ARMY AND CHURCH ARE BASIS OF CONFIDENCE IN YEREVAN AND PRESIDENT, ARMY AND
MASS MEDIA – IN BAKU AND TBILISI
YEREVAN, December 10 (Noyan Tapan). On December 9, the Armenian branch
of the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) published the results
of the social-demographic research simulteneously conducted in
Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The purpose of CRRC is to contribute
to cooperation of specialists of social sciences of the three
countries of the South Caucasus and to establish favorable conditions
for their work. CRRC was established by the “Eurasia” Foundation, the
Carnegie Corporation of New York (Chairman – Vardan Grigorian), the
World Bank and other donors. The CRRC branches of Armenia, Georgia and
Azerbaijan conducted public opinion polls among randomly selected
1,500 farms of their capitals, collecting data on demograpy, political
activity, social institutes and crimes. Sociologist Samvel Manukian
presented the results of the research conducted on the basis of these
data. According to him, 60% of the population of Yerevan doesn’t
approve of the tendencies of the country’s development, meanwhile 23%
and 47% of the population of Tbilisi and Baku, respectively, is
discontent with the tendencies of the development of their
countries. The army and the church are the basis of confidence in
Yerevan, and the President, the army and mass media – in Baku and
Tbilisi. The level of crime is higher in Tbilisi, where 14.7% of
respondents was witnesses of the crime or victims. In Yerevan and Baku
this index is less three-fold, making 4.1% and 3.6%,
respectively. Lala Cholakian, the regional Director of CRRC, mentioned
that the purpose of the program is to expose the possibilities of the
effective research cooperation of the three countries and indicate the
spheres, where the scientific potential of each of the three countries
will be more useful for the universal progress. In 2005, CRRC will
give grants to separate researchers of the South Caucasus and small
research groups. According to Heghine Manasian, Director of the CRRC
Armenian branch, the research program should be dedicated to one of
the countries of the South Caucasus or their comparative analysis with
the application of the data available in other CRRC offices. It is
expected that 15 grants, whose maximum amount makes 2,000 dollars,
will be given.

ArmenPress
Dec 10 2004
CONVICTS TO RECOVER HEALTH AT MODERN HOSPITAL
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS: A senior clergyman of Armenian
Apostolic Church blessed today a new hospital built for convicts. The
ceremony was attended by prime minister Andranik Margarian, justice
and health ministers, parliament members and other officials.
The prime minister said around 700 million drams are earmarked for
major construction and repair works at correctional facilities in
order to improve the conditions in which the prison population is
kept and also to provide bigger security.
The repair of prisons is part of a broader judicial reform, funded
by the government and international donor organizations. Margarian
said the new hospital will be essential in terms of recovering the
convicts’ health condition.
Justice minister David Harutunian said the government alone is not
able to provide all necessary funds and welcomed the assistance of
other governments and organizations.
“Our major principle is to celebrate at least one victory a year,”
the minister said meaning reconstruction of a prison a year.

ArmenPress
Dec 10 2004
KOCHARIAN MEETS CENTRAL BANK COUNCIL MEMBERS
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert
Kocharian’s press office said he had a working meeting today with
members of the Central Bank Council. It said “the focal topic of the
meeting was to sum up what the Bank has done in the outgoing year and
to discuss the current situation in the financial market.”
Kocharian was quoted as saying that the Central Bank is
experiencing now a very crucial moment with global shifts occurring
at the world’s financial markets, which “could not have failed to
have its impact on Armenia’s economy.”
Kocharian said it is very important for the Central Bank and the
government to adapt their moves and policies to global processes,
“but not to oppose them, as in that case Armenia would sustain only
damages.” According to Kocharian, Armenia may even gain if it carries
a flexible and correct policy. He said the Central Bank is the body
that is responsible for carrying out that kind of policy. “A great
deal depends on you,” Kocharian said, meaning members of the Council.
The president said Central Bank officials should have in view that
drastic fluctuations of hard currency exchange rates prompts
speculative deals in the financial markets, urging the Central Bank
to take a more resolute stand and act swiftly to foil them.
The president asked Council members to share their vision of
developments in the domestic financial market (the drastic decline of
US Dollar value against Armenia’s national currency-dram) and their
suggestions what can be done so that the government and people do not
sustain damages and also what can be done to take the opportunity of
a stronger dram in order to boost domestic production.
Kocharian’s press office said Council members presented the
situation in the financial markets and their views on how to
alleviate its aftereffects.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
Dec 10 2004
ELITA LTD LAUNCHES DRY YEAST PRODUCTION FACILITY
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS: Elita Ltd., the sole producer of
yeast in Armenia, has launched today its new dry yeast production
facility in Yeghvard, Kotayk Marz. The company was initially designed
to produce wet yeast to compete with Iranian wet yeast imports in the
local market. The management of the company decided to expand its
operations by launching a dry yeast production line to cater for the
needs of smaller commercial and household bakers. The opening
ceremony was attended by the governor of Kotayk Marz, Mr. John Evans,
the U.S. Ambassador, other honorable guests.
The construction of dry yeast production facility started in 2003
with the help of DAI-ASME, USAID financed project. DAI-ASME provided
day-to-day consulting assistance in strategic planning as well as
financial assistance in the form of a grant to cover part of the
construction cost of the new facility.
In 1992, when Armenia faced a huge deficit of bakery yeast as a
result of the blockade by Azerbaijan, the founders of Elita Ltd. –
four graduates from Food Industrial Technological Institute in Kiev,
Ukraine – decided to establish a factory to produce bakery yeast in
Armenia.
Today Elita is the only producer and supplier of wet yeast in the
local market and has captured 10% of the yeast (wet and dry) market.
Currently, over 50 large Armenian bakeries use Elita’s wet yeast.
The company now employs 25 people. This number will grow to 50 when
new operations are fully developed. Dry yeast produced by Elita will
compete and gradually replace imported Iranian and Turkish brands.
The new facility will enable the company to produce 6-8 tons of dry
yeast during the first year of operations and supply up to 50% of the
country’s need for yeast products in 2006. Export opportunities to
Georgia will be considered as total production increases and local
market needs are satisfied.
The company is managed by three shareholders.

Gulf Daily News, Bahrain
Dec 10 2004
Spiritual leader set for visit
THE spiritual leader of the Armenian community for Kuwait and the GCC
countries will be in Bahrain to officiate mass at the Awali Chapel at
7.30pm tonight. This will be followed by a dinner at the Majestic
Hotel in Juffair at around 10pm. Archbishop Dr Goriun Babyan will be
arriving from Kuwait and will be accompanied by a priest from the
parish in Sharjah, Father Aram Deylrmandjian. There are 52 Armenians
arriving from Saudi Arabia, who will join the small Armenian
community in Bahrain, which numbers around 25 people.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
December 10, 2004, Friday
AZERBAIJAN WILL STRENGTHEN ITS ARMED FORCES
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is not the topic of negotiations –
it must be restored, and the invaders must leave the republic’s
territory. Only after that the issue of the peace treaty can be
raised. (…) This statement was made by President Ilham Aliyev of
Azerbaijan at a government meeting on December 7. (…)
Azerbaijan will focus on military construction. (…) Aliyev stated:
“The defense budget will increase by 30% next year. Later on we will
be able to increase it by 50%, 100% and 200%. Azerbaijan’s economic
potential makes this task realistic. Armenia cannot compete with us.
Armenia’s budget amounts to only $500 million. Azerbaijan spends $250
million on its army.”
Source: Turan information agency (Baku), December 8, 2004
Translated by Alexander Dubovoi

The Times (London)
December 10, 2004, Friday
EU rules out Ukraine entry
by Anthony Browne Brussels Correspondent
HUNDREDS of thousands of Ukrainians have braved the snows of Kiev for
two weeks to demand their right to join the West. But their country
faces a certain rebuff by the European Union.
Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western presidential candidate, said in an
American newspaper interview yesterday that EU membership would be
his top priority if he were elected on December 26.
In Brussels, however, the European Commission said: “Our position has
not changed.
Membership is not on the agenda.” Instead, the commission announced a
partnership plan for greater co-operation with Ukraine to boost ties
with its closest neighbours once it holds free and fair elections.
Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, who takes up the
EU’s rotating presidency next month, said: “I can only warn against
offering Ukraine the prospect of full membership. We need a special
relationship with Ukraine that does justice to its strategic
importance.”
Ukraine’s possible membership is an acutely awkward subject for
European leaders.
“We just try to avoid the question when asked. The fact that Ukraine
never applied has made the decision easier but now it is far more
difficult,” said an EU diplomat. Although keen to support democracy
in the largest country wholly in Europe, EU leaders are concerned
that the bloc’s inability to say no to potential members means that
it is growing too big to control.
The EU has just expanded to 25 members by accepting ten mainly poor
Eastern European countries, among them Poland and Hungary. Bulgaria
and Romania are joining in 2007, and Turkey, almost entirely in Asia,
is already on track to become the biggest, and poorest, member in
about another ten years. The Balkan states, such as Croatia and
Macedonia, have also been accepted as potential members.
Many politicians fear that the EU simply will not be able to cope
with another country as poor, large and chaotic as Ukraine. Allowing
Ukraine in would also open the door for other countries such as
Belarus, Moldova, Georgia (which recently said that it wanted to
join), Azerbaijan and Armenia, bringing the total to nearly 40
countries.
To control its expansion, the EU set an arbitrary official limit that
its eastern border would be the western border of the former USSR,
with the exception of the three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania
and Estonia. Romano Prodi, the former President of the European
Commission, said that Ukraine was as likely as New Zealand to become
a member. But if Mr Yushchenko wins the election on December 26, the
EU will probably be faced with irresistible pressure to let Ukraine
join.
The new Eastern European states, three of which have a border with
Ukraine, are keen to curb instability on their doorstep by letting
Ukraine in. An East European diplomat said: “We should not cut it
off. People are asking, ‘If Turkey can join, why not Ukraine?’ It is
clearly much closer to Europe.”
The British Government, which has always been a strong supporter of
enlargement and is Turkey’s main backer, is noncommittal on Ukraine.
France, like Luxembourg, is strongly opposed, concerned that it will
just turn the EU into a simple free trade zone.
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said: “The
fact that Turkey is joining means it is only a matter of time before
Ukraine becomes a candidate.
“There is no good reason for it not to join. The (commission policy)
opposing Ukraine is simply not credible, and France will have to
follow the majority view on this.”
HOW UKRAINE MEASURES UP
The country’s GDP was £2,800 per capita in 2003, compared with an EU
average of £14,900
Average life expectancy is 68 (78 within the EU)
Ukraine has one of the world’s highest literacy rates: over 99.5 per
cent of the population over 15 rated as literate
Source: World Bank – World Development Indicators database

Agence France Presse — English
December 10, 2004 Friday 7:15 PM GMT
AFP Interview: Democratic reform in Ukraine will help Russia, says
Georgian FM
MOSCOW
Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili said on Friday that
Russia should realise the benefits for itself of a process of
democratic reform in Ukraine, currently undergoing a period of
political crisis.
Speaking to AFP by phone from the Georgian capital Tbilisi,
Zurabishvili said that in order for the rerun of the second round of
Ukrainian presidential elections to take place peacefully, Russia
must be “warned against the temptation to meddle.”
She said in addition that as many observers as possible should be
deployed in the country for the vote, scheduled to take place on
December 26.
“If Ukraine becomes a democratic country at the frontier of Europe
there can only be winners,” including Russia, she said, adding that
“having borders with stable, democratic countries is something that
could set (Russia) along the same path.”
“Everything must be done to encourage Russia down this path, one
which is difficult to take,” she said.
“What is happening in Russia amounts to an internal decolonisation.
We must encourage them, support them, and help them down this
difficult path, the only one possible if Russia is to evolve in a way
that is sufficiently responsible and safe for both itself and its
neighbours,” she added.
As far as the recent strong criticism levelled by Moscow over the
West’s alleged interference in Ukraine was concerned, and in
particular comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zurabishvili
spoke of a “constant swing between signs that Russia is moving
towards a possible normalisation and and signs that it is slipping
backwards.”
Questioned about the Russian accusations, Zurabishvili said that
there had been no intervention.
“We did not intervene in favour of one candidate of the other. We
intervened in favour of a democratic process,” she said.
“As long as Russia imagines that support for democracy, whether it is
in the Caucasus, Ukraine or elsewhere, is something that is directed
against it, Moscow will fail to understand the way the world is
going.”
The Georgian foreign minister described Moscow’s manifestation of
discontent as “a return to the instincts of the Soviet Union.”
“The big difference is that it does not have any effect any more.
Russian short fuses, which in the past petrified the West, are today
received in a more measured, philosophical way… and do not achieve
the desired effect.”
Zurabishvili also called on Russia to keep out of Georgia’s quarrels
with the separatist republic of Abkhazia, saying that Moscow must
“understand that former Soviet republics had become independent
countries” and that Moscow could not interfere directly in their
affairs.
Abkhazia has de facto independence from Georgia since it defeated
Georgian troops with the help of Russian mercenaries in the early
1990s in the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union.
On the recent decision by Azerbaijan to shut down its cargo rail
traffic to other Caucasus republics because it feared that some of
the goods were being delivered via Georgia to its arch-foe Armenia,
Zurabishvili said Georgia had good relations with both countries.
She said Tbilisi had agreed to prevent transit through its territory
of military goods. But she added: “We refuse to take any economic
sanctions against Armenia.”
She said that if Georgia was anything other than neutral in the
dispute between the two countries, “we would enter into a logic of
escalation which would be not only damaging for us and for our
neighbours, but for the whole region.”

December 10, 2004
UE: TURCHIA; BONINO, SULL’ADESIONE MARGHERITA COME LEGA? ;
GRAVE FIRMA DIELLE A EMENDAMENTI CONTRO APERTURA NEGOZIATI
ROMA
(ANSA) – ROMA, 10 DIC – “Ieri al Parlamento Europeo la
stragrande maggioranza dei deputati della Margherita, e in
particolare Vittorio Prodi, Enrico Letta, Alfonso Andria,
Patrizia Toia, Paolo Costa, ha sottoscritto tre emendamenti
presentati dai colleghi francesi del Partito Democratico,
contrari all’apertura dei negoziati con la Turchia. Questi
emendamenti di fatto dicono no all’apertura dei negoziati se non
a nuove condizioni”. Lo ha detto a Radio Radicale Emma Bonino,
in un collegamento in diretta questa mattina.

Una notizia “arrivata davvero come una sorpresa, un fulmine
a ciel sereno”, spiega l’europarlamentare radicale, “perche
io sono relatrice nel gruppo liberale, ne abbiamo discusso, e in
quella sede l’onorevole Pistelli e’ intervenuto per dire che era
favorevole al testo che avevo presentato”.

“Il primo degli emendamenti dice che prerequisito per
l’avvio dei negoziati e’ il riconoscimento da parte dei turchi
del genocidio armeno. Il secondo – ha detto l’europarlamentare
radicale – dice che bisogna negoziare non solo l’ipotesi di
adesione ma anche quella di una partnership speciale. Il terzo
sopprime la proposta di dare il via libera al Consiglio europeo
per iniziare i negoziati”.

La Bonino ha anche aggiunto che Pistelli “ha affermato che
la firma dei parlamentari della Margherita si deve intendere
come ‘tecnica’, apposta solo per consentire ai deputati francesi
di presentare la proposta. Io pero’ ho fatto notare a Pistelli
che questa posizione non sta in piedi. I colleghi francesi non
avrebbero avuto alcuna difficolta’ a ‘trovare delle firme’
nell’ambito dell’Europarlamento”.

“Non so se sia il risultato dell’incontro di ieri, con la
nascita del Partito democratico di Bayrou e Rutelli, ma di fatto
– ha concluso la Bonino – la Margherita e la Lega si esprimono
con gli stessi emendamenti, contro l’apertura dei negoziati.
Trovo che sia grave”.

PanArmenian News
Dec 10 2004
FIRST PUBLIC CONFERENCE OF SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETIA TO BE HELD IN
AKHALKALAK DECEMBER 11
10.12.2004 17:03
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The first public conference of Samtskhe-Javaketia
arranged by the Council of Public Organizations of the region will be
held in Akhalkalak on December 11. According to A-info news agency,
the conference is not to become the only one – similar forums
dedicated to cultural and language issues as well as to the problems
of the local self-government will be regularly held henceforth. The
present conference will be held under the slogan of “Integration but
not merging”. The initiators have chosen the motto to say that public
organizations of Samtskhe-Javakhetia are against the policy of
merging pursued by the Georgian leadership.