian minister also felt the OSCE now has two options. Either
the "imbalances" in the organization must be "corrected," or the
OSCE can be renamed the "organization for humanitarian affairs,"
in which case Russia would consider whether it should remain a member.

In short, according to the Russians the OSCE should concern itself
somewhat less with human rights and democracy.

Russia received a response from the American Deputy Secretary of State,
Nicholas Burns, who lashed out at countries that "backslide" in terms
of human rights, like Russia’s neighbour Belarus. Deputy Secretary
Burns also spoke out against "some OSCE countries that exert economic
and financial pressure on their neighbouring countries," a reference
to the Russian boycott of its small pro-western neighbour Georgia.

Part of the argument revolves around the so-called "frozen conflict"
between Georgia and the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, which is
supported by Moscow. A text on it will not come out of this conference,
De Gucht said yesterday evening, "because Russia refuses to talk
about it."

De Gucht says there may be "substantial progress, but no breakthrough
yet" on the frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh.

The controversial candidacy of authoritarian Kazakhstan to become
OSCE chair in 2009 was also postponed until next year. De Gucht says
there are "two schools": those who feel Kazakhstan will indeed meet
more democratic standards by 2009, and those who believe Kazakhstan
should work on them first and only then become a chair candidate. A
consensus was not in sight yesterday in Brussels.

NUMBER OF NEW BOOKS GOT BY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ARMENIA THIS YEAR TO MAKE ABOUT 40 THOUSAND

Noyan Tapan
Dec 06 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. 28 mln 62 thousand drams (about 66
thousand USD) was allocated by 2006 state budget for replenishment of
funds of the National Library of Armenia. This exceeds the financing
of 2005 by 6.2%. As David Sargsian, library Director, reported at
the December 6 press conference, the number of new books got by the
library this year will make about 40 thousand. In D.Sargsian’s words,
after the adoption of the law "On Compulsory Sample and Documents" more
than 1625 new titles of books were given to the library by Armenian
publishing-houses only in January-November. It was mentioned that in
the same period the library received 1207 books from abroad and the
number of donations made 6311. The donations were mainly received from
U.S., England, Italy, Hungary, Egypt and Iran. A donation by Armenian
journalist Hamo Petrosian residing in Germany, 12-volume encyclopedia
"Die Grossen" has been given to the library lately. As the library
Director said, the encyclopedia was brought to Armenia by President
Robert Kocharian after his visit to Germany. In D.Sargsian’s words,
the library’s goal is to get books published in Armenian in different
countries, in particular, of old publication. It was mentioned that
the National Library of Armenia purchased 82 titles of such books
in 2000-2006 abroad. There are both original and photocopy variants
among them.

ARMENIAN LEADER, EU ENVOY DISCUSS RELATIONS

Public TV, Armenia
Dec 5 2006

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan met a newly-appointed head of
the European Commission Delegation to Armenia, ambassador Per Eklund,
in Yerevan today.

The Armenian president congratulated the ambassador on his appointment
and noted that the Armenia-EU relations entered a very important and
practical stage after Armenia signed the Action Plan.

Noting that the Action Plan is quite an ambitious and voluminous
document, Kocharyan said that Armenia expects assistance from the
European Commission as well as active cooperation with the EU member
countries.

We consider the programme as a serious opportunity for continuation
of comprehensive and efficient reforms and we will strive to use it
effectively, Kocharyan said.

The sides noted that the Action Plan will be a good basis for improving
cooperation between the EU and Armenia for the next five years.