GEORGIAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA APPEALS TO DIASPORAN ARMENIANS TO MAKE
INVESTMENTS IN JAVAKHK
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Georgia is not
interested in Javakhik’s being emptied of Armenians. The Georgian
Ambassador to Armenia Revaz Gachechiladze stated this at the
discussion “The Threat of Expulsion of Javakhki Armenians, Youth
Problems in Javakhk” organized by the Mighty Homeland Party on March
9. The ambassador considered the concern expressed by the people
living in Armenia to be completely legal, moreover, he was grateful
that “you have opened our eyes” regarding certain problems. He
underlined that the Georgian government should take more care of the
regions. Particularly, it is willing to create new jobs, but the
market economy dictates its laws – capital flows where a profit is
made. The ambassador appealed to the Diasporan Armenians to make
invsetments in Javakhk, while the Georgian government will assist
them. He pointed out that the problem of jobs in industry must be
regulated by private capital. The Georgian diplomat noted that
knowledge of Georgian is required for administrative positions only,
which, according to him, makes 200-300, a maximum of 500 jobs. In his
words, knowledge of Georgian is not being imposed on Armenians, it is
just necessary for best integration into the Georgian society. He said
that only 300-500 Armenians are working at the Russian military base
in Akhalkalak, so people will not feel its closure, except for “those
who work there”. “The Armenian-Georgian friendship exists not only on
paper but also in reality: Georgia is interested in the Armenians’
being where they are – both in Armenia and Javakhk and their
well-being. It is also in Armenia’s interest that the Georgian ship
will not shake, since there are many who shake it. Let us help each
other instead of hindering,” the Georgian ambassador said. According
to the main speaker – member of the Mighty Homeland Party Board Shirak
Torosian, the Russian military base to be withdrawn from Javakhk
currently employs 3 thousand people. According to the party, at
present 100 thousand Armenians live in Javakhk or 95% of the
population, young people aged 16-35 make up 31% or 32 thousand, with
about 30 thousand of them or 93% being unemployed. 9 thousand people
or 30% leave Javakhk each year in search of work, and half of them
never return to Javakhk. To solve this problem, the Mighty Homeland
Party proposes creating the appropriate infrastructures to encourage
investments – to ensure 24-hour power supply, improve roads and the
railway. The party also proposes to use tax, customs, credit and other
privileges, to allocate part of the Georgian grant and credit programs
for Javakhk, etc.

SUPREME SPIRITUAL COUNCIL EXPRESSES PERPLEXITY IN CONNECTION WITH
DECISION OF GEORGIAN CHURCH TO OPEN DIOCESE IN NORTH OF ARMENIA
ECHMIADZIN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. A meeting of the
Supreme Spiritual Council was held at the Mother See of Holy
Echmiadzin on March 7, during which Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanian
presented the pastoral and spiritual-propaganda activities of the
Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He said that
anti-Armenian publications and statements continue to appear in the
Georgian media, which is conducive to an atmosphere of intolerance and
tension. In response to an inquiry of the Supreme Spiritual Council,
Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanian confirmed that in accordance with the
decision of the Georgian Apostolic Church Synod of February 6, 2006,
“with the aim of restoring its historical diocese”, the opening of a
new Tashir-Agarak Diocese was declared under the spiritial authority
of the bishop of the Dmanissi Diocese of Georgia. According to the
press service of the Mother See, the Supreme Spiritual Council
expressed its perplexity that, first, the Georgian Apostolic Church
did not inform the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin about its intention,
taking into account that the matter concern the territory of Armenia,
and secondly, the Synod intends to open a new diocese in the area
where the Georgian Church has no parishioners, whereas Georgia
disregards the right of hundreds of thousands of Armenian believers to
grant a legal status to the Armenian diocese and return the Armenian
churches.

K-TELECOM’S COMPLAINT AGAINST ARMENTEL TO BE EXAMINED ON MARCH 10 AT
COMMISSION ON ECONOMIC COMPETITION
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA State Commission on Protection
of Economic Competition will examine on March 10 the complaint of
K-Telecom (VivaCell) company against ArmeTel. According to the
commission’s press service, according to a letter recieved from
K-Telecom, ArmenTel abuses its dominating position, which results in
considerable losses for K-Telecom and creates an unhealthy competition
atmosphere on the mobile phone communication services market. ArmenTel
announced in late December 2005 that an extremely low per-minute
tariff of 2 drams was set for making calls within the network for
those of its mobile phone communication subscribers who used its
services for over a year. According to K-Telecom, ArmenTel is using
this tariff not only in the mobile phone network but also in case of
making calls to the fixed line phone network. K-Telecom cannot offer
such low tariffs, since the tariff paid by the company to ArmrenTel
for commutation alone is much higher. ArmenTel pointed out in its
explanations that there was not any abuse of its dominating position,
as the move intiated by the company was a special commercial offer to
be valid during a limited period and for a limited conversation
time. To recap, the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission, to which
K-Telecom also applied with respect to the same issue, noted in its
decision that the above mentioned tariff’s use by ArmenTel includes
some characteristics of anticompetitive behaviour.

DANCING GROUP OF INTEGRATION OF YOUNG PERSONS WITH LIMITED ABILITIES
TO BE FORMED IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. On the initiative of the British
Council’s Office in Armenia, the dancing-masters of the British modern
dancing group “Canduco” on March 6-10 hold dancing lessons of
integration of young persons with limited abilities at the Yerevan
State Institute of Theater and Cinema. As Lusine Ghulian, Director of
the culture programs of the Armenian office of the council, informed
at the March 9 press conference, the beneficiaries of the “Kamk and
Korov” and “Huysi Kamurj” NGOs engaged in the problems of disabled
people, as well as the students of the institute take part in the
lessons. He mentioned that the aim of the lesson is to create a new
dancing group in Armenia where the disabled people will perform with
the professional dancers. The group “Canduco” was founded in 1991 the
goal of which was to create such a professional surroundings, where
the disabled and non-disabled dancers will have a possibility of
working jointly. According to Stina Nilsen, dancing-master of the
group, today “Canduco” is considered as a leading modern dancing-group
speading integrated dancing education. It was also mentioned that
within the framework of the “Hayfest” international festival, the
“Canduco” dancing group will perform in Yerevan in October.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT ALLOCATES 100 MLN DRAMS FOR MEASURES ON PROTECTION
OF RIVER ARAX BANKS
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. At the March 9 sitting, the Armenian
government decided to allocate 100 mln drams (about 222 thousand USD)
from the 2006 state budget-envisaged governmental reserve fund in
order to take measures on protection of the River Arax banks after
spring flooding. NT was informed about it from the RA Government
Information and PR Department.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT PROVIDES ABOUT 23 MLN DRAMS TO SOLVE PROBLEM OF
SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN FOUR BORDER VILLAGES OF SYUNIK MARZ
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. At the March 9 sitting, the Armenian
government took a decision to provide 22 mln 900 thousand drams (about
51 thousand USD) from its 2006 reserve fund to the Syunik regional
administration for the purpose of purchasing residential buildings in
a number of border villages and their reconstruction as schools in the
future. The indicated sum of money was distributed among the following
villages of the marz: Shishkert (3 mln drams), Shamb (3 mln 900
thousand drams), Ltsen (13 mln drams) and Srashen (3 mln drams).
According to the RA Government Information and PR Department, the
government also approved the amounts of funds to be allocated for
providing free textbooks to pupils of primary classes, for
reconstruction of military science classrooms and purchase of
textbooks for pupils of the inner Diaspora schools within the
comprehensive programs’ implementation assistance framework of the
2006 RA state budget.

LEVON ARONIAN FOR THE FIRST TIME TO TAKE PART IN “AMBER” TOURNAMENT
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The traditional chess tournament
“Amber” will be held in Monte Carlo on March 18-30. The peculiarity of
it is that 12 strongest grand masters hold small competitions among
one another. One of the games will be held by “blind”, the second one
by fast chess rules. Levon Aronian, the strongest chess-player of
Armenia for the first time received an invitation of taking part in
the competitions. The competitors of the World cup holder in the Monte
Carlo will be world champion Veselin Topalov (Bulgary), Vishvanatan
Anand (India), Peter Leko (Hungary), Vasili Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Pyotr
Svidler, Alexander Grishchuk, Alexander Morozevich (three from
Russia), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Luk Van Velin (Holland), Fransisko
Valejo (Spain) and Peter-Hans Nilsen (Denmark).
From: Baghdasarian

RA GOVERNMENT ALLOCATES 50 MLN DRAMS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN’S FOOTBALL
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the decision made at the
March 9 sitting, RA government allocated 50 mln drams (nearly 111
thousand USD) to the State Committee of Physical Culture and Sport
attached to RA government. According to the Information and Public
Relations Department of the RA government, the sum will be given as a
donation to the Football Federation of Armenia for the purpose of
development of the children’s football in Armenia.

LYCOS-ARMENIA GIVES CERTIFICATES TO 35 STUDENTS OF YEREVAN STATE
UNIVERSITY AND YEREVAN STATE ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY
YEREVAN, MARCH 9.ARMINFO. Lycos-Armenia handed certificates to 35
students of the Yerevan State University and the Yerevan State
Engineering University, today.
Robert Chaplin, general director of LYCOS-Armenia, informed that this
arrangement is held in Yerevan for the second time already. The
students learnt Java, JavaScript, Web Technology, OOP, MySQL, PHP ¨
Flash programs at the courses initiated by Lycos-Armenia. Chaplin
informed that 17 graduates of the last year’s classes are already the
employees of their company, while 20 gradutes work for Sourcia. The
officials of the company stated that LYCOS-Armenia proved to be a
succesfully working branch for LYCOS-EUROPE.
It’s worth mentioning that LYCOS-Armenia opened computer rooms at the
Yerevan State University and the Yerevan State Engineering University
with the assistance of DEG, the German Public Fund.

THE COMMISSION OF ECONOMIC COMPETITION PROTECTION WILL CONSIDER K-
TELECOM’S CLAIM UPON ARMENTEL
YEREVAN, MARCH 9. ARMINFO. The Governmental Commission for Economic
Competition Protection will consider the claim of K-Telecom cell
operator upon ArmenTel on March 10.
The Commission informs that K-Telecom complained on ArmenTel’s abuse
of its dominating position. On December 43, 2005 ArmenTel fixed the
price of telephone conversations of the mark of AMD 2 per
minute. ArmenTel uses this tariff system not only in ArmenTel cell but
also in the fixed telephone network. This system will be in use until
April 30 and is subsided by incomes from international
phonecalls. According to K-Telecom, this tariff is unlawful, as
K-Telecom has to pay ArmetTel AMD 9,96 per minute in Yerevan and 14,04
in the regions for retranslating phonecalls in the fixed network.
The K-Telecom company board assures that abusive policy of ArmenTel
causes loss to K-Telecom and creates unhealthy atmosphere in the cell
communication market of Armenia.
ArmenTel says that the 2 AMD per minute limit is a special business
offer for a limited time period. By the License No. 60, given to
ArmenTel, the company has the right of mutual subsiding of inner and
international communication services until January 1, 2010.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress