IMF: ARMENIAN SHADOW ECONOMY EQUALS TO 1/3 OF REAL ECONOMY, “BUT IT IS NOT MUCH”
REGNUM
September 15, 2006
The International Monetary Fund Mission has concluded that th eIMF
program in Armenia continues to be implemented in accordance with
the planned schedule by the instrumentality of strategic program on
poverty elimination; on September 13, IMF Middle East and Central
Asia Department Armenian Office Head Hassan Al-Atrash stated during a
news conference. According to him, after the conclusion is submitted
in December, $4.9mln will be sent to Armenia.
It is worth stressing; the IMF will grant Armenia 23mln of SDR (about
$32.8mln) within three years in the framework of its strategic program
on poverty elimination. The credit will be granted with 0.5% interest
rate and 10-year long time to run.
As a REGNUM correspondent informs, Hassan Al-Atrash stressed that,
according to the IMF, the Armenian government was on the right way;
the budget deficit of the country would total 2.3%; the inflation
rate would amount to 5% (inflation index is recorded at the rate of
3% in 2006 budget – REGNUM). The IMF representative pointed out the
mission recorded that growth of Armenian GDP totaled 11.6% during
the first seven months of the current year; the fact was caused by
high growth rate in construction and services spheres.
During the period, vast financial flows led to strengthening exchange
rate of the Armenian national currency to US dollar by 15%.
Taking into account the fact that Armenia needs to decrease
poverty index through socially directed programs and projects of
infrastructural development, the IMF Mission agreed with the government
that budget deficit should be decreased by increasing tax incomes.
The mission supports approach of tax incomes’ increasing through
improving tax administrating.
Meanwhile, the IMF representative does not agree with theses that
Armenian has high index of shadow economy.
According to him, collecting taxes concerning GDP increased by 0.4%
in 2005; analogous growth will be in 2006 too. At the same time,
Hassan Al-Atrash stressed that Armenia’s shadow economy totals 1/3
of real economy. “It is not a very high index for such countries like
Armenia. There are countries in the region, where the shadow economy
index is much higher,” the IMF representative assured.
It is worth stressing that the IMF Mission was staying from August
31 until 13 September in Armenia. Its visit is aimed at discussing
process of fulfillment of items of the program on economic growth
and elimination of poverty in Armenia’s agreement.

ARMENIAN CAUCUS LARGEST EVER AT 163 MEMBERS
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
2006-09-14 15:24:00
According to the information DE FACTO got at the Armenian Assembly
of America, the Armenian Assembly today welcomed the news that the
Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues now boasts 163 Members with
the addition of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), making it the
largest Caucus to date in the 109th Congress.
“The Caucus plays an important role in helping to strengthen the
U.S.-Armenia relationship and we will continue our efforts to expand
the Caucus even further,” said Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. “We
look forward to working with Representative DeLauro and her staff on
issues facing Armenia and Armenian-Americans.”
DeLauro, who is currently serving her eighth term in office, has
co-sponsored legislation affirming the Armenian Genocide (H. Res. 316)
and has repeatedly signed congressional letters to the President
urging him to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide in his annual
April 24th statement. Additionally, DeLauro signed a congressional
letter in 2004, urging the President to publicly condemn the ongoing
Azerbaijani war rhetoric against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.
DeLauro also supported the amendment that retained Section 907 of
the FREEDOM Support Act which imposes restrictions on assistance to
Azerbaijan until its government ceases all blockades against Armenia
and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian Caucus was formed in 1995 to provide a bipartisan forum
for legislators to discuss how the United States can better assist
the peoples of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. As a member of this
all-important body, DeLauro joins Connecticut Representatives Nancy L.
Johnson (R-CT), John B. Larson (D-CT), Robert R. Simmons (R-CT)
and Christopher Shays (R-CT) in supporting Armenian-American interests.
The Congresswoman serves on the House Appropriations Committee and
the House Budget Committee.
The Armenian Assembly is the largest Washington-based nationwide
organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian
issue. It is a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt membership organization.

ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES ARREST 2 SUSPECTS IN KILLING OF TOP TAX OFFICIAL
Today.Az
AP / International Herald Tribune
15 September 2006 [10:18] – Today.Az
Authorities in Armenia have detained two suspects accused
of involvement in the killing of a senior Armenian tax official,
officials said Thursday.
Shagen Ovasepian, head of the operations department of the State Tax
Service, was killed by a bomb that exploded as he was getting into
his car in the Armenian capital on Sept. 6.
Prosecutor General’s office spokeswoman Sona Truzian said Thursday
that the two suspects were detained late Wednesday. She said they
were Armenian citizens, but refused to name them while the probe
was ongoing.
Erkir-media television said citing sources in the prosecutor’s office
that both suspects were officials of the State Tax Service.
Organized crime is widespread in this poor, former Soviet republic,
and gang-related killings are common.
Armenian politics are also tense and occasionally violent. In 1999,
gunmen burst into parliament and killed the prime minister, parliament
speaker and six other officials and lawmakers.

THE SUBBOTNIKS: AN ARMENIAN COMMUNITY ON THE FRINGE OF EXTINCTION
by Yasha Levine, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The Jewish Journal
2006-09-15
A community of rural residents in the former Soviet Union, descended
from Russian peasants who converted to Judaism two centuries ago,
may soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Mikhail Zharkov, the 76-year-old leader of Armenia’s tiny Subbotnik
community, said only 13 of the 30,000 people living in his small alpine
town of Sevan are Subbotniks. There are three men and 10 women, and
all are nearing the age of 80. The community in Sevan is part of an
estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Subbotniks spread across the former Soviet
Union. Zharkov, a retired welder who is wiry and full of energy,
estimated that about 2,000 Subbotniks lived in Sevan during the
community’s zenith in the 1930s.
Located at an altitude of 6,000 feet, Lake Sevan’s turquoise waters
were seen as a vast exploitable natural resource. After Armenia became
a Soviet republic in the 1930s, the lake fell victim to disastrous
Soviet planning and industrial expansion.
During Soviet rule, the Subbotniks’ religious freedom, which had
helped preserve their identity for almost two centuries, vanished,
along with their prime waterfront real estate.
According to Zharkov, Soviet authorities confiscated the Subbotnik
synagogue in the mid-1930s. It has since been privatized, and the
building no longer belongs to the community.
An unknown number of Subbotniks from elsewhere in the region immigrated
to Israel after the fall of the Soviet Union, but community members in
Sevan never dreamed of leaving for Israel. In Sevan, Soviet repression,
combined with Armenia’s difficult economic conditions after the fall
of communism 15 years ago, tore into the fabric of the community.
“My son, who is 48, and daughter, who is 36, are in Moldova. And of
course, they have been baptized,” Zharkov said. “They did it without
consulting me or my wife. My daughter had to. She married a Russian
Orthodox man.”
Zharkov’s family situation is mirrored in the rest of the
community. Sevan’s Subbotniks have dispersed all over the former Soviet
Union and offer no financial assistance to their parents, Zharkov said.
“We lead a simple life, but life has become very expensive. Without
the aid of the Jewish community, we would have a very tough time,”
he said. “Our pensions are meager, not even enough to cover utilities.”
The Armenian office of Hesed Avraham, a welfare center sponsored
by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, periodically
provides the Subbotniks with food packages.
The Subbotniks’ mysterious 19th century conversion to Judaism,
strict adherence to the Torah and staunch refusal to convert back to
Christianity exposed them to repression and persecution. During the
rule of Czar Alexander I in the first quarter of the 19th century,
Subbotniks were deported en masse to remote parts of the Russian
empire.
According to Michael Freund, founder of Shavei Israel, an Israel-based
organization that reaches out to “lost Jews,” the Subbotniks are spread
out in small pockets across remote corners of the former Soviet Union.
Sevan’s Subbotniks do not know what part of Russia their ancestors
came from or what prompted them to convert to Judaism.
“Maybe they thought it a purer form of religion,” Zharkov
speculated. Subbotniks derived their name from their observance of the
Sabbath on Saturday — Subbota in Russian — rather than Sunday. Most
Subbotnik communities practice circumcision, but otherwise, the
Subbotniks do not differ in outward appearance from other Russian
peasants.
The women wear head scarves and long skirts; the men dress in simple
slacks and shirts. They do not observe kashrut or Jewish dietary
laws, and their melodic Shabbat prayers, chanted in Russian, could
be mistaken for Russian folksongs. According to Gersh-Meir Burshtein,
who heads a small Chabad-sponsored synagogue in the Armenian capital
of Yerevan, the fact that the community owned two Torah scrolls is
proof that Sevan’s Subbotniks once were well-versed in Hebrew.
Some years ago, one of the old Torah scrolls was taken to the Yerevan
synagogue, where it remains to this day. The other was stolen from
the small community.
Sevan’s Subbotniks now sing and read out of their own Torah-based
Russian-language prayer book.
“Maybe at some point one of their elders realized that the community
was losing its Hebrew knowledge and adapted the Torah into a
Russian-language prayer book that they use now,” Burshtein said.

LEO PLATVOET: “I THINK MY REPORT WILL BE APPROVED BY BOTH AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA”
Today.Az
14 September 2006 [21:58] – Today.Az
“Azerbaijani and Armenian state commissions for prisoners of war,
missing persons and hostages will cooperate more closely after I
present my report to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly,”
said Leo Platvoet, rapporteur of PACE for prisoners of war and missing
persons in the South Caucasus.
The rapporteur recalled his calling for the relevant state commissions
to cooperate during his visit in Baku.
“I do not know whether they took into consideration my
recommendations. I closely cooperated with both commissions while
drawing up my report. So, I think my report will be approved,”
Mr. Platvoet told the APA exclusively.
The COE Information Office in Baku told the APA Platvoet will visit
Baku either late this October or early in November.

TOURISM: AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT SOURCE OF REVENUE FOR ARMENIA
Emil Danielyan
EurasiaNet, NY
9/14/06
Officials in Yerevan say Armenia will welcome a record-high number
of travelers to the small South Caucasus nation this year, with
ethnic Armenians from Europe and the United States accounting for
the majority of visitors.
The sector, increasingly important for the Armenian economy, expanded
considerably in recent years after being declared a top economic
priority by the Armenian government. Officials estimate that it now
generates about 7 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
According to Mekhak Apresian, head of the tourism department at the
Armenian Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, the number of
tourists is on course to reach more than 350,000 in 2006, or nearly
twice the figure reported in 2003. “I think we will approach the
400,000 mark this year,” Apresian told EurasiaNet. The authorities’
target of attracting half a million visitors in 2010, set by President
Robert Kocharian in July, is therefore “realistic,” he said.
There is strong factual and anecdotal evidence in support of this
data. Flights to and from Yerevan and local hotels are almost fully
booked now, despite the increased cost of travel to Armenia. “There
has definitely been growth in this area,” said Ani Aslanian, a young
and soft-spoken sales manager at Armenia Marriott Hotel, the largest
in the country.
“There are a lot more people visiting Armenia nowadays.”
Aslanian expects to be busy not only in September, the traditional
peak period for tourism in Armenia, but also in the coming
months. Off-season occupancy rates at the four-star hotel, she
explained, are now much higher than they were in the past, with far
more people staying there in winter and early spring.
This is certainly good news for the growing number of local travel
firms and retailers that cater to foreigners. Travel agents and
government officials believe that much of the anticipated growth
in tourism will come from those Westerners that have no Armenian
roots. “The growth in the number of non-Armenian tourists is faster
than that of Diaspora Armenian ones,” said Apresian. He added that
although the latter still make up about two-thirds of the visitors,
their share in the overall influx is slowly but steadily falling.
Spending a holiday in Armenia is becoming increasingly popular
among the Diasporans (and Armenian Americans in particular), who
are keen to rediscover their ethnic identity. What brings other
foreigners, typically aged above 40, is less certain. The landlocked
mountainous country has no world-famous beaches, medieval towns or
other conventional tourist spots. What Armenia can offer instead are
ancient monasteries, underlining its status as the first nation that
had adopted Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD.
Marriott’s Aslanian regularly deals with groups of mostly middle-aged
Americans and Europeans who want to learn more about eastern Christian
civilizations, and Armenian history and culture in particular. “These
are people who have been to many popular tourist destinations and
want to discover something new, something unusual,” she said.
This cultural, historical and religious aspect is the main emphasis
of tourism development programs approved by the Armenian government
each year. One such program adopted in December 2004 called for an
“aggressive” promotion of Armenia’s image abroad. This approach is
reflected in an upcoming visit to Yerevan by a delegation of as many
as 160 French travel agents and journalists. The delegation’s visit,
organized within the context of The Year of Armenia in France,
is considered so important that it was an agenda topic during a
government cabinet meeting on September 7.
Armenian officials will soon launch an advertising campaign on the
US-based cable news outlet, CNN International, to promote Armenia as
a travel destination. Apresian, the tourism department chief, insisted
that the undisclosed lump sum paid to CNN for the four-month deal will
be worth it. “The idea is to present Armenia as a peaceful and secure
country which has a rich heritage and is home to hospitable people,”
he said. “Armenia’s [post-Soviet] image abroad has been one of a hot
spot, a conflict zone. We have to change it.”
But industry executives say promotional campaigns like this will
not have desired effects unless the government does more do address
weaknesses hampering the sector’s development. One of them is a
continuing lack of inexpensive lodging, which allows the existing
hotels to set prices that are widely seen as disproportionately high
for a country like Armenia.
Air travel to Armenia is similarly pricey, despite more frequent
flight services between Yerevan and major European capitals. The high
costs of visiting are hardly an enticement for budget travelers,
and luring them in large numbers, analysts say, is vital for the
long-term development of the Armenian tourism industry.
Editor’s Note: Emil Danielyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and
political analyst.

TWELVE OFFICIALS ARRESTED
A1+
[06:41 pm] 14 September, 2006
Twelve people were arrested in connection with criminal case against
registration of real estate right via using false receipts. There
are high-rank officials among them who pocketed 1, 5 milliard AMD
from ordinary citizens.
Eight more citizens are under search, among them representatives of
state establishments. Sona Truzyan, press secretary of RA General
Prosecutor’s Office, affirmed this information. She said preliminary
investigation revealed 200 cases. As a result of the investigation
they learned that 1, 5 milliard AMD taken by citizens wasn’t entered
the state budget.
According to our refined data, a group of sly officials including
the names of ordinary workers, chief specialist and even the heads of
Cadastre sub-departments, came to an agreement to fraud certificates
and embezzle great sums of money in this way. As a result of it,
citizens or legal figures who tried to register their property in the
Cadastre were cheated by the crafty officials who suggested making
bank payment for them. Thus, only 1/3 taken from the citizens was
entered into state budget. The rest of the money the officials put
in their pockets. By the way, the receipts of “Areksinbank” and
“Armkhnaybank” were falsified.
R. Eghiazaryan, head of the Davitashen Cadastre department,
A. Sargsyan, chief specialist of the Erebuni registration department,
A. Khachatryan, chief specialist of legal department of the Ministry
of Energy, H. Ghambaryan, operator of “ArmPost” LTD delivery service
as well as Armen Zakaryan, head of the coordinating department of
Cadastre State Committee are among the crafty officials.
The investigation is under way. The above-mentioned people are accused
according to the 1st provision of Article 178 of the RA Criminal Code
and 1st provision of Article 203 for the embezzlement of great sums
of money and forgery of documents. They will probably be sentenced
to 9-year imprisonment.

PARLIAMENT DISCUSSES RULES WITH 9 DEPUTIES
Panorama.am
17:31 14/09/06
Only nine deputies were present at the session hall close to noon
break despite of the fact that 86 were registered. There were twice
as many reporters in the session hall. The deputies discussed draft
bill on parliament rules and considered the problem of absenteeism
and possible punishment measures. Some deputies also raised questions
to have a paid job of assistants to deputies. Under the present
conditions of absenteeism, this suggestion sounds like a mockery to
tax payers.

ROUND TABLE TO BE HELD IN ATATURK CULTURAL CENTER DEDICATED TO 88TH ANNIVERSARY OF LIBERATION OF BAKU FROM ARMENIAN OCCUPIERS
Author: J.Shahverdiyev
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
14.09.2006
On September 15, a round table will be held in Ataturk Cultural Center
dedicated to the 88th anniversary of liberation of Baku by the forces
of Azerbaijan and Turkey from the occupation of Armenian bolsheviks
on 15 September 1918, Trend reports with reference to the Center.
It was stated that on September 15 at 11:00, the participants will
visit the monument of Turkish soldier in Martyrs’ Avenue, and at
12:00, a round table will be held in the Center. The round table will
bring together the scientists, members of the Azerbaijani-Turkish
Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group and the representatives of
Turkish Embassy in Azerbaijan.
The event was initiated Ataturk Cultural Center.

OSKANIAN: MEETINGS OF ARMENIAN AND AZERI FMS SHOULD NOT BE END IN THEMSELVES
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.09.2006 16:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The final terms of the meeting of Armenian and
Azeri FMs are not specified yet, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian said. “Co-chairs of the OSCE MG for settlement of the conflict
seriously discuss the issue of a possible meeting of FMs.
However, our stance is that those meetings should not be an end in
themselves,” Oskanian told journalists in Yerevan Thursday. “We are
ready to meet at any time, however the atmosphere should be favorable
for discussing specific matters,” the FM added.
Azerbaijan makes every effort to distract attention from the Minsk
process, which is evidenced by inclusion of the issue on protracted
conflicts in the UN GA agenda, Oskanian believes. “Maybe Azerbaijan
wants to give up its agreement to the OSCE MG document, including
the referendum in NK and the self-determination principle by trying
to divert attention from the Minsk process to the UN,” the Minister
supposes. “Thus, our meeting is open to question before specification
of the processes in the UN,” Oskanian said. However, he did not rule
out the opportunity of holding a meeting, reports Novosti-Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress