Author: Kafian Jirair

ARMENIA: YEREVAN AVOIDS PACE PUNISHMENT YET AGAIN
Marianna Grigoryan

EurasiaNet
Jan 28 2009
NY

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe declined on
January 27 to punish Armenia over Yerevan’s failure to implement
mandated reforms in the wake of 2008’s political violence in the
Armenian capital Yerevan.

At stake in a January 27 PACE vote was the suspension of Armenia’s
voting rights in the European legislative body. By a 141-3 margin,
deputies decided not to impose such a punishment on Yerevan. In so
acting, PACE appeared to back away from implementing penalties outlined
in two previous resolutions, both of which demanded that the Armenian
government provide a full and transparent account of its actions during
the 2008 political crisis. So far no such independent investigation has
been conducted [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. PACE
had also demanded that the government release what the European group
portrayed as political prisoners being held in Yerevan.

A third PACE resolution, adopted January 27, extended the
organization’s deadline for Armenia’s compliance with democratization
mandates until April. "It was important that Armenian colleagues
understand that the Assembly sought to integrate Armenia into the
community of values to which it had chosen to belong, and not simply
to criticize," said PACE President LluÃ~C­s Maria de Puig.

Last November, PACE’s patience with Armenia’s foot-dragging appeared
near an end. Following a fact-finding tour late that month, Council
of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg told
EurasiaNet that Yerevan would be stripped of its voting rights unless
it implemented required reforms by the late January deadline. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In the weeks leading up to the January 27 PACE vote, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan granted amnesty to at least a dozen individuals, and
pardoned 16 others, all of whom had been jailed in connection with
the February-March political violence in Yerevan. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Despite these moves, opposition
leaders maintained that dozens of other individuals remain behind
bars and should be counted as political prisoners.

Pro-government lawmakers in Armenia applauded PACE’s restraint. "The
prospect of Armenia being deprived of its voting right seemed vague
to me," parliament member Eduard Sharmazanov of the ruling Republican
Party of Armenia told EurasiaNet. He went on to insist that Armenian
leaders were committed to fulfilling the requirements outlined in
PACE resolutions. "Authorities [in Yerevan] have the political will
and they are taking steps," he said. "We have until April, but we
realize we will be continuously implementing reforms."

Vardan Khachatrian, a MP and member of the opposition Heritage Party,
expressed doubt over whether the Armenian government would make the
PACE-mandated changes by the new deadline. He suggested that PACE
lacks leverage to enforce compliance on Yerevan, and Armenian leaders
are keenly aware of this. "It was clear Armenia would not be deprived
of its voting right, because Armenia and Azerbaijan have to stand on
an equal position," Khachatrian said, referring to the ongoing peace
process surrounding the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

Yervand Bozoyan, an independent political analyst, expressed the
belief that the government would at least take some steps to please
PACE before the next deadline passes. "Authorities [in Yerevan} are
not interested in straining the situation and will most likely take
real steps by April," Bozoyan said. "If Armenia loses its voting
right in April it will hurt the country’s image significantly."

Editor’s Note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based in
in Yerevan.

–Boundary_(ID_0r928zL9Jrubla4J7M1OyQ)–

PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER OF ARMENIA RECEIVE WORLD BANK DELEGATION

NOYAN TAPAN

Jan 27, 2009
YEREVAN

The programs to be implemented in the next 4 years under Armenia’s
Partnership Strategy with the World Bank were discussed at the January
27 meeting of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and the delegation
headed by Vice President of the World Bank Shigeo Katsu.

Expressing a high opinion about Armenia’s cooperation with the WB, S.
Sargsyan thanked the WB regional director for efficient jont work
and wished success to the newly appointed Regional Director Asad Alam.

According to the RA presidential press service, issues related to the
global financial and economic crisis, its impact on Armenian economy,
and ways of overcoming these challenges were discussed at the meeting.

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan also met with the delegation
headed by Shigeo Katsu on the same day. NT was informed by the RA
Government Information and PR Department that the during the meeting
the sides discussed cooperation with the WB, the bank’s possible
assistance to Armenia with the aim of overcoming the consequences of
the global financial and economic crisis, as well as issues related to
Armenia’s cooperation and current negotiations with other influential
financial organizations.

Considering the strategy of Armenia’s anticrisis program as quite
definite, T. Sargsyan underlined that the main focus will be on
increasing expenditures on infrastructures, in particular, by
providing more credits to irrigation, energy, road construction,
and small and medium-sized enterprises and implementing a number of
envisaged reforms.

Both sides stated that the current situation presupposes accelerated
processes which will also have a preventive nature and enable to
avoid possible economic shocks in the future. In this connection the
Armenian prime minister said that Armenia is conducting negotiations
with other financial organizations: the Asian Development Bank,
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Black
Sea Trade and Development Bank, planning to increase the amount
of sums expected from these banks for SME crediting at the expense
of funds expected from the World Bank for this purpose and taking
into account the fact that unlike the programs implemented with the
indicated financial organizations, those financed by the WB have a
broader coverage in terms of sectors. In the words of T. Sargysan,
it will allow displaying a balanced approach to the financing of
measures envisaged in various sectors.

Joplin Globe, MO
Jan 24 2009

Rich Brown: Small Joplin church taking big strides

Tommy Freeman may pastor a congregation small in numbers but the
members are a group of people making a huge difference in a lot of
lives.

St. James United Methodist Church, 2501 E. 20th St., has an average
attendance of 40 to 50 people with an annual budget of only $48,000
but its plans to help other less fortunate souls have gone far beyond
their church walls.

The congregation’s love and generosity began last year when their
pastor proposed a project for Heifer International, a nonprofit
Christian organization that specializes in providing livestock and
related services to limited-resource families worldwide.

Bill Ohler, a member of St. James, then suggested that the
congregation fund a $5,000 Gift Ark, which gives money to buy a wide
variety of animals, as well as beehives to help families in Armenia
earn money through the sale of honey and beeswax.

The wonderful St. James family responded in a big way. The
fund-raising ended last November with a $5,240 Ark check, as well as
other donations, presented to Heifer International.

The Gift Ark was funded through onetime or monthly pledges. In
addition, Freeman estimated that about $1,000 was raised by sending
children into the congregation each Sunday to gather pocket change or
whatever dollars they could.

With barely enough time to catch their breaths from the 2008
fund-raiser, members of St. James have taken on yet another
humanitarian cause for the new year. You might call it their PET
Project.

PET is the acronym for Personal Energy Transportation. The
three-wheeled PET units allow individuals in third-world countries who
do not have use of their legs to become mobile.

Each unit costs $250 and St. James’ goal is to provide 20 of them,
which translates into $5,000 that must be raised.

`We already have funding for nine PETs,’ Freeman said this week. `We
are on target. In fact, it looks like we could go over 20 units.’

St. James is working with PET of Southwest Missouri to get the units
built and shipped overseas. The Southwest Missouri shop is located
between Mount Vernon and Aurora. St. James volunteers, as well as
those from other area churches, are helping in the building process.

`We will probably take all the money over there at one time to do the
building,’ said Freeman, who is in his fifth year at St. James. He
added that 100 percent of the work done on PET units is volunteer.

Freeman said there are two of the units at his church for people to
see and youngsters to ride.

The PET idea actually originated in Missouri by two pastors, Larry
Hills and Mel West. With the help of Earl Miner, Hills and West acted
on the idea in response to the loss of mobility for people in Zaire
due to landmine injuries and polio.

With more than 40 individuals/groups across the United States building
parts for the units and shipping them to Third-World countries, PETs
are helping people in more than 40 countries.

al_story_023114100.html?keyword=topstory

FINCA", INECOBANK, ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE AMONG TOP 100 MICROFINANCIAL ORGANIZATIONS

ARKA
Jan 22, 2009

YEREVAN, January 22. /ARKA/. Finca universal credit organization and
tow Armenian banks – Inecobank and ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank appeared
in the list of top hundred microfinancial organizations as assessed
by MIX (Microfinance Information Exchange) organization.

Administrative Manager of Finca universal credit organization Aniuta
Nazaryan reported that Finca was the 17th in the list, Inecobank was
the 36th and ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank 76th.

It is the second year in sequence the MIX has carried out a comparative
analysis of microfinancial institutions. Of 652 microfinancial
institutions 100 ones with high profit and low operation risks were
selected based on the MIX Market report.

The indicators taken into account while making the assessment were
efficiency, transparency and portfolio and client indicators as
microfinancing objectives.

High efficiency microfinancial organizations provide maximum efficiency
in improvement of portfolio and client indicators, risk minimization,
cost reduction and turnover rate.

Finca universal credit organization closed joint stock company received
its license on March 28 2006. The only stockholder of the company is
FINCA International Inc. Assets of Finca had totaled 6.8bln Drams by
the end of September 2008; total capital was 1.2bln Dram. The company’s
profit amounted to 183.1mln Drams in January-September 2008.=0 D

Inecobank closed joint stock company was registered on February 7 1996.

Among the stockholders of Inecobank are member of KfW group DEG company
(Deutsche Investititions-und Entwicklunsgesellschaft mbH) with 13.5%
and the International Financial Corporation. The bank is cooperating
with the EBRD, USAID, KfW, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank
and other international organizations.

The bank’s assets had totaled 44.3bln Drams as of the end of December
2008 with total capital being 8.4bln Drams. The authorized stock of
the bank is 1.4bln Drams, the credit investments – 15.2bln Drams and
the net profit 1.6bln Drams in January-December 2008.

The ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank CJSC (formerly the Agricultural
Cooperative Bank of Armenia) was established in 1995 and obtained
a full banking license on March 29, 1996. The bank was founded in
the scope of European Union TACIS project. Among the bank’s main
stockholders are the French Credit Agricole S.A. (16%), French SACAM
International (12.44%) as well as Armenian farmer associations.

Assets of ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank had totalled 123.8bln Drams
by the end of December 2008 with liabilities amounting to 97.7bln
Drams. The bank’s net profit reached 4.4bln Drams in January-December,
with total capital amounting to 26.1bln Drams at the end of December
2008. ($1=305.60Drams).

ARMENIA-IRAN RAILWAYS

The Messenger
Jan 23 2009
Georgia

Armenia has prepared a feasibility study of the project to build
railways connecting Armenia with Iran.

The project proposed a line of 540 kilometres, of which 480 km will
be on Armenian territory. As Armenian Deputy Minister for Transport
and Communications Grant Beglarian has stated, if Armenia takes care
of its portion of the railways the other 60 kilometres will not be
difficult for Iran to take care of.

The Director of Iran Railways, Hassan Ziari, has expressed the
readiness of his company to participate in the project, highlighting
that it is the most important project in the country. He stressed
the importance to Iran of cooperating with neighbouring countries.

The Iran-Armenia railway project will cost around USD 2 billion and
should take around five years to fulfil. The Asian Development Bank
has expressed its readiness to participate in financing this project
and the World Bank has also highlighted its interest.

In March 2008 the Armenian and Iranian parties will sign a final
agreement. At present Armenia’s only railway connection with the rest
of the world is through Georgia.

IT IS PROPOSED APPLYING TO CRIMINOLOGICAL CENTER OF RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS FOR IDENTIFICATION OF "CHERYOMUKHA" CAPSULES AND GUNS THEY WERE FIRED FROM

Noyan Tapan

Jan 23, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA National Assembly Ad Hoc
Committee on Inquiry into March 1-2 Events in Yerevan and their Reasons
will soon file an official letter to the RA prosecutor general and the
Special Investigation Service – with a petition for identification
of the capsules of the "Cheryomukha 7" special weapon that caused
deaths of 3 people during the March events and the "KC23" guns,
from which these capsules were fired.

The petition will request to organize an identification at the
Criminological Center of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Ad Hoc Committee made this decision at the January 23 sitting
convened following a long break, after discussing the results of the
special weapon-related expert examination sent from Russia to the RA
Prosecutor General’s Office. In response to the questions of the RA
Special Investitaion Service, there had been information from "Special
Equipment and Communication" scientific and production enterprise
(Russia) producing "Cheryomukha 7" weapon that the technical features
of out-of-date "Cheryomukha 7" and "Cheryomukha 7-M" gas cartridges
may change and the maximum distance of the release of tear-gas and
the discharge of a tear grenade may decline, but if an out-of-date
weapon is used in accordance with norms, it will not cause damage
to life or health of a person. As regards identification, it was
mentioned that the center is not competent to conduct a ballistics
examination and has no information about the methods for identification
of cartridges and weapons of this kind, and it was proposed to apply
to the Criminological Center of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs
with respect to this issue.

The committee member, chairman of New Times party Aram Karapetian
said in this connection that despite the fact that some Armenian
circles had tried hard to prevent any answer about a possibility of
identification, the expert of the center did not take responsibility
and indicated a place to apply to.

This conclusion was mainly due to the "odyssey" of the letter on
the special weapon that the committee had sent (earlier than the
prosecutor’s office) to the RF deputy minister of internal affairs
Alexander Smirny.

The committee chairman, secretary of the NA "RPA" faction Samvel
Nikoyan informed the committee members that so far no answer
has been received to the letter sent a month ago. In the words of
A. Karapetian who took that letter to Moscow, by his information, a
certain Harutyunian from the RA prosecutor’s office and a high-ranking
police official went to Moscow to prevent an answer to the letter. It
is noteworthy that according to publications of the Armenian press,
the matter concerns the deputy head of the RA Police Armen Yeritsian.

NKR PRESIDENT BAKO SAKAYAN’S SPEECH AT MEETING OF THE STATE TAX SERVICE

armradio.am
21.01.2009 16:08

On 21 January President Bako Sakayan delivered a speech at the
reporting meeting of the State Tax Service under the NKR Cabinet
of Ministers, Press Office of the NKR President reported. President
Sahakyan stated:

"Dear attendees,

The State Tax Service plays an important role in the development of
the economy of our republic. The reputation of our state from the
perspective of launching economic activities and the confidence of
investors in it depend to a large extent on your effective work.

I would like to mention that within the reporting period serious
work has been done within the system of the state tax service, which
overall I evaluate as positive. Appropriate figures reflect tangible
quantitative and qualitative changes have taken place.

In the year of 2008 the total volume of state budget incomes, duties
and obligatory social welfare payments has constituted 17 billion 271
million AMD, which enabled to ensure the over-implementation of the
annual plan assignment. The volume of these inflows surpasses the
same figures of 2007 by 3.5 billion drams or by 25.6 percent. And
this is taking place against the background of the current global
financial crisis due to which the biggest taxpayer of our republic,
the "Base Metals" CJSC, has reduced its industrial production volumes
thus =0 Adepriving state budget of 1.6 billion dram fund inflow.

The targeted efforts to eliminate double standards and different
game rules for the market participants resulted in substantial
improvement of the tax discipline, as well as the level of tax service,
particularly in the sphere of trade.

At the same time it should be always kept in mind that that tax
collection process should not be an obstacle for entrepreneurial
activities, especially for the development of small and medium size
businesses. This can be achieved only by creating equal conditions
for all business entities thus providing entrepreneurs an opportunity
to develop and enlarge their business and direct resources to solve
different social problems.

In this regard I consider necessary to further improve tax legislation
and carry out measures that will result in increasing the volume of
foreign and domestic investments. Special attention should be paid to
proper organization of supervision directed to reveal shadow economic
entities and bring them to legal field.

It is gratifying that in the previous year the state budget received 1
billion 97 million drams as trade tax, which is the fulfillment of the
set goals by 163.8 percent and is more than twice the corresponding
figures of 2007. This fact depicts the efficiency of the measures
taken against shadow phenomena. The introduction of cash registers
has also contributed to this efficiency. This in its turn im proved
the standards of service.

To improve the functioning of the system it is necessary to simplify
tax administration as much as possible, decrease unnecessary
bureaucratic procrastination, make available the introduced changes
to economic entities, establish normal partnership with them.

Within this context I consider important to carry out proper cadre
policy based on professionalism and moral qualities of employees. A
persistent and continuous struggle should be waged against violations
and other negative phenomena without which it will be impossible to
fulfill tasks put in front of the system. These tasks of 2009 will
be numerous and various too.

I would like to be confident that you will do everything possible to
organize the work of the system in an effective way. The authorities
in their turn will assist you in every possible way and will keep in
the spotlight this important sphere the problem it faces."

THE SPEECH OF NKR PRESIDENT

Azat Artsakh Daily
21 Jan 09
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

Dear attendees, The State Tax Service plays an important role in
the development of the economy of our republic. The reputation of
our state from the perspective of launching economic activities and
the confidence of investors in it depend to a large extent on your
effective work. I would like to mention that within the reporting
period serious work has been done within the system of the state tax
service, which overall I evaluate as positive. Appropriate figures
reflect tangible quantitative and qualitative changes have taken place.
In the year of 2008 the total volume of state budget incomes, duties
and obligatory social welfare payments has constituted 17 billion
271 million AMD, which enabled to ensure the over-implementation of
the annual plan assignment. The volume of these inflows surpasses the
same figures of 2007 by 3,5 billion drams or by 25,6 percent. And this
is taking place against the background of the current international
financial crisis due to which the biggest taxpayer of our republic the
"Base Metals" closed joint stock company has reduced its industrial
production volumes thus de priving state budget of 1,6 billion dram
fund inflow. The targeted efforts to eliminate double standards
and different game rules for the market participants resulted in
substantial improvement of the tax discipline, as well as the level
of tax service, particularly in the sphere of trade.

At the same time it should be always kept in mind that that tax
collection process should not be an obstacle for entrepreneurial
activities, especially for the development of small and medium size
businesses. This can be achieved only by creating equal conditions
for all business entities thus providing entrepreneurs an opportunity
to develop and enlarge their business and direct resources to solve
different social problems. In this regard I consider necessary
further improve tax legislation and carry out measures that will result
in increasing the volume of foreign and domestic investments. Special
attention should be paid to proper organization of supervision directed
to reveal shadow economic entities and bring them to legal field.
It is gratifying that in the previous year the state budget received 1
billion 97 million drams as trade tax, which is the fulfillment of the
set goals by 163,8 percent and is more than twice the corresponding
figures of 2007. This fact depicts the efficiency of the measures
taken against shadow phenomena. The introduction of cash registers
has also contributed to th is efficiency. This in its turn improved
the standards of service. To improve the functioning of the system it
is necessary simplify tax administration as much as possible, decrease
unnecessary bureaucratic procrastination, make available the introduced
changes to economic entities, establish normal partnership with them.
Within this context I consider important carry out proper cadre
policy based on professionalism and moral qualities of employees. A
persistent and continuous struggle should be waged against violations
and other negative phenomena without which it will be impossible to
fulfill tasks put in front of the system.

These tasks of 2009 will be numerous and various too. I would like
to be confident that you will do everything possible to organize the
work of the system in an effective way. The authorities in their turn
will assist you in every possible way and will keep in the spotlight
this important sphere the problem it faces. Thank you.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA MEETS EU COMMISSIONER FOR ENLARGEMENT

armradio.am
20.01.2009 10:55

President Serzh Sargsyan received the EU Commissioner for External
Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner,
President’s Press Office reported.

Stressing the importance of a successful continuance of the high-level
political dialogue as a favorable condition for expanding the
cooperation agenda between the Republic of Armenia and the European
Union, President Serzh Sargsyan stressed with satisfaction the
steadfast implementation of the agreements reached with the leadership
of the EU structures during his visit to Brussels last November.

The President of Armenia thanked the European Union for providing
Armenia with the opportunity to benefit from the General System of
Preferences (GSP+) trade regime and stressed that our country would do
her best for bringing to life the other agreements as soon as possible.

Serzh Sargsyan and Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner discussed a wide range
of issues related the possibilities of expanding bilateral and
multilateral cooperation in the framework of the Eastern Partnership
Policy. They spoke also about the international and inter-Armenian
developments.

ANOTHER PLAYER OF NATIONAL TEAM TRANSFERRED TO MIKA

A1+
[01:59 pm] 19 January, 2009

The fullback of the Armenian football team Alexander Tadevosyan is
going to continue his sports career in Yerevan’s Mika. Tadevosyan is
already training in the club though he hasn’t signed a contract with
Mika. Last year he was playing in Belorussia’s Vitebsk and participated
in all Belorussian championships.

Mika has already recruited a few prominent footballers. The club has
recently negotiated with a number of foreign footballers among them
Argentine Daniel de Bruno and Spanish Arand. But the negotiations
with the last two were not effective.

Presently, the club is negotiating with one of the goal-keepers of
Ecuador’s team.

Mika’s secretary General Armen Petikyan says the club will not
participate in the Turkmenbashi Cup due in Ashkhabad in February
2009. Kapan’s Gandzasar will go to Ashkhabad instead.