Author: Jagharian Tania

CONVICTION MAY PREVENT LEGAL ENTITY’S STATE REGISTRATION

/ARKA/
May 18, 2010
YEREVAN

Armenian lawmakers have approved today in the first reading
an amendment to the law regulating state registration of legal
entities. Justice minister Gevork Danielian told lawmakers the bill
was drafted ‘to step up fighting against corruption’

He explained that the proposed bill would ban state registration of
a legal entity if at least 10% of its chartered capital is owned by
a founder of executive head with a record of previous conviction for
economic crimes or financing terrorism.

The economic crimes that would ban registration are illegal
entrepreneurship, misappropriation of credits, premeditated or
fictitious bankruptcy, exposure of commercial of banking secrets,
tax evasion, smuggling, abuse of power and graft.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES BILL ON MANDATORY VEHICLE INSURANCE

/ARKA/
May 18, 2010
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, May 18, /ARKA/. An Armenian Central Bank-designed bill on
mandatory insurance of motor vehicles was approved today by parliament
in the third and final reading. A deputy governor of the Central
Bank, Vache Gabrielian, said the proposed bill provides protection
against losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents and against
liability that could be incurred in an accident. He cited also the
increasing number of vehicles and road accidents, saying these two
factors make auto insurance mandatory. The bill is expected to come
into force in 2011.

The bill envisages creation of appropriate infrastructure to deal
with car insurance, including the bureau of insurance companies and
establishment of a fund to pay compensations to persons suffering in
car accidents if the motorist responsible for the accident is not
insured, if the guilty is not found or identified and if the car
involved in the accident is stolen or used for a criminal purpose.

‘The bill pursues a very important goal -to protect citizens suffering
in car accidents, to help develop the system of mandatory insurance
of cars and promote this culture. Vache Gabrileian said.

According to the bill , in 2013 the so-called bonus-malus system will
be introduced, which is a system that adjusts the premium paid by a
customer according to his individual claim history. Bonus usually
is a discount in the premium which is given on the renewal of the
policy if no claim is made in the previous year. Malus is an increase
in the premium if there is a claim in the previous year. Bonus-malus
systems are very common in vehicle insurance.

Vache Gabrielian said the insurance payment amount in Armenia will be
between 31,000 to 38,000 Drams a year. According to government data,
there are 400,000 motor vehicles in Armenia. ($1 – 384.81 Drams).

REGIONAL PLAYERS WON’T AGREE WITH OFFER TO WITHDRAW ARMENIAN FORCES FROM 2 KARABAKH REGIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 17, 2010 – 19:08 AMT 14:08 GMT

Discussions on withdrawal of Armenian forces from 2 Karabakh-adjacent
regions are nothing new. Yet, to implement the offer, final settlement
of conflict, covering Karbakh status, is necessary, Deputy CEO of
Strategic Culture Foundation Andrei Areshev stated.

In a conversation with PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, Andrei Areshev
commented on Azeri media-spread information as to Turkish Prime
Minister’s advising Azerbaijan to agree to withdrawal of Armenian
forces from Fizuli and Kelbajar.

"I believe the advice will not be considered, as fraught with cardinal
changes in the alignment of forces. Besides, regional players will
not agree with it either," the expert said.

Dwelling on ratification of rapprochement Protocols, Andrei Areshev
noted the ratification to be possible only in case Armenia agrees to
one-sided concessions in Karabakh conflict settlement.

PRESS RELEASE
The Civilitas Foundation

One Northern Avenue, suit 30
Yerevan, Armenia
tel: +37410500119
email: [email protected]

The Civilitas Foundation mobilizes youth to become bone marrow donors.

`There are so many people whose life depends on finding a matching bone
marrow donor and so few young people know about it,’ said Gayane Selimyan,
an intern at the Civilitas Foundation in Yerevan. `I am very glad that many
are ready to become donors as soon as they learn about it.’

Gayane’s comments followed two successive drives at the Civilitas office.
On May 7 and May 14, over 200 young people came to give a couple of mgs of
blood in order to enter the bone marrow registry.

The reason for the Civilitas participation is not only humanitarian. It also
has to do with the story of Civilitas intern, Olivia Katrandjian, whose
mother is suffering from lymphoma, an aggressive and unpredictable form of
blood cancer. At this point, her only chance for a cure is a bone marrow
transplant. In order to perform this procedure, the doctors need a blood
donor who is a genetic match, but currently, there are no registered donors
who qualify. The best chance of finding a match is from another Armenian,
and so Olivia has been working with the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry
to increase the number of Armenian registrants in the system.

`Last Friday was my birthday and the only thing I wanted was to find a match
for my mother,’ said Olivia. `But it’s about more than that – 1300
Armenians
are in need of a matching donor, including a four-year old girl in
Philadelphia. It’s so easy to sign up, why not help?’

Joining the registry is simple – it requires only a cotton swab to collect
some cheek cells from the inside of the mouth. That option is available for
those who for some reason can’t give blood.

`Some people were scared of the idea that they were going to give blood
thinking that they would lose "tons of it," but it is actually so simple,’
said Tatevik Teroyan, an intern at Civilitas. `Many of them, after hearing
what it means to be a donor, eagerly registered and even called their
friends and relatives to come.’

`It was so interesting to approach people in the street, in front of our
office building, and tell them that there are thousands of people waiting
for that unique chance to stay alive,’ said Mane Gevorgyan, a young
Civilitas staffer. `If 10 years ago somebody organized such an event, my
mom’s life could have been also saved.’

`Our initiative this Friday reminded me of an idea,’ said Ani Navasdaryan,
another young staffer. `I don’t remember where I read it, but I really
like
it: `Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people can change the
world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’ And I want all people to
believe in that.’

Salpi Ghazarian, Director of Civilitas, said, `In Armenia, the capacity to
believe in one’s own power to do good and have an impact, has disappeared.
Causes such as this one – performing a random act of kindness, with no
expectation other than that it will do good, help instill that faith in
people, especially young people. Most of the donors who came these last few
weeks were under 30, and they thanked us for the opportunity to help. That’s
an accomplishment.

`The challenge now is that as we increase numbers of donors, especially in
Armenia, that the number of financial donors to the Bone Marrow registry
also increases, in order to enhance their capacity to enlarge the registry,’
Ghazarian added.

FAO PROVIDED USD 1,8 MILLION FUNDING TO ARMENIA IN 2008-2009

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 13, 2010 – 18:12 AMT 13:12 GMT

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provided
USD 1,8 million funding to Armenia in 2008-2009.

As FAO Director General Jacques Diouf stated, the organisation
will continue their assistance in RA government-specified priority
directions.

Armenian Agriculture Minister Gerasim Alaverdyan, in turn, gave high
assessment to RA-FAO relations, also commenting on projects to be
implemented. "USD 40 thousand was provided to Nubarashen pesticide
research laboratory; development of seed farming (USD 600 thousand
funding), upgrading laboratories (USD 2 million funding), and struggle
against brucellosis are among FAO priority programs."

RA Agriculture Minister pointed out fish-breeding, seed growing,
insurance scheme implementation, apricots genetic centre creation,
pastures amelioration among programs to be carried out in nearest
future.

NAIRI BADALYAN BLAMES ARMENIAN LAW-ENFORCERS

ArmInfo
2010-05-13 15:48:00

ArmInfo. Nairi Badalyan keeps on blaming Armenian law-enforcers.

To recall, Badalyan, a former journalist and currently being in the
USA under political shelter, was a defendant in the case on the act of
terrorism in Armenian parliament in October 1999. Badalyan had been in
this status for over 7 months, and afterwards was acquitted. Badalyan
said that tortures and violence were applied against him over his
detention and further arrest. In this connection, in 2002 a criminal
case was instituted, the materials of which had numerous testimonies
about the traces of tortures on Badalyan’s body. In particular,
the matter concerns the tortures and violence committed by the
investigators of the Military Prosecutor’s Office and their guards,
as well as over Badalyan’s stay in Nubarashen criminal- executive
establishment, including the violence committed by the then head of
this establishment.

As the investigative body has come to no tangible results over the
past 8 years and the case is still being investigated, Badalyan
applied to the first instance court of Armenia in early May 2010
claiming that his rights were violated and demanding that the fact
of the tortures should be acknowledged. However, the court has not
considered Badalyan’s rights to be violated. Having disagreed with
the court’s decision, Badalyan appealed to the Court of Appeal against
the specified decision. The Court of Appeal is still considering it.

At today’s press conference Badalyan once again stated that he was
tortured. He said about 15-20 people – representatives of the Military
Prosecutor’s Office and Nubarashen criminal-executive establishment
– are guilty of applying tortures against him. However, arraignment
of formal charges against three employees of Nubarashen is all that
investigation has managed to do. As regards the role of the then
military prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan, at the moment Badalyan has no
specific claims against him, as Jhangiryan took no part in application
of tortures though he was aware of the tortures.

Probably, Badalyan will insist on accusation after he familiarizes
himself with all the materials of the case. Commenting on the
circumstance that the criminal case has been underway for 8 years,
Badalyan said that nobody doubts that tortures were applied against
him, however, the prosecutor’s office "can neither close the case nor
complete it", as it carries out an order. In general, Badalyan thinks
that there are simply no law-enforces in Armenia in their true sense.

"This is an armed structure serving certain goals and supported
by budget funds",- he said and added that the latter distinguishes
law-enforcement agencies from criminal ones. Summing up his speech,
Badalyan said that in general, both his detention and the tortures
against him, as well as the further investigation, are politically
motivated.

To recall, over the act of terrorism in Armenian Parliament on 27
October 1999, the Armenian prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan, speaker
of parliament Karen Demirchyan, both vice speakers, three MPs and
one minister were killed.

ANY WAR WILL BE DISASTROUS FOR AZERBAIJAN: ALAVERDYAN

Tert.am
14:29 12.05.10

Any military action against Nagorno Karabakh will be disastrous for
Azerbaijan, Head of Heritage’s parliamentary faction Larisa Alaveryan
said at a press conference today.

"The war will really be a disastrous one for Azerbaijan, and for the
Armenian side it will definitely be one of the tougheset situations.

But as a private participant of this process during these years I
am sure that Azerbaijan will not see any positive result, should it
start military clash," said Alaverdyan.

According to Alaverdyan the most serious reason Azerbaijan does not
unleash a war is that it is quite aware that the war will not bring
any success.

"Both Turkey and international bodies are convinced that this is the
case. They too know that the war will bring nothing but instability
in the region," concluded Alaverdyan.

A NUMBER OF JOURNALISTS ARE IN NKR ON THE OCCASION OF 16TH ANNIVERSARY OF ESTABLISHMENT A CEASEFIRE REGIME

ARMENPRESS
MAY 12, 2010
STEPANAKERT

A number of journalists are in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic on the
occasion of the 16th anniversary of establishment of the ceasefire
regime. Their first visit was in the fourth defense zone. The
journalists were accompanied with Shahen Aydinyan, head of the
Military-Patriotic Department of the NKR Defense Army. They visited
the reconstructed military barracks of the military division, which
corresponds to all the up-to-date European standards and is intended
for recruits.

Afterward the journalists paid a visit to the settlement for preparing
for a military shift, which is a new phenomenon in the defense army.

According to Sh. Aydinyan, after the reconstruction of the settlement
the number of the victims and emergency cases in the first line has
apparently decreased, as here are all the conditions for teaching a
soldier timely orientation in the frontier.

BAKU SAYS YEREVAN EQUIVOCATING ON KARABAKH PROPOSALS

news.az
May 12 2010
Azerbaijan

Elkhan Polukhov Armenia is ducking acceptance of the OSCE’s Madrid
principles for a Karabakh settlement, an Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
spokesman has said.

Elkhan Polukhov was commenting to Interfax-Azerbaijan news agency
today on remarks made by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

‘It is surprising that Armenia is ignoring nine meetings at the level
of presidents held since 2007, that is, since the appearance of the
Madrid proposals, and is also ignoring the fact that the updated Madrid
document has been prepared and presented to the sides on the basis
of the views and approaches of the conflict parties to this issue,’
Polukhov said.

In his Committee of Ministers speech yesterday, Nalbandian accused
Azerbaijan of ‘distorting the reasons, consequences and essence of
the conflict’.

Polukhov described Nalbandian’s remarks as insinuation. ‘Obviously,
Armenia is using these insinuations to try to avoid giving a straight
answer to the question whether it accepts the updated Madrid document,’
he said.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly expressed its position on the updated Madrid
principles, the spokesman continued. ‘This position is that we accept
them with certain exceptions.’

‘If there were too many exceptions, we would never have accepted the
document,’ he continued. ‘When there are more than 50% exceptions,
any acceptance of a document is out of the question.’

The updated version of the Madrid principles, put forward by the OSCE
mediators in late 2009, has been the subject of mutual accusations
between Armenia and Azerbaijan ever since.

Baku accepts the updated principles in general, but ‘there are
elements that do not suit us’, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
said in March. Nalbandian responded on 29 March that Armenia had
accepted the OSCE’s Madrid principles for a Karabakh settlement as
a basis for talks two years ago.

The Madrid principles include the return of the territories surrounding
Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, an interim status for Karabakh
providing guarantees for security and self-governance, and the future
determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through
a legally binding expression of will. The status of Karabakh remains
the biggest sticking point in the negotiations.

LE GOUVERNEMENT ALERTE SUR LE "DESATRE ENVIRONNEMENTAL" DE NUBARASHEN
par Marion

armenews
lundi10 mai 2010
Armenie

Face a la levee de boucliers des ecologistes, les autorites armeniennes
vont se charger de la restauration du site d’enfouissement de dechets
toxiques de Nubarashen.

La fosse, datant de l’ère sovietique industrielle et situee au sud
de la ville de Nubarashen, contient plus de 500 tonnes de dechets
toxiques des entreprises chimiques armeniennes.

Edik Baghdassarian, un journaliste armenien et des groupes ecologistes
ont decouvert que les produits toxiques ont ete deterres par des
individus, le mois dernier.

" Je ne comprends toujours pas qui est venu, a retire les deux mètres
de terre et a deterre ces produits chimiques toxiques ", a declare
Edik Baghdassarian.

" Certaines personnes se sont introduites sur le site avec des camions,
ont abattu les clôtures et ont deterre le site ", a affirme Karine
Danielian de l’Association de la protection de l’environnement pour
le developpement humain durable. " Desormais, le poison est remonte
a la surface. "

" Il s’agit d’une catastrophe environnementale serieuse ", a-t-elle
insiste, en indiquant que les substances toxiques sont emportees par
l’eau de pluie et menacent de polluer toute la region.

" Le site doit etre definitivement ferme, a annonce Anahit Aleksandrian
a la tete du secretariat d’Etat charge de l’elimination des dechets
toxiques. Il doit absolument etre place sous contrôle car la situation
est dangereuse. "

Le gouvernement a approuve un plan de financement d’urgence de
31,6 millions de drams a cet effet, lors d’une reunion hebdomadaire
tenue jeudi.

Le Premier ministre, Tigran Sarkissian, a egalement ordonne aux
ministères de l’Environnement, des Situations d’urgence et de
l’Agriculture de concevoir conjointement durant les six prochains
mois, un plan pour detruire les produits chimiques enfouis sur le
site de Nubarashen.

Aleksandrian a revele que le gouvernement a decouvert les degâts
du site d’enfouissement il y a deux mois, ce qui soulève plus de
questions sur l’incapacite des autorites a agir plus tôt.

" Les habitants de la regions n’ont pas ete mis en garde contre le
danger du site, et ont continue a faire venir paître leur betail a
proximite ", a denonce Danielian.

Baghdasarian a egalement accuse le ministère de l’Environnement et
d’autres organismes gouvernementaux de negligence.

Il a fait valoir qu’ils n’avaient pas besoin d’une ordonnance du
gouvernement ou de financement exterieur pour boucher la fosse et
alerter la population.

" Nos autorites ne savent pas que, quand il s’agit de catastrophes,
la première chose a faire est d’avertir la population sur les dangers
", a declare Baghdasarian.

" Cela concerne tout le monde, y compris les ministères de la Sante,
de l’Agriculture, de l’Environnement, des Situations d’urgence et
les municipalites ", a defendu Aleksandrian.

Armen Yeritsian, nomme recemment a le tete du ministère des Situations
d’urgence, a reconnu de " graves lacunes " concernant la reponse des
autorites a la gestion du problème. " Nous aurions dû dire aux gens de
rester a l’ecart [du site], et informer la population ", a-t-il admis.

Il a egalement appele a l’ouverture officielle d’une enquete
criminelle. le colonel Aghasi Kirakosian a assure que la police
prendrait toutes " les mesures necessaires prevues par la loi "
pour identifier et punir les coupables.

Hayk Darpinian, ministre-adjoint de la Sante, a declare que les
inspecteurs sanitaires de son ministère ont examine les personnes
vivant a proximite du site, durant les dix derniers jours.

Ils ont par ailleurs detecte une forte concentration de DDT (produit
toxique) dans l’air et l’eau. " Cela signifie qu’il existe un problème
aggrave par un risque de contamination des sols ", a declare Darpinian.

Darpinian a neanmoin assure que la population locale n’a pas ete
contaminee pour le moment. Mais Elena Manvelian, qui dirige une
ONG impliquee dans la protection environnementale, a conteste cette
affirmation, affirmant que les habitants ont, depuis des annees, des
maux de tete frequents, des nausees et d’autres problèlmes de sante.

" Les habitants n’ont absolument pas ete informes des dangers
encourus. Aucun organisme n’a mis en garde contre la consommation de
fruits et de legumes cultives dans cette region. "

" Je ne sous-estime le danger, a repondu Darpinian.J’essaie seulement
d’eviter une panique inutile. "