ADVISOR OF GEORGIAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA DIED IN CAR ACCIDENT
Georgian Times, Georgia
Oct 9 2006
Gocha Merabishvili, Advisor for security issues of the Georgian
Ambassador to Armenia, died in a car accident in Yerevan.
News-Armenia news agency informs that according to Armenian Police, the
car accident occurred on the Ashotsk-Gumry highway (Shirak district)
on Saturday.
According to the Police, a car Mercedes-Benz-E200, driven by Gocha
Merabishvili, turned out from the highway and got into the gorge.
As a result he died on the spot and his son ans spouse were injured
and taken to the hospital.
The criminal case according t the article “Violation of exploitation
rules and transport movement” was instituted against the fact.
The case is under investigation.

OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS CONSIDER MOSCOW TALKS AS USEFUL & CONCISE
Author: E.Huseynov
TREND, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2006
The talks held with the Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers on
October 6 in Moscow were very useful and concise, the Russian Co-chair
of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov exclusively told Trend.
According to him, both Ministers positively assessed the
consultations. I think that the co-chairs share their opinion,
Merzlyakov stated. The diplomat pointed out that after getting a
response from both parties as to the presentation of the proposals
regarding “base principles” of the settlement, the mediators continued
talks. During the Moscow meeting, the Minsk Group co-chairs were united
in their opinion with regards to the elements of several principles
having differences, Merzlyakov said, adding that we hope to achieve
mutual understanding in the talks that will continue on 24 October
in Paris.
The diplomat emphasized that during the Moscow meeting, debates
were not conducted on the organization of the next meeting of the
Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents. This question will be discussed
in Paris. In addition, Merzlakov refuted the previous statement that
the meeting of the leaders of the conflict parties may take place at
the Summit of CIS on 17 October in Minsk. According to the diplomat,
generally it is not planned hold a summit of CIS, this is planed
for November.
Merzlyakov also underlined that the meeting of the Council of the CIS
Foreign Ministers has been scheduled for 16 October in Minsk. Due to
the possible absence of the Armenian Minister at the event, it was
decided to organize their meeting on 24 October in Paris.

NATO REPRESENTATIVE TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA OCTOBER 11
TREND, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2006
(PanARMENIAN.Net) – NATO Special Representative for South Caucasus and
Central Asia Robert Simmons will arrive in Armenia October 11, RA MFA
Acting Spokesman Vladimir Karapetian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.
In his words, Simmons’ visit will last 2 days. “The Armenia-NATO
relations within the IPAP and many other issues will be discussed
within the visit framework,” Karapetian said, reports Trend.
From: Baghdasarian

TURKEY FORMER FM OFFERED TO DEPORT 70 000 ARMENIANS MIGRANTS
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2006
“Turkey should deport 70 000 Armenian migrants if the bill on
punishment for denying Armenian genocide is adopted by France
Parliament,” Yashar Yakish, Turkey former Foreign minister and chairman
of the Parliament’s Adaptation Commission to the EU said, APA reports.
He said 70 000 Armenians work illegally in Armenia.
“They will have problems when Turkey government sends them back to
Armenia. Armenians should realize its responsibility,” he said.

FINNISH PARLIAMENT SPEAKER SAYS TURKEY IS IMPORTANT FOR EU
TREND, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2006
(zaman) – Paavo Lipponen, the Finnish Parliament Speaker and Chairman
of the Party of European Socialists (PES), has stressed that Turkey’s
membership would be an asset for the European Union (EU).
Chairman Lipponen said at the Adnan Menderes Airport in Izmir on
Sunday that Turkey is a candidate country for the EU. “There is no
returning from that”, Mr. Lipponen underlined, reports Trend.
Mr. Lipponen assured that Finland, the current holder of the EU term
presidency, will keep doing its best to make progress on Turkey’s EU
bid, adding that there are still some problems. “We are working very
hard to overcome these problems”, he added.
Referring to the so-called Armenian genocide, Lipponen noted it could
not be a pre-condition for Turkey’s EU membership.
Lipponen will meet PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, FM Abdullah Gul and
Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc in Ankara during his contacts
in Turkey.

ASSYRIANS: IGNORED AMONG FEARS OF IRAQI CIVIL WAR
Source Assyria Times
UNPO – Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization
Oct 9 2006
The world is consumed by fears that Iraq is degenerating into a civil
war between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. But in this looming war of all
against all, it is Iraq’s small community of Assyrian Christians that
is at risk of annihilation.
Iraq’s Christian communities are among the world’s most ancient,
practicing their faith in Mesopotamia almost since the time of
Christ. The Assyrian Apostolic Church, for instance, traces its
foundation back to 34 AD and St. Peter. Likewise, the Assyrian Church
of the East dates to 33AD and St. Thomas. The Aramaic that many of
Iraq’s Christians still speak is the language of those apostles –
and of Christ.
When tolerated by their Muslim rulers, Assyrian Christians contributed
much to the societies in which they lived. Their scholars helped usher
in the “Golden Age” of the Arab world by translating important works
into Arabic from Greek and Syriac. But in recent times, toleration
has scarcely existed. In the Armenian Genocide of 1914-1918, 750,000
Assyrians – roughly two-thirds of their number at the time – were
massacred by the Ottoman Turks with the help of the Kurds.
Under the Iraqi Hashemite monarchy, the Assyrians faced persecution
for co-operating with the British during the World War I. Many fled to
the West, among them the Church’s patriarch. During Saddam Hussein’s
wars against the Kurds, hundreds of Assyrian villages were destroyed,
their inhabitants rendered homeless, and dozens of ancient churches
were bombed. The teaching of the Syriac language was prohibited
and Assyrians were forced to give their children Arabic names in an
effort to undermine their Christian identity. Those who wished to
hold government jobs had to declare Arab ethnicity.
In 1987, the Iraqi census listed 1.4 million Christians. Today, only
about 600,000 to 800,000 remain in the country, most on the Nineveh
plain. As many as 60,000, and perhaps even more, have fled since
the beginning of the insurgency that followed the United States-led
invasion in 2003. Their exodus accelerated in August 2004, after the
start of the terrorist bombing campaign against Christian churches by
Islamists who accuse them of collaboration with the allies by virtue
of their faith.
A recent UN report states that religious minorities in Iraq “have
become the regular victims of discrimination, harassment, and,
at times, persecution, with incidents ranging from intimidation to
murder.” It also observed that “members of the Christian minority
appear to be particularly targeted.”
Indeed, there are widespread reports of Christians fleeing the country
as a result of threats being made to their women for not adhering
to strict Islamic dress codes. Christian women are said to have had
acid thrown in their faces. Some have been killed for wearing jeans
or not wearing the veil.
This type of violence is particularly acute in the area around Mosul.
High-ranking clergy there claim that priests in Iraq can no longer
wear their clerical robes in public for fear of being attacked by
Islamists. Last January, coordinated car-bomb attacks were carried
out on six churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk; on another occasion, six
churches were simultaneously bombed in Baghdad and Mosul. Over the
past two years, 27 Assyrian churches have reportedly been attacked
for the sole reason that they were Christian places of worship.
The attacks go beyond targeting physical manifestations of the faith.
Christian-owned small businesses, particularly those selling alcohol,
have been attacked, and many shopkeepers murdered. The director of the
Iraqi Museum, Donny George, a respected Assyrian, says that he was
forced to flee Iraq to Syria in fear of his life, and that Islamic
fundamentalists obstructed all of his work that was not focused on
Islamic artefacts.
Assyrian leaders also complain of deliberate discrimination in the
January 2005 elections. In some cases, they claim, ballot boxes did
not arrive in Assyrian towns and villages, voting officials failed to
show up, or ballot boxes were stolen. They also cite the intimidating
presence of Kurdish militia and secret police near polling stations.
Recently, however, there are signs the Iraqi Kurdish authorities are
being more protective of their Christian communities.
Sadly, the plight of Iraq’s Christians is not an isolated one in the
Middle East. In Iran, the population as a whole has nearly doubled
since the 1979 revolution; but, under a hostile regime, the number of
Christians in the country has fallen from roughly 300,000 to 100,000.
In 1948, Christians accounted for roughly 20 percent of the
population of what was then Palestine; since then, their numbers
have roughly halved. In Egypt, emigration among Coptic Christians is
disproportionately high; many convert to Islam under pressure, and
over the past few years violence perpetrated against the Christian
community has taken many lives.
The persecution of these ancient and unique Christian communities,
in Iraq and in the Middle East as a whole, is deeply disturbing. Last
April, the European Parliament voted virtually unanimously for the
Assyrians to be allowed to establish (on the basis of section 5 of
the Iraqi Constitution) a federal region where they can be free from
outside interference to practice their own way of life. It is high
time now that the West paid more attention, and took forceful action
to secure the future of Iraq’s embattled Christians.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AMERICAN RADAR SYSTEMS, RUSSIAN BASES AND NATIONAL ARMED FORCES: THE STATE OF MILITARY AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN CAUCASUS
By Celia Chauffour
Today, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2006
143%. That is the number held by the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute (SIPRI) in a report made public on June 12th to
evaluate the increase in Georgia’s military expenditures in 2005. In
this military roster, the neighboring Southern Caucasian republics of
Azerbaijan and Armenia show increases in their armament expenditures
of 51% and 23% respectively.
What must one see behind this dizzying rise in military expenditures
by the Georgians? The Georgian authorities claim that it is linked to
the reforms the country is undertaking to integrate into NATO. Some
international capitals, particularly Moscow, object that Tbilisi’s
intention is to launch an armed reconquest of the secessionist regions
of Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia. One day after the publication
of SIPRI’s report, the Russian minister of defense, Sergei Ivanov,
in no way failed to highlight that the significant augmentation of
Georgian military expenditures elicited an “incontestable worry.”
Today, the Georgian defense budget totals 397.4 million laris (178
million euros), approximately 3% of the GDP. Georgia’s defense budget
also receives important aid from the United States and NATO.
Reforming Georgian Defense
In terms of defense, it is with a loud voice that the Georgian
government formulates itsthree main objectives. The first is to
facilitate the process of integration with NATO. “Our ultimate goal is
to equip the country with permanent armed forces and forces which are
interoperable with the Alliance’s other units in order to contribute
to international peace-keeping operations,” said Mamuka Kudava,
the Georgian vice-minister of defense, recalling immediately that 8%
of the Georgian armed forces are currently mobilized in peacekeeping
operations.
A second target in the Georgian ministry of defense’s line of sight
is the reformation of its system of management. For Mr. Kudava,
this means “using our logistical, financial and human resources
efficiently, and rendering the decision making and implementation
process more effective.” One example of the reforms underway is that
the Georgian defense ministry is giving its officer corps a face
lift. The actual command structure, inherited from the Soviet era,
will be progressively remodeled in order to equip the country with
an officer corps interarmed to NATO standards.
Trained and Equipped
The third and final declared objective of the ministry is to improve
the combat capacities of its armed forces. Any question of equipment
and training cannot fail to remind one that from May 2002 to April
2004, Georgia benefited from the Georgia Train and Equip Program
(GTEP), a program financed by the United States and led by American
instructors, which sought to form battalions of Georgian soldiers
for the ‘War on Terror.’
“Contrary to what some people were able to write, the goal of the
program was not simply to form a small group of Georgian soldiers
capable of assuring the protection of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC)
and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum (BTE) pipelines and their maritime
approaches. The arrangement undertaken by the United States goes
well beyond that. It is very much a heavy rearrangement of all of
the components of the Georgian army including transforming infantry
troops into special forces, made up by armored units as well as
police, customs and security services,” explains Cyrille Gloaguen,
a specialist in military issues and Russian security at l’Institut
Fransais de Geopolitique and a former collaborator with the United
Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) from 1998 to 2000.
A New Military Base in Senaki
As the crowning event of 2006 and the ultimate pride of the Georgian
defense, the inauguration of the military base at Senaki in western
Georgia will have made some noise. Begun in 2005, the construction
of this new base conforming to NATO standards will not be completed
until the end of 2006. The total cost? According to the figures given
by the Georgian authorities, the cost will reach 35 million laris
(15.6 million euros).
Following its launch, the Saakashvili administration plans to open
a similar building site in the coming months at Gori in central
Georgia. “The construction of this base will be launched in 2006,”
confirms Mr. Kudava.
In the eyes of numerous international observers, the location of
these bases is not insignificant. At a minimum, it raises questions
and doubts because the Senaki base is situated only 40 kilometers
from the border with separatist Abkhazia. The base in Gori will be
separated from Tskhinvali, the capital of the secessionist republic
of Southern Ossetia, by only some thirty kilometers.
Even if Tbilisi pleads for a peaceful resolution to these separatist
conflicts, it is an undeniable fact that these two bases are as many
negative signals for the two unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and
Southern Ossetia. Although the construction of these bases does not
fit into a military project of restoring the integrity of Georgian
territory, Abkhazians and Southern Ossetians give little credit to
the declared intentions of the Georgian government.
Abkhazian and Southern Ossetian Defense
Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia are equipped with de facto ministers
of defense, armed forces and police forces. These structures are
not recognized by the international community and are consequently
categorized as paramilitaries. In addition, in these two separatist
regions actual armed paramilitary groups are evolving which are not,
or practically are not, under the control of the local authorities.
Finally, both Tskhinvali and Sukhumi have the ability to mobilize
a large portion of the male population in case of a threat or for
exercises.
But it is difficult to evaluate the latter group with precision. For
Southern Ossetia, estimates range between 2,000 and 6,000 men.
Concerning Abkhazia, one can retain that the last two military
exercises conducted in March and April 2006 mobilized 4,000 and 5,000
men respectively, including reservists.
The Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in Abkhazia are comprised of
1,300 men. In Southern Ossetia, the battalions of joint peacekeeping
forces are made up by 500 Russian soldiers to which 500 Northern
Ossetians and 300 Georgians are adjoined.
The Departure of Russian Soldiers from Georgia
Back to Georgia. Although it was largely publicized, the two building
sites at Senaki and Gori, one nearly completed and the other in the
planning stage, will not have stolen the thunder from the national
military agenda’s major push: the retreat of Russian troops from
Georgia.
In Moscow in 2005, the then Georgian minister of foreign affairs,
Salome Zurabishvili, demanded the closure of the two Russian bases on
Georgian territory (in Batumi and Akhalkalaki) and the process is under
way today. The Russian base at Akhalkalaki which will definitively
close its doors at the end of 2007 will be completely emptied of its
heavy equipment and weapons between now and the end of 2006.
In mid-June, ten infantry combat vehicles (BMP), a reconnaissance
vehicle (BRDM) as well as a light armored troop transport vehicle
(MT-LB) left the Akhalkalaki base in order to be put into use in
Russia via Azerbaijani territory. Five Kamaz armed with 100mm canons
also left the base in the direction of Armenia where the arms will be
stocked on the Russian military base at Gioumri (in western Armenia).
>>From Conscripts to Professionals
Another thread to follow is the professionalization of the Georgian
army. Today 60% of the country’s armed forces, which totaled
17,500 men in 2005, are comprised of volunteers. According to the
Georgian minister of defense, Irakli Okruashvili, conscripts will
be completely replaced with professionals by 2009. This will be a
heavy and expensive reform and it will see the light of day only if
the ministry in question undertakes the difficult task of rapidly
and completely introducing reforms which will improve the management
of the armed forces. This includes, notably, playing the budgetary
transparency card.
For now, Georgian observers maintain that projects like the opening
of the base at Senaki are necessary to follow the road which leads
to NATO membership. But a strong army starts with well nourished
soldiers. As expected, the ministry categorically rejects this type
of accusation, arguing mainly that salaries have been “augmented in
a significant way since 2004”, brandishing even “an average raise
of 250%.” Critics of the living conditions of Georgian conscripts in
barracks regularly dismiss this argument.
Russian Bases in Armenia
In the neighboring republic of Armenia which the frozen Nagorno
Karabakh conflict has pitted against Azerbaijan for more than ten
years, Pavel Safarian, the vice-minister of the economy and finances,
recently announced a sensible increase in the defense budget for
2007. 34% of the state budget will be earmarked for defense, totaling
approximately 90 billion drams (172 million euros). In 2004, the
defense budget in Armenia was 78 million euros, as opposed to 108
million euros in 2005 and 131 million euros in 2006.
Members of the Armenian armed forces totaled 45,000 men in 2005,
of which 41,500 were ground troops. On the other hand, nobody can
ignore the presence of Russian troops from the Southern division of
the Group of Russian forces in the Transcaucasus (GRVZ; approximately
4,500 men) which assures the protection of the country’s borders
under the auspices of the CIS’s collective security agreement.
American Radar Systems
On the Azerbaijani side, the authorities shy away from communicating
about the sensible subject of defense. Figures vary and Baku cultivates
the imprecision. The country’s armed forces will mobilize 67,000
people, of which 57,000 are for the sole ground army.
According to figures from the International Institute for Strategic
Studies in London, the defense budget will reach 470 million euros
this year, as opposed to 247 million euros in 2005 and 195 million
euros in 2004. And oil revenues could allow for a considerable
augmentation of the military portfolio for 2007. But once again,
it is hazardous to give exact figures about Azerbaijan. According to
the numbers published by the Institut de Relations Internationales
et Strategiques (IRIS) in its Annee Strategique 2006, the military
budget of Azerbaijan reached 124 million Euros in 2005.
Outside of these military expenditures, Azerbaijan has attracted
international attention for the agreement which links it to the
United States. The agreement concerns the installation of American
radar systems on its soil, one 20 kilometers north of the Iranian
border in southern Azerbaijan and the other north of Baku, near the
Russian border.
For Oksana Antonenko, director of the Russia-Eurasia program at the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, these radar systems
“have the official objective of controlling contraband, including
the likely traffic of weapons of mass destruction via the Caspian sea.”
“However, it is clear that the technical characteristics and the
location of these radar systems near the Iranian and Russian borders
could allow them to assemble information and monitor northern Iran and
the eastern portion of the Russian North Caucasus – two particularly
unstable regions,” insists Ms. Antonenko. “These radar systems could
also control other activities in the Caspian sea, such as activities
of a military type, which have increased considerably with the steady
militarization of the Caspian.”
A Reinforced Cooperation Between Baku and Washington
It seems that in this affair, the American interests are evident. But
why has the Ilham Aliev regime accepted this military agreement? “I
believe that the agreement must be considered in the larger context
of Baku’s projects which aim to reinforce military relations with
Washington~Z- which partially explains the need to counterbalance the
developing Russian military presence in Armenia~Z- and in terms of the
more pressing need of the Azerbaijanis to pull a profit from their
partnership with the Americans,” maintains the expert. “The policy
of balance which Azerbaijan is judiciously playing in developing good
relations with the United States, Russia and Iran guarantee that its
military cooperation with Washington will not undermine its relations
with its two important neighbors. One must note however that Russia
is less preoccupied by military links, potential and real alike,
tying Baku to Washington than by the military cooperation displayed
between Georgia and the United States.”
Although it is less visible, the military cooperation between
Washington and Baku is developing. A revealing sign was in Baku where,
at Washington’s initiative, a conference of non-proliferation in
the Black and Caspian seas was held in the autumn of 2005. For the
occasion, marine officers from the coastal countries of the two seas
were reunited under the auspices of a fictional exercise to oppose a
fictional state baptized “The Purple Republic”, suspected of terrorist
activities and of detonating a nuclear weapon. No particular state
was targeted. The only certainty is the callous one following: Of the
coastal states convened to participate in the exercise, only Russia
and Iran were absent.

EU PARLIAMENTARIAN LAGENDIJK CRITICIZES FRANCE, THE NETHERLANDS
Hurriyet, Turkey
Oct 9 2006
The co-head of the EU-Turkey Parliament Commission, Joost Lagendijk,
has signalled his disapproval for the so-called Armenian genocide
denial bill which the French Parliament is scheduled to debate
this week. Lagendijk, who called on Turkey last week to get rid of
the controversial article 301 from its penal code, said yesterday
“To speak openly, right now, neither France nor the Netherlands are
showing respect for freedom of expression.
What this means is that they are quieting people down.” Lagendijk’s
criticism of the Netherlands came in the wake of news that several
ethnically Turkish candidates in upcoming elections across the
Netherlands were forced of their parties’ candidate lists when they
refused to acknowledge the so-called Armenian genocide.
Lagendijk’s comments on the matter continued as follows: “To make
denial of the Armenian genocide a crime is an attempt to squelch
debate on this subject, and is incredibly risky. If want to maintain
our authority and believability in front of Turkey, we have to stay
away from these attempts to limit freedom of expression. I am opposed
to these efforts. Also, politics must never intrude on the debates
which occur between historians.”
Lagendijk touched in particular on the removal of the Turkish
candidates from election lists in his own country, the Netherlands:
“It is extremely worrisome that the Turks were removed as candidates
in my country. These questions are only being directed at the Turkish
candidates. Why don’t they ask me, or my collegue, Camiel Eurlings?
Maybe we also think differently on this subject.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SARKOZY MOVES ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
By Swaha Pattanaik
Independent Online, South Africa
Oct 9 2006
Paris – French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday set three
conditions for Turkey to avoid a vote by French deputies on a bill
making it a crime to deny Armenians suffered genocide at the hands
of Ottoman Turks.
Parliament, dominated by the Union for a Popular Movement that Sarkozy
leads, is due on Thursday to discuss an opposition Socialist bill on
Armenian deaths during World War One.
Turkey strongly denies the 1,5 million deaths constitute genocide.
Though the conservative majority in parliament opposes the bill, Turkey
fears many opponents will vote for the bill for fear of upsetting
France’s 400 000-strong Armenian diaspora ahead of presidential and
parliamentary elections next year.
Sarkozy, conservative frontrunner for the presidential race and
a long-standing opponent of Turkey’s EU entry, said he had set out
conditions for avoiding a vote in a telephone call with Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan.
“The first is that there is a bilateral commission between Armenia and
Turkey which has equal representation, so that these two countries can
conduct the work of acknowledging history,” he told France Inter radio.
“The second condition is that Turkey reopen its borders with Armenia.
And the third condition is that Turkey gives up its penal law which
forbids people speaking of the genocide in Turkey.”
He said he was not sure whether he had convinced Erdogan but added
that the Turkish premier had taken note of them.
Erdogan on Sunday criticised the bill and Turkish lawmakers warned
last week that illegal Armenian immigrants in Turkey may be expelled
and French trade hurt if the measure were passed.
Ankara strongly denies estimates that 1,5 million Armenians perished
at the hands of Ottoman Turks in a systematic genocide, saying large
numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in a partisan
conflict raging at that time.
Sarkozy also said Turkey was not guaranteed EU entry even if it
accepted calls for it to admit Armenians suffered genocide.
President Jacques Chirac has suggested recognition of the Armenian
“genocide” should be a condition of Turkish EU entry, but Sarkozy
said this would not be a sufficient condition.
“For me it is not a precondition to enter Europe. Because, to enter
Europe, the fact that a country has a duty to acknowledge its history,
as Germany did, is the minimum,” Sarkozy told France Inter radio.
“But it is not because one does one’s duty of acknowledging one’s
history that one has the right to enter Europe.”
Sarkozy, who says the European Union cannot expand indefinitely
and must have fixed borders, again criticised Ankara for failing to
properly recognise EU member Cyprus because of a dispute over the
divided island.
Turkey began its EU entry talks last year, though is not expected to
join for many years.

MICROSOFT SIGNS COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH VIVACELL ON THURSDAY
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Oct 9 2006
YEREVAN, October 9. /ARKA/. Microsoft signed a cooperation agreement
with VivaCell on Thursday, Vahe Torosyan, Microsoft Vice-President
for Central and Eastern Europe, said Friday at DigiTec-2006 second
international exhibition opening in Yerevan.
Torosyan said this agreement gives VivaCell the right to use
Microsoft-provided services throughout three years.
In his words, VivaCell will receive technical support from Microsoft
and the company personnel will upgrade their skill by using Microsoft
technologies.
Commenting on DigiTec2006 opening in Armenia, Torosyan said that the
exhibition will present achievements in Armenia’s IT area.
In his opinion, the area has enough capacity for development. He said
IT sector ensures 40% of economic growth in European countries.
The three-day exhibition opened on Friday in Yerevan. Some 50 companies
were presented in the exhibition, of which 20% are foreign.
The exhibition information sponsors are ARKA News Agency and AMI
Novosti-Armenia.