NEWLY APPOINTED GERMAN AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN HOPES FOR PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT
Baku, August 8. ArmInfo. During his Aug 7 meeting with Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev, newly appointed Ambassador of Germany to Azerbaijan
Per Christopher Stanchina expressed hope for peaceful settlement of
the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict, in the frame of
international principles, reports AzerTag.
Ambassador said he is aware of difficulties caused by delay of
settlement of the Armenia- Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict
and without solution of this problem Azerbaijan cannot realize its
full potential.
The Ambassador expressed pleasure for diplomatic activity in
Azerbaijan. Noting that realization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project
and integration of Azerbaijan to world policy and economy is of great
importance the Ambassador estimated the economic action scheduled
for late this year in Germany as significant. ‘Germany will make any
effort to assist Azerbaijan to join New Neighborhood Policy of the
European Union’, the Ambassador underlined.
The German diplomat said he would try for expansion of relations
between Azerbaijan and his country.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THERE ARE 100 LICENSED GUIDES IN ARMENIA
Yerevan, August 8. ArmInfo. There are over 100 licensed guides in
Armenia, says the head of the Tourism Department of the Trade and
Economic Development Ministry of Armenia Mekhak Apressyan.
License is given against higher education diploma or, at least,
three-years of experience in the sphere. Besides, a guide should know
well history, ethiucs, geography. A computer selects 100 questions
out of 1,000 and an applicant should answer them correctly to get
a license.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN HOTELS SEEK TO GET MORE “STARS”
Yerevan, August 8. ArmInfo. Of Armenian hotels only Golden Palace
has five stars yet, says the head of the Tourism Department of the
Trade and Economic Development Ministry of Armenia Mekhak Apressyan.
Metropol has four stars, Congress three stars. Stars are guarantee of
stable high quality and growing inflow of tourists. Stars help tourists
to choose best hotels – with high quality services and moderate prices.
To note, Armenia has 17,000 hotel places with only 6,700 of them
meeting international standards. Hotels can apply to the minister
for certain category and get stars if they really deserve them.

ARMENIAN CONSUMER MARKET GROWS BY 17.3% IN FIRST HALF OF 2006
Noyan Tapan
Aug 09 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, NOYAN TAPAN. In January-June 2006, the volume of
the Armenian consumer market made 635 bln 920.3 mln drams (about 1
bln 432.7 USD), exceeding the index of the same period of 2005 by
17.3%. According to the RA National Statistical Service, in the first
six months of 2006, trade (whose growth made 16.2% compared with the
first half of 2005) accounted for 67.8% of the consumer market (69.4%
in the same months of 2005) or 431 bln 110.4 mln drams. Services
accounted for 32.2% of the consumer market (30.6% in the first half
of 2005) or 204 bln 809.9 mln drams, with the volume of services
exceeding by 21.1% the index of the first half of 2005. In the first
half of 2006, retail trade accounted for 50.4% of the consumer market
(for 53.5% in 2005) or 320 bln 727.5 mln drams, growing by 12.1%
on the same period of last year.
Car trade accounted for 5.1% (3.7% in 2005) or 32 bln 673.4 mln drams,
exceeding the index of January-June 2005 by 52.5%. The index of car
trade includes both cars and spare parts sold at specialized trade
points and their technical servicing and repair.

RETAIL TRADE FACILTIES OF YEREVAN ENSURE 86.6% OF RETAIL TURNOVER
Noyan Tapan
Aug 09 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, NOYAN TAPAN. In January-June 2006, trade conducted
in Armenia’s shops and consumer goods markets accounted for a large
share of retail trade – 77.7% (249 bln 327.7 mln drams or about 567.1
mln USD). According to the RA National Statistical Service, Yerevan’s
retail trade facilities ensured 86.6% of retail trade (277 bln 998.3
mln drams). In January-June 2006, 50.2% of retail trade turnover
(161 bln 228 mln drams) was formed through shops.
46.1% of Armenian shops are specialized in food commodity trade,
42.8% – in nonfood commodity, and 11.1% – in mixed goods sale. Very
small shops (86%) prevailed in the total number of shops included
in statistical monitoring. Their trade turnover made up 29.2%,
while the trade turnover through big shops (ccounting for 1.1%
of the total number of shops) made up 40.9%. In January-June 2006,
the trade turnover at current prices in Armenian consumer markets
amounted to 88 bln 99.7 mln drams, which represents a 3.1% increase
compared with the index of the same period of 2005. The consumer
goods markets registered in Armenia are mainly specialized in
nonfood commodity trade. Particularly, 47 out of the 65 consumer
goods markets are markets specialized in nonfood commodity sale. 18
out of 24 markets in Yerevan, 7 of 8 markets in Shirak marz, 6
out of 7 markets in Gegharkunik marz, 3 of 4 markets in Lori marz,
3 of 7 markets in Kotayk marz, and consumer commodity markets in
Aragatsotn, Ararat and Syunik marzes are specialized in nonfood
commodity sale. The large share of nonfood commodities (86.5%) in
trade conducted in Armenian consumer goods markets is conditioned by
this fact. The volume of Yerevan’s retail trade in January-June 2006
exceeded 2.5fold the average republican index. The economic activity
of the retail markets in other marzes fluctuated from 9.9% to 35%
with respect to the average republican index. As of July 1, 2006,
the commodity resources at Armenian retail trade facilities made 56
bln 925.5 mln drams.
Trade conducted in the agricultural produce markets in January-June
2006 accounted for 3% of the total retail trade or 9 bln 709.2
mln drams.

AREAS UNDER GRAIN CROPS REDUCED IN ARMAVIR MARZ
Noyan Tapan
Aug 09 2006
ARMAVIR, AUGUST 9, NOYAN TAPAN. Over the last three years, the areas
under gain crops in Armavir marz have been reduced almost to half –
from 22 thousand ha to 12 thousand ha. Sanasar Baghdasarian, deputy
head of the agriculture and nature protection department of the Armavir
regional administration, told NT correspondent that although the marz
has no problem with water irrigation, the average grain crop yield
made only 30 centners because of this year’s drought. According to
him, the areas sown with gourds and melons, perennial plants and vine
yards have been increased in the marz at the expense of reducing the
areas under grain crops.

DAVIT HAKOBIAN FORESEES ROBERT KOCHARIAN’S RESIGNATION THIS AUTUMN
Noyan Tapan
Aug 09 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Defence Minister Serge
Sargsian’s joining the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) will result
in the Armenian President Robert Kocharian’s resignation in October
or November. Davit Hakobian, Chairman of the Marxist Party, made
this statement at the August 9 press conference. “Serge Sargsian
will not be Serge Sargsian, if he does not start an active attack
this autumn with a king’s gambit,” he said. According to him, either
Serge Sargsian will become the “throne’s owner” by January 2007 or
it will never happen because the affairs will take a different turn
after the parliamentary elections. “With the Republicans’ congress,
the absolute power in Armenia has finally passed to the Republican
junta, and thus a palace overturn took place, which is a political
adventure.” “If the President does not leave his throne of his own free
will, two forces will clash, which will create favorable conditions
for a third force,” D. Hakobian said. In the speaker’s opinion, the
political and moral decline of the nation threatens to eliminate the
Armenians as a nation. D. Hakobian noted that today the nation in
particular needs a new ideological generation change in the name of
security of the nation and its national genetic pool, a new national
concept, a new electoral code and new Constitution. The Marxist party
will participate in parliamentary elections with its own potential,
without cooperating or forming an alliance with any party. Asked if
they will receive the necessary votes, the party’s chairman replied:
the nation to move its educated sons to the background and make the
parliament a theatrical box for criminal and political dregs has no
right to survive. Every people deserves what it has chosen.” Speaking
about the opposition, D. Hakobian noted that the opposition members
are even not worth mentioning because of their selfishness and for
the reason they did not develop a new ideological concept.

DAVIT HAKOBIAN: DIPLOMATIC STAGE OF ARTSAKH PROBLEM COLLAPSED
Noyan Tapan
Aug 09 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, NOYAN TAPAN. Proceeding from the interests of
the US, the Karabakh problem is placed on a political rather than
self-determination plane. Chairman of the Marxist party Davit Hakobian
stated this during the August 9 press conference, noting that it
is evident from the Armenian leadership’s willingness to “present”
to Azerbaijan the “7 provinces” surrounding Karabakh without solving
the problem of Karabakh’s status. “Last year, on May 30, with Serge
Sargsian’s (NT: RA Defence Minister) efforts our authorities obtained
from the parliament a “go-ahead” that the seven provinces were not
ours,” he said adding that Armenia’s “diplomatic corps fell a victim
to the US political games.” “The US needs as much as air and water
these 7 provinces, where military units will enter under the name of
peacekeeping forces to strike Iran from the rear.” In D. Hakobian’s
words, for this reason the diplomatic stage of the Artskah problem has
“collapsed”.

ARMENIAN OPERATOR BLAMES GEORGIA FOR INTERNET FAILURE
Regnum, Moscow
9 Aug 06
9 August: To all appearances, Georgia has simply switched off the
connection and Armenia has again found itself without access to
the internet. “The connection has simply been switched off on the
Georgian side and at this moment it is impossible to understand the
reason for that; work is under way,” Asmik Chutilyan, press secretary
of the national operator, ArmenTel, said in an interview with Regnum
on 9 August.
ArmenTel has the exclusive right to maintain the international
telecommunications link to Armenia. The data is transferred through
one cable which goes from Armenia to Ukraine, via Georgia and then
the sea bed of the Black sea. On the south of Armenia the cable is
connected to the similar infrastructure of Iran.
Earlier, on 8 August, Chutilyan said that the internet connection in
Armenia has been completely restored owing to “satellite connection
and reserve sources” after the cable was damaged on the Black Sea
bed. She also said that the cable is being repaired and the work will
be over within 10 days.
[Passage omitted: Earlier cases when the connection was cut]

NEW BERLIN EXHIBITION ADDS TO DRIVE FOR CENTER REMEMBERING EXPELLED GERMANS
Geir Moulson
AP Worldstream
Aug 09, 2006
A new exhibition tracking the fate of Germans expelled from eastern
Europe after World War II, along with that of victims of other 20th
century expulsions, revives an issue that has troubled Germany’s
relations with its neighbors.
The “Forced Paths” exhibition, initiated by the head of a group
representing the expelled Germans and opening Thursday, places the
Germans’ fate alongside eight other episodes from European history.
The exhibition, at the Kronprinzenpalais on Berlin’s Unter den Linden
boulevard, runs through Oct. 29.
Its initiator sees it as a balanced step toward a permanent center
documenting their plight. But neighboring Poland fears that it will
present a one-sided account.
The show is a “signal on the part of the German expellees, who
are making this clear: we had our fate, but we also stand by other
expellees,” said organizer Erika Steinbach, the head of Germany’s
Federation of Expellees.
Steinbach has advocated a Berlin-based “Center against Expulsions”
to remember an estimated 12.5 million ethnic Germans who, often
viewed as enemies or traitors, were expelled from or fled Poland,
then-Czechoslovakia and elsewhere when the Third Reich collapsed and
borders were moved westward.
Poland, in particular, has opposed that idea, suggesting that it
would serve to minimize the suffering of countries brutally occupied
by the Nazis. Some 2.5 million Germans left what is now Poland.
Steinbach, a lawmaker with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian
Democrats, disputes that.
She argued Wednesday that, while Germany should be aware of Polish
sensitivities, it should “make clear that there is a need for us in
Germany too to deal with our history in its entirety _ and the theme
of expulsions belongs to that.”
The new exhibition, which will include witness accounts, features the
expulsions alongside events that range from the killing of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks, through the Nazis’ deportation of Poles and others,
to the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia.
Organizers drew in advisers from seven countries, including the Czech
Republic, Hungary and Israel, to ensure a “European perspective,”
Steinbach said.
However, she said a Polish adviser quit the project because he faced
“too much pressure” at home.
In Poland, deputy culture minister Krzysztof Olendzki voiced fears
that the exhibition would present a “one-sided” vision of the past
and present the expelled Germans as being among the last century’s
greatest victims.
“The reasons behind the expelling are not clearly presented,” said
Olendzki, who said he had not seen the show but was familiar with its
content and backers. “The exhibition also passes over responsibility
for the crimes committed by the German state during World War II.”
Steinbach said last November’s change of government in Germany,
which brought Merkel to power, “significantly raised” the chances of
a permanent center in Berlin.
The idea was long backed by Merkel’s conservatives but opposed by their
coalition partners, predecessor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats.
In their coalition accord, they agreed that they “want, in the
spirit of reconciliation, to set a visible example also in Berlin,”
in cooperation with eastern European countries, “to remember the
wrong of expulsions.”
However, they left open what that would entail, and set no timetable.
“I hope this (the new exhibition) is an important step toward making
a documentation center reality,” Steinbach said.
German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann gave the show a cautious welcome,
pointing to its “European components” and promising that the government
will consider it in drawing up its own plan.
Tensions over the legacy of World War II flared two years ago after
a small group of Germans calling itself the Prussian Claims Society
threatened court action to reclaim ancestral property in present-day
Poland.
It has yet to make good on that threat, which prompted Poland’s
parliament to urge the government to seek reparations from Germany
for losses suffered during the Nazi occupation. The government refused.
Merkel’s government says it stands by Schroeder’s pledge to oppose
restitution claims by Germans.
___
Associated Press writers Michael Fischer in Berlin and Ryan Lucas in
Warsaw, Poland contributed to this report.