RETURN OF DEPOSITS OR POVERTY OVERCOMING PLAN?
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| 17:46:05 | 12-10-2005 | Politics |
During the coalition session yesterday a decision was made about the
principle of returning the deposits of the citizens made in the Soviet
times. According to the Prime Minister, the Government has chosen a
way of compensation which will be considered respectable.
According to the offer, the compensation will take place the following
way: up to 1000 rubles will be compensated by $200, 1000-3000 rubles
– $340, 3000-5000 rubles – $420, 5000-10000 rubles – $460, and above
10 000 rubles – $480.
The compensation will be made according to the degree of the social
status.
The people who are included in the groups recognized “needy” will
receive the money first. The Government has allotted 1 billion ARMD
for this purpose. “The rest will be paid as soon as we can afford
it. The other Governments will decide what to do”, Andranik Margaryan
mentioned.
Nevertheless, it is early to speak about the return of the deposits
as the process will be long. Up to now there have been two Committees
investigating the matter, but now a third one we be created which
will revise the list of those who have deposits.
By the way, oppositional deputy Manouk Gasparyan does not believe
that the deposits will be return. He says, “I have not heard of it
as a program to return deposits. Everyone says – Poverty overcoming
strategic plan”.

BUDGET BROUGHT TO NA
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| 16:56:44 | 12-10-2005 | Politics |
NA started to discuss the 2006 draft budget. At present it is discussed
in standing committees. The discussion will last several days, and
the budget will be investigated part by part according to sections.
The first day of representing the budget to NA saw the Prime Minister,
the Minister of Finance and the President of the Central Bank in
the Parliament.
According to them, the budget of the coming year has an important
peculiarity: for the first time in the history of independent Armenia
the budget crossed the border of a billion.
The Government offers the Parliament to confirm the following data of
the budget: income – 382 billion ARMD, expenses – 451.9 billion ARMD,
and deficit – 69.9 billion ARMD. Minister of Finance Vardan Khachatryan
mentioned that for the last few years the budget deficit has been 3%
only which meets the CoE demands.
It is noteworthy that in the draft budget 1USD costs 468.2 ARMD.
Nevertheless, the relation is not yet confirmed, and it will be revised
before representing the budget to the NA plenary session. The officials
mentioned that in 2006 wages in several fields, as well as pensions
will be raised. For example, the average salary of the teachers will
be more than 58 000.
Several RA Laws are to be amended for the RA Government to be able to
keeps their promise about the raise of the old-age pensions. Although
there will be no changes in the tax field, there will be some referring
to the social security payments.
By the way, in the Parliament hall the draft was discussed mainly
by the members of the coalition. The only representatives of the NA
opposition were independent deputy Manouk Gasparyan and representative
of “National Unity” fraction Aghasi Arshakyan who soon left the hall.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CENTRAL COMMISSION ON REFERENDUM DOES NOT PREVENT VIOLATIONS
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| 15:26:31 | 13-10-2005 | Politics |
Chairman of International Right 96 party Ruben Torosyan addressed the
Court of Appeals on civic cases and accused the RA central commission
on referendum of inactivity.
In part, he blames the commission for not undertaking relative measures
against the activities of the Chair of the CE Committee of Ministers,
which conflicts with the RA legislation
“Diogo Freitas Do Amaral broke the Article 20 of the RA law “On
Referendum”, which says that foreign citizens have no right to spread
propaganda”, Ruben Torosyan said.
To remind, the Chair of the Council of Ministers of the CoE called
upon the RA people and political parties to support the constitutional
amendments.
“The central commission on referendum violated Article 11 and didn’t
appeal to the corresponding bodies to liquidate the consequences
of the above mentioned violation. Guiding by Article 16 of the law
“On Referendum”, Article 40 of the RA Electoral Codeand Articles
159-161 of the Civic Code I request to recognize the inactivity “,
Torosyan’s appeal says.

ANDRANIK MARGARYAN MET IGOR LEVITIN
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| 14:41:57 | 13-10-2005 | Official |
Today Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan received Co-Chair
of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic
Cooperation, Minister of Transport Igor Levitin.
Speaking about the high level of cooperation between Armenia
and Russia, the interlocutors stressed the activities of the
Intergovernmental Commission and noted with satisfaction the growth
of commodity turnover between the two states.
It was emphasized that Russia still remains Armenia’s principal
economic partner and the established legal-contractual basis and
over 160 agreements give the possibility to develop cooperation in
all the fields.
The Armenian government head noted that the establishment
of transport communication will contribute to further trade and
economic cooperation. In this view Armenia attaches great importance
to the Caucasus-Poti railway and ferry line. The Prime Minister also
marked out the importance of restoration of the Abkhazian sector of
the Georgian railway, what would be very profitable and would open
wide possibilities for the whole region. The parties discussed the
possibility of trilateral participation in the railway construction
(Russia-Georgia-Armenia)
The Ra Premier and Co-Chair of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental
Commission also touched upon the issue of the Armenian enterprises
conveyed to Russia due to Property for Debt Treaty. Upon completion
of the meeting they expressed hope that the upcoming visit of the
Russian Prime Minister to Armenia will convey a new impulse to the
Armenian-Russian political and economic relations.

ARMENIAN NATIONAL TEAM WON
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| 21:15:58 | 12-10-2005 | Sports |
Today the Armenian national football team played its last game in
the preliminary phase of the 2006 World Championship.
Hosted by the national team of Andorra our team won the game 3:0. The
goals were scored at the 40th, 53rd, and 63rd minutes. Besides, at
the end of the first time the referee showed a red card to one of
the midfielders of the Andorra national team.
After the 2006 World Championship preliminary phase our team won 7
points and took the 6th place among 7 teams.

EUROPEANS PRAISING THE CONSTITUTION
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| 20:07:36 | 12-10-2005 | Official |
Today Robert Kocharyan had a meeting with the Ambassadors of the EU
member-countries to Armenia and the representative of the European
Committee delegation.
Next week the President is supposed to visit Brussels and the European
structures. During the visit he will discuss the perspectives of
cooperation, particularly issues about the European Neighborhood
program.
The sides also exchanged thoughts about the Constitutional
referendum. They were of the same opinion that the reforms offered are
a step forward and they will allow to correspond the Constitutional
to the European standards.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ANTI-PREACHING HEADQUARTERS FORMED
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| 19:46:54 | 12-10-2005 | Politics |
“The Justice bloc says no to the Constitutional amendments”, after
the 2-hour session of the bloc announced secretary Viktor Dallakyan
who will act as coordinator of the works of the anti-preaching
headquarters.
According to him, “There are two things the structure must do – hold
meetings with the people and do organizational work with the observers’
missions and the representatives of the bloc in the Committees”.
October 18 and 19 meetings will be held in Aragats and Martouni. The
table of the rest of the meetings will be cleared later. Possibly the
Justice bloc will soon make a joint announcement with the National
Unity. According to Viktor Dallakyan, he has already spoken with
Artashes Geghamyan.
By the way, during the session two variants of saying “No” were
discussed – to vote or to boycott. According to the People’s Party
secretary Grigor Haroutyunyan, except the National Democratic Union
which has already announced about its intention to boycott the
referendum, the rest of the parties have chosen the first strategy.
According to him, as the blocs are not allowed to create a fund, the
parties to raise money for the anti-preaching. “And we are not going
to tell you where from as we do not want to risk those businessmen
who may finance us”, he added.
Member of the Republican Party political Council Smbat Ayvazyan said
that the Party has made offers which will be discussed during the
bloc session.
And founder of the “National Renaissance” Albert Bazeyan thinks that
they can decide whether to boycott or not even three days before
the referendum.
What is important is that they must be accompanied with acts of
complaints, “otherwise the boycott will be too passive”.

EU CONSIDERS BUILDING KARS-AKHALKALAKI RAILWAY INEFFICIENT
Pan Armenian
13.10.2005 19:10 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The EU does not support the project of building
Kars-Akhalkalaki railway, considering it inefficient,” stated a
representative of the European Commission Directorate General for
Transport and Energy. The EU considers Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway,
which makes part of the TRACECA project, to be a more efficient one,
he said. “Azerbaijan and Turkey are participants of the TRACECA and
we have informed these countries on our stand,” the EC representative
stated. He also reported that the EC has received an official letter
from Armenia, displaying Armenian party’s readiness to let transit
cargo pass via Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway through its territory. “This
proposal of the Armenian party gives hope,” the EC representative
stated, reported Mediamax.

SPECIFIC WAYS OF ECONOMIC COOPERATION BETWEEN YEREVAN AND ASTANA OUTLINED
Pan Armenian
13.10.2005 18:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Priority directions of economic cooperation between
Armenia and Kazakhstan are outlined, stated Armenian Co-Chair of the
Armenian-Kazakh Inter-Governmental Commission for Economic Cooperation,
First Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergey Avetisyan at the Commission
session in Yerevan yesterday. In his words, the major goal of the
Commission is to form a corresponding legal framework between the
two countries. A trend toward increase of trade between Armenia
and Kazakhstan has begun to show, the Kazakh Co-Chair, Deputy FM
Nurlan Onjanov remarked. He informed that in Echmiadzin, Armenia a
tinned food factory functions based on Kazakh capital. The parties
noted transport questions among problematic ones. It should be noted
that agreements on cooperation in tourism, agriculture, humanities,
transport and mortgage crediting were signed during the session.
The volume of commodity turnover between the two countries makes $18
million. The next meeting of the Armenian-Kazakh Inter-Governmental
Commission for Economic Cooperation will be held in Astana in 2006,
reported IA Regnum.

RA PRESIDENT RECEIVED RUSSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER
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| 16:08:04 | 13-10-2005 | Official |
Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met with Minister
of Transport of Russia, Co-Chair of the Armenian-Russian
Inter-Governmental Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technical
Cooperation Igor Levitin.
In R. Kocharian’s words, the Commission is an important mechanism
in the Armenian-Russian relations, that were always marked with
efficiency. The parties discussed bilateral cooperation programs,
paying special attention to issues of development of energy,
transport and communication. As of restoration of communication
via the Abkhaz part of the railway, the state of the rail line and
conditions necessary for its restoration are being examined at present,
the parties said. The conditions include participation of Russia,
Georgia and Armenia as well. The parties also discussed matters of
beginning exploitation of Armenian enterprises, conveyed to Russia
within Property for Debt Treaty.
In Levitin’s words, Russia is interested in soonest exploitation of
these enterprises, so a special working group is formed to that end.