VELTI RAISING £10M FOR EXPANSION IN BALKANS AND TURKEY
By Maija Palmer,IT Correspondent

FT
April 10 2006 03:00

Velti, the Greek mobile phone technology company, will on Monday
announce plans to list on London’s Aim in a move expected to raise
£10m in new money and value the company at up to £35m.

The company, whose financial backers include Nicholas Negroponte, the
founder of the MIT Media Lab, is planning to use the funds to increase
its presence in the Balkan and Turkish telecommunications markets.

Velti provides software and services that allow mobile phone operators
– including Vodafone Greece – to track and manage the content that
their subscribers access. It also provides technology for media
companies wanting to offer content or run promotions over the mobile
phone network. Velti currently works with mobile phone operators
and content companies in Greece, Turkey, Armenia and Cyprus but is
planning to expand its business into Romania and Bulgaria as well as
deepening its penetration in Turkey.

Alexandros Moukas, chief executive, said it was an optimal time to
enter these markets.

Mobile phone penetration in the Balkans is still about 60 per cent,
lower than levels in the rest of Europe, but growing quickly.

Both Vodafone and OTE, the Greek mobile phone operator, have signalled
plans to expand in the region.

Velti, which was founded in 2000 and employs 90 people, has seen
recent strong growth. Revenue rose 31 per cent to â~B¬4.9m (£3.4m)
in 2005 while pre-tax profit jumped from â~B¬29,000 to â~B¬1.1m.

–Boundary_(ID_b9+Tt/Iu/Zf1W6ILC/vvNw)- –

UNITING THE NATION
Editorial

Yerkir.am
April 07, 2006

The dual citizenship is a unilateral obligation the Republic of Armenia
assumes under the international law to make Armenia the spiritual
homeland of all Armenians and partly offset the history’s wrinkles
and contribute to repatriation.

The dual citizenship stems from the unique situation of the Armenian
people because we are a nation, which has found itself spread all
over the world after undergoing a genocide in its homeland at the
end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

The Armenians of Diaspora have for decades preserved their culture,
national identity with a vision to have an independent state and
return to their homeland.

Any Armenian who has a national dignity wants to see Armenia as the
homeland of the entire nation.

Currently, only one-third of the Armenians reside in the independent
homeland. This situation calls for a united national identity, which
would include close cooperation in such areas as ethno-culture,
language, spiritual and traditions, and would formulate a joint
responsibility for the homeland and future of the Armenians based on
national and historic memory.

AN AZERI AUTONOMY IN ARMENIA?
By Gayane Movsessian

Yerkir.am
April 07, 2006

The spring session of PACE will be held in Strasbourg on April 10-13. A
report titled “Refugees and Displaced Persons in Azerbaijan, Armenia
and Georgia” prepared by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and
Population will be discussed during the session. The report has been
prepared by Boris Sileviks (Latvia, socialist faction).

The information presented in the report has caused a shock in
Baku. According to the report, 235 thousand refugees from Azerbaijan
live in Armenia. 15 thousand people were granted Armenian citizenship
in 2001 and 16 thousand in 2002. The refugees that are granted
citizenship lose their refugee status.

In Azerbaijan, the report states, there are 560 thousand internally
displaced persons from the territories adjacent to Nagorno Karabagh
and only 8606 refugees. 8500 of them are Chechens, over 100 refugees
are from Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Azeri refugees from Armenia
that have received Azeri citizenship are no longer considered refugees.

Baku insists that the number of refugees from Armenia is 250
thousand. Azerbaijan is concerned that the refugees that were granted
Azeri citizenship have lost their right to return to their previous
place of residence which is Armenia. Currently Baku is exploring
the possibilities of depriving these people of their citizenship and
restoring their refugee status.

“From the legal and judicial perspective, these 250 thousand people
should not be considered citizens of Azerbaijan. The Azeri constitution
allows the president to grant citizenship to individuals that request
citizenship. However, there have been no such applications.

Citizenship was granted to refugees from Armenia with no previous
application procedures. This means that procedural violations occurred
when granting citizenship,” the Azeri representative to PACE Gyultekin
Hajiyeva stated.

She proposes to deprive the former refugees from Azeri citizenship
and grant them legal residence status. Hajiyeva believes the
Azeri government has to do its best to settle this issue as soon
as possible. “I have discussed the issue with relevant agencies
in Azerbaijan.

They supported my position and I hope the issue will be settled
soon. In any case, it is in Azerbaijan’s interests.” Commenting on
the situation with refugees, member of the international relations
committee of the Azeri parliament Sabir Rustamkhanli noted, “Hundreds
of thousands of refugees were granted Azeri citizenship in 1998
so that they could participate in the elections. This was in the
interests of some forces.”

It looks that today Azerbaijan no longer needs the votes of the
refugees from Armenia. It should be noted that in 2005 the leader
of the refugees, ex-minister of healthcare Ali Issanov was arrested
in Azerbaijan for “attempts of seizing power and forming military
groups”. The Azeri leaders’ statements sound as if they were speaking
about some sheep and not human beings.

Baku is increasingly concerned that the refugees will not want
to return to Armenia, which our ambitious neighbors call “Western
Azerbaijan”. An association has been established in Azerbaijan called
“return to Western Azerbaijan” that includes Azeri refugees from
Armenia.

The leader of the association Rizvan Talibov calls on the Azeri
refugees to return to Armenia and demand autonomy that would be
similar to the autonomy that the Armenians in Nagorno Karabagh will
have. Judging from the statements made by Azeri political leaders
this idea was not authored by Talibov. As they say, there is no smoke
without fire.

INSTITUTE FOR ARMENIAN STUDIES LAUNCHES WEBSITE

Yerkir.am
April 07, 2006

The Institute for Armenian Studies, established in 1977 in Munich,
Germany, has launched its website –

The institute advocates Armenian studies, including the Genocide issue,
the protection of the rights of Armenians in Turkey, as well as social,
educational, cultural and religious issues of Diaspora Armenians.

Doctor Eduard Hovhannisian played a great role in the establishing
of the Institute for Armenian Issues.

>>From the first day of the foundation and until his death in 2004,
Hovhannissian was the director of the Institute. To honor the great
work he has done, the Institute was named after Hovhannisian after
his death.

ANDRANIK MARGARYAN: NO ONE CAME CLOSE TO FIFTH GENERATING UNIT

Lragir.am
10 April 06

The more the Armenian high officials comment on the deal of selling
the fifth generating unit of the Thermal Power Plant of Hrazdan to
Russia to compensate for the price of gas, the more obscure, mysterious
and a little ridiculous the deal seems. On April 10 news reporters
had an opportunity to enquire from Prime Minister of Armenia about
the sale of the fifth generating unit of the Thermal Power Plant,
especially that Andranik Margaryan had stated that the problem of
gas would not be settled through transfer of property.

“We did not transfer the fifth generating unit to cut the price
of gas, for as you know the price of gas remains 110 dollars. The
sale has nothing to do with the price of gas. It is a deal, and I
think a successful one, for years ago when we wanted to transfer the
generating unit to repay the debt, one of the stipulations was to give
the generating unit for free for them to build it. They did not agree
to this. We put it out to international tender. No one came close
to the fifth generating unit,” says Andranik Margaryan. The first
strange thing about his words is that years ago Russians refused to
take the fifth generating unit for free, whereas now they pay 250
million dollars to buy it at rigorous stipulations, as the members
of the government of Armenia state.

Besides, amazingly for Armenia it is more convenient to sell than to
reconstruct its property on a soft loan and keep the fifth generating
unit. The government of Iran had offered such a loan. “We had an
agreement with Iran on offering us a loan for 20-25 years, which
we would repay in money or electricity,” says the prime minister,
adding that Iran did not want any property from Armenia. Apparently,
Armenia does not want property either.

“And besides, it was a good deal. We sold it at 250 million dollars,
one of the stipulations is to invest 140 thousand million dollars
within two years to operate a 450 megawatt generating unit; this
enhances our energy security rather than threatens it,” says the
Prime Minister of Armenia. It seems that the prime minister does not
worry that the energy sector of Armenia is transferred step by step
to Russia. “But to the private sector, not the government,” he says
in answer. Apparently, only the prime minister knows how private RAO
EES or Gasprom and their daughter companies are.

Andranik Margaryan does not hide that the fifth generating unit of
the Thermal Power Plant simply solved a social problem, allowing
the government to keep their word and not to let life of people and
producers become expensive.

“We will try to keep the price or let it increase but little within
three years. I have promised, and we will not increase the price of
electricity. If hopefully we manage to keep the price of gas on the
same level next year, it will hardly go up in the next three years,”
states Andranik Margaryan.

However, his words reveal that apart from social problems the sale of
the fifth generating unit solved a strategic problem. “We rendered our
industry competitive. In all the other countries, all our neighbor
countries the price of gas caused costs to go up. We managed to
compensate and keep our industries in a mode when they are more
competitive than the other CIS countries,” says Andranik Margaryan.

This is something new in the world economy; Japan or Korea would have
even envied our resourcefulness, and China would have hidden behind the
wall out of shame. Imagine what would happen if we sold everything we
have and compensated. The world economy would fall to our feet, asking
not to make them bankrupt. This is, however, for future, and in the
meantime, in three years, before we will get to future, future in the
face of Gasprom may come to Armenia. The Russians committed to keeping
the price of gas the same within the next three years. And Gasprom
does not come but to increase the price or to demand something. In
this case Armenia has to start thinking what is going to happen to our
competitive industry and poor people when Gasprom comes in three years.

“It is possible that the budget will have funds, and it will partly
be compensated, because this time, when I announced last year, we
had relied on the budget. We had to call a halt to certain projects,
ensure revenues to afford to compensate. That is, it had nothing to
do with the sale of the fifth generating unit, what we had promised,
the government had promised. It was simply a good opportunity,
which enabled us to compensate for more. Otherwise we might not have
been able to offer so much compensation, and it could have been 80-85
thousand, it could have been symbolic. But if there is an opportunity,
it would be better to spend the money for social purposes.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

YOUNG REPUBLICANS AND THE CHURCH FIGHT SECTS

Armenpress
Apr 10 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS: A priest of the Armenian Apostolic
Church urged today the government to take swift action to fight
back the growing influence of religious sects on Armenians saying
the revised constitution gives it right to restrict the activity of
those sects which jeopardize the country’s security.

The priest, Mkhitar Aloyan, was speaking at a roundtable discussion
organized together with the youth wing of the governing Republican
party to seek ways to fight back Jehovah’s Witnesses’ proselytizing.

The priest argued that the government should adopt stricter laws to
stop ‘the destructive activity ‘ of religious sects. He said the public
at large should be taught extensively about the danger of such sects,
which he said pose huge threats to both the state and family.

Karen Avakian from the youth wing of the party said the wing and
the youth organization of the Ararat Diocese of the Church have made
a joint declaration on concerted battle against sects. He said all
those who consider that they suffered from the sects could ask the
organizations for help.

He said the operation of sects must be open and transparent. He
said the increased number of suicides may have been triggered by
religious sects.

PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN WELCOMES CHARLES AZNAVOUR

Armenpress
Apr 10 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS: President Robert Kocharian has welcomed
today the renowned French singer Charles Aznavour who arrived here
by the maiden flight of Air France to Armenia. Kocharian was quoted
by his press office as telling Aznavour that he should pay at least
two visits to Armenia a year to see not only the capital city Yerevan
but also Armenian provinces.

“I am happy to see the life here to move forward,” Aznavour was quoted
as saying. The presidential press office said Kocharian and Aznavour
discussed a set of humanitarian issues, spoke about the progress of
several projects implemented in Armenia by Aznavour our l’Armenie
Foundation. Kocharian was reported to expand also on a string of
joint Armenian-French projects.

FRIED: KARABAKH SITUATION NOT AS HOPELESS, AS IT SEEMED IN RAMBOUILLET

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.04.2006 19:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The situation over settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict is not as hopeless, as it seemed right after
Rambouillet,” US Assistant State Secretary Daniel Fried said. In
his words, Armenian and Azeri Presidents Robert Kocharian and Ilham
Aliyev did not manage to agree over settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, thus many people thought, “There will be war there and
horrible things will happen.”

The US Assistant State Secretary reminded that he visited Baku and
Yerevan along with OSCE MG co-chair Steven Mann soon after Rambouillet.

“We had series of useful and effective talks with Azeri and Armenian
authorities, we lately met with Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian and Azeri
Deputy FM Araz Azimov. Both governments provided us with certain
material for working. Thus, the situation is not hopeless,” Fried
added. “It is important for both parties to realize they cannot fully
attain their goals. None of the countries can get the maximum.

Simultaneously, it cannot happen than any of the countries gets
nothing,” Fried remarked.

Besides, he remarked that in case of resumption of the war Baku
should not hope for profiting from oil and gas export. “Azerbaijan
expects much money from oil and gas export, however, it will be the
case if there is peace. If there is war, there will be no money. Is
it clear? Just look at the map. You know what I am speaking about,”
Fried said.

REPORTS ON KOCHARIAN-RICE TELEPHONE CONVERSATION FALSE

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.04.2006 19:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Reports on an alleged telephone conversation between
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and US State Secretary Condoleezza
Rice are false, Armenian leaders Spokesperson Victor Soghomonyan
told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, “Robert Kocharian and
Condoleezza Rice discussed the Karabakh settlement by phone earlier
in February, before the Paris talks.” “To all appearance, authors of
the report merely confused the date of the conversation,” he added.

To remind, it was lately reported that Rice discussed the issue
of settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict during telephone
conversations with the Armenian and Azeri Presidents.

MANN ARRIVING IN SOUTH CAUCASUS APRIL 18

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.04.2006 19:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ April 18 American Ambassador of the OSCE Minsk Group
Steven Mann will pay an official visit to the South Caucasus, Azeri FM
Elmar Mammadyarov reported. In his words, during a visit to Washington
he had meetings with Steven Mann, US Assistant Secretary of State for
European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, as well as Assistant to
the US President For National Security Affairs Stephen Hadley.

The American party made new proposals over continuation of the Prague
process over NK settlement.

“These are interesting proposals. Official Baku will study these
and will express its attitude. Though talks on settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict do not advance, efforts to that end should
be increased,” Mammadyarov remarked, AzerTaj reports.