CENTRALIZATION OF PROPERTY A PROBLEM FOR THE BANKING SYSTEM OF ARMENIA
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 13:45
“Implementation of corporative governance will make the activity
of Armenian banks more transparent and effective,” declared Vache
Gabrielyan, member of the Board of Trustees of the Central Bank
of Armenia.
Speaking at the seminar titled “The corporative governance of the
Armenian banking system.” Vache Gabrielyan said there are no strict
terms of shifting to the corporative governance system. However,
starting July 1, 2006 some new norms will come into force, which
will allow to gradually implement the corporative governance
system. Mr. Gabrielyan noted that the banking system of Armenia is
adjusted to the implementation of corporative governance.
Expert of corporative governance of the International Financial
Corporation Panos Labrapolus noted that one of the problems the
Armenian banking system faces is the extreme centralization of
property. He referred to the results of the survey among 15 banks,
according to which only two of the banks have over 20 shareholders. The
survey revealed also that only two of the banks intend to place their
shares at the stock market. According to Panos Labrapolus’s assessment,
this is not a bad index at the current stage of development of the
banking system.

ARMENIAN CLERGYMEN CONCERNED WITH THE VICTORY OF “LORDI” AT “EUROVISION-2006″
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 14:28
Araratyan Patriarchal Diocese is concerned with the victory of
the Finnish ” Lordi” group at “Eurovision-2006,” which was singing
“Halleluiah” dressed in monsters’ costumes.
Participants of today’s discussion noted that the victory of this
group speaks about degradation of Europe and the trend of returning
to heathenism.
Votes in favor of the Finnish group were cast in most part by the
young and children. Armenian children were no less impressed.
Singer Hamlet Gevorgyan sees anti-educational and hidden anti-Christian
components in the performance of “Halleluiah” in monstrous masks.
Fr. Tovma Andreasyan considers that such choice at “Eurovision” is
the result of degradation of Europe and a proof that the world is
returning to heathenism.
“The performance of Finns cannot be considered a show,” said director
Arman Arakelyan.
Psychologist Mickael Hambartsumyan liked and watched the performance
of the Finns with great pleasure. According to him, the performance
should be considered a show solely, and to watch it does not mean to
step away from the Apostolic Church.
To note, the Finnish group also calls on the millions of “Eurovision”
viewers not to take their show too serious.
It needs to be noted that Armenian was one of the three countries
that gave no points to Finland.
Citizens can refer their questions about this performance and Den
Brown’s ” The Da Vinchi Code,” calling 58 47 22.

ROBERT KOCHARYAN MET THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF NATO SECRETARY GENERAL
ArmRadio.am
23.05.2006 14:40
President Robert Kocharyan received today NATO Secretary General’s
Special Representative for South Caucasus and Central Asia Robert
Simmons. The parties discussed issues related to NATO-Armenia
cooperation.
Positively assessing Armenia’s Individual Partnership Actions Plan
with NATO, Robert Simmons noted that in a short period of time
considerable progress has been registered in the accomplishment of
the provisions of the program. In this context importance was attached
to the implementation of corresponding reforms in the defense system
and reinforcement of democracy.
Considering the relations with NATO in the Eurointegration framework,
the President noted that a commission has been formed to periodically
report about the processes in the direction of coordinating the work
with different European structures.
At the guest’s request, President Kocharyan dwelt on the recent
developments in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

LUKASHENKO THANKS ARMENIA FOR SUPPORT TO BELARUS AT INTERNATIONAL ARENA
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.05.2006 12:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko appreciated
the contribution of Armenian Ambassador to Belarus Suren Harutyunyan
in development of bilateral Belarus-Armenian relations, reports
the web-site of the Armenian Embassy in Belarus. During his meeting
with Suren Harutyunyan on the occasion of the latter completing his
diplomatic mission, the Belarus President noted, “You are not only
an Ambassador of a friendly country, you are our friend.
I never remember you being silent, to say nothing of speaking
negatively about our country. You rooted for Belarus.”
Lukashenko underscored that Suren Harutyunyan took the office seven
years ago, starting from nothing literally – in the diplomatic,
political and economic fields. In his words, “the way for development
of close bilateral contacts is already paved.” The Belarus President
hoped that Suren Harutyunyan’s successor will continue his line of
strengthening bilateral relations. Lukashenko thanked Armenia for
supporting Belarus at international arena, “We feel your help and
support in international organizations.
Armenia always helped us as a friendly state.”
In his turn the Armenian Ambassador remarked that the support of the
Belarus President, Government was a major one for pursuing the line
of strengthening mutually beneficial bilateral relations. “Having
worked in Belarus for 7 years, I always spoke in support of its
interests. There was no single case for me to hesitate regarding your
country and the President,” the diplomat said. Suren Harutyunyan
presented his latest book named “People, Years, Life” to President
Lukashenko.

EXPERTS CONSIDER FINDING A-320 FLIGHT RECORDER GOOD FORTUNE
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.05.2006 13:17 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The flight recorder of A-320 airbus of Armavia air
company that was lifted from the sea bottom yesterday is not sent
to the Inter-State Aviation Committee (ISAC) for decoding yet. “The
speech recorder of A-320 is in Sochi and is not provided to us yet,”
reported head of the ISAC Center for Air Transport Investigations
Rudolf Teymurazov. He also noted, “It is good fortune to find even
one flight recorder among the fragments.” Earlier the experts doubted
the flight recorders could be found.
“I am skeptical over the opportunity to find anything at the Black
Sea bottom farther than a kilometer away from the coastline,” Rudolf
Teymurazov said a day after the catastrophe.
“There are real mountains under the water and their tops are covered
with silt,” he added. In the expert’s words, in case a plane falls into
the sea, maximum 3% of its fragments are found, reports RIA Novosti.
On the night of May 3 a Yerevan-Sochi flight of Armavia airlines
crashed in the Black Sea 6 km away from Adler airport killing all of
113 passengers, including 6 children and 8 members of the crew. Among
them were 26 Russian citizens, one Ukrainian and one Georgian citizen,
while the rest were Armenian citizens.

THE CENTRAL BANK IS NOT TO BE PRESSED
A1+
[01:12 pm] 23 May, 2006
No pressure was exerted by the President’s Office during the change of
banks with sole administration into banks with group administration,
claims Vache Gabrielyan, member of the Council of the Central Bank
(CB).
Let us remind you that Tigran Sargsyan, president of the CB confessed
that there are a few banks that are categorically against the
corporative administration but he assured that he will make them
do it. Even the heads of commercial and central banks met with the
President for consultation on this score. Kocharyan supported their
approach that corporative administration may not go in line with
the subjective interests of the organization owners. “No, we are not
subjected to any pressure by the President,” repeated Vache Gabrielyan.
Today a seminar was initiated on this score by the International
Financial Corporation (IFC). IFC is a substructure of the World
Bank and deals with the problems of developing countries. IFC
illustrated a number of examples in order to make the representatives
of banks invited to the seminar realize the importance of adopting
the principles of group administration and what prospects of better
life it will suggest them. IFC studied 21 companies in Russia and
found out that they registered a fantastic increase of the bank’s
value by 70 000% after they had improved their worst corporative
administration by raising it to the best one.
Among Armenian banks “ArmEconomBank” applies the tools of corporative
administration, and “HSBC” has a group administration. This information
was presented by Vache Gabrielyan.
The expenditure of the three-day seminar was compensated by three
commercial banks along with the Government of the Netherlands and RA
Central Bank.

IT WAS BUT A POLITICAL CALCULATION
A1+
[01:44 pm] 23 May, 2006
“The NA President’s resignation was not determined by the pressure
of internal forces but by the outer ones,” deputy of the Armenian
Republican party Hamlet Haroutyunyan informed “A1+.”
In his words the current events are the result of normal procedure
only the reasons presented by Arthur Bagdasaryan don’t go in line
with the reality. “It is merely a result of political calculation. As
for the inner discord of the Coalition, I haven’t faced any conflict
within the last three years; approaches, positions and conflicts are
quite different.”
Hamlet Haroutyunyan doesn’t deem the three-year work of the NA
satisfactory whereas in his speech the NA President announced that
the NA has worked efficiently and properly, and then added that
there is discord in the Coalition. “The discord cannot be revealed
in three years. Discord on political issues exists from the very
beginning. It shouldn’t be mixed with the babble of a kid who matures
in the course of time and realizes that his pranks are determined by
his age. I think one must be unbiased and frank and say openly that
it is a mere calculation connected with the next parliamentary and
Presidential elections.”

ARTHUR BAGDASARYAN WASN’T IN THE HALL TODAY
A1+
[02:12 pm] 23 May, 2006
Today the Parliament resumed its work rather actively and efficiently
passing 31 bills unanimously within the first 30 minutes. By the way,
the most striking was that the bills were supported by deputies who
quitted the Orinats Yerkir and by deputies who are still members of
the party. Mainly it was Vram Gyurzadyan who voted for all the bills.
NA deputy president Tigran Torosyan presented Gegham Manoukyan, deputy
of the Dashnaktsutyun party elected by proportional system who has
so far participates in the voting process with abstentions. Arthur
Bagdasaryan was not present in the hall today.
Viktor Dallakyan, secretary of “Justice” bloc informed that so far
25 signatures have been collected in order to discuss aviation
issues. This step was initiated yesterday at 13:30 p.m. If they
don’t get the required sum, 44 signatures, he is going to give his
evaluation of the matter during the parliamentary announcements.
On the whole, parliamentarians look forward to the time of
announcements where they predict to hear interpretations on the
“accusations” and “explanation” of the parties Orinats Yerkir and
National Unity.

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL IS INTERESTED IN THE KARABAKH CONFLICT
A1+
[02:44 pm] 23 May, 2006
Today President Robert Kocharyan received Robert Simmons, special
envoy of the NATO Secretary General on South Caucasian affairs.
The key issues of the discussions were connected with NATO – Armenia
cooperation.
Giving his positive evaluation of the procedure of the Individual
Partnership program with the NATO, Robert Simmons noted that
significant progress in realizing the program provisions is evident
within this short period. On this score the sides attached a great
importance to the implementation of reforms and enhance of democracy
in the system of the defense of the country’s security.
While viewing the relations with the NATO in the political framework of
the Armenian integration into European structures, Kocharyan stressed
that a interdepartmental committee has been set up which will handle
with the problems of confronting work with various structures and
going ahead in a more systemized way. The committee will frequently
report the President on their actions and progress on this score. “Our
objective is to keep abreast with the work, go ahead more quickly and
realize the joint program to full extent,” mentioned Robert Kocharyan.
Taking into account the request of the guests President Kocharyan
referred to the recent developments of the Karabakh conflict
settlement.

SERGE SARGSYAN’S BROTHER THREATENED A JOURNALIST
A1+
[03:22 pm] 23 May, 2006
Today NA deputy, member of the Armenian Republican party and Serge
Sargsyan’s brother Alexander Sargsyan mouthed indecent curses at Taguhy
Tovmasyan, correspondent of “Iravunk” and then threatened her by saying
“the end won’t be a good one.”
Taguhy Tovmasyan only informed in the newspaper that Sashik Sargsyan
participated at the birthday party of one of their district authorities
in the restaurant “Shant” on May 3. During the party some of the
drunken authorities remembered that they had certain problems with
Sashik Sargsyan, to say more precisely, the latter was involved in
a story connected with large sums of money, so the above mentioned
authorities decided to settle their affairs with Sargsyan in the yard
of the restaurant.
Today in the Parliament Alexander Sargsyan was eager to find out who
gave Taguhy Tovmasyan the information.
The latter answered that in case the information doesn’t correspond to
the reality Sashik Sargsyan may bring an action or demand refute. “Do
you know who I am?” declared Sargsyan. Ashot Aghababyan, member of the
Republican Party was also present during the incident and he tried to
calm down the “deputy,” whereas the latter continued his curses about
the journalist in the presence of many people. “If you don’t reveal
the source of the information, you will have many problems. You know
who I am, don’t you?” threatened Sargsyan in the end.
Hrant Khacatryan, NA deputy was also involved in the incident who
claimed, “If you have any problems turn to us, you know both us and
the newspaper. What do you want from journalists?”