ANTI-CRIMINAL MOVEMENT GIVES A CHANCE TO THE CRIMINAL
Lragir.am
11 Aug 06
We have learned that the anti-criminal movement in Armenia is going
to have new expressions. The initiators of the movement are going to
set up a task force, which will study the data gathered by the task
forces of the movement, and will make its decision for every “prodigal
son”. In other words, some representatives of the criminal may get a
chance of pardon of the public. Hence, it will be rather useful for
the criminal to cooperate with the anti-criminal pact if it hands in
the pages of its own biography honestly. Unlike the Armenian Apostolic
Church, the pact provides for the mechanism of individual repentance,
as well as privacy of the confession. By the way, some members of the
Republican Party wished to join the task force, who are dissatisfied
with the developments inside and around the political party.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA-DIASPORA FORUM ENRICHES ONES AND IMPOVERISHES OTHERS
Lragir.am
11 Aug 06
The Lragir.am has learned that a group of Armenian Dashnaks from
Greece wanted to arrive in Armenia in September and take part in
the third Armenia-Diaspora Forum, however they encountered the real
nature of the Armenia-Diaspora relation long before arriving in
Yerevan. After reserving air tickets, the group of Greek Armenians
decided to reserve rooms in a hotel in Yerevan. All the hotels in
Yerevan told them that there were no vacant rooms. Certain people from
the organizational committee of the Armenia-Diaspora Forum offered
the group of Diasporan Armenians to stay at hotels near the capital
and informed them that they would have to pay as much as 5000 U.S. for
ten days, food not included. The group of Dashnak patriots, including
mainly elderly Diasporans, thought that a “5000 dollar worth forum”
is too expensive and gave up the idea of arriving in Armenia at all,
returning the air tickets they had reserved.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IT IS NOT FAVORABLE FOR PEOPLE WHO RELY ON ARMENIA
James Hakobyan
Lragir.am
11 Aug 06
In Armenia a home political panic occurred, and the reflection of it is
not only the “maneuver” of the Republican Party. The exchange rate of
the dollar is perhaps a more vivid example of this panic. Of course,
when it is 40 degrees C outside, not only the dollars but also the
presidents on it would love to float, but it is impossible to float
all the time, for one can become tired and get drowned. And it is
not only impossible to swim all the time but also to remain in the
government. The elite in Armenia understood this, or part of this
elite. And the panic shows that they not only understood but also
understood everything may happen earlier than they could imagine. And
since it is not too late, they must use the possibilities of power. And
the exchange rate is one of these possibilities, maybe even the best
one. It is clear to a young child that with a low exchange rate of the
dollar one can buy a lot of dollars with fewer drams. It seems that
presently it is not favorable to buy dollars because it is growing
cheaper. On the other hand, it is not favorable for those people who
rely on Armenia, in other words, the citizens who do not have bank
accounts abroad and offshore companies. The same child would realize
that the government elite and big businessmen have such bank accounts
and companies. Consequently, they prefer the dollar to the dram. Hence,
by bringing down the exchange rate of the dollar they manage to buy
millions of dollars for a cheaper price at the expense of citizens,
who receive transfers, and tourists. It should be done as quickly as
possible, as long as they are in power. And they do.
However, they do this not only at the expense of citizens and
tourists. They accumulate millions at the expense of foreign projects
implemented in Armenia. These are implemented in dollars. It is clear
that in Armenia the dollar is exchanged for drams, consequently, the
cheaper they buy the dollars of Lincy, for instance or international
loan projects, the more they will buy. In fact, they are not worried
that the dropping exchange rate causes the costs of these projects
implemented in dollars to go up. For instance, if Lincy’s 60 million
dollars was calculated several years ago by an exchange rate, during
the implementation of the project, when the dollar amount comes to
Armenia, the exchange rate is quite different. With 60 million dollars
we deal with a difference of several million drams.
But we the citizens of Armenia deal with this difference. The
government does not have anything to do with it, the government is
concerned only about their own purse.
Especially that the sudden fluctuations and dropping of the exchange
rate of the dollar provides excellent conditions for maneuvers. The
point is that during implementation of Lincy or any big loan projects
some amount of money becomes “material for digestion”.
Therefore, the money is never enough for the projects. The evidence
to this is the first project of Lincy, when the volume of work was
reduced because the money was not enough. For instance, in Gyumri
high rises were built with fewer floors. Hence, the juggling of the
exchange rate of the dollar is an excellent way for the government
to justify the shortage of money. The exchange rate went down, day
by day, and the money of the project is not enough. Let them not give
more money, at least they will not demand account for the past.

MILLI MAJLIS TO DISCUSS ISSUES CONCERNING NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Author: J. Shakhverdiyev
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Aug. 10, 2006
The issue to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been sounded
in the Parliament, the member of the Political Council of the Ruling
Party of Yeni Azerbaijan, the Chairman of the Permanent Commission
on Defense and Security Matters Aydin Mirzazadeh told Trend.
He pointed out that the Milli Majlis supports President Ilham Aliyev`s
existing position toward the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. “That is not
only the position of members of parliament from Yeni Azerbaijan
Party; this is the position of all the members of the parliament. The
President`s position sooner or later will bring us to the recovering
of our territories”, stated A. Mirzazadeh.
The MP pointed out that it was several times when there were
discussions concerning this issue in the Parliament. A. Mirzazadeh
underlined that both chairmen of parties and politicians not
representing in the Milli Majlis can take part in discussions devoted
to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

ECONOMIC INTERVENTION IS NECESSARY
Lragir.am
11 Aug 06
“The depreciation of the dollar is the result of certain forecasts
and I wouldn’t say that it is only an Armenian syndrome, on the other
hand, it is evident that the exchange rate of the dollar drops, but
there is no decline in prices,” announced Abgar Yeghoyan, the chair
of Protection of Consumers’ Rights NGO.
Abgar Yeghoyan thinks there is a problem of misuse of power and
inappropriate economic competition, which it may need to settle. In the
meantime, Abgar Yeghoyan endorses the use of public reserve funds and
trade intervention policy. “If the price of butter does not decline,
one may have only 20 tons of butter and sell it cheaply, the breaching
the cartel agreement. Similar levers were used in all the countries
where they wanted to establish the sphere of protection of the rights
of consumers.” And economic interventions take place in the financial
sphere. This is not happening, and the chair of Protection of Human
Rights NGO thinks that the government needs to think on this.

AIDS KILLED 91 In Armenia
ArmRadio.am
11.08.2006 16:10
91 lethal incomes of AIDS have been recorded in Armenia over 18 years
since the first case of the disease in Armenia, Arminfo reported.
According to the Republican HIV/AIDS Prevention Center, among the
victims were 18 women and 3 children. The first lethal income of AIDS
in Armenia was registered in 2001. The number of AIDS-infected has
sharply risen also this year. Since the beginning of the epidemic in
1988, 141 cases of AIDS were recorded.
Since the registration of the first HIV-AIDS infected patient, the
number of HIV-infected patients reached 420 people (96 women and 8
children). This year 51 new cases of HIV were fixed. Majority of women
(92.7%) were neither prostitutes nor drug addicts. They were infected
by their own husbands, who in their turn, got the infection in CIS,
particularly in Russia and Ukraine. 53.2% of the infected men are drug
addicts. The specialists of the Center say the official statistics
cannot display the real situation with HIV-AIDS in the country as
the real figures ten times exceed the official statistics.
According to the assessment of the Center’s personnel, there are over
3,000 HIV-infected people in Armenia.

POLISH PREMIER VISITS NAZI CAMP SITE IN RESPONSE TO GERMAN EXPELLEES’ EXHIBITION
TV Polonia, Warsaw
10 Aug 06
Presenter] And now about the Berlin exhibition that was opened to
the public today and that has been arousing enormous controversy
for a long time. The exhibition devoted to expulsions in Europe was
organized by the head of the German Expellees Association, Erika
Steinbach. Most Polish commentators feel that this is a successive
step leading towards the obliteration of the truth about World War II.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski broke-off his holiday today and
visited the German concentration camp site at Sztuthof [Polish:
Sztutowo – in northern Poland]. He said that he had done so in order
to recall who had been the aggressor and who had allowed this enormous
crime. Here is [reporter] Jacek Karnowski:
[Reporter] A successive exhibition, and successive controversies. The
expellees are taking care that the memory of their wrongs will remain
constantly alive. In Berlin, they are showing their fate alongside
that of other nations that have lost their homelands: Armenians,
Bosnians, Jews. There is also a lot about Poles – those who were
expelled from the East and from the Zamosc region.
[Erika Steinbach, head of the Expellees Association, with Polish
translation overlaid] I would also like this exhibition to be
visited by Poles. This would please me very much, we could talk
about everything.
[Reporter] The German expellees thus want to be perceived like other
victims of ethnic cleansing. And this is what arouses the greatest
fears. There is little room here for any indication of who was the
exclusive perpetrator of the wartime cataclysm.
[Jaroslaw Kaczynski, prime minister of the Republic of Poland]
There was an aggressor at the time, there was a state that admitted
enormous atrocities, there were authorities with wide social support
that decided on these atrocities and that planned them.
[Reporter] In reply to the exhibition, the prime minister today visited
the former camp at Sztuthof, a place where the Germans murdered 65,000
people. He paid homage to completely innocent victims, those who were
not aggressors but also those who resisted.
[Helga Hirsch, commentator, in German, with Polish translation
overlaid] There is no coincidence that the Polish prime minister
travelled today to Sztuthof. I can say that I am sad that Poles cling
so strongly to their stereotypes. We here perceive your suffering.
[Reporter] The Berlin exhibition is a testing ground. If it is
well-received, the road to the construction of the Centre Against
Expulsions will be considerably shortened, and then the expellees
will write their fate into the German identity on a lasting basis.
[Frank Herold, Berliner Zeitung journalist, in German, with Polish
translation overlaid] The subject of the expellees is not the main
problem in Germany, but the interest is indeed large. The expulsions
play a greater role in public debate than they did 10-15 years ago.
[Reporter] Erika Steinbach cannot in fact call herself an expellee. Her
parents occupied this house in Rumia [near Gdansk] after the outbreak
of war [in 1939]. Her father was a soldier in the Wehrmacht and her
mother was an official from Berlin. Despite this, she is close to
the success of her life – the construction of the centre.
[Professor Czeslaw Madajczyk, Polish Academy of Sciences] This is
also a bit of a test of the resistance of the Polish side – how far
such things will be accepted and how far not.
[Reporter] Small groups of German and Polish young people protested
against the exhibition. But the head of the German parliament turned
up at the opening. For some Poles, this is proof that the expellees
are successfully persuading the German elites to their point of view.
[Irena Lipowicz, expert on German affairs] This threatens to bring a
deviation from the very much tried and tested line of Polish-German
reconciliation that was commenced by the letter of the Polish bishops
to the German bishops [in 1965].
[Reporter] Sixty years after the war, we can thus see the beginnings
of a successive struggle for memory. This is why the authorities in
Warsaw are returning to the idea of calculating all Polish losses
from the wartime years.
[Krzysztof Olendzki, deputy minister of culture] The point is for us
to know how large was the scale of genocide, to become aware of this,
so that this can never happen again.
[Reporter] Contrary to announcements, the Polish-German treaty of
1990 was not shown at the exhibition in Berlin – this was the treaty
in which Berlin renounced its claims to its former [eastern] lands.

“SIDE INCOME” IN DRAM AMOUNTS
Lragir.am
11 Aug 06
The dropping exchange rate of the dollar brought about panic and
uncertainty among certain officials of Armenia. Their salaries are
naturally in drams. But the salary is not a source of income for them
but an alibi rather. They earn their living in dollars. “Side income”
is meant. We have learned that certain public officials decided to
take the “side income” in drams. However, our source has not found out
yet by which exchange rate they will calculate the “side income”. In
brief, this information proves the effectiveness of the policy of
revaluation of the dram.

HERD ENTERS MINED ZONE IN VOSKEPAR
Noyan Tapan
Aug 10 2006
IJEVAN, AUGUST 10, NOYAN TAPAN. In consequence of carelessness
of the herdsman of the village of Voskepar, Tavush marz, the herd
left without control entered the border mined zone on August 8. The
explosion of mines killed 10 of 33 cows. The herdsman, with the cow
owners’ and border-guards’ assistance, managed to drive other 23 cows
out of the mined field.

DIRECTOR OF “MERCI” FASHION JEWELRY SHOP KILLED IN HIS FLAT
Noyan Tapan
Aug 10 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, NOYAN TAPAN. Dead body of Armen Grigorian, the
“Merci” fashion jewelry shop director, with numerous tures of skull
bones, was found on early August 9. The dead body was found in the
latter’s flat, on the bed, with tied hands and feet. A.Grigorian
died at his place, because of serious body injuries. According to the
information of the RA Prosecutor’s General Office, a criminal action
was brought on the fact at the Prosecutor’s Office of the Yerevan
communities of Kentron and Nork-Marash. The action was brought on
the signs of Article 104.1 of the RA Criminal Code.