38 MILLION DRAM TO HAYASTAN FUND
Lragir.am
27/01/10
The All-Armenian Hayastan Fund informs that the benefactor organization
Family of Vardanyan today benefited 38 million drams to the Hayastan
fund.
Last year, a double-floor school was constructed in the Gishi village
of NKR Martuni region by means of the Family.
8TH SITTING OF ARMENIAN-GEORGIAN INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION ON ECONOMIC COOPERATION HELD IN YEREVAN
Noyan Tapan
Jan 26, 2010
YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The 8th sitting of the
Armenian-Georgian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation
was held in Yerevan on January 26. The participants discussed the
implementation of the decisions made at the previous sitting held
in Tbilisi on 9 December 2008, the current state and the development
prospects of the legal and contractual field between the sides, the
state and prospects of developing trade and economic cooperation,
as well as issues related to bilateral cooperation in transport,
agriculture, energy, healthcare, social security, education, culture,
environmental protection, and tourism. The demarcation process of
the state border between Armenia and Georgia was also discussed.
The heads of the governments of two countries signed a protocol adopted
based on the results of the Intergovernmental Commission’s sitting.
Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said at a briefing following
the sitting that the 8th sitting of the commission will stimulate
cooperation of the two countries. In his words, they had agreed on
all the issues put on the agenda of the commission.
"The agenda includes a lot of issues from economic, social and cultural
spheres. We have instructed the representatives of the working
groups to include all the agreements reached in today’s protocol,"
T. Sargsyan said.
Georgian Prime Minister Nika Gilauri considered the sitting quite
interesting because numerous issues related to almost all the spheres
were examined. "This visit will strengthen the traditional relations
of our countries," he stated.
He announced that an agreement on construction of a 400 kilovolt
power transmission line between Georgia and Armenia was reached at the
sitting. T. Sargsyan said the power line’s construction is included
in the 2010 programs of the Armenian government.
Speaking about the possible opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, N.
Gilauri noted that they welcome the resolution of any conflict in the
region. "We welcome the Armenia-Turkey normalization process. It is
of importance to the regional countries," he declared. He also spoke
about the process of opening the Upper Lars check point, saying this
would be to Armenia’s benefit as well, and Russia should remove all
kinds of restrictions.
It was decided to hold the next – 9th sitting of the Intergovernmental
Commission in Georgia.
ARMENIAN ARMY STRONGER TODAY THAN DURING KARABAKH WAR
PanARMENIAN.Net
26.01.2010 15:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Considering the current armistice regime, the
Armenian army should be always ready for war, says Hrayr Karapetyan,
Head of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defense, National Security
and Internal Affairs.
"Over the recent years, Armenia’s Parliament has passed several
legal acts on enhancing army conscription procedures etc. But certain
problems still remain unresolved," he told today a news conference
in Yerevan.
At that, he stressed the importance of contract service, considering
the sharp decrease in Armenia’s population in the early 1990s. "The
age qualification requirements have now changed. Healthy men below
the age 50 are eligible for contract service," he said.
According to him, the committee collaborates with Defense Ministry to
prepare a package of changes aimed at prevention of illegal conduct
in army.
"We certainly have much to do. It is necessary to create legal bases in
the sphere, enhancing the legislation, healing the moral-psychological
atmosphere in army, improving the competences of soldiers and creating
a professional army," Committee Chairman said, adding that Armenia
army is stronger today than during Karabakh war.
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia represents the Army,
Air Force, Air Defense, and Border Guard.
The Commander-in-Chief of the military is the President of Armenia,
currently Serzh Sargsyan. The Ministry of Defense is in charge of
political leadership, currently headed by Seyran Ohanian, while
military command remains in the hands of the General Staff, headed
by the Chief of Staff, who is currently Lieutenant-General Yuri
Khatchaturov. Armenia established a Ministry of Defense on January
28, 1992.
Since 1992, Armenia has been a member of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization, which acts as another deterrent to Azeri military
intervention over Nagorno-Karabakh. The Treaty on Conventional Armed
Forces in Europe was ratified by the Armenian parliament in July 1992.
It establishes comprehensive limits on key categories of military
equipment, such as tanks, artillery, armored combat vehicles, combat
aircraft, and combat helicopters, and provides for the destruction
of weaponry in excess of those limits.
The State Committee on Defense (under the Council of Ministers)
was created by a Government Decision in 1991.
MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI INVITES ARMENIAN PRESIDENT TO GEORGIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
26.01.2010 18:26 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan received Tuesday
Georgian Prime Minister Nika Gilauri who is carrying out a working
visit to Yerevan to take part in the 8th session of Armenian-Georgian
intergovernmental commisson on economic cooperation.
Stressing the importance of conducting more frequent meetings between
two countries’ officials, Armenian President said, "The level our
cooperation simply obliges us to address the existing problems
every day."
For his part, Mr. Gilauri conveyed to Armenian leader Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili’s invitation for visiting Georgia.
Touching upon the commission’s session, he estimated it as positive,
adding that the next discussion is due in Georgia.
PREAMBLE REACHED ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH
By Nikolaus von Twickel
The Moscow Times
26 January 2010
Medvedev giving Sargsyan, left, and Aliyev, center, a tour of the
Krasnaya Polyana ski resort near Sochi on Monday.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed on a preamble to an agreement on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
"There is a general understanding on the preamble of the document,"
Lavrov said in Sochi after talks between the two country’s leaders
and President Dmitry Medvedev, Interfax reported.
Neither Medvedev nor Presidents Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and Ilham
Aliyev of Azerbaijan made any public statements after the closed-door
talks in Medvedev’s residence in the Krasnaya Polyana resort above
Sochi.
Lavrov said the sides had agreed to forward their own suggestions for
alterations to the so-called Madrid principles, a set of proposals
for a political solution in the 20-year conflict in the South Caucasus.
"The main result today is that both sides will prepare their tangible
ideas of how to formulate the text where there is no agreement,"
Lavrov said.
The principles, adopted in late 2007, envisage returning territories
occupied by Armenian troops that lie outside Karabakh proper to
Azerbaijan but leaving a corridor linking Armenia with the disputed
province on Azeri soil.
The plan, worked out by Russia, France and the United States, which
have led the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s
mediation efforts, stipulate that the status for Nagorno-Karabakh
would be determined in a referendum that refugees should be allowed
to return and that an international peacekeeping force be deployed.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan,
broke away after a bloody conflict in the early 1990s that killed
more than 30,000 people and displaced more than 1 million.
The Madrid principles, which were made public only last summer,
were met with fierce criticism by the Armenian opposition.
Moscow has in recent years stepped up its own mediation efforts in
the seemingly intractable conflict, and Sargsyan and Aliyev pledged
that their countries would step up efforts to find a peaceful solution
over Nagorno-Karabakh in a five-point declaration reached at a meeting
with Medvedev in November 2008.
Last year, the two presidents met for talks six times, including two
rounds with Medvedev.
Analysts have said the efforts show Moscow’s assertion of influence
in the South Caucasus, were Western influence has subsided after
the Georgia war in August 2008, the global financial crisis and the
leadership change in the United States.
Armenia has been irked by increasing rapprochement between its Turkic
neighbors and Moscow, which recently signed energy agreements with
both Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Earlier this month, state energy giant Gazprom announced plans to
quadruple the amount of gas that it buys from Azerbaijan in 2011,
and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed with Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin to spur efforts to build the $2.5 billion
Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline in Turkey.
AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARY TOTALED AMD 101 895 IN JANUARY-DECEMBER 2009
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
25.01.2010 18:52 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In January-December 2009, the average nominal salary
in budget-funded organizations made AMD 101 895, having increased by
9.8% compared to the same period of 2008, according to the official
reports of Armenian National Statistic Service.
In comparison with November 2009, the average monthly salary fixed
a 27.5% growth.
The average monthly salary in budget-funded and privately held
organizations made AMD 84 845 and AMD 126 407 respectively. In the
meantime, salaries in privately held organizations totaled AMD 126 407,
having increased by 5.3 % compared to the same period of 2008.
HEAD OF ARMENIAN DELEGATION TO PACE: ARMENIAN DELEGATION PRESERVES ITS RIGHT TO TAKE PART AND VOTE IN PACE SESSION
ArmInfo
2010-01-25 23:02:00
ArmInfo. The Armenian delegation to PACE preserves its right to take
part and vote in the PACE session until its powers are considered by
the PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional
Affairs, says the head of the delegation David Haroutyunyan.
The meeting of the committee is to take place Jan 28.
Aid to Haiti from Canadian Armenian community
23.01.2010 17:55 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On January 12, Haiti was utterly devastated by a
very powerful earthquake. Much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, was
destroyed. The International Federation of the Red Cross estimates
that 3 million people have been directly affected by the disaster. The
death toll is well over 100,000. The aid needed for survivors to begin
to recover from this catastrophe is monumental, and the burden to
rebuild essential infrastructure is far greater than Haiti can bear
without the support of the international community.
Perhaps more than any other people, Armenians know the pain and
suffering that a powerful earthquake can cause. When more than 20,000
people died and hundreds of thousands of people were affected by the
earthquake that hit Armenia on December 7, 1988, the international
community responded immediately by sending much needed aid.
It is now our turn to extend the same helping hand to the people of
Haiti, who are struggling to survive and who need to somehow rebuild
their lives. We need to demonstrate our compassion, and to participate
in the relief effort.
The Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada has appealed to all
Canadian Armenians to make their donations for Haiti through the
humanitarian arm of the Diocese, the Children’s Fund For Armenia
(CFFA). The Diocese will in turn forward all funds earmarked for Haiti
to the Canadian Red Cross, in the name of the Armenian Community of
Canada.
The Congress of Canadian Armenians (CCA) has conveyed its condolences
to the people of Haiti through their Embassy in Ottawa, and now urges
all Canadian Armenians to support the initiative of the Diocese by
sending their donations to: "Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada,
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont QC H2V 3H2". Cheques should be made out
to "Children’s Fund For Armenia", and should be marked either on the
front or back "Relief Fund for Haiti".
All donations made in this way are tax deductible, plus the Government
of Canada will match each dollar you donate. These matching dollars
will be sent by the government to its Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.
Established in 2004, the Congress of Canadian Armenians is comprised
of many of the large Canadian Armenian organizations. It serves as a
united voice to present Armenian issues to the Canadian public and to
promote Armenian interests.
Trend, Azerbaijan
Jan 22 2010
Azerbaijani senior official: Sochi may provide grounds for advancing
Karabakh settlement
Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 22 / Trend News M.Aliyev /
Azerbaijani President’s Administration International Relations
Department Head Novruz Mammadov voiced his hope that the upcoming
meeting of the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Sochi will provide a ground for certain
progress in settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Jan. 25, Sochi will host a meeting of the presidents of Russia,
Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Russian
president’s official website reported.
"I think acting sensibly Armenian leadership can create certain
conditions for solving the conflict amid the latest development," he
told journalists.
That is, taking a constructive attitude Armenia will create
opportunities for progress in the settlement process, he said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are
currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. General Assembly’s
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the
occupied territories.
ARMENIAN NGOS AGAINST NEW BILL
ArmInfo
2010-01-22 13:26:00
ArmInfo. Non-governmental organizations require from the Government
and the National Assembly to recall the bill on making amendments in
RA Law "On Non-Governmental organizations" and to hold a wide public
discussion of the submitted bill.
As Ecolur told rmInfo, more than 100 NGOs expressed their negative
attitude towards the bill according the Lists of CDPF, the Civil
Development and Partnership Foundation.
Parallel with the fund, other NGOs also started to collect signatures
against this bill. The boom of civil activity is explained as follows:
the public considers the new bill as a threat for development of a
civil society in Armenia, establishment of control over the civil
society on the part of officials, results in folding of democratic
processes in the country and their substitution with pseudo-democratic
processes, and finally, may bring to the return of neobolshevism.