THE PARTIES TOUCHED UPON THE ISSUES OF THE CO-CHAIRS’ VISIT
A1+
The NKR MFA Press-Service
[04:07 pm] 16 November, 2006
On November 15, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic Masis Mayilian received a group of members of the office of
the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative (CiO PR).
In the course of the meeting office employee Gunter Volk (Germany)
introduced to Masis Mayilian newly appointed Field Assistant of the
OSCE CiO PR, Kazakh diplomat Jaslan Nourtazin.
The participants of the talk touched upon issues concerning the coming
regular monitoring of the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed
forces contact-line, as well as the visit of the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to the region planned for
the last decade of December.
Masis Mayilian answered the questions in which the newly appointed
Field Assistant of the OSCE CiO PR was interested in.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WILL USA DISPLAY ROUGH ATTITUDE TOWARDS ARMENIA?
A1+
[05:24 pm] 16 November, 2006
The Representatives of Dashnatsutyun (ARF) Party inspire great hopes
from the victory of the Democrats in the recent U.S. elections. They
voice hope that the Senate might recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Today, Kiro Manoyan, head of the Armenian Cause, briefed the
journalists on the reasons for such optimistic expectations; the
presidential elections are still ahead and the newly elected senators,
both the Republicans and the Democrats, seek cooperation with the
Armenian community, as the latter renders them high-level assistance.
In reply to the journalists’ hints that a lot of high-rank officials,
including George Bush, have given promises but the Genocide has not
been recognized so far, Mr. Manoyan claims that he hopes “this time
the Democrats will make a step ahead”. But they need serious and
purposeful assistance of the Armenian community.
As for the alternation of the U.S. stance towards Armenia after the
Democrats’ victory in the elections, Mr. Manoyan noted that the USA
will become coarse in respect of democracy and Armenia must be on
alert. In his words, the USA will display certain rough attitude
towards Armenia in pre-election period as well.
But America will not deprive Armenia of the money allotted to the
country within the framework of “Millennium Challenges” Cooperation
as the USA will try to hold the control lingers over Armenia tight.
While speaking of the security systems, Mr. Manoyan noted that Armenia
must be trustworthy partner in any sphere.

ARMENIANS ARE BOTH TOLERANT AND INTOLERANT
A1+
[06:12 pm] 16 November, 2006
“The International Day of Tolerance is officially celebrated on
November 16. Let us reaffirm the wide-spread opinion that the diversity
of expression and religion is a valuable gift and not a threat. And
let us try to build tolerant communities based on this ideology”,
this is an extract from Kofi Anan’s message.
The International Tolerance Day was introduced in 1996.
Today, Armenia has celebrates this holiday for the first time in the
Armenian Office of the UNO.
Tolerance is a challenge. Armenia is in the crossroad and the country
attempts to combat against corruption.
Besides, the country is directly engaged in the Karabakh conflict
settlement, and tolerance is but a necessary factor in this respect.
“I am really delighted by the fact that today mainly the young
will make reports as they are the future of the world”, announced
Mrs. Consuela Vidall, coordinator of the UNO.
Lusine Hakobyan, member of “Areg Scientific-Cultural Youth Association”
NGO, held polling among 11 experts in order to find out the level of
tolerance in the Armenian reality.
“It seems that everything is clear from the first sight. But the
experts working in various spheres comment on the phenomenon in
different ways. Some of them maintain that it is an inborn feature,
others find close connection between tolerance and mentality”, says
Lusine Hakobyan.
The reporters announced that Armenians are intolerant in everything,
starting from gender issues to political ones.
“Armenians are intolerant towards all changes but they are tolerant
to ethnic minorities as we consider ourselves to be a wise nation”,
added Lusine Hakobyan.
As for the political tolerance, she mentioned that it is still too
early to speak of it as the political field isn’t fully developed
in Armenia and the political tolerance is on the lowest level in
our country.

CAN YOU LIVE ON 20000 AMD?
A1+
[06:48 pm] 16 November, 2006
Today the RA NA devoted a quarter of an hour to the discussion of
the draft law on the “increase of minimum monthly salary”, which is
one of the vital public concerns.
Aghvan Vardanyan, Minister of Labour and Social Issues, supported
the hasty discussion of the issue.
To note, Mr. Vardanyan introduced the bill to the first hearing.
According to the bill, the minimum salary in Armenia will be 20
thousand AMD from 2007. By the way, a project has been worked
out under which the minimum salary will be raised to 30 thousand a
month. This means that the minimum salary will be annually increased
by 5 thousand AMD in Armenia. The bill refers to 7500 people who are
mainly representatives of technical and scientific spheres.
Reminder: last year the minimum salary was fixed 28 thousand AMD
taking into account the physiological needs of human organism.
Provided the bill is endorsed, the state budget will allot 506 million
AMD to the minimum salary.
By the way, the RA Government assumes that the increase of high-rank
officials’ salaries is more important than that of the minimum salary.

RUSSIAN ARMS IMPORTED TO ARMENIA
A1+
[07:28 pm] 16 November, 2006
Today the arms of the Russian military base located in Tbilisi were
being taken out of the city. The first train left for Gyumri.
Another train loaded with Russian arms will arrive in Armenia by the
turn of the year.
The Russian Defense Ministry has decided to remove the arms and
transport them to Armenia prior to the fixed deadline. The decision was
determined by the recent worsening of the Georgian-Russian relations.
Over 350-ton stores, ammunition and 390 servicemen will be taken out
of Tbilisi.

WHY ISN’T VAHAGN CHAKHALYAN’S CASE QUASHED?
A1+
[07:41 pm] 16 November, 2006
The representatives of “United Javakhq” Democratic Alliance are
indignant at the fact that RA remedial forces haven’t quashed Vahagn
Chakhalyan’s case.
Reminder: Vahagn Chakhalyan was arrested on October 11 and was accused
of “illegal breech” of the Armenian-Georgian borderline.
Only the restraint was shifted under public pressure and Vahagn
Chakhalyan is deprived of the opportunity to return to Armenia.
The members of the alliance voice hope that RA remedial forces will
finally realize that the accusation is a mere nonsense and will turn
it down within a few days, thus preventing further mass protests
initiated by the Javakhq residents.
As for the Armenian-Javakhq borderline, they claim that “it must be
transparent and conditional”.

MANOYAN SAID KARS-AKHALKALAK-TBILISI RAILWAY IS POLITICAL
Panorama.am
17:02 16/11/06
Kiro Manoyan, responsible of Armenian Cause Office of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnakcutiun), thinks there are two option
for Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisy railway: first, to go for preconditions
of Turkey and operate Kars-Gyumri railway and second, to do the same
without preconditions.
The first option is not acceptable for any political force in
Armenia. Armenia has taken steps towards the second option, saying
the railway may be used one-sided, i.e., Armenia will not use it and
others can. Turkey has not agreed to the proposal which shows that
their disposition is not economic but political.

“NOBODY SPEAKS ABOUT THE REAL REASONS BEHIND THE SANCTIONS”
The Messenger, Georgia
Nov 17 2006
At this time of impending winter woes and a continued deadlock in
Georgia-Russia relations, The Messenger’s Keti Sikharulidze asked
Vladimer Papava, senior fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic
and International Studies and deputy chair of the parliamentary
Committee for Finance and Budget, to give his unique insight into
the crisis, and the wider economic outlook for the country.
How do you make sense of Russia’s actions towards Georgia?
Russia will do everything it can to use the levers available to
achieve its interests, the price hike on natural gas is one example
of those levers.
It is not just the embargo, but it is a range of serious economic
sanctions that Russia has used against Georgia, however, nobody speaks
about the real reasons behind the sanctions-behind wine and mineral
water stood something quite different. Falsification is a worldwide
problem, not only a Georgian problem.
Everything began much earlier, when the Georgian government announced
early this year that it might sell its main gas pipeline to Gazprom,
which connects Russia to Armenia via Georgia. Gazprom, of course, was
ready to buy it to maintain its economic influence in the region as
the main pipeline is extremely important for Gazprom. At that time,
the Georgian government did not object to them buying it at all,
because they could get a large sum of money for it. But the deal
didn’t go through because of the Americans. The American side not
only disrupted negotiations, but demanded that Georgia stop talks
altogether on the issue.
Right after the deal fell through, Russia announced the embargo on
wine and mineral water.
Russia’s anger towards Georgia grew even greater after Georgia’s
declaration that it wanted to join NATO and the final blow was the
arrest of the GRU officers. The Kremlin could simply not stomach
Georgians daring to blame GRU officers of espionage and in response
they used the harshest measures they could: deportation of Georgians,
even those ethnic Georgians with Russian citizenship.
How is the embargo and deportations influencing the Georgian economy?
Deportation of Georgians, if we discuss it from the economical
standpoint, means stopping money transfers. I do not mean bank
transfers, but those transfers that were delivered by people personally
who travelled between these two countries.
Some think that the Russian embargo would be a big economic blow
for Georgia
In the long-term, it might be good for our entrepreneurs. It might
somehow wake them up, make them start finding alternative markets apart
from Russia, though it is not easy to do and I don’t think they’ve
succeeded so far. It speaks to those problems that our businesses
are having in general, struggling to follow those market economic
principles accepted in the West. However, I do not rule out that some
companies will overcome these barriers and succeed in their business.
But if we speak about the short-term impact, closure of the
Russian market of course is a great blow to the Georgian economy
and businesses, but however strong the hit is, we should endure it,
in order to maintain our sovereignty and independence, which is so
important for building a normal state.
How successful are Georgian businesses in searching for new markets?
The main buyer of Georgian wine and mineral water is no surprise
for anybody. The Russian market and its closure to Georgian wine and
water companies was a great blow.
Each product has its market. Business owners should study the markets
and determine where it is relevant to sell their product.
I think our businesses are not ready to conquer developed markets.
The faster they research other markets and learn how to enter these
markets, the better it is for our economy, especially when our country
has such positive economic indicators. It can be said that Russian
embargo was a good advertisement for us.
What do you think about the Statistics Department being moved into
the Ministry of Economic Development?
Georgia has no Statistics Department now that it has become one of
the departments of the Ministry of Economic Development, which was
the greatest institutional mistake.
But there is a hidden conflict of interests. As we know, the government
works out a plan for governing the country, which should be tracked
using concrete data researched and published by the Statistics
Department. This enables the government to show its failures and
successes in figures to society.
If the department is under the government’s control, it is much easier
to control it institutionally and report figures that are favourable
for the government. I personally cannot trust the information reported
by this department.
What should be done to solve this problem?
The only way to avoid state influence on the statistics department is
to put it under the presidential administration again, as it was during
Shevardnadze’s administration. Such changes are vitally important for
the country, and especially for the president, in order to evaluate
the government’s activities and get a real picture of what is going
on. In short, the government should not have the right to poke its
head into the Statistic Department’s activities.
Rising inflation has been worrying many in Georgia, what are the
major causes of the inflation we have seen recently?
There are number of reasons. One version is the price on energy
products on world markets caused the inflation we have seen in
Georgia. While this might be one reason, we should also find reasons
look for answers elsewhere.
I suppose the main problem was the government expenses allotted
for public works. It does not mean that government should not build
roads, fountains or decorate schools or buildings, but money dumped
into the economy for these kinds of activities harms the economy and
causes inflation.
For instance, the president’s three month employment programme to
employ 50 000 people is one of the main causes of the inflation.
Governmental bodies dealing with the economic sector should have
informed the president of the possible risks this programme could
have created for the economy.

NOW MONEY TRANSFERS FROM RUSSIA TO ARMENIA CAN BE MADE IN NATIONAL CURRENCY
Regnum, Russia
Nov 18 2006
For the first time, it has become possible to transfer money from
Russia to Armenia in the Armenian national currency – dram (AMD),
the chairman of the Council of the Unibank, the president of the
Uniastrum bank (Moscow) Gagik Zakaryan said during a press-conference
in Yerevan Nov 17.
A REGNUM correspondent reports Zakaryan to say that, from now on,
people in Russia will be able to transfer money to Armenia in AMD
via the UNIStream system – with 0% commission. “We are planning to
get profit not from commission but from the conversion of foreign
currency and RUR into AMD,” Zakaryan said. He noted that this project
is a novelty for Russia too. It will make it much easier for people
to transfer money, while the recipients will know beforehand how much
they will get in AMD. “We are planning to start transferring money
to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, but this time we will already
charge commission because the money will be transferred to partner
banks who have their own interests,” Zakaryan said.
The chairman of the Board of the Unibank Vardan Atayan said that the
system was introduced quite recently and has transferred 6.5mln AMD
($17,500), so far. The system can transfer not only AMD, but also
RUR, USD and some other currencies. According to the forecasts, the
UNIStream system will transfer a total of $400mln-$420mln to Armenia,
including $100mln-$120mln in Nov-Dec.
The president of the Central Bank of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan said that
the introduction of the system of AMD transfers will allow people to
reduce their losses as presently they have to convert their transfers
twice: first, in Russia from RUR into USD and, then, in Armenia from
USD into AMD. The system of AMD transfers will also allow to make
the Armenian economy less dollarized.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MONEY TRANSFERS FROM RUSSIA TO GEORGIA SUSPENDED
Regnum, Russia
Nov 18 2006
The money transfers from Russia to Georgia via the UNIStream system
were suspended because of a sharp decline in their volume, the chairman
of the council of the Unibank, the president of the Uniastrum bank
(Moscow) Gagik Zakaryan said during a press-conference in Yerevan
today, Nov 17.
He said that the volume of money transfers from Russia to Georgia has
decreased by 3-4 times because of “the measures taken with regard to
Georgian gastarbeiters” and the technical problems of the Georgian
banks.
Asked why UNIStream has stopped remitting money from Armenia to
Georgia, the chairman of the Board of the Unibank Vardan Atayan said
that the system is located in Moscow and all money transfers are
made via Moscow. “The transfer of money from Armenia to Georgia is
carried out via Moscow and, if the system stops transferring money
from Russia to Georgia, we can’t do it from Armenia,” Atayan said.