ONE NATION, ONE WATER PIPELINE, ONE MINISTRY
Hakob Badalyan
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 2 2006
It is quite natural that the Supreme Commander-In-Chief of the
Armed Forces should be interested in the quality, effectiveness of
the army, its armament and equipment. Therefore, the society did
not pay special attention to the fact that on October 23 and 24,
while the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs were preparing for their meeting in Paris,
President Robert Kocharyan visited the border installations. Even
if the foreign ministers are not going to meet, the head of state,
who is the Supreme Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces (though
the reporter of Haylur consistently omitted the word “supreme” and
mentioned “commander-in-chief”) in accordance with the Constitution,
has to keep the army in the focus of attention if the country is in
a neither war, no peace situation.
Besides, the Supreme Commander-In-Chief has another reason to focus
attention on the army. The point is that the government official,
who is supposed to attend to the problems of the army directly,
i.e. the minister of defense, has enlarged considerably the range
of his activities, and as we learned from Haylur, he already takes
part in the cerermonies of opening of rural water pipelines. And
in order not to appear nonsensical, an explanation is provided: the
defense minister participated because this drinking water pipeline
is his promise. We should confess that the participation is not as
nonsensical as its explanation. The defense minister can promise that
the army is always ready to counteract to any attack, and it should
be noted that Serge Sargsyan always does. The defense minister can
promise that the equipment and armament will always be on an adequate
level, and Serge Sargsyan always does. Meanwhile, it appears that
Serge Sargsyan considers himself is an outsider in the army.
Otherwise, it is impossible to understand what relation the defense
minister has to rural water pipelines, if these villages are located
far from the border. It is very good that several villages of the
region of Aragatsotn already have drinking water supply. But what were
the president and the government busy doing if the defense minister
has think about the supply of drinking water to these villages, let
alone a great deal of other things he has to think about in this crazy
world that is called the Caucasus? After all, Serge Sargsyan personally
stated that he has much more important things to do in this country. In
that case, what are the committee of water resourses, the ministry of
territorial governance, the municipality of Aragatsotn, and finally
the president of the Republic busy doing? Is it possible that Robert
Kocharyan has exchanged places with Serge Sargsyan and now attends
to the problems of the army (after all, was it accidental that Haylur
consistently referred to Robert Kocharyan as the Commander-in-Chief,
omitting “supreme”?), but in this case the public should have been
informed. It is possible, for instance, that in his recent meeting
with Safar Abiyev Serge Sargsyan informed him about this replacement
so that they know in Azerbaijan who to address when the necessity
for an army relation occurs.
For during their meeting in Sadarak many years ago Serge Sargsyan
and the Azerbaijani foreign minister exchanged telephone numbers to
contact when necessary. It is possible that in their recent meeting
Serge Sargsyan gave him Robert Kocharyan’s telephone number.
If this is not true, the president of the Republic should demand
explanation from the minister of defense why he attends to water
pipelines, gas, roads and other communication problems, and listens
and makes promises in the villages, which is televised and broadcast
on the Public Television. In this case, perhaps, it would be correct to
save the salaries of the ministers and other officials supposed to deal
with these matters and direct these funds at military expenditure. It
is also possible that Robert Kocharyan is aware why Serge Sargsyan
attends to these matters. In that case, it would be more honest if
the president resigned allowing the defense minister to occupy the
post of the president in order to formalize his actions and fit into
the logic of the system of government.
However, there is another way of formalizing and logicalizing these
actions: the defense minister is displaced, a structural reform is
carried out in the government, namely the ministries of territorial
management and agriculture are joined and Serge Sargsyan is appointed
head of the new government agency. How about the army? God save
the army.

FACING UP TO THE PAST
Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt
Nov 1-7, 2006
Gamil Mattar* seeks an end to the morally corrosive guilt that infects
international relations
“There have been plenty of words of condemnation of suicide bombers
but few on the Israeli attacks on Gaza, in particular the attacks
on civilian installations,” MP Andrew Turner told a panel on the
Palestinian question and the war against Lebanon.
“Indeed, they [UK parliamentarians] blamed Hizbullah and the seizing
of two soldiers for the conflict in Lebanon and for Israel’s reaction
to the seizing of those soldiers.” In contrast, “Human Rights Watch
condemns both sides pretty unequivocally for breaches of international
law and of internationally recognised human rights. It condemns
Hizbullah for taking hostages and using the soldiers as pawns to
negotiate the release of prisoners held in Israel… and it condemns
Israel over the lawlessness of its attacks on South Lebanon, for the
extraordinarily high level of civilian casualties that followed.”
“Those were the tactics of the Nazis in 1939 and 1940 — attacking
fleeing civilians from the air,” he added.
Jews in the House of Commons and throughout Britain were deeply
offended and demanded an apology from the MP for comparing Israel
defending itself with the Nazi Holocaust. The head of the Conservative
Party asked Turner to apologise, which he did. Israeli leaders, and
Zionist leaders in Britain, went away satisfied; they had benefited
considerably.
The whole incident provided an opportunity to remind the British
public, and the wider world, of the holocaust, which is a permanent
feature of the agenda of Israeli leaders and Zionist lobbyists
abroad. The incident also proved a gift to Israel and British Jews
since, in asking a member of his party to apologise, the Conservative
leader landed exactly where Israel and British Jews want him.
Henceforth, whenever his party so much as thinks of criticising
Israel they will be able to remind him that it has anti-Semites in
its ranks. Finally, the attack against Turner worked to re- instill
in European leaders the fear of the axe of being labeled anti-Semitic
which hovers over the heads of anyone who dares criticise Israel or
ignore the facts of German history as it is currently being related.
In East and Southeast Asia, people are discussing the future of
their relations with Japan under a new, strongly nationalistic prime
minister who has shown no inclination to express regrets over his
country’s imperialist policies towards its neighbours. China is not
alone in insisting that Japan apologise unequivocally for the crimes
it committed in Manchuria and Nanjing during the Sino-Japanese war
and World War II. Both Koreas, too, have demanded an apology for
the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula and the inhuman and
degrading treatment meted out against its inhabitants by the occupation
authorities. The Philippines has similarly demanded an apology from
Japan for forcing Filipino women into sexually servicing Japanese
soldiers during World War II.
Japan has so far resisted offering an apology these countries find
acceptable. Simultaneously, it remains aware that the issue could
flare up whenever an Asian government finds it convenient to exploit
it politically. A notable instance occurred last year when student
demonstrations erupted — or, more appropriately, were staged —
against Japan, in the course of which demonstrators trashed and burned
Japanese commercial establishments in several Chinese cities.
Given China’s current circumstances the phenomenon is likely to
resurface with every new domestic crisis, particularly those fed by the
growing income gap, the lack of freedom and growing popular demands.
More recently France and Turkey came to loggerheads over a law passed
by the French National Assembly criminalising denials of the Armenian
Holocaust that took place in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Ankara denies the genocide, insisting that Armenians died
in the Russo-Turkish War after siding with the Russians. The
Armenians, however, insist that hundreds of thousands of them were
indiscriminately slaughtered at the hands of Turkish forces.
As in eastern Asia contemporary politics have been instrumental in
igniting this almost century-old fuse. In some Western nations, there
are vested interests strongly opposed to Turkey’s admission into the
EU, and willing to go to great lengths to forestall this prospect. In
addition in France, as in Germany, Netherlands, and elsewhere, there
is growing xenophobia targeting Muslims in particular, and manifested,
in part, in increasingly strident demands to restrict immigration
and in overt hostility to immigrant communities.
On the other side of the equation Turkey remains bent on
Westernisation; a fundamental part of the secularism upon which the
modern Turkish state is founded. Simultaneously, Islamist forces,
as well as the increasingly active Kurdish Labour Party, have the
Ataturkists bristling.
It is difficult to imagine that Ankara will back down from its position
or even offer a gesture that would make it seem as if it were backing
down. Far more likely is that Turkey will respond in kind, accusing
France of never having apologised for the atrocities it perpetrated
in Algeria. The ploy is interesting in that it may well work. France
is not in an enviable position on this issue, for while there is no
hard documented and incontrovertible proof of an Armenian genocide
for which the Turks should apologise, there is abundant evidence of
French crimes in Algeria.
In fact, if Turkey, Algeria or other countries of Africa and Asia felt
like it, they could raise any number of problems over the humanitarian
crimes committed by colonial powers, many of which are still within
living memory of the peoples of colonised nations.
Neither Chirac, nor any other leader of Belgium, Netherlands, Italy,
the US or other western powers, is about to let his country be the
first, or only, nation to apologise to peoples that until not so long
ago — sometimes well into the second half of the 20th century —
were regarded as second class human beings.
Islamist leaders have demanded an apology from the Catholic Pope for
a notorious paragraph in a speech he delivered in Germany and they
are still demanding apology after apology from Denmark. And were it
not for the fear that infected Arab and Muslim political leaders in
the wake of 11 September, they would probably also demand an apology
from Berlusconi for the remarks he made while prime minister of Italy.
In Central and South America indigenous peoples, and those of mixed
descent, are demanding compensation for centuries of deprivation
and displacement, and for the acts of genocide perpetrated against
them since the Spanish conquest. Only recently has the voice of this
large segment of the populace of the Americas had the opportunity
to make itself heard. Leading minority figures affirm that their
campaign is developing in the direction of an “organised uprising”,
the primary aim of which is to secure an apology from the governments
of Spain and Portugal for the crimes and cruelties inflicted upon
them by colonial authorities and, later, by the ethnically Spanish
dominated governments that followed independence. I suspect the world
will soon be hearing much more from the increasingly active movements
representing more than 50 million indigenous Americans whose cultures
and civilizations were shattered and, in some cases, wiped off the map.
For more than two centuries, the non- Russian peoples of Central Asia
and the Caucasus have resisted the attempts of Tsarist, Soviet and
Putinist Russia to alter their identities and cultures by overwhelming
their countries with large influxes of white Orthodox Christian
Russians. Today these peoples, especially those of the northern
Caucusus and of the recently independent nations of Ukraine, Georgia
and the three Baltic states, have the right to demand an apology
from Moscow, at the very least for the practices of the Stalinist
period which ushered in nightmarish oppression, genocide and the mass
transfer of peoples.
Other peoples of whom we have never heard but who probably lived
on the islands of the South Pacific and South Atlantic — now
populated primarily by people of European descent — will have no
such recourse. Having been vacated from their islands, for military
purposes, as was the case with Diego Garcia, or having died out or
been killed off, they have no progeny to press for an apology for
the destruction of their cultures and identities.
Our world will remain a dismal place in which people die in the
thousands because of the refusal of wealthy nations, which formerly
colonised these peoples’ countries, to come forward with sufficient
aid to rescue them from starvation. Congo, Sudan, Somalia and the
countries of West Africa spring immediately to mind. At the same
time other peoples — in Palestine, Iraq and countries targeted by
the project to create a New Middle East — are dying culturally and
spiritually because of blockades and foreign occupations forced on
them by more powerful nations in the interest of their self-serving
economic and political plans.
Civilization must begin afresh. Perhaps what is needed to set it
off on the right track is an international charter drawn up and
signed by the representatives of the member nations of the UN, of the
nations that have yet to attain independence and of the minorities in
existing nations. Under this charter all signatories would submit a
written declaration, to be appended to the charter and regarded as an
integral part of it, in which they confess to and apologise for the
injustices they perpetrated against other peoples and which, in turn,
are officially accepted by the peoples in question.
I doubt that those who are laying the groundwork for ever more
horrendous tragedies, in the name of the clash of civilizations,
the fight against terrorism, the war against the axis of evil and
other such headings targeting Arab and Muslim peoples, will like this
suggestion. But then neither will many others who are growing angrier
and more embittered by the day under the pressures of oppression,
economic strangleholds and flagrant injustices.
The world is plummeting towards an appalling precipice and is being
pushed ever more rapidly in that direction by extremists of all
political and religious hues, by racists and bigots from all races
and faiths. These are the type of people neither inclined to give
apologies nor accept them. Would Israel and the Zionist movement accept
an apology by Europeans and others for crimes perpetrated against the
Jews? Would Israel apologise for the crimes it perpetrated against
the Palestinians and the Arabs, who are still a party in this conflict?
I believe that an official exchange of apologies and acceptances
of apologies between Israel and other countries, and between other
countries and other peoples would usher in a new era in international
relations, in which rights are restored to the dispossessed, feelings
of guilt fade and even the thirst for vengeance subsides.
* The writer is director of the Arab Centre for Development and
Futuristic Research.
11.htm

AN AGE OF RADICALISM
Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt
Nov 1-7, 2006
The failure of nationalist governments in the Third World and US
drive for global hegemony have led to religious radicalism and new
liberation struggles, writes Ayman El-Amir*
The recent UN Security Council resolution imposing punitive sanctions
against North Korea for testing a nuclear device has only encouraged
Iran to double its nuclear enrichment capacity and pointed more to
divisiveness than to unanimity among the world’s leading military
powers. Ignoring the status imposed upon them by US President George
W Bush as founding-members of the Axis of Evil, North Korea and Iran
seem to be leading a rising global rebellion against US dominance. As
a result, other smaller states are giving some serious reconsideration
to their policies of nuclear abstinence in an increasingly insecure
world. The tools of sanctions and raw military power are producing
more defiance than compliance in regions where super-power lop-sided
practices have created serious imbalances.
The principles of the peaceful settlement of disputes, of international
law and of collective security that the UN Charter envisioned when
adopted in 1945 are in quick retreat. Thanks to the 2003 US-led
invasion of Iraq, the retaliatory bombing of Afghanistan before it
and Washington’s unbridled support of Israel’s murderous campaign
against the Palestinians, the Bush administration has radicalised,
not subdued, nations opposed to its policies. National liberation
movements seeking to attain their legitimate aspirations, as
endorsed by the United Nations, are more hostile than ever towards
US heavy-handed tactics. Bush administration practices have created
more enemies-in-waiting than friends- at-large.
Three factors have contributed to the rise of radicalism:
America’s rabid desire for unipolar hegemony, enhanced by the
Bush administration’s air of self-righteousness; the increasing
fragmentation of state entities, particularly in the republics of the
former Soviet Union; and the rise of terrorism as a consequence of
military invasion and the suppression of democratic choices. The US
was both the precursor and the victim of radicalism in the aftermath
of the regrettable terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. This
incident, coupled with its uncouth sense of imperial power, made
it conceivable for the US to settle every dispute around the world
through the excessive use of firepower. The policy was enshrined in
President Bush’s 2002 national security strategy that promised not
only pre- emptive military strikes against perceived enemies abroad,
but even went as far as announcing that, after the collapse of the
former Soviet Union, the US would not allow any state to be equal,
let alone surpass it, in terms of military superiority. An almighty
imperial power was brought into being to the delight of born-again
Evangelical radicals.
After Afghanistan, which the US has now offloaded to NATO, Iraq became
the first testing ground for the new imperial policy of Mr Bush and
his neo-cons. Three and half years into the invasion, Iraq has become
a land of untold suffering. Figures speak for themselves.
A Johns Hopkins University study estimates that 655,000 Iraqis have
been killed since the invasion, representing 2.5 per cent of the
total population of Iraq. Although controversial, the figure is
not so far-fetched if the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior’s figure
of 2,660 Iraqis killed during the month of September alone is to be
trusted. Nearly 3,000 US troops have been killed since the beginning
of the invasion and eight-fold more injured. Iraq has become the US’s
second Vietnam and there is no solution in sight unless the neo-cons
in the White House declare victory and scamper off to safety. This may
be seriously considered after the Republicans read the consequences
of the Bush administration’s policies in the results of congressional
elections due in November. The US legacy in Iraq will be a hotbed of
fratricidal war, an in-gathering of contagious insurgency and terrorism
and a model of deconstructive chaos, to rephrase Condoleezza Rice’s
Kissinger-style myopic vision of the region. Iraq should be entitled
to substantial war reparations from the US.
Iran and North Korea’s programmes of building their own nuclear
capabilities, even for seemingly different purposes, have shown other
nations how selective and unworkable the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) is. It is a safety net full of holes. Iraq was invaded,
occupied and destroyed with no trace of weapons of mass destruction
found to justify this grave breach of international law. By contrast,
Israel, which has an estimated stockpile of more than 200 nuclear
weapons, is untouchable because it has not signed the NPT. India
and Pakistan are proud possessors of nuclear weapons and of means to
deliver them to heaven knows whom. It is by faulted logic that if a
country is not a signatory to the NPT, it is free to intimidate and
dominate its neighbours by the implicit threat of the possession of
nuclear weapons. Israel’s failed state neighbours made the mistake of
signing the NPT in the first place. Impotent as these countries are
to stop Israel’s liquidation of the Palestinian people and annexation
of their territory, the Palestinians are left with little more than
the radical policy of armed resistance to defend themselves and
liberate their homeland. The conquest of Iraq in 2003 and the bombing
campaign against the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999
were undertaken without the authorisation of the UN Security Council,
which alone is responsible for the maintenance of international peace
and security.
The phenomenon of international lawlessness triggered by the
world’s superpower was partly made possible by the collapse of
the former Soviet Union and the manipulating influence of the
neo-cons in Washington. As a result, global fragmentation and
civil wars became rampant. Several republics of the former Soviet
Union are experiencing internal tensions, separatist movements
and the threat of disintegration. Azerbaijan is threatening to use
force to recapture the region of Nagorno- Karabach from Armenia,
Abkhazia and south Ossetia regions have declared independence from
Georgia, Moldova’s separatist Transdinestra movement is appealing
to other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to
recognise its independent status and Russia is hopelessly fighting
its backyard war in Chechnya. The separatist Tamil Tigers continue to
battle the government of Sri Lanka, with rising casualties on both
sides. In Iraq, the Kurds are gradually pushing their separatist
claims towards statehood and, assisted by Israel, have mobilised the
necessary military means to defend it. With every ethnic claim comes
a nationalist-cum-terrorist liberation movement, so much so that the
borderlines have been blurred. No one can safely predict where this
“constructive chaos” will lead.
In the Cold War years, the world’s two super-powers, the US and
the former Soviet Union, moved from confrontation to containment to
peaceful co-existence. National Liberation movements had a recognisable
legitimacy even when they crossed the line into terrorist territory by
hijacking civilian aircraft to extract political concessions. The US,
too, had its CIA-led death squads that hunted down revolutionaries
in South America. It was a nationalist political struggle where the
battle- lines were defined and external backers of local forces adhered
to certain rules, checks and balances. For a brief period in the early
1990s the world felt like a safe place to live in. Today, the failure
of nationalism as a liberating factor and the unholy alliance between
the world’s sole superpower and Third World dictatorships have turned
the international scene into a free-for-all. Adherents of orthodox
Islam have found in it inspiration for renewal and a panacea for all
the ills visited upon them by pseudo-dictatorial nationalism, socialist
dogma and the negative effects of globalisation. Therefore, national
liberation struggles have been tinged with a radical religious hue.
For hundreds of millions, religious radicalism has become the only
liberating factor and refuge that has paled liberal democracy. That
may explain the rising global tendency toward radical confrontation,
the consequences of which are yet to unravel.
* The writer is former Al-Ahram corespondent in Washington DC. He also
served as director of United Nations Radio and Television in New York.

YURI MERZLYAKOV: NO DECISION TAKEN ON THE MEETING OF PRESIDENTS
ArmRadio.am
02.11.2006 17:30
No decision has been taken on the meeting of the Presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group
Yuri Merzlyakov told ” Trend” agency, commenting on the possibility
of the meeting of Presidents in the framework of the CIS summit on
November 28. He said that the question of organizing the meeting of
Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliev was raised during the
Paris consultations of the Co-Chairs with the Foreign Ministers on
24 October.
“But up to now no decision has been taken, and we should wait for
November 14, when the mediators will hold recurrent consultations
with the Foreign Ministers,” Merzlyakov added.
In response to the question whether the Karabakh conflict settlement
was discussed during the recent meeting of the Presidents of Armenia
and Russia in Moscow, Yuri Merzlyakov said: “The Karabakh topic is
one of the components of talks and it always exists.”

ACCORDING TO ESTIMATION OF DE FACTO MAGAZINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MERUZHAN TER-GULANIAN, SERGE SARGSIAN “IS PERSON CREATING STATE”
Noyan Tapan
Nov 02 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The first issue of the De
Facto public-political magazine, the editor-in-chief of which is
Meruzhan Ter-Gulanian, was published in October. RA Defence Minister
Serge Sargsian’s photo is on the cover of the first issue of the
newspaper. Responding at the November 2 presentation of the magazine
the journalists’ question by what the choice of S.Sargsian’s photo
was especially provided, M.Ter-Gulanian explained: the editorial
staff chose especially S.Sargsian’s photo as the latter made a
very responsible statement, that’s: “the best elections must be
held in 2007, and there are all the bases for it.” According to
M.Ter-Gulanian’s estimation, S.Sargsian “is a person creating the
state.” “From Karabakh to Armenia – 19 years, he has led a high state
post. And, I believe, that if this state has had any achievements,
it is obliged for it to Serge Sargsian,” the De Facto editor-in-chief
stated. M.Ter-Gulanian assured that the new magazine will differ from
others first of all with its independent posture: “It is not financed
by any party or oligarch.” Instead of it, 45 of the 100 pages of De
Facto were sold to advertisers, what the magazine editor considers a
normal phenomenon as “all mass media of the world are depending on
advertisers.” In M.Ter-Gulanian’s words, analytical articles will
mainly be placed in the magazine “to lead forward the analytical
idea of Armenia. “All the underwater problems” existing in Armenia
will be explained in those articles. “The magazine has no political
orientation and will not throw mud at anybody” the editor-in-chief
of the newspaper promised.

LILIT PIPOYAN’S CONCERT TO BE ACCOMPANIED WITH SHOW CREATED BY MULTIPLIER NAIRA MURADIAN
Noyan Tapan
Nov 01 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. Composer and singer Lilit Pipoyan’s
new works will be presented to the spectators during the concert
entitled “Blue Violet” to take place at the Aram Khachaturian concert
hall on November 4. Their performance will be accompanied with a show
created by multiplier Naira Muradian on the theme of those songs. As
the two artists mentioned at the November 1 press conference, they
are joined by the specific way of presenting what they want to say,
paying homage only to sincere phenomena in art and, opposite to it,
avoiding artificial, banal art, feeling of particular obligation
towards the national art and commentary of content, but not a formal
commentary of the national idea. “Creating is an outburst of soul for
me. It is out of any type of conditionalities. My songs are sincere,
free and without preconditions,” L.Pipoyan said. At the same time she
mentioned that it was too difficult for her to organize this concert:
No producer company agreed to organize it, reasoning that it is not
profitable as no spectator will come to similar concerts in sports
ground or big concert halls.” However, in the singer’s words, people
were found who did a favour and assisted organization of the concert,
what is already gratifying: “It means that something gets moving.”

ARMENIAN BOYS AND GIRLS PARTICIPATED IN DELPHIC GAMES RETURN FROM ASTANA WITH 5 GOLD MEDALS
Noyan Tapan
Nov 02 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. 13 Armenian representatives
participated in the 4th youth Delphic Games of CIS countries taken
place in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, on October 26-30, returned
with 12 prizes, including 5 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze medals and 4
diplomas. Armenian youth performed in 7 of 15 nominations: piano,
violin, flute, painting, web-design, circus art, people’s song. As
Karine Khodikian, the RA Deputy Minister of Culture and Youth Issues
mentioned at the November 1 press conference, 600 representatives from
the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Tajikistan, Kyrghyzstan, Armenia and Kazakhstan participated in
the Delphin Games. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan did not participate
in the games. The Deputy Minister mentioned that Russia is on the
first place with the number of gold medals: 9 gold medals from 43
participants. Armenia is on the second place with 5 golden medals
and 13 participants. The Delphic Games will be held the next year, in
2007, in the capital of Belarus, Minsk. K.Khodikian mentioned besides
the competition, events were also held in the spheres of people’s
instruments and people’s applied art. According to the regulations
of holding the games, “The Delegation’s Day” event was envisaged
as well, during which the delegation of every state presented its
country’s culture, national song and dance, kitchen as well as short
information about their countries’ geography, history, traditions.
From: Baghdasarian

LIST OF 200 MEASURES DEVELOPED BY RA ECONOMIC COUNCIL TO BE SUBMITTED TO ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT
Noyan Tapan
Nov 02 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN . Within the next 10 days, a list
of 200 measures developed as a result of 5 consultations of the RA
Economic Council (composed of the RA prime minister, the chief advisor
to the RA president on economic issues, the minister of finance and
economy, the minister of trade and economic development, and the
chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia) will be submitted to the
Armenian government. The list contains legislative proposals aimed
at reducing the shadow circulation and bringing the powers of the
RA State Commission on Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC)
into line with market realities and the development level of the
Armenian economy. The RA Minister of Trade and Economic Development
Karen Chshamaritian stated this at the round table “Foreign Currency
Depreciation Impact on Economic Development, Particilarly on Export”
held in Yerevan on November 1. In the minister’s words, “today the
SCPEC is rather an antimonopoly commission”. He said that with the
assistance of the Armenian-European Policy and Legal Advice Centre
(AEPLAC), the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic Development is
developing a draft law on advertising. In case of its adoption,
the power of control over advertising will be transferred to the
SCPEC. “Our task is to transform this commission from an antimonopoly
one into a real commission on protection of economic competition,”
he noted.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IN 2007 ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT PLANS TO COLLECT 48.4 BILLION DRAMS THANKS TO IMPROVEMENT OF TAX ADMINISTRATION
Noyan Tapan
Nov 02 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the 2007 draft state
budget, the programmed revenues make 489.5 billion drams, which
exceeds by 12.2% the approved revenues of 2006 and by 8.5% the
revenues expected. In the indicated amount, revenues of 458.9 bln
drams are expected from tax and state duties collection, including
48.4 bln drams (about 127.3 mln USD) thanks to improvement of tax
administration and 4.5 bln drams as a result of possible amendments
to the legislation. The RA Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan
Khachatrian stated this when presenting the 2007 draft state budget
during the November 1 joint sitting of the RA National Assembly
standing committees. According to the minister, the government is now
developing a program of tax administration reforms in 2007 and the next
two years. The program is aimed at achieving a high level of budget
revenues collection. The consistent fight against economic crimes will
help create equal conditions for the economic competition among various
economic entities, which will allow to reduce the impact of economic
entities, which operate in the shadow sector or evade paying taxes,
on the market. In 2007, the clarification and simplification of the
laws related to the customs sphere, and the provision of customs
bodies with technical equipment will continue. In response to NT
correspondent’s question, V. Khachatrian said that he does not see yet
any new risks to the 2007 state budget compared with the previous two
years. In his opinion, the only one is the ratio of taxes/GDP. By the
draft, tax and state duty revenues will make up 15.7% of GDP against
the 2006 programmed index of 14.7%.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MINISTER OF TRADE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF RA: ALTHOUGH DRAM APPRECIATES, NO ARMENIAN EXPORTING COMPANY HAS BEEN CLOSED
Noyan Tapan
Nov 02 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. “Although the exchange rate of the
Armenian dram against the US dollar has grown from 580 to 380 drams in
the last three years, no Armenian exporting company has been closed,”
the RA Minister of Trade and Economic Development Karen Chshmaritian
said during the November 1 round table “Foreign Currency Depreciation
Impact on Economic Development, Particularly Export” organized by the
Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia (UMBA). Repsonding
to questions of the round table participants, K. Chshmaritian assured
them that the appreciation of the dram will not result in closure
of any local company, if exporting comanies have a stable management
system. In his opinion, the improvement of their management systems
and the correct application of laws are more important for Armeian
enterprises than the impact of the dram’s appreciation. Speaking about
the factors contributing to the appreciation of the Armenian dram,
the minister subscribed to the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Chairman
Tigran Sargsian’s opinion that they are connected with objective
factors of the increased foreign currency inflow. In particular, in
the last 5 years, exports have increased almost fourfold, while the
number of tourists to Armenia has grown tenfold in the last 7 years.
Besides, in recent years import replacement has grown by 12-15%
annually. At the present time, technological equipment accounts for
25-30% of imports, while goods temporarily imported into Armenia (to
be processed and later exported) – for 20-22% of imports. According
to K. Chshmaritian, it is due to the impact of these factors
that Armenia’s payment balance is positive by 400 million dollars
under conditions of a trade deficit of 800 million dollars. The
minister said that issues of mitigating the consequences of the
dram’s appreciation were discussed at 5 meetings of the RA Economic
Council (composed of the RA prime minister, the chief advisor to
the RA president on economic issues, the minister of finance and
economy, the minister of trade and economic development, and the CBA
chairman), and legislative proposals will be developed based on the
results of these discussions. T. Sargsian in his turn noted that the
CBA prevents sharp fluctuations of the exchange rate by purchasing
currency with profits received from bonds. He expressed an opinion
that the amounts of currency purchase are sufficient, while in case of
greater amounts, credit interest rates and tax rates would rise and
the economic growth would slow down. According to him, superprofits
of the monopoly sectors should be allocated for the technological
re-equipment of Armenian enterprises. Besides, by issuing securities,
companies may attract resources from the population after proving
their financial transparency through a CBA rating: so far only 30
Armenian enterprises have applied to the CBA for such rating. Chairman
of the RA State Commission on Protection of Economic Competition
Ashot Shahnazarian said that one of the reasons for nonregistered
dollar inflow is that economic entities communicate with each other
without signing any contract and making payments in dollars, that
is in the shadow sector. A monitoring implemented by the commission
showed that shadow circulation makes up 50-80% in various sectors of
the Armenian economy. Chairman of UMBA Arsen Ghazarian expressed his
concern that the domestic production will be endangered if taxes on
the superprofits of importers are not raised in the future too. He
also expressed concern that the economic entities with superprofits
may use their money to redistribute their property by acquiring shares
of transparently operating companies.
In his words, the necessity to control the process of the dram’s
appreciation is also conditioned by the fact that previously the
agreement prices of power-bearing substances imported into Armenia
have been calculated based on a higher dollar-dram exchange rate,
which now also affects the prices of transportation services. Chief
Advisor to the RA President on Economic Issues Vahram Nersisiants
said that Armenia with its tax liberalization regime cannot choose
the way of raising the limits of superprofit taxation. He saw the
solution of the problem in improvement of tax administration and the
tax and budgetary policy, since “it is just impossible to curb the
annual inflow of 2.5 billion dollars only by monetary and credit
instruments.” According to him, cumulative infrastructures should
be created for “sterlilization” of these resources. It is noteworthy
that in addition to state officials and businessmen, deputies of the
National Assembly, scientits and experts took part in the round table.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress