ARMENIA IS EXPECTED TO BE GRANTED STATUS OF FREE MARKET ECONOMY BY LATE 2006
Noyan Tapan
Sept 07 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, NOYAN TAPAN. It is expected that Armenia will be
granted status of a free market economy by late 2006. The RA Deputy
Minister of Trade and Economic Development Tigran Davtian told NT
correspondent about it.
According to him, the required voluminous package of documents
necessary for being granted the indicated status has already been
submitted to the appropriate bodies of the European Union, and this
package is now under consideration.
T. Davtian said that Armenia is “one of the first countries in the
queue” to receive status of a free market economy. He noted that
the European commission promised to consider the issue of granting
status to Armenia until late 2006. “In my opinion, we’ll receive a
positive answer by the end of this year, otherwise – by early 2007
as the negotiations on the documents submitted are proceeding quite
well, and there is mutual confidence between the two sides that the
problem of Armenia’s status will be solved,” he underlined. The deputy
minister said that only two CIS countries have the status of a free
market economy.

UN AGAIN POSTPONES DISCUSSION OF DRAFT RESOLUTION ON SITUATION IN KARABAKH
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 13:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The discussion of the draft resolution on the
situation in Nagorno Karabakh at the UN General Assembly (GA)
is postponed till September 7. Representatives of all UN member
states, including Azerbaijan and Armenia work over the final version
of the document, which will be submitted for consideration by the
Assembly. The resolution will be adopted based on consensus, which
means the accord of all UN GA members over the issue, including
Armenia.
OSCE MG co-chairs hold consultations with interested parties to work
out a coordinated version of the resolution language for adoption
by the UN GA session, reports Leader Azeri TV channel. We note that
earlier the discussions of the situation in NK at the UN GA were
postponed from September 5 to 6.

ARMENIAN AND AZERI YOUTH MEET IN ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 13:23 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian and Azeri youth had a meeting at Gugark
children’s and youth camp in Lori region of Armenia. The event, called
Mutual Trust Camp, was organized with participation of Helsinki Civil
Initiative organization. Young people from Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh participated in the initiative.
Within the framework of the project, Azeri participants visited an
Azeri cemetery not far from Vanadzor town, which was lately restored
by the Vanadzor branch of Helsinki Civil Initiative NGO.
Within a few days the Azeri participants learned to Armenian Kochari
and make a declaration of love in Armenian, while Karabakh residents
got an opportunity to taste pilaf and traditional tea, reports Day.az.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US SENATE RESUMES HEARINGS ON NOMINATION OF AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 13:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On September 7 the US Committee on Foreign
Relations will resume hearings on nomination of Richard E. Hoagland,
of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of
Armenia. Besides, the meeting will consider nomination of John
Robert Bolton, of Maryland, for the Representative of the United
States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status of
Ambassador, and the Representative of the United States of America
in the Security Council of the United Nations, says a release placed
at the US Senate website.
We note that US incumbent Ambassador in Yerevan John Evans
has completed his diplomatic mission and is leaving Armenia in
mid-September. We remind that 9 out of 18 members of the Commission
were against recall of John Evans in August 2006. They also
considered that Hoagland’s candidacy does not fit for the position
of the Ambassador to Armenia, as he does not acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey.

BUSH RECOGNIZED EXISTENCE OF CIA SECRET PRISONS
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 13:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ US President George Bush has recognized the
existence of CIA secret prisons. He reported that 14 prisoners, kept
there on suspicion in complicity in terrorist actions, are sent to
an American base in Guantanamo in Cuba and they will appear before
the court. Among them is Halid Sheik Mohammed, considered one of the
organizers of the September 22 attacks on New York and Washington.
In the President’s words, he reported about the CIA prisons, as the
interrogation of the prisoners is complete. Another cause is that the
US Supreme Court has banned using military tribunals for considerations
of cases of people suspected of terrorism.
This spring the European Parliament commission has established
that governments of some European countries had helped the CIS to
secretly transport suspects. Human rights organizations stated that
US authorities took suspects to countries, where they were tortured.
Dick Marty, who being commissioned by the CE studied the issue of
secret prisons, stated that European governments should make public
the information they have on the CIA secret program, reports the BBC
Russian Service.

PEOPLE IN TURKEY PROTEST AGAINST TROOP DEPLOYMENT IN LEBANON
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 14:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Some 15 thousand people throughout Turkey had taken
to the streets on Tuesday to protest against the government motion,
which allowed deployment of Turkish troops in Lebanon. Anti-war
activists protesting against the troop deployment in Lebanon clashed
with anti-riot police in Ankara on Wednesday as Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was receiving UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Some 300 leftist activists gathered at crossroads and closed the
traffic to march to the Prime Ministry on Wednesday afternoon. Police
set up a barricade and did not allow the protestors to march to the
Prime Minister’s House where PM Erdogan was receiving Annan.
Rejecting to end their protest, masked activists began to clash with
police who later used tear gas to disperse the protestors. Police
chased the activists down to the side streets and detained dozens
of them.
Some protestors threw stones to the Ankara office of the ruling
Justice and Development Party, headed by the country’s PM, reports
Cihan News Agency.

NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR EU COOPERATION CREATED UNDER ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 14:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During its today’s recurrent session the Armenian
Government decided to form a National Council for Cooperation with
the EU, as well as a Commission to coordinate the cooperation,
reports the Press Service of the Armenian Government. The statute
of the Council and the Commission were adopted at the meeting, as
well as their composition, chaired by the Armenian PM. The National
Council will include civil society representatives, elected based on
their experience and the goal of the organizations they represent.

ASSOCIATION SPENDS 5 MILLION DRAMS TO FIND OUT HOW MANY MINIBUS DRIVERS SMOKE WHILE DRIVING
Armenpress
Sept 07 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian Medical Association
has spent 5 million drams to carry out a three-month long program to
monitor the application of the anti-tobacco law in public transport
and raise the population’s awareness about smoking risks.
Some 2.3 million drams of this money were a presidential grant given
to the Association as the winner of a competition announced to choose
an organization to carry out the program. The other 2.7 million drams
were the Association’s input.
Parunak Zelveyan, the president of the Association, told a news
conference today that the survey found that 5 of 10 minibus drivers
defy the requirements of the anti-tobacco law by smoking while
driving. He said some 500 passengers and 100 drivers were covered by
the survey that also found that out of 100 drivers 77 are smokers.
Only 23 percent of drivers put out their cigarettes when passengers ask
them to do so and only 42 percent of drivers knew that the law forbids
their smoking when driving, while 21 percent never heard of the law.
Of passengers only 34 percent knew about the law.
Almost 95 percent of male and 84 percent of female passengers spoke
against drivers’ smoking while driving. They said they never rebuke
drivers for smoking just to avoid conflicting situations.
Zelveyan said after the end of the program chief managers of companies
running minibuses were invited for a consultation but only one turned
out. When asked by telephone the managers said they forbid their
drivers to smoke while driving.
Zelveyan said a sub-law envisaging a punishment for smoking drivers
should be developed and applied, but he did not elaborate what kind
of measure could be applied.

STATEMENT OF YEREVAN PRESS CLUB, JOURNALISTS UNION OF ARMENIA, INTERNEWS ARMENIA, COMMITTEE TO PROTECT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, HELSINKI COMMITTEE OF ARMENIA, CENTER OF LAW AND FREEDOM
Panorama.am
16:40 07/09/06
In the morning of September 6 our colleague, the Editor of “Iravunk”
newspaper Hovhannes Galajian, was attacked and beaten.
During the past months the cases of threats and violence against
journalists and media have become more frequent, yet those guilty have
either not been found or have not been punished. Yerevan Press Club,
Journalists Union of Armenia, Internews Armenia, Committee to Protect
Freedom of Expression, Helsinki Committee of Armenia, Center of Law
and Freedom have repeatedly announced that the unpunished violations
of freedom of speech and press generate new crimes: people, incapable
of civilized dialogue, choose the way of intimidating journalists
and media.
In our country it seems to become a sad tradition of striking the
media at the times of political tension.
Such attitude towards media, intensifying in the view of upcoming
parliamentary elections, endangers the possibility to ensure
transparent elective process.
We condemn this yet another act of violence against the journalist,
and we demand that the law enforcement bodies find and punish the
implementers and orderers of this perpetration.
Yerevan Press Club Journalists Union of Armenia Committee to Protect
Freedom of Expression Internews Armenia Helsinki Committee of Armenia
Center of Law and Freedom September 7, 2006.

THEY WILL EXERT PRESSURE BUT NOT ON EVERYBODY
A1+
[03:11 pm] 07 September, 2006
The pressure exerted on Hovhannes Galajyan, editor-in-chief of the
newspaper “Iravounq” was not restricted with beatings. Hovhannes
Galajyan claims that those “villains” rang him at about 4:00a.m.,
swore and threatened him once more. Asked what threats they said
Hovhannes Galajyan answered “ordinary” ones.
Anyway, Galajyan doesn’t consider himself a “sufferer” and assures
that nothing will change either in his behaviour or in the activity
of the newspaper.
Today a number of media representatives have gathered to discuss the
mechanisms which might ensure the free and independent activity of
journalisms in Armenia.
Everybody realizes that the pressure exercised on journalists
will still strengthen. Pressure will be mainly directed to the
representatives of press as even the European specialists mentioned
that “diversity of opinions is provided mainly by press.”
Tigran Haroutyunyan, director of “Noyan Tapan” Agency claims that the
beating of journalists is “the logical continuation of the actions
which began a few years ago. Narine Dilbaryan, member of the Press
National Club, noted that the illegality existing in the country has
gone out of control. “Even the authorities cannot control the criminal
elements, whose crimes were revealed. The illegality is already ruled
from a few centres.””
At the end of long debate they came to the conclusion that journalists
must combat against pressure with joint efforts. But it won’t work
either as the sphere of journalism is disrupted. Hayk Gevorgyan, a
correspondent of “Haykakan Jamanak” daily, reminded the time when the
disruption began. After the embattlement of “A1+” and “Noyan Tapan”
TV Channels, a number of “free and responsible” media separated from
the whole sphere and made an announcement according to which there
is no freedom of speech in Armenia. The fact that the auditorium was
overcrowded at the beginning of today’s discussion and it became
deserted only 30 minutes later testifies to the fact that today
journalists cannot unite and they still remain in various parts of
“barricades.”