IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE WILL BE BUILT IRRESPECTIVE OF WHICH COUNTRY IT WILL BELONG TO: ARMENIAN PM
Yerevan, April 12. ArmInfo. Iran-Armenia gas pipeline will be built
irrespective of which country it will belong to, Armenian Prime
Minister Andranik Margaryan said at the Parliament, Wednesday.
He said the CJSC ArmRosgazprom is to supply gas to Armenian consumers
irrespective of its form of ownership and belonging. The prime
minister assured parliamentarians that the sale of the 5th power unit
of Hrazdan TPP and the construction of Iran-Armenian gas pipeline
are not related. The first line of this gas pipeline from Meghri to
Kajaran is currently built, the construction of the second one from
Kajaran to Yerevan is planned for the current year as well. The funding
of the second line is currently under consideration. The capacity of
Iran-Armenian gas pipeline will amount to 2.2 billion cubic meters of
gas annually, which is adequate to the Russian gas supply to Armenia,
the prime minister said.
In his turn, Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan assured parliamentarians
that the gas pipeline Iran-Armenia will remain the property of
Armenia. As regards the price of the 5th power unit of Hrazdan TPP –
$250 million – it depends on the technical and economic parameters
of the unit’s construction project. A gas turbine will be installed
on the unit, and its capacity will amount to 440 megawatt. It will
reduce the use of fuel equivalent to 250 grams. For example, the
minister said that the operating four power units of Hrazdan TPP were
transferred to Russia for $31 million as they use 400 grams of fuel.
In his turn, Serge Sargsyan, Minister of Defense, Armenian
Co-chairman of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission, told
parliamentarians that starting from 2000, Russia was setting touch
conditions for construction of the 5th power unit of Hrazdan TPP. In
particular, Russia demanded the sale of the electricity generated by
the unit or repayment of the investments within few years. It was
unfavorable for Armenia, which was delaying the transaction. This
year, Russia set no conditions and Armenia agreed to sell the power
unit to Gazprom, S. Sargsyan said.

HEADS OF “GAZPROM” AND “ARMROSGAZPROM” DISCUSS COOPERATION ISSUES
Yerevan, April 12. ArmInfo. Aleksey Miller,head of “Gazprom” OJSC, and
Karen Karapetian, head of “ArmRosgazprom” CJSC, discussed cooperation
issues during today’s meeting.
According to the April 6 agreement, Armenia will sell Hrazdan-5 to
“Gazprom” for 25 years. The preliminary trade agreements between the
sides will be signed on April 14, 2006. While the final handing of the
above mentioned energy object will be carried out on January 1, 2004.
While in the interview to “Liberty” Radio Station, Karen
Karapetian said that Hrazdan-5 will be included in the structure of
“ArmRosgazprom” and “Gazprom” will pay $248,8 million for that. He
added that the share of the Russian company may increase. According
to the Russian printed press, the increase of the company’s shares
will make 82%.
Karapetian said that the recent deal between “Gazprom” and RA
Government was the most profitable one in the course of the last 10
years. As for the ?â- sale of the 40 kilometers of Iran-Armenia gas
pipe line to Russia, Karen Karapetian said he had no information
about that.
–Boundary_(ID_BiJ8eCHTHbpcxcY8pcgTjQ)–

“ARMENTEL” AND “ARMINCO” COMPANIES DOMINATING IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKET OF ARMENIA
Yerevan, April 12. ArmInfo. The dominating positions of a number of
companies in the markets of “internet services” and “data transmission
services over leased lines” and “international services of satellite
data reception” were considered by the Commission for Protection of
Economic Competition (CPEC), Wednesday.
CPEC press-service told ArmInfo that according to a survey 213
economic entities have license for provision of internet services,
however majority of these entities do not provide “first hand internet”
i.e. they receive Internet from 10 big providers and directly from
ArmenTel. As regards the volume of the services of these 10 companies,
in 2005 it amounted to 1.9 billion AMD, including 37.1% being the
share of Arminco. Thus, the company has a dominating position in the
given segment, therefore, it was included in the relevant register
of CPEC. “Netsys” occupies 18.1% of the market segment, “Cornet-AM”
– 15.6%, “Escolt” – 14.5%, “Web” – 9.8%. In the market of satellite
data reception, the operating 21 economic entities provided services
worth 454.6 million AMD. However, the maximum share of the companies
engaged in the given segment did not exceed 20% i.e. no dominating
companies were recorded.

RUSSIAN ANALYZERS ESTIMATE THE 90% OF ARMENTEL SHARES $180 MILLION
Yerevan, April 13. ArmInfo. Russian analyzers appreciate the 90%
shares of ArmenTel $180 million. Referring to MDM bank expert Phillip
Townsend, ‘Vedomosti’ newspaper, Russia, reports that last year
‘Vympelcom’ company started talks with the Greek owners of ArmenTel
about the possible purchase of ArmenTel, but the talks were suspended
because of the position of the Armenian Government. Now when the
matter has been cleared with the Government, the negotiations are
renewed. To Phillip Townsend’s opinion ‘Vympelcom’, owner of BILINE
trademark, will have no problem with buying ArmenTel as in 2007 the
company will posses as minimum $850 million free cash.
According to ‘Vedomosti’, in its turn the OTE company, Greece,
stated that it has started considering various variants of dealing
with the 90% of ArmenTel shares after settling the matter with the
Armenian authorities.
Other cell-operators of Russia also expressed interest in purchasing
ArmenTel. ‘Systema Telecom’ company is also interested in ArmenTel,
told ArmInfo correspondent public contacts director of the company
Anna Boyko. Similar statements were made by ‘Megaphon’ press secretary
Marina Belasheva and ‘Vympelcom’ press secretary Yulia Ostroukhova.
“Mobile service operators are searching for new opportunities to invest
their money to promote their businesses and the purchase of Armentel
is not a bad opportunity,” says managing partner of ACM-Consulting
Mikhail Alexeyev. He notes that despite small population – 3.2 mln –
Armenia still has a low rate of mobile service use – 20%. The country’s
mobile market began to actually develop only last year when K Telecom
started its work in the country, says chief editor of Comnews Leonid
Konik. During ArmenTel’s monopoly people queued for months to get
mobile cards and bought SIM-cards for $200 on the black market.
OTE bought ArmenTel in Mar 1998 from the Armenian Government (41%) and
Transworld Telecommunications (49%). The company committed itself to
invest $200 mln in Armentel in exchange of 15-year monopoly but failed
its commitments. As a result, in late 2004 the Armenian Transport
and Communication Ministry gave one more mobile service license to
K-Telecom. ArmenTel and the ministry refuse to say yet why OTE is
going to sell ArmenTel’s assets.

‘MY SON SHALL BE ARMENIAN’ FILM DEMONSTRATED IN CANADA
Yerevan, April 13. ArmInfo. ‘My Son Shall Be Armenian’ film by director
Hakob Gudsuzian was demonstrated in Canada on April 11. The film was
made by the ‘National Film Board’ company and the demonstration was
organized by Armenian youth unions of Ottawa, Armenian organizations
of Canada and the Armenian Embassy.
The Foreign Ministry of Armenia report that the film tell about five
Armenians from Montreal traveling to Armenia in order to find evidence
of survivors of the Genocide.

FRAMEWORK OF NEGOTIATIONS TO BE ADAPTED WITHOUT CHANGES
Lragir.am
14 April 06
The framework of talks on the conflict over Karabakh will not change,
and rumors about reporting the issue to the United Nations or other
international organizations are groundless. This was stated by the OSCE
Minsk Group Co-Chair Bernard Fassier (France) on April 13 in Yerevan.
The French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group said the negotiations
were and will be mediates by the OSCE Minsk Group. He noted that
the framework may simply be adapted. Adapting, according to Bernard
Fassier, means taking advantage of other opportunities outside the
mediatory mission. “There will be an adjustment of the existing
framework, and it means that we the co-chairs will not confine
ourselves to visits and are determined to use every favorable
opportunity,” says Bernard Fassier.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRIVATIZATION PROGRAM ADOPTED
Lragir.am
13 april 06
Despite the heated parliamentary debates and revelations that
lasted for three days the National Assembly adopted the report
on performance of privatization of state property 2001-2003, and
the program of privatization 2005-2007. It was confirmed thanks to
“forcing” the members of parliament who hardly ever attend the meetings
of parliament to turn up.
Nonetheless, Victor Dallakyan, Ardarutiun Alliance, called for a
boycott not to have quorum. Only the alliance and some members of
the National Unity followed him. The Orinats Yerkir voted against the
program. The ARF representatives voted as they wanted. Some voted for,
others against the program, yet some abstained. The 10-11 members of
the People’s Deputy Group supplied 15-16 votes.
The head of the Department for Management of State Property Karineh
Kirakosyan announced that the 2005-2007 program is the final program
of privatization, including about 300 companies. The list does not
include educational, scientific and medical institutions.

LEGAL STATUS TO REFUGEES
Lragir.am
14 April 06
The PACE called Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia for granting refugees
in these countries a status that complies with the international law,
informs the news agency ARKA, referring to Russian sources.
In his report Parliamentarian Boris Cilevic invited Armenia, Georgia
and Azerbaijan to grant a legal status to the refugees living in
these countries. It is stated in the report that the status must be
based on the humanitarian law and be equal to the status of refugees
of Chechnya. The author of the report thinks the situation of the
displaced persons and refugees hampers economic, social and political
development in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Boris Cilevic mentions that the efforts of countries for the settlement
of some conflicts, particularly the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh
produced no results, border incidents persist, the fate of the missing
is unknown.
In the report Nagorno Karabakh is said to have the highest number of
refugees. According to the statistics provided by the UN, 235 235
refugees were counted in Armenia, in Georgia – 237 069 in Abkhazia
and 12 131 in South Ossetia. After the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh
there are 578 545 displaced persons in Azerbaijan.
The PACE invited the countries of the EU to render financial support
to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan to settle the problems of refugees
and the displaced persons.

ARMENIAN BODY CLAIMS 130 POWS IN AZERI PRISONS
Regnum, Moscow
11 Apr 06
As of today there are 130 Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan,
deputy chairman of the Community and Law public organization, Suren
Ovannesyan, has said.
He said that the Armenian Defence Ministry had elaborated a list of
missing people and their whereabouts. However, the process of their
return is practically impossible. Azerbaijan had also published
information about the Armenian prisoners of war. But information
about the prisoners of war has not been made public since [Azerbaijani
President] Ilham Aliyev came into power.
“Access to prisons in Azerbaijan is even barred for international
organizations,” Suren Ovannesyan said and added that Armenian prisoners
of war are exploited as free labour force in Azerbaijan.
Suren Ovannesyan noted that there are no Azerbaijani prisoners of war
in Armenian prisons as they were returned to Azerbaijan unilaterally.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATED BY THOSE WHO ARE TO PROTECT
Lragir.am
14 April 06
On April 13 the National Assembly heard the report on the activity of
the ombudsman of Armenia in 2005. The report was presented by Armen
Harutiunyan, who became ombudsman in March 2006. According to the
members of parliament, Armen Harutiunyan observed all the rules of
decency and deserves praise. In his report he had included mostly
statistical facts, without dwelling on assessments, and noticed in
the beginning that “the first ombudsman could have been given the
opportunity to present the report on the activity in 2005.” The picture
of 2005 is the following: the ombudsman received 1551 complaints from
1824 citizens, some are signed by groups of people, 533 complaints ,
i.e. 34 per cent were discussed.
In European countries they attend to 20-25 per cent of complaints. The
majority of complaints are about strange methods of investigation
used by the police, the social security agencies for problems with
benefits, courts, the Ministry of Justice, the Office of Public
Prosecutor, the City Hall of Yerevan, regional administrations,
other agencies. The police is in the first place – 191 complaints,
social security agencies are the second – 179, then come courts –
166. The lowest number of complaints are about the Ministry of Finance
and Economy and the Ministry of Energy – three complaints each. This
statistics allowed MP Victor Dallakyan to conclude that human rights
are often violated by those who are called to protect them, i.e. the
police, courts of law, the Office of Public Prosecutor.