Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

ARMINFO News Agency
September 21, 2005

INDEPENDENCE IS NOT FOR SALE – IT IS LIFESTYLE: ARMENIAN PM

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 21. ARMINFO. Life itself has proved the necessity
of independence. Independence is inevitable. It is not for sale – it
is a lifestyle, Armenia’s Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan said at
Yerablur Memorial today.

Now the key tasks of independent Armenia are to ensure frontier
security, to improve living standard and to create conditions for
repatriation.

Armenian Parliament Speaker Artur Bagdassaryan said that Armenia is
slowly but steadily moving towards its goal. Of course we would like
the progress to be quicker and so each year we come to Yerablur to
swear to the graves of our comrades that we will do our tasks quicker
and better, Bagdassaryan said.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 20, 2005

15 BEST I.T. STUDENTS AWARDED PRESIDENTIAL AWARDS

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 20. ARMINFO. The Synopsys Outreach Charitable
Foundation for Armenia and the President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan
held a reception today for the recipients of the President of the
Republic of Armenia Awards. The awards were given to the top 15
students and 3 pupils in the IT industry including two awards created
to honor the best female students in IT. The annual awards honor
students who demonstrate outstanding achievements in their study and
research projects in the Armeian IT sector, reports Synopsys.

The Armenian government and Synopsys are both interested in the
development of the national high tech industry, stated Lilit
Gevorgyan, assistant to President Kocharyan and member of the Armenia
Awarding Committee. We value Synopsys’ support of our specialized
high-tech education and realize that these efforts including
supporting the President of the Republic of Armenia Awards will
inspire new generations of students to cintinue the long-standing
Armenian tradition of engineering excellence.

The Synopsys Outreach Charitable Foundation for Armenia supports the
pursuit of the highest level of technology education for teachers and
students. By providing universities with the latest technology and
concepts in electronic design automation and semiconductor design,
teacher training and support. Synopsys helps enable the engineering
community to steadily increase the quality of its design work and
advance the high-tech industry. Furthering math and science education
around the world is a fundamental value at Synopsys.

Synopsys realizes that a thriving high0-tech industry within Armenia
requires support in the form of university and industry programs,
stated Rich Goldman, CEO of Synopsys Armenia. We are proud to be able
to he;lp recognize Armenia’s brightest students by funding the
President of the Republic of Armenia Awards through Armenia’s leading
technical universities.

The recipients of these awards represent the future of Armenia. These
awards stress the importance of education and honor those students
that have the potential to make significant contributions to the IT
economy in Armenia. Synopsys is proud to be associated with Armenia’s
best and brightest students. We look forward to seeing the continued
acheivements o these talented young engineers in Armenia, Goldman
said.

Diplomacy Newsline
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Diplomacy News

Third Swiss charge against Perinçek for denying `genocide’

ANK – TDN with AP

Authorities have brought a third charge against a Turkish
politician for a new incident in which he is accused of breaking
Switzerland’s racial discrimination laws by denying Armenian genocide
allegations.

Doðu Perinçek, the leader of Turkey’s Workers’ Party (IP), made the
remarks on Sunday in a speech in central Switzerland’s Bern canton,
police said in a statement. He has already been charged by Swiss
authorities for two similar incidents.

`Based on the fact that during the course of his address Doðu
Perinçek denied the Armenian genocide and expressed prejudices
against the Western world, the Bern canton police have filed a
complaint based on suspicion of racial discrimination,’ said the
police statement.

Pan Armenian News

ARMENIAN SCHOLAR HOLDS ETHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN NORTH CAUCASUS

15.09.2005 05:43

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Young scholar from Armenia, candidate of historical
sciences, Yerevan resident Arsen Hakobyan holds field research in eastern
region of the North Caucasus, reported the Yerkramas newspaper of Armenians
of Russia. A group of Armenians, who migrated from Derbent, Kuba, Mushkur
regions to the North Caucasus in 18th century, became his research objects.
They settled in Saint Cross (Surb Khach, now – Budennovsk), Kizlyar,
Edessia, etc. Residents of Kilvar and Madras Armenian villages deported from
the Azeri Soviet Socialist Republic in 1988-1989 also refer to this group in
general. This unique group of Armenians spoke Iranian (Tat language) owing
to historical developments. It should be emphasized that the work being
carried out by the young scholar from Armenia is per se first ethnographic
research of that group of Armenians. Taking into account the conflict
potential of the region, the urgency of research on contemporary Armenian
issues in the North Caucasus is of special importance.

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Sept 14 2005

Armenian bills could damage US-Turkish relations
Brent Scowcroft warns: Armenian genocide bills could damage
US-Turkish relations

source: Hurriyet, 14 September 2005

Brent Scowcroft, president of the American-Turkish Council (ATC), has
written a letter to US Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert warning of
possible damage to US-Turkish relations resulting from two seperate
bills containing Armenian genocide allegations coming up on the US
Congress agenda.

It is expected that the US Congress Foreign Relations Committee will
be looking at the two bills in question either today or tomorrow. It
is also anticipated that the bills will pass through the Committee
successfully. Scowcroft warned in his letter that the passage of
these bills might well endanger the trade interests of some ATC
members.

Scowcroft also called on Armenian President Robert Kocharian to
accept the peace offering of Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He also
used his letter to call on the US to be supportive of Turkey in this
period preceding the October 3 EU accession talks, recalling that
Turkey’s strategic placement would be important to the US for a long
period of time.

Security pact chief praises Russian-Armenian military teamwork after
joint drill

RTR Russia TV, Moscow
14 Sep 05

[Presenter] A joint Russian-Armenian military exercise to rehearse
defensive combat skills as part of a combined force has passed in
Armenia [it reportedly began on 10 September and ended on the
13th]. The country’s president, Robert Kocharyan, and the
secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization,
Nikolay Bordyuzha, watched the exercise. This is how Bordyuzha
commented on the results of the drill.

[Bordyuzha] I reckon that this exercise went off successfully. What
matters is not the effect of explosions and gunfire that we see in the
field, but the rehearsal of coordination between units of the Armenian
and Russian armed forces.

[Presenter] The 10th joint drill involved over 1,000 service personnel
and about 300 items of military materiel, including four fighter jets
and six helicopters.

SELF-PROCLAIMED REPUBLICS IN CIS GO THROUGH INTENSIVE DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT-OPINION

RIA Novosti, Russia
Sept 14 2005

MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) – Self-proclaimed republics in
the former Soviet Union are seeing intensive democratic development,
a member of the Russian parliament and director of a Moscow-based
think tank said Wednesday.

“In terms of state development, they boast the attributes that many
recognized states lack. I do not only mean armed and security forces,
but also democratic processes developing in these republics, including
a change of power [based on fair elections],” Konstantin Zatulin told
a conference on the issue.

The republics in question are Abkhazia and South Ossetia (officially
part of Georgia), the Transdnestr Republic (part of Moldova) and
Nagorny Karabakh (part of Azerbaijan).

Zatulin said the once bloody conflicts had by now been reduced to
peaceful confrontation and propaganda wars.

INSTRUMENT OR TRUST?

A1+
| 16:25:35 | 10-09-2005 | Politics |

The Republican Party of Armenia is one of the those parties to pay much
attention to the election to the local self-government. They evidently
know the “sweetness” of the fruit they reap after the election.

“We attach a very important role to this structure, that is why we
think that people who enjoy the trust of the nation should be elected
to head a community. And the political function of the community
should be also preserved”, RPA head Galust Sahakyan stated in an
interview with A1+. In his words the numeral advantage of RPA in the
local self-government bodies proves that the party is popular among
the people. Galust Sahakyan also admits that the local self-government
bodies are in some case an instrument in the authorities’ hands.

Something like a vicious circle forms – the authorities promote the
formation of the local self-government bodies, which in their turn
promote falsifications and reproduction of power. “It is incorrect to
call it reproduction. One should admit that out party enjoys the trust
of the population. If representatives of other parties want to occupy
these posts they should grip the field in time”, G. Sahakyan noted.

Will the RPA manage to keep the posts in case it loses power? “If the
RPA loses power it will not mean that it has lost the trust of the
people”, Galust Sahakyan stated when answering this question. To note,
the RPA leader is convinced that the Electoral Code has undergone
enough changes to provide transparent election.

When reminded that the opposition considers the local self-government
bodies to be an instrument used by the authorities during the
parliamentary or presidential election and the acting Constitution
empowers the government to dismiss the community head Galust Sahakyan
said he can’t remember a single case when the government pressed
for dismissal of a community head. However he emphasized that the
constitutional amendments have raised the status and independence
of the local self-government and the issue can be considered to be
settled when the amendments are adopted.

AZG Armenian Daily #161, 09/09/2005

‘Cilicia’

IMPRESSIONS AND MEMORIES COMING FORM ‘CILICIA’S’ DECK

A Meeting at Daily Azg Publishing House

On September 7, the crew of “Cilicia” sailing vessel visited daily Azg. The
sailors that were just back from the second navigation shared with their
impressions and memories with the editorial staff of daily Azg. The
crewmembers were thankful to the newspaper for continual coverage of the
vessel’s tour. Captain Karen Balayan presented editor-in-chief of daily Azg,
Hakob Avetikian, a unique photo of “Cilicia”. To shoot the vessel in the
open sea, the sailors needed to sail away from the vessel in a boat.

Writer and publicist Zori Balayan, who was on the Vessel for most of the
time, shares with his memories from the first navigation. “The sails got
ripped, the rows broke down and it seemed that there is no way out. But
there were experienced people among us who could steer “Cilicia”. The
sailors tell that both interested Armenians and foreigners used to gather
around the ship in every harbor. A Swede woman even approached the vessel in
Rhodos and kissed it. In some harbors, “Cilicia” attracted thousands of
spectators. In Beirut, numerous aged Armenians from local community who
already had no hope to tread the soil of the fatherland went aboard the
ship, some even on wheelchairs.

Asked which storm was the most awful one, the captain said, “There was no
time to think of the storms and gales. You have no time to scare when there
is work to do. You pay attention to nothing”.

Spirits, cigarettes and even cross words were banned on the ship. “Only on
some occasion would the captain order the cook to pour some drinks for us
but the youngest crewmembers got no alcohol. As to cross words, I heard only
doctor Gevorg Grigorian swearing at the 4-day-long storm”, Zori Balayan
recalls. The doctor performed a sailor’s role on the vessels, as the boys
were too trained and prepared to resort to medical help. Gevorg Grigorian
had an interesting pastime aboard the ship. He brought back home a
collection of plants, a kind of “laboratory” made on way back home. “He used
to put the unique fish that we caught in formalin that we did not need any
more and grew interesting plants”, Zori Balayan says.

Captain Karen Balayan says that the he does not think that the return of
“Cilicia” back to Armenia will not be easy either (it is now anchored in
Portsmouth, England). “The first stage was difficult because it was
unprecedented. In the second stage we had a primary goal to cross the ocean.
It is very likely that the northern seas will not let us out easily. So,
it’s a serious trial too”.

Zori Balayan does not consider the third stage (return) much of navigation.
“The vessel has to return home. We have already proved that we are able to
cross 20.000 miles. Now, if we even cross 1 million miles, it won’t be
anything new. We will perhaps get the ship on a plane from Sochi not to
damage it. The whole nation should accompany the ship from airport to the
Lake Sevan”, he says.

By Tamar Minasian

EQUIPMENT OF 500.000 EUROS FOR ARMECONOM BANK
By Ara Martirosian

AZG Armenian Daily #160
08/09/2005

Economy

Lloyds TSB Bank to Realize the Project Financed by Eurobank

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to
provide ArmEconom Bank with technical support amounting to 500.000
euros. The Lloyds TSB Bank of the Lloyd Group Inc. will realize the
project. The executive director of ArmEconom bank, Ashot Osipian,
and the head of international consulting department of the Lloyds
TSB, Edward Hayter, signed an agreement yesterday launching thus
the project. It’s worth reminding that the EBRD is the owner of 25+1
percent of the ArmEconom’s shares.

Ashot Osipian informed that 6 organizations competed in London for
the right to realize the project of technical aid to ArmEconom Bank,
emphasizing that he is glad that an influential bank as the Lloyds
TBS became the winner. The aim of the project is to ArmEconom a
bank matching international standards. The executive director also
mentioned that together with the Eurobank they will realize a project
of financing 5 enterprises to the sum of $1.5 million.

Edward Hayter said that thanks to the efforts of the bank he
represents and exports he has elaborated a plan of institutional
reconstruction of ArmEconom Bank, which aims at developing risks
managing system, improving the structure of corporative management,
installing streamlined technologies and methodologies and raising
the qualifications of the staff etc. The Lloyds TSB representative
noted that they were impressed to see ArmEconom Bank occupying a firm
position in Armenian market. It’s not strange, he said, that such a
bank captured Eurobank’s attention.