VTB ARMENIA CO-OWNER MAY SELL STAKE TO VNESHTORGBANK
SKRIN Market & Corporate News
August 31, 2006 Thursday 11:50 AM GMT
Armenian entrepreneur Mikhail Bagdasarov is planning to sell his 30%
stake of VTB ARMENIA (former ARMSBERBANK), the Banki.Ru information
portal reported. Bagdasarov is currently negotiating the sale
with VNESHTORBANK (VTB), which owns 70% of the bank and holds the
priority right to buy the shares. In addition, talks are under way
with other potential investors. Earlier in March 2004, VTB bought 70%
of ARMSBERBANK shares. VTB ARMENIA equity capital stood at $18 mln at
the end of 1H2006. Bagdasarov owns the ARMAVIA air company in Armenia,
the MICA CEMENT plant and the MICA LTD oil trader.

LEBANESE ARMENIANS OPPOSE TURKISH TROOPS IN UN FORCE
Agence France Presse — English
August 31, 2006 Thursday 6:58 PM GMT
Several hundred Lebanese Armenians protested Thursday outside the
United Nations headquarters against the planned participation by
Turkish troops in a UN peacekeeping force.
They urged UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in a letter to “hear the
voice of Armenians who are an active force in Lebanon” and bar the
soldiers from joining the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
(UNIFIL).
On Monday, Turkish authorities said they would contribute to a
reinforced UNIFIL mission aimed at underpinning a truce in south
Lebanon between Israeli forces and Shiite Hezbollah guerrillas.
The Armenians waved banners which read: “Turkish atrocities in Lebanon
disqualify them for peacekeeping missions.”
The slogans referred to the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman
empire in 1915-1917 and the concurrent Ottoman occupation of Lebanon.
Lebanon hosts the largest community of Armenians in the Arab world.
They form a political force and are actively engaged in a campaign
for international recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Rally organisers also distributed an open letter to the Turkish
government.
“Countries that contribute to the peacekeeping force must be neutral,
this is not the case of Turkey which has signed a security and military
cooperation accord with Israel,” it read.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN ARMENIA GROWS 28% IN H1
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
August 31, 2006 Thursday 7:06 PM MSK
Foreign investment in Armenia grew 27.9% year-on-year in the first
half of 2006 to $178.5 million, the National Statistics Service
told Interfax.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) grew 9.2% to $86.3 million. The
communications sector received 33.1% of the FDI, the mining industry
14.3%, air transport 9.4% and food industry 9.2%.
Lebanon was the biggest investor with $49.6 million (up 110% year-
on-year), including $652,700 of direct investment. Greece was second
with $37.9 million, down 35%, followed by Argentina – $17.2 million
and Germany, which boosted investment 63.1-fold to $12.1 million.
Armenia received $19.2 million from Russia, up 41.9%, including $1.5
million in direct investment, down 2.3%.

AZERBAIJAN POSTS HIGHEST INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT GROWTH IN CIS IN 7 MTHS
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
August 31, 2006 Thursday 4:18 PM MSK
Azerbaijan posted the highest year-on- year industrial output growth in
the CIS in the first seven months of 2006 at 41.4%, the CIS Interstate
Statistics Committee said Thursday.
Industrial production increased 12.7% in Belarus, 6.2% in Tajikistan,
5.9% in Kazakhstan, 4.8% in Ukraine and 4.2% in Russia.
Production fell 8.9% in Kyrgyzstan, 6.7% in Moldova and 1% in Armenia.
The CIS statistics committee does not have industrial production
figures for Georgia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
GDP grew 6% year-on-year on average in the CIS in the first seven
months of 2006 and industrial production was up 5.3%.
GDP growth was highest in Azerbaijan at 35.1%. GDP went up 11.5%
in Armenia, 10.1% in Belarus, 7.2% in Tajikistan, 5.5% in Ukraine,
and 2.5% in Kyrgyzstan. GDP has not yet been calculated for the rest
of the CIS countries.

AZERBAIJAN WON’T NEGOTIATE WITH KARABAKH – MINISTRY
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
August 31, 2006 Thursday 2:28 PM MSK
Azerbaijan will not hold talks with the self-proclaimed republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh at the current stage of conflict settlement, head
of the Azeri Foreign Ministry’s information department Tair Tagizade
told Interfax.
“At the current stage any attempt to change the current format of
talks is doomed to failure,” Tagizade said.
Nagorno-Karabakh President Arkady Gukasian called for direct talks
between the sides earlier on Thursday.
“Gukasian understands it very well and such statements of his are aimed
only at meeting the domestic demands of the Armenian public,” he said.

AZERI ARMY CAN FREE OCCUPIED LANDS – DEFENSE MINISTER
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
August 31, 2006 Thursday 2:26 PM MSK
The Azeri army is strong and can cope with any tasks facing it, Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev said answering a question about the chances of
Turkey giving assistance should hostilities with Armenia resume.
“If a war [with Armenia] breaks out, the Azeri army won’t need the
assistance of the Turkish Armed Forces,” he said.
Azerbaijan is building up its capacities in procuring the necessary
arms and hardware for its army, he said.
“Azerbaijan will continue to boost its might for as long as Azeri
lands remain occupied,” Abiyev said.
Azeri media reports that EU Commissioner for External Relations
Benita Ferrero-Waldner sharply criticized Georgia and Azerbaijan for
growing defense spending at an international conference in Slovenia
last week. She said that spiraling defense spending in a region
requiring higher spending on education, health and small business is
poor policy- making.
Baku lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts
during in an armed conflict with Armenia in the early 1990s.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TRANSFERT – SUISSE: L’ARMENIEN VAHE TADEVOSYAN ENGAGE PAR LE FC AARAU
Agence France Presse
31 août 2006 jeudi 5:09 PM GMT
L’attaquant international armenien du FC Ararat Evena, Vahe Tadevosyan,
23 ans, a ete engage par le FC Aarau (1re div. suisse de football),
a indique mardi l’agence suisse SportInformation.
International a quinze reprises, il a ete elu attaquant de la saison
2006-2006 dans son pays.
–Boundary_(ID_O/QG1TsMIuKrqYlaySjLCA)–

AZERI PARLIAMENT MEMBER DEFIES EU WARNING
Armenpress
Aug 31 2006
BAKU, AUGUST 31, ARMENPRESS: A senior member of Azerbaijani ruling
party has openly defied a warning by Brussels that has voiced alarm
at the mounting risk of open warfare in the EU’s southeast neighbors
– Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – amid European plans to sign new
cooperation pacts and build new pipelines in the region.
Aidyn Mirzazade, a member of the ruling board of the governing Yeni
Azerbaijan party said his country must increase its military spending
as much as it needs to drive ‘Armenian occupants’ from Azeri lands.
His remarks came as retaliation to Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU external
relations commissioner’s speech in Slovenian city of Bled during the
‘Caspian Outlook’ international conference where she called on Georgia
and Azerbaijan to give up plans of settling their conflicts by use
of force. “Negative trends are coming together, the combination of
which is, frankly, alarming,” Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in Slovenia
on Monday (28 August), citing a recent upswing in aggressive rhetoric
and arms spending.
“Defense spending is going through the roof,” she stated, adding “there
is a serious danger of the rhetoric lowering the threshold for war”
in reference to the so-called “frozen conflicts” of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia in Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Georgia’s
military budget proportionally increased faster than any other
country’s in the world last year, while Azerbaijan has boasted that
its military budget in 2007 will be the size of the total budget
of Armenia.
“We shall never cede an inch of land to Armenians and the major
argument is to have an effective army equipped with modern weapons,”
the Azeri, Aidyn Mirzazade, was quoted by Azeri news agency Trend
as saying.

‘HAYASTAN’ FUND ANNOUNCES ABOUT STRICT SUPERVISION
By Susanna Margarian
AZG Armenian Daily
01/09/2006
“Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund once again touches upon the
construction of North-South highway in Nagorno Karabakh Republic
assuring that the constriction works are continuing according to
schedule. “Construction is being carried out simultaneously I 7
sections of the road. Construction of Kichan-Drmbon’s 5.2 km long
section is in final stage. Construction of several other sections
nears its end,” a statement reads.
During the year of 2006 “Hayastan” Fund has paved 90 thousand sq
meters of the highway. To solve the problem connected with bitumen
importing and to help construction organizations, the Fund has signed
an agreement of $1 million 2 thousand in 2006 as a result of which
1200 tones of bitumen have been imported to Armenia.
“As to the quality of construction, problems can occur in any
circumstance, and if needed the Fund turns to NKR government and other
authorized organs as well as strictly warns contractor companies. In
general, the Fund has made stricter its control over the quality of
the work,” the Fund’s administration states.

THERE ARE SERIOUS OBSTACLES FOR NAGORNO KARABAKH REGULATION
AZG Armenian Daily
01/09/2006
In an August 30 interview with Novie Izvestiya newspaper Karel
de Gucht, OSCE Chairman-in-Office of the and Foreign Minister of
Belgium, stated that the OSCE has to take a number of measures to
settle “frozen conflicts” in the territory of the CIS. “I have met the
leaders of conflicting sides, proposed all possible services but it’s
impossible to settle those conflicts only by the OSCE’s efforts. Our
success largely depends on aspiration and will of the sides,” he said.
Karel de Gucht also underscored that though a window of opportunity
was opened for the regulation of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, essential
success was not marked during the meetings of Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents in Paris and Bucharest. “There are serious obstacles, and
to overcome them both presidents need wisdom and courage. Belgium’s
chairmanship together with the Minsk Group co-chairs will do everything
advancement of the regulation process,” the OSCE Chairman-in-Office
said.