Defence chief says sending peacekeepers to Iraq Armenia’s task
Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
28 Oct 04
Text of unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Aykakan Zhamanak
on 28 October headlined “Actually, we have become independent”
Does the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Deputy Defence
Minister Mikael Arutyunyan, not think that the dispatch of Armenian
peacekeepers to Iraq might endanger the security of the Armenian
community in Iraq?
In response to this question of our correspondent yesterday, the deputy
minister said: “Do you think that there are no Georgian or Azerbaijani
communities in Iraq? Of course, there are. But both Azerbaijan and
Georgia think of increasing their presence in Iraq. The point is not
that we fulfil someone’s desire by sending troops to Iraq, we solve
our own tasks. Otherwise, let’s surround our country with a fortress
and say that we cannot step out of this boundary.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NATIONAL DATA BASE ON PROPERTY TAX BEING DEVELOPED
ArmenPress
28 Oct. 2004
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 28, ARMENPRESS: A national data base that will
compromise information on all property taxes across the country’s
communities will be ready by the end of the year. The data base,
developed in the last five-six years, will be kept in computer files
of the state taxation service.
Arthur Manukian, head of the taxation service division, said this
information will serve as the benchmark data for finance and economy
ministry when deciding the volume of subsidies to each community.
He said each of the provinces will have its own data base. Until now
only the province of Lori has enough equipment and experts to run
the data base. He said data bases of other provinces will be ready
by the end of the year.

CRD / TI ARMENIA NEWS
PRESS RELEASE
Media Contact:
Sarah Tyler (Berlin, Germany)
Transparency International
Tel: +49-30-3438 2019
Fax: +49-30-3470 3912
[email protected]
Nara Arzumanyan
Center for Regional Development/ Transparency International Armenia
Tel/Fax: +374 1 585 578
[email protected]
INDEPENDENT INSTITUTIONS, EFFECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND TRANSPARENT
DECISION-MAKING NEEDED TO TACKLE CORRUPTION IN ARMENIA, SAYS
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL REPORT
Yerevan/Berlin, 29 October 2004 — A new report The National Integrity
Systems TI Country Study Report – Armenia 2003 has been published today
by Transparency International (TI) and TI’s national chapter in Armenia,
the Center for Regional Development (CRD)/TI Armenia. TI is the leading
global non-governmental organisation devoted to combating corruption.
The TI study assessed the effectiveness of the Armenian National
Integrity System (NIS), which is comprised of key institutions that
contribute to the fight against corruption. None of the institutions
evaluated are functioning effectively in Armenia, according to the
report. Among the key systemic factors influencing the NIS in Armenia
are the absence of political will, the lack of independence and autonomy
of institutions, the weak legal framework and poor law enforcement, the
lack of administrative and human capacity, the low level of public
participation in the policy-making, etc.
“It is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of Government
anti-corruption activities in Armenia”, said report co-author and CRD/TI
Armenia chairwoman Amalia Kostanyan, “though in the last year certain
steps (such as adoption of the Anti-Corruption Strategy Program,
establishment of the Anti-Corruption Council and Monitoring Commission,
joining GRECO, etc.) have been taken by state authorities”. Political
will to combat corruption implies not only the adoption of the National
Anti-Corruption Program… but also evident intolerance towards
everyone’s illegal and immoral behaviour irrespective of position and
income, Kostanyan continued.
Most Armenians are still sceptical about commitment of the Government to
fight corruption. Only 22% of respondents of the phone survey conducted
by the CRD/TI Armenia in February 2004 believed that the adoption of the
Anti-Corruption Strategy demonstrated political will to combat
corruption. The view of experts is similar: Armenia received a score of
3.1 against a clean score of 10 in the TI Corruption Perceptions Index
2004, published on 20 October. According to the index, which is based on
the views of business people and country analysts, corruption is a
serious problem in Armenia.
“Ongoing reforms appear to be of declarative nature only and are
perceived as driven by donors”, as the report stated, “to turn this
around local ownership of anti-corruption reforms must be combined with
more effective donor assistance”.
The report calls for the promotion of law enforcement, along with the
improvement of existing legislation. Armenia also needs greater checks
and balances to curb the power of the President compared with the
legislature, and greater independence of the judiciary, prosecutors, and
police, as well as more transparency in the decision-making process.
The report emphasises the need to promote free and fair elections, by
strengthening the party system, making electoral commissions more
accountable to the public, and giving more rights to proxies and
observers. Improving institutional capacity is another priority. “The
success of the reform process is largely determined by the broad support
of the country’s population, which can be promoted by enhancing public
awareness and education”, according to the report. The role of
professional and independent media and, specifically, investigative
journalism, is also crucial for success in the fight against corruption.
A revised National Anti-Corruption Strategy and its Action Plan should
include the reforms cited above. Best practices of anti-corruption
measures all over the world should be reviewed to identify those most
applicable to Armenia.
The National Integrity Systems TI Country Study Report – Armenia 2003
was authored by Amalia Kostanyan, Chairwoman at CRD/TI Armenia, and
Varuzhan Hoktanyan, Public Policy Expert at CRD/TI Armenia. The report
was prepared under the auspices of a programme developed by the TI
Secretariat together with Professor Alan Doig and Stephanie McIvor of
the Teesside Business School in the United Kingdom. It is the latest in
a series of TI country study reports on national integrity systems.
The National Integrity Systems TI Country Study Report – Armenia 2003
and other country study reports in English can be downloaded at:
The National Integrity Systems TI Country Study Report – Armenia 2003
publications in English and Armenian can be downloaded at:
—
site/eng/default.htm

President visits Armenian produce exhibition
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
28 Oct 04
[Presenter] The Armprodexpo exhibition opened in Armenia today. Food
and drink of all kinds produced in Armenia are being exhibited at
the exhibition.
[Correspondent over video of President Robert Kocharyan attending
exhibition] More than 60 companies are represented at the Armprodexpo
international exhibition this year. This is the fourth year that the
exhibition has gathered Armenian and foreign specialists in the food
industry to show the results of their work, assess each other’s work
and search for partners.
The exhibition is an opportunity for the president to assess the
situation and potential of this sphere. He browsed through the sections
and tasted and praised the Armenian goods, except the cigarettes.

Armenian opposition leader rallies party faithful
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
28 Oct 04
[Presenter over video of meeting] The leader of the National Unity
Party, Artashes Gegamyan, made a sensational announcement during a
meeting with party activists at Cinema House.
There is a force that is ready to seize power and this force is
National Unity, Gegamyan’s supporters announced. They said that
Artashes Gegamyan is a person elected by the nation and people consider
his services to be irreplaceable.
One of the participants in the meeting was interested in how Gegamyan
is going to seize power, but the party leader did not wish to disclose
the party’s tactics in order not to be thwarted. Gegamyan’s speech
was accompanied by stormy applause.
[Unidentified party member] We are the party that will come to power.
[Artashes Gegamyan, captioned] The Armenian people listen to the
voice of National Unity.

Armenia and Azerbaijan “pretending” to negotiate on Karabakh – newspaper
Aravot, Yerevan
28 Oct 04
Text of Tigran Avetisyan’s report in Armenian newspaper Aravot on 28
October headlined “We are living in exactly this way”
The so-called new stage of the Karabakh settlement process is acquiring
an interesting hue. Unlike the “Kocharyan-Aliyev Senior” period,
today’s process of negotiations is marked by uncertain, unclear
and semi-mystical hints from the parties and intermediaries. Baku
is always speaking about some reply from Yerevan, whereas here they
often repeat that the meetings of the two presidents have been “free”
till today, that is, with an agenda which obliges nothing.
Here is the “freshest” hint from Baku: “Azerbaijan is waiting for a
reply from Yerevan regarding continuation of the Karabakh settlement
negotiating process.” Yesterday [actually 26 October] Azerbaijan’s
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov made this statement. According to
him, in Astana President Robert Kocharyan took a break “to analyse the
results of the meetings” and now they are waiting for the continuation
of the negotiating process, which in fact at present depends on
Yerevan’s will. By the way, Mammadyarov again emphasized that “the
negotiations are aimed at the liberation of the seven Azerbaijani
districts occupied by Armenia and the return of refugees”. There is no
need to say that, despite the promises made or not made by Kocharyan,
the Armenian foreign minister will immediately reply to his Azerbaijani
counterpart that Kocharyan has nothing to analyse and that the Armenian
party is not at all responsible for continuation of the negotiations.
All this is like a children’s game, in which, let us note, the Russian
co-chairman [of the OSCE Minsk Group] Yuriy Merzlyakov also takes part
with pleasure. By the way, the latter managed to be noticed as giving
contradictory, sometimes even funny interviews, to the press. This is
how the Russian co-chairman commented on Mammadyarov’s statement:
“After the meeting of the presidents in Astana, when they were
telling the co-chairmen of the results of the meeting, the Armenian
president was always speaking. The Azerbaijani president seemed to
nod his head. I do not know how to understand this, every person may
understand this in his own way, as you see.”
The conclusion is the following: everybody is simply pretending
that there is a negotiating process and this strategy seems to be
advantageous to the parties at least at the moment. And we are living
in exactly this way, nodding to each other.

Armenian spokesman condemns UN decision to discuss situation in Karabakh
Mediamax news agency
28 Oct 04
Yerevan, 28 October: “By initiating a discussion of the issue on
‘the situation on occupied territories’ at the UN General Assembly,
Azerbaijan is making another effort to distract the attention of the
international community from the gist of the settlement process,
i.e. Nagornyy Karabakh’s status,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesman, Gamlet Gasparyan, said in Yerevan today.
Gasparyan said this, commenting on the decision of a UN General
Assembly committee to recommend that the issue on “the situation
on Azerbaijan’s occupied territories” be included in the assembly’s
agenda.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that the countries that backed
this decision were mainly members of the Organization of Islamic
Conference and Ukraine.

Azeri expert hints at biological arms research in Karabakh laboratories
Lider TV, Baku
29 Oct 04
[Presenter Rasad Nasirov] Bio-laboratories have opened on Azerbaijan’s
occupied lands, the Azerbaijani national bioethics commission has
learnt. The commission believes that these laboratories may be used
to produce biological weapons.
[Correspondent, over video of conference] An international conference
on the protection of human rights in biomedical research in the CIS
countries continued today. The CIS Interparliamentary Assembly’s
standing commission on human rights and social policy and the
Azerbaijani national bioethics commission are the co-organizers of
the conference.
Bioethics is a system and issues related to human cloning are a
major part of it, the deputy chairman of the Azerbaijani national
bioethics commission and director of the Human Rights Institute [of
the National Academy of Sciences], Rovsan Mustafayev, said. There are
two opinions on the problem, he added. Some people say that human
cloning is dangerous, but some people support the option of using
a clone as a donor. But despite different opinions, the process of
human cloning is under way.
[Mustafayev] A clone that is created is not different from other human
beings. He has the right to live, i.e. this is his main right. Who
can say that a clone has to be used as a donor in modern society?
[Correspondent] Up-to-date research is being conducted in Azerbaijan
as well and we are not indifferent to the processes that are going
on in the world, Mustafayev said. He spoke about the importance of
holding this event in Baku, because bio-laboratories have already
been established on Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.
[Mustafayev] Their purpose is not fully clear. Who has set them up,
what is their purpose? But there is some information that there is
a connection between them and biological weapons.
[Correspondent] The international conference will continue its work
till 31 October.
Radik Ismayilov, Firuz Rahimov for Lider TV.

Turkey’s accession to EU to insure Armenia against war with Azerbaijan – paper
Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
28 Oct 04
Text of unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Aykakan Zhamanak
on 28 October headlined “We are a nation that ‘keeps traditions'”
The prospect of Turkey joining the European Union has caused a vague
rumpus in Armenia, and in fact, at the state level our country is
against Turkey’s joining the EU.
An analysis of Armenia’s position unequivocally shows that our country
is against Turkey’s joining the EU stemming not from future reasons but
from those of the past. This approach is vulnerable because in fact
it is taken at the traditional Armenian reflex level: Turkey means
the enemy. But a sober analysis stemming from the state interests of
Armenia should tell our political forces that Turkey’s joining the
EU meets the interests of Armenia. In this case Armenia will find
itself among the countries that border the EU, which will make the
prospect of our country joining the EU more realistic.
But the problem has another more important aspect. If we stem from
the point of view that Turkey is our enemy and a potential threat to
Armenia, in this case we should be more interested in this country’s
joining the EU, because if we assess Turkey’s current possible
aggression against Armenia as 10, Turkey’s possible aggression will
not be more than one after it becomes a European Union member even
given the most pessimistic predictions.
If today there is little opportunity for the war against Azerbaijan
to resume, Armenia should be interested in beginning talks
with Turkey regarding its European Union membership as soon as
possible. Because if we assess Turkey’s current possible mediation
in an Armenian-Azerbaijani war as 10, it cannot be more than 0.01 for
Turkey which is in talks on joining the EU. Negotiations with Turkey
regarding its EU membership could be that guarantee which will insure
us against restarting war with Azerbaijan.

Economic and drug-related crimes up in Armenia
Mediamax news agency
28 Oct 04
Yerevan, 28 October: The number of registered crimes in Armenia dropped
by 4.4 per cent in nine months of 2004 compared to the same period
last year, and the number of solved crimes increased, the head of the
public relations and information department of the Armenian Police,
Lt-Col Sayat Shirinyan, said in Yerevan today.
He said that 8,098 crimes were registered in January-September 2004,
while last year the figure was 8,467. Thus, Shirinyan said that 25.5
crimes were committed per 10,000 people in Armenia, while in Moldova
this figure was 210.4, in Russia 148.7, and in Ukraine 82.9.
Especially grave crimes account for 1.6 per cent and grave crimes
for 33.6 per cent of the total number of registered crimes. A total
of 82.3 per cent of especially grave crimes and 78 per cent of grave
crimes were solved.
In nine months of 2004, 77 crimes involving the use of firearms were
registered, which is four times less than in 2003.
In the course of the fight against drug trafficking, 339 drug-related
crimes were registered in January-September 2004, which is 102 cases
more than in the same period of last year. A total of 12,782 kg of
drugs were seized.
The number of economic crimes increased almost twice.
The number of persons brought to criminal liability was 4,905,
i.e. 5.3 per cent more than in 2003; 916 criminals were convicted
for the second time.
About 1,230 persons are on the wanted list, which is 3.5 per cent
more than last year.