GYUMRI, APARAN AND VARDENIS JOIN WORLD UNION OF CITIES STRUGGLING AGAINST POVERTY
Noyan Tapan
Mar 30 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 29, the 5th forum of the
World Union of Cities Struggling against Poverty opened in the Spanish
town of Valencia. City-members of the union, union’s partner cities
and associations, members of parliaments, governments, businessmen,
other high-ranking officials take part in the forum. Vardenis
Mayor Vardan Barseghian and Aparan Deputy Mayor Georgi Yeremian are
included in the Armenian delegation. The goal of the forum is to
work out the Mayor’s Offices’ strategy of actions aimed at poverty
reduction taking as a basis the experience of Mayor’s Offices during
the international decade of poverty reduction, in 1997-2007. RA NA
Speaker Artur Baghdasarian spoke during the opening of the forum. He,
in particular, said that the forum enables the country-participants
to summarize and to estimate the results of the efforts strained
earlier, to discuss the challanges in the issue of reduction of the
evil called poverty, as well as to outline the best ways of confronting
these challenges. According to him, the forum is the best opportunity
for the participant cities to look for verges of cooperation and to
initiate joint programs. “Poverty reduction cannot be limited to only
material and financial assistance. The violation of human rights and
bad management prepare a good ground for extension of poverty volumes,”
RA NA Speaker said.
According to the report provided to Noyan Tapan from RA NA Public
Relations Department, henceforth the forum’s works will continue
in working groups. The most important event of the day for Armenia
was that during the forum, among cities of other countries, Gyumri,
Aparan and Vardenis also joined the World Assembly of Cities Struggling
against Poverty, which will give possibilities for implementation of
development programs in these towns.

EBRD TO IMPLEMENT MORTGAGE CREDITING PROGRAM WITH ARMENIAN BANK
Noyan Tapan
Mar 30 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, NOYAN TAPAN. By late 2006, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will allocate funds to one of
the Armenian commercial banks to carry out mortgage crediting. NT was
informed at the EBRD that negotiations on the program’s implementation
are underway with this bank.
It is envisaged that the annual interest rates of the mortgage loans
to be provided from these resources will make about 12-13%.

LEVON ARONIAN IN 10th PLACE BEFORE LAST TOUR IN “AMBER” TOURNAMENT
Noyan Tapan
Mar 30 2006
MONTE CARLO, MARCH 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The games of the penultimate,
10th tour are over in the “Amber” chess tournament being held in
Monte Carlo.
Representative of Armenia Levon Aronian competed with Indian
chess-player Vishvantan Anand and was defeated with a score of 0.5
to 1.5. The first game by the rules of “blind” chess ended with
Anand’s victory, and the second game by the rules of quick chess was
drawn. Vishvantan Anand is the only leader of the tournament. He
gained 13.5 points out of 20 possible ones. Alexander Morozevich
(Russia, 13 points) is in second place, Francisco Valekho (Spain,
11.5 points) in third palce. L.Aronian gained 8.5 points and takes
tenth place among 12 participants. In the last, 11th tour Aronian
will compete with Pyotr Svidler (Russia).
From: Baghdasarian

DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTERS OF ARMENIA AND GREECE DISCUSS PRESENT STAGE OF TWO COUNTRIES’ RELATIONS WITH NEIHGBORS
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 30 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Bilateral relations
and regional issues, particularly, the present state of relations
of Armenia and Greece with neighbors were discussed at the March
29 meeting of Arman Kirakosian, the RA Deputy Foreign Minister,
with Evripidis Stylianidis, the Chairman of the Armenian-Greek
Intergovernmental Commission, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Greece. As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Foregin Ministry’s Press
and Information Department, during the promoted friendly conversation,
the Deputy Ministers touched upon some issues connected with energy
safety and communication ways of Armenia as well. E.Stylianidis
presented briefly the results of the regular sitting of Armenian-Greek
Intergovernmental Commission and the agreements they reached. RA
Deputy Foreign Minister presented the peaceful settlement process of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and approaches of Armenia.

KING VRAMSHAPUH AND SAHAK PARTHEV
Lragir.am
30 March 06
On the 1600th anniversary of invention of letters the Central Bank of
Armenia will issue two sets of silver coins on March 31, dedicated
to King Vramshapuh and Catholicos Sahak Parthev. The press service
of the Central Bank informed the news agency ARKA that the nominal
value of the coins is 100 drams. The coins are made of solid 925
silver and weigh 31.1 grams. Each set contains 500 coins.
On the one side of the coin the emblem of the Republic of Armenia
is pictured, beneath it the nominal value of the coin is. On the
other side of the coin King Vramshapuh and Catholicos Sahak Parthev
are pictured.

1ST, 2ND ROUNDS OF ELIMINATION OF MELANGE SUPPLY FINISHED SUCCESSFULLY: VLADIMIR PRYAKHIN
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 30 2006
YEREVAN, March 30. /ARKA/. First and second rounds of elimination
of propellant components (melange) finished successfully in Armenia,
Press Secretary of the Defense Minister Seyran Shakhsuvaryan reported
that Vladimir Pryakhin stated this during the meeting with the RA
Defense Miinister Serj Sargsyan.
Pryakhin also touched upon the activities, planned for the third
round. According to him, the propellant will be reprocessed in
acceptable and ecologically clean fertilizer with a low acid-base
balance.
Issues of the further cooperation in the field of democratic control
over armed forces, and alternative military service were also discussed
during the meeting.
Pryakhin emphasized the assistance of the RA Ministry of Defense in
implementing the programs of the OSCE Yerevan Office.
Armenian Minister of Defense Serj Sargsyan and Head of the OSCE Yerevan
Office Vladimir Pryakhin signed the memorandum of understanding for
implementation of the third round of the program on elimination of
the propellant.

RA PRESIDENT AND FSDCC DIRECTOR OF RUSSIA DISCUSS ISSUES OF STRUGGLE AGAINST ILLEGAL DRUG CIRCULATION
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 30 2006
YEREVAN, March 30. /ARKA/. Issues of toughening control in the
sphere of struggle against illegal drug circulation on territories
of CSTO-member countries were discussed duirng the meeting of the RA
President Robert Kocharyan with the Director of the Federal Service
of Drug Circulation Control (FSDCC) of the RF Viktor Cherkesov on
March 29.
According to the Press Service of the RA President, Kocharyan and
Cherkesov discussed issues of taking complex measures in this sphere.
During the meeting they emphasized that cooperation within the bounds
of the Coordinating Council of heads of responsible authorities of
the CSTO-member countries against illegal drug circulation will enable
to secure much more effectiveness than when struggle separately.
Session of the CSTO member- countries’ plenipotentiary authorities
struggling against illegal drug circulation was held in Yerevan on
March 29.
At the moment the Coordinating Council of this structure is headed
by the Director of the FSDCC of Russia Viktor Cherkesov. Armenia,
Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzia, Tajikistan and Russia are
CSTO-member countries.

SAMAD SEYIDOV: WE CAN CHANGE REPORT BY LATVIAN MP BORIS SILEVICH
Today, Azerbaijan
March 30 2006
31 March 2006 [00:20] – Today.Az
“If the report by Latvian MP Broris Silevich includes the items
unsatisfying Azerbaijan, we will be able to change it,” Samad Seyidov,
the Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, stated.
According to Trend, the document, worked out by Latvian MP Boris
Silevich and put on the agenda of the spring session of PACE,
reflects moments contradicting to Azerbaijani position on refugees
and internally displaced people.
The Latvian MP wrote the number of the Azerbaijani IDP was 580,000,
while 8,000 refugees came from Chechnya, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The report also says that 250,000 IDP live in Armenia with 15,000
people received citizenship. The rest 235,000 Armenians are regarded
as Azerbaijani citizens.
The report is not related only to Azerbaijan. “It also reflects
the state of the refugees in Georgia and Armenia. Similar report
was worked out earlier and also included the items unsatisfying
Azerbaijan. Under the rules of the procedure, if the report includes
the items unsatisfying Azerbaijan, we will be able to interfere and
change the report,” Seyidov said.
URL:

LANGUAGE RIGHTS ISSUE FUEL DISCORD IN GEORGIA
Paul Rimple
EurasiaNet, NY
March 30 2006
Discontent is rising within Georgia’s Armenian community, the
country’s largest ethnic minority, driven by complaints concerning
the central government’s language policy, as well as perceptions
of discrimination. The building tension between ethnic Armenians
and Georgian government officials has been linked to recent rioting
and violence.
A March 9 altercation between ethnic Armenians and Svans in the Kvemo
Kartli village of Tsalka led to the death of 24-year-old Gevork
Gevorkian, an ethnic Armenian, and incited a mob to raid a local
administrative building. Two days later, in response to Gevorkian’s
death, several hundred protestors in Akhalkalaki, a predominantly
ethnic Armenian town in the neighboring region of Samtskhe-Javakheti,
stormed the local branch of Tbilisi State University, a court building
and the office of a Georgian Orthodox Church archbishop.
Responding to the violence, Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze on March
13 placed the blame on “serious forces, who [are] try[ing] to trigger
destabilization in this region,” the Civil Georgia web site reported.
Some ethnic minorities in the region have a different interpretation.
“The murder of the Armenian [Gevork Gevorkian] wasn’t a political act,
it was criminal,” suggested Makhare Matsukov, an Akhalkalaki business
leader and ethnic Greek. “But politics created the situation that
exists in Tsalka and the situation here in Akhalkalaki.”
Local leaders say that protests are the only way they can get the
central government to listen to their complaints. There is talk
of boycotting local elections in October if no progress is made in
opening a dialogue with the central authorities in Tbilisi.
Frustration with what is perceived as the central government’s
disregard for Georgia’s Armenian minority prevails in both Tsalka
and Akhalkalaki, but the roots of the particular issues differ.
Once numbering 30,000, Tsalka’s Greek population is now about 1,500
and shrinking. A mass exodus occurred during the 1990s when thousands
of families relocated to Greece for work. As Greeks left, natural
disaster victims from the northern Georgian region of Svaneti and
the western Black Sea region of Achara began to move into vacant homes.
Squatters took over many abandoned houses; pillagers ransacked
others. As economic conditions in Tsalka worsened, and the town’s
crime rate increased, remaining villagers (12,000 Armenians, 1,500
Azeris and 1,500 Greeks) started to view their “guests” as a threat.
“Before the Svans arrived, there was never any trouble in Tsalka. Why
doesn’t the government do something to help? Is it because we aren’t
Georgian?” fumed Armen Darbinyan, an ethnic Armenian and chairman
of the Javakheti Citizens Forum, a non-governmental organization
sponsored by the European Center for Minority Issues.
Meanwhile, in Akhalkalaki, many say that the strained relationship
with Tbilisi (which locals call “Georgia”) began after the 2003 Rose
Revolution. After coming to power, President Mikheil Saakahsvili’s
administration overhauled the local political machinery, replacing
local officials with appointees from Tbilisi. First Deputy Governor
Armen Amirkhanyan said many local residents in this poverty-stricken
area believed the changes were driven by prejudice. Ethnic Armenians
make up 60 percent of the region, and “their rights must be defended,”
Amirkhanyan added.
The need to have a working knowledge of Georgian lies at the heart
of most complaints.
Georgian government statistics on election registration estimate
the number of ethnic Armenians in Akhalkalaki at 95.8 percent of the
town’s population of 10,000. (Local Armenians put the number at 98
percent.) Since the entire region of Samtskhe-Javakheti functions
primarily in Armenian, few Akhalkalaki residents speak Georgian. At
the same time, Russian is frequently spoken thanks to the presence
of a former Russian military base.
“We can’t get good jobs unless we speak Georgian, but how can you learn
Georgian so well when you’re 30 or 40 years old?” said a resident of
Ninotsminda, a nearby village not far from the Armenian border. “If
we can’t get work here, we will continue to move to Russia for work,
if we can get visas.” Unofficial estimates put the number of Javakheti
men who work seasonally in Russia at 80 percent.
Incentives offered by the Saakashvili government to promote Georgian
language instruction, as well as to promote the integration of
Armenians into the Georgian mainstream, have fallen flat, according
to Javakheti residents. “In 2004, Saakashvili came to Akhalkalaki
and promised to integrate 100 students into the university system in
Tbilisi and Kutaisi with stipends,” said Akhalkalaki Mayor Iricya
Nairi. “That’s great, we thought.” But Nairi claims local students
couldn’t pass the Georgian language university entry exams, which
were a result of the government’s education reforms.
Darbinyan says that he doesn’t understand how people are expected to
learn Georgian well enough to pass exams, when they have few chances to
learn it. Out of Akhalkalaki’s five secondary schools, only one teaches
courses in Georgian. Three teach in Armenian and one in Russian.
Mayor Nairi cites the recent influx of Georgian students to the
Akhalkalaki branch of Tbilisi State University as further evidence
that the government does not want to treat ethnic Armenians equally.
After Georgian students were brought to Akhalkalaki to study for
free, Nairi charged, the number of Armenians studying at the local
university dropped to four. By contrast, he said, under former
president Eduard Shevardnadze 60 percent of the university’s 650
students were Armenian. “Why would they open a university here and
bring Georgians if they didn’t plan to change the demographics of
our region?” he wondered.
Deputy Education and Science Minister Bela Tsipuria, however,
rejects the contention. “The only reason Georgian students are
studying in Akhalkalaki is because the competition to study there is
lower than in Tbilisi or Kutaisi,” Tsipuria stated. Complaints about
the difficulty of Georgia’s new university entrance exams were not
limited to Javakheti, she added. “Young people today have to work
hard to compete in modern Georgia. This is an entirely new concept.”
Tsipuria argues that Javakheti’s problems have more to do with a lack
of educational opportunities than language – a problem not unique to
Samtskhe-Javakheti. President Saakashvili, she stressed, has promised
that hundreds of Armenian students will have the opportunity to
receive sufficient education to find work within the civil service.
The government is currently training teachers and introducing new
methodology, Tsipuria continued. “But people don’t understand these
things take time.”
First Deputy Governor Amirkhanyan believes that education reform must
be accomplished while taking the interests of national minorities
into account. “We must learn Georgian if we want to get ahead. It
would be easier on all levels, from civic positions to farmers who
commute to Tbilisi to sell their goods.”
The issue seems to spill over easily into other areas, as well. The
February dismissal of three ethnic Armenian judges for allegedly having
an insufficient knowledge of Georgian has generated considerable
resentment. “If you don’t know the state language, then you must
go!” commented Nairi.
Similarly, the archbishop’s office was targeted by locals who assume
that the Georgian Orthodox Church is attempting to exercise excessive
influence in the region. The office was rumored to contain a cache
of weapons. The cache never materialized.
Calls have gone out recently for Samtskhe-Javakheti to be made an
autonomous region, with broader self-governance rights, and for
Armenian to be named the region’s official language. Local leaders
and most activists, however, maintain that protests against perceived
cultural assimilation should not be interpreted as a separatist
drive. Said Javakheti Citizens Forum Chairman Darbinyan: “They call
us separatists because we’re asking for cultural autonomy, but we
want democracy and decentralization.”
Editor’s Note: Paul Rimple is a freelance journalist based in Tbilisi.

ARMENIAN NOW SUES RAILA FOR DEFAMATION
By Richard Munguti
Kenya Times, Kenya
March 30 2006
THE man at the centre of mercenary allegations Artur Margaryan
yesterday filed a defamation suit against Lang’ata Member of Parliament
Raila Odinga.
Margaryan claims that Raila has defamed him by referring to him as
a mercenary.
He denies that he was engaged in mercenary activities and claims
that he was a businessman of International standing, with investments
spread across five countries, Kenya included.
In a court action commenced through Ndonye, Mbugua, Atudo and Macharia
Advocates, Margaryan, who maintains he is an Armenian despite the same
being contested, says that his reputation has sufferred imensely as
a result of Raila’s unfounded, malicious and false allegations.
He claims that Raila made the allegations purposely to discredit and
have him deported to avoid paying back monies he allegedly loaned
him in Dubai.
Margaryan has sued Raila seeking unquantified damages over the alleged
slur, to the effect that he was a mercenary hired by the Government
to eliminate those opposed to the Kibaki administration.
Margaryan is asking the court to compell Raila to publish an apology an
unqualified apology in all the local newspapers, radio and TV stations,
as well as in the international media in a manner commensurate to
the publications.
He is further praying that the court restrains the defendant from
publishing, writing and/or causing to be written or published any
defamatory matters about him (Margaryan).