Author: Nahapetian Lilit

SERVICE TARIFFS GROW BY 4.5% IN ARMENIA IN OCTOBER 2006 ON DECEMBER 2005

Noyan Tapan
Nov 02 2006

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. Service tariffs grew by 4.5% in
Armenia in October 2006 on December 2005. According to the RA National
Statistical Service, the 0.1% increase in the tariffs of services
provided to the population in October on September 2006 was mainly
conditioned by the growth in tariffs of services in such sectors
as public catering (0.1%), education (0.7%) and consumer services
(1.9%). In the indicated period, tariffs of services in the spheres of
transport and culture declined by 0.5% and 0.4% respectively, while
tariffs of health, housing, municipal, communication, recreational,
legal and banking services remained at the previous month’s level.

ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES VIOLATES CEASEFIRE AGAIN

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 2 2006

Armenian Armed Forces continues to violate the ceasefire, APA Garabagh
bureau reports.

Armenian Armed Forces’ units in occupied Bash Gervend village of
Aghdam region fired on opposite positions of Azerbaijani Armed Forces
and Chiragli village of the region with machine and submachine guns
since 00.30 to 02.00 this night.

Armenian Armed Forces’ units in occupied Sarijali village and the
territory called Kokeltme birliyi also fired on opposite positions of
Azerbaijani Armed Forces at about 09.00 today. The enemy was silenced
by response fire in both cases.

FROM TEST-TUBE TO KINDERGARTEN

Karina Manukyan, ArmInfo, 18 October 2006

The problem of sterility today remains urgent for millions of
married couples all over the world. Despite the variety of sterility
treatment methods and recovery of disturbed reproductive functions,
artificial fertilization for many is the only way to the desired
pregnancy and maternity. Successful operations of IVF (in vitro
fertilization) and ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) have been
carried out in Armenia for 3 years already in the SRI of Mother and
Child’s Health Protection, due to which over hundred babies were
born. As the Director General of the SRI of Mother and Child’s Health
Protection, professor Georgy Okoyev, noted in an interview to the,
the specialists of the Marseille Institute of Human Reproduction,
who have been actively cooperating with the Armenian doctors within
several years, contributed greatly to the formation and development
of artificial fertilization methods in Armenia.

– Mr. Okoyev, which methods of artificial fertilization would you
mark out as the most efficient?

– Before talking of efficiency of one or another method, I will
note that the artificial fertilization is a rather capacious
concept. Artificial insemination by a donor sperm is the simplest
method of auxiliary reproductive technologies. Thousands of such
operations were carried out since 1985, when a sperm bank was created
in our center for the whole region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and
Krasnodar territory). However, a very delicate psychological moment
exists here, namely, a child from the donor arouses the husband’s
suspicion and unwillingness to take this step. Certainly, it is a quite
natural response since everyone wants to have his (her) own child. It
is not random that the number of artificial insemination by a donor
sperm has considerably reduced in the Republic with implementation
of the extracorporal fertilization method. Moreover, in cases when
carrying of pregnancy is contraindicated or impossible (no uterus,
inoperable injuries of uterus/endometrium, etc.), some of our patients
agree for an ersatz maternity. Three such cases are already fixed in
Armenia by this time – the patient’s immediate relatives have become
ersatz mothers.

– By which criteria are the ersatz mothers, as well as the donors of
sperm and ovum selected?

There is a great difference between an ersatz mother and a donor. An
ersatz mother must be absolutely healthy and we carry out a strict
examination for infections, transferred by genital tracts and check
that pregnancy is not contraindicated to her. Unlike her, the donor is
a carrier of a gene, chromosome and hereditary information. Therefore,
we also carry out a medical-genetic investigation to make certain that
the donor is a not a carrier of any severe hereditary disease. Nearly
15 young and healthy men-donors of sperm are registered in the center
for today. We change our donors from time to time so as not to increase
the risk of birth of a great number of kindred children. As for the
ovum donors, they are intimate patients, as a rule (but not of her
husband, so that to avoid a kindred marriage). Unlike sperm, ovum
does not stand the freezing process, therefore, we use it just after
stimulation of the woman-donor’s ovaries and obtainment of oocytes
by method of paracentesis.

– As far as I know, you achieved the first positive results of
using IVF in February, 2004, when a citizen of Georgia, who had been
suffering sterility for 12 years before that, gave birth to triplet
babies. For how many patients more the treatment has become efficient
for the last three years?

About 300 women have addressed our center for this period, not only
from Armenia but from other countries of the world as well, namely,
from Belgium, Iran, Holland and the USA. Unfortunately, most of them
address us very late, the main contingent of our clients re women
above 30. This circumstance is especially oppressive since the IVF
and ICSI efficiency considerably decreases with age. Thus, if the
efficiency of such operations at the age of 30 makes up 40%, after
35 it makes up only 20%. As you see, the effectiveness of artificial
fertilization directly depends on woman’s age. The more is the age the
less is the percent of pregnancy. Unfortunately, the science could
not yet give an unambiguous answer to the question, which processes
exactly in the woman’s organism hamper a 100% pregnancy appearance and
why no implantation of fetal ovum to uterus happens after successful
fertilization by IVF and ICSI methods.

– What is the reason of the women’s address to your Center in a more
mature age?

First of all, one of the indications for IVF conduction is a
disturbance of uterine tubes function. Usually, in case of such
pathologies, the young woman is prescribed a laporoscopy. However,
if 6 months later the treatment is of no desirable effect, the patient
is again prescribed drugs and her uterine tubes "open" again… As a
result, having spent a lot of time and money for inefficient treatment,
the woman addresses us, sometimes 8-12 year later, but "treated" by
hormones, ovulation stimulators and often with resected ovaries. All
these factors, as well as the patient’s mature age, considerably
reduce the efficiency of our interference.

– How exactly the operation for artificial fertilization is conducted?

We stimulate the patient’s ovulation (super ovulation) under influence
of definite medicines as a result of which the woman’s organism starts
to produce a great number of ovums. After fertilization in a test-tube,
2-5 days later, we transfer the embryo to the cavity of uterus. The
ICSI operation is conducted similarly with only difference that here
the spermatozoon is injected directly into the ovum. If indications for
IVF are an unexplainable sterility (sterility of unclear genesis), from
which 10% of married couples suffer, as well as a commissural process
in the abdominal cavity, the indications for ICSI are an expressed
sperm quality loss or a severe autoimmune men’s sterility. To note,
we also carry out a freezing of embryos, obtained during an artificial
fertilization, which afterwards can be transplanted to the cavity of
uterus after an unsuccessful attempt of IVF or if the patient wishes
to give birth to one baby more. In many countries of the world,
the embryo is considered a biological creature with human rights,
therefore, we thoroughly discuss the issue of further freezing of
embryos together with a married couple. Embryos of about 15 women
are now stored in our Bank.

– If a pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is carried out in your
Center?

I hope very much that such a diagnosis will be carried out in our
Center since it helps to prevent a child’s birth with hereditary or
genetic diseases.

Despite the fact that this is, unfortunately, an expensive pleasure (it
costs $2-3 thsd on average), however, the PGD is a kind of a necessity
for 35-38-year-old married couples since a risk of development of
trisomy, Down’s syndrome, Klinefelter’s syndrome and other severe
and incurable diseases at the child vastly increases during a late
pregnancy. Moreover, the PGD allows to reveal "embryos-carriers"
of diseases with late manifestation and genetic predisposition to
severe diseases (oncology, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.).

Pre-implantation diagnosis at the age of 36-37 is substantiated in
these cases, as a woman gives birth to a healthy child due to the
"screening" of genetically abnormal embryos.

– In your opinion, how much actual is the problem of sterility
in Armenia?

I must note with regret that sterility in the Republic grows
younger, the reason of which are, first of all, hereditary diseases,
transferred by genital tract. About 30% of Armenian families today
suffer sterility. I think, definite steps are to be undertaken at a
governmental level to increase the birth rate in the country. As of
today, the operations for artificial fertilization are inaccessible for
a considerable part of the Republic’s population. Even despite the fact
that the citizens of Armenia pay only for the necessary medicines and
reagents in our Center, the IVF and ICSI cost 900,000 drams at best.

However, I hope that definite programs will start to be implemented
in Armenia, due to which the Republic’s women-dwellers of moderate
means, who suffer sterility, will also be able to feel the happiness
of maternity.

MARTIROS SARIAN, LE "FAUVE BLEU"

Le Figaro, France
30 octobre 2006

Dans la maison-musee du plus grand des peintres modernes armeniens,
Martiros Sarian (1880-1972), c’est la petite-fille de l’artiste,
Rouzane Sarian, qui recoit. Avec chaleur, elle explique la trajectoire
atypique de son aïeul, qui eut l’heur – ou le malheur – d’etre reconnu
par l’Union sovietique. "Meme si certaines de ses series, comme Reves
et contes de fees, ont ete interdites en URSS, et d’autres brûlees,
reconnaît-elle, ses bonnes relations avec Moscou expliquent peut-etre
le relatif oubli dans lequel le nouveau regime le laisse." Ne au sud
de la Russie, dans une ville armenienne, etudiant aux Beaux-Arts de
Moscou, il travaille avec les impressionnistes, puis participe a un
groupe symboliste, rencontre Matisse, Van Gogh, Rodin, Maillol.

De chacun, il prendra un peu. De ses voyages en Egypte, il retiendra
l’obsession de l’eternite, sans pour autant adherer au mouvement
orientaliste. Fauviste, post-impressionniste, realiste pour pouvoir
survivre, son art très personnel est d’abord celui d’un coloriste non
conventionnel. "La couleur est un vrai miracle. C’est elle qui, sous
la lumière du soleil, cree l’esprit." Ses bleus, surtout, lumineux
et purs comme dans Paysage de nuit, lui confereront le surnom de
"Fauve bleu". Une longue et fructueuse carrière Mû par une philosophie
deiste, par un veritable culte de la nature qu’il voit "animee par le
processus du devenir", Sarian passera sa longue et fructueuse carrière
(5 000 toiles) a chercher a restituer l’âme de l’Armenie.

Quand il peint des natures mortes où les fruits sont separes les uns
des autres, c’est son pays ecartele qu’il decrit. Sa palette a tant
de compartiments – le portrait, les scènes de genre, les paysages
caucasiens aux montagnes traitees comme des fusains multicolores
dresses vers le ciel – qu’a 91 ans, a la veille de sa mort, il
s’etait lance dans l’abstraction, avec une toile encore exposee sur
son chevalet : eclatante de couleurs, elle represente son âme partant
du soleil vers la lune, avec le grand chien roux de son enfance pour
compagnon, sans regret ni tristesse…

–Boundary_(ID_rcFHxfD6Uh+8ruTy0l1hl Q)–

VLADIMIR PUTIN FINDS "SHAMEFUL" INACTIVENESS OF RUSSIAN INVESTORS IN ARMENIA

Regnum, Russia
Oct 30 2006

On October 30Russia’s President Vladimir Putin received Armenia’s
President Robert Kocharyan, who is on a work visit in Moscow. As a
REGNUM correspondent reports, before the talks with Robert Kocharyan,
the Russian president said he found it "shameful" that "Russia is
only third in investments to the economy of its strategic partner."

At the same time, the Russian president noted that for the last
year goods turnover between Russia and Armenia increased by 60%,
which indicates development of the economic relations.

In his turn, Robert Kocharyan informed that all Yerevan’s agreements
with Gazprom are being implemented. "All the contracts on energy
projects with Gazprom are entering the stage of implementation,"
the Armenian president said, expressing hope for intensification of
Russia’s investment policy. "Next year, the situation will change
significantly, I cast no doubts on it," Robert Kocharyan is quoted
as saying. He also says that several days ago the process of complex
modernization of the Russian-Armenian Armenal aluminum plant was
completed.

Gazprom and the Armenian government signed the contract for 25 years.

It outlines strategic principles of cooperation in gas and energy
projects in the Armenian territory. The document envisages that
ArmRosgazprom acquires the fifth energy reactor of the Hrazdan Nuclear
Power Plant and gas facilities from the Armenian government.

Final passing of property for the facilities is to be completed by
January 1, 2007. On October 27, Gazprom Executive Board approved
acquiring additional issue of ArmRosgazprom, as a result share of
the Russian company in ArmRosgazprom authorized capital stock will
increase from 45% to 58%.

EUROPEAN UNION IS READY TO JOIN ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN SETTLEMENT OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT
Author: I.Khalilova

TREND, Azerbaijan
Oct 30 2006

The next meeting of the EU-Azerbaijan Co-operation Committee took
place in Brussels within the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement.

The meeting focused on the interaction between Azerbaijan and European
Union in political, economical, humanitarian and other areas,
Trend reports with reference to the Economic Development Ministry
of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan was represented at the meeting by the Deputy Foreign
Minister, Mahmud Mammadguliyev, to discuss the political aspects
of co-operation and by the Deputy Economic Development Minister,
Mikayl Jabarov, to discuss economical issues. The delegation included
representatives of the Foreign Ministry, Economic Development Ministry,
State Customs Committee, State Committee on Management of State
Property and Azerbaijani Embassy in Brussels.

The event is held annually in Summer, but due to the continuation of
negotiations regarding the European Neighborhood Policy, the Azerbaijan
Government had abandoned the meeting until such time as the settlement
of the dispute was included in the National Plan. As was reported
by Trend previously, the European Union had refused to acknowledge
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within the document, and
therefore the decision was made not to hold the committee meeting
until the issue was settled.

The agenda of the meeting for the political block included the
development of human rights in the country and the development of
democratic institutions. The parties exchanged views on the solution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "EU inactively participates in
resolving this conflict. However, during the meeting, it was stated
that the EU is prepared to actively participate in the settlement of
the conflict," the same source told.

The meeting also included economical topics on the macro-economical
situation in Azerbaijan and EU and bilateral co-operation with
regards to the trade. During the meeting, debates were organized on
the National Action Plan within the European Neighborhood Policy. The
Plan was proposed to be confirmed at the meeting of the EU-Azerbaijan
Co-operation Council on November 14 in Brussels.

DIVERSITY’S OPPRESSIONS: WHY IRAQ HAS PROVEN TO BE SO HARD TO PACIFY
By Thomas Sowell

Opinion Journal from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
Oct 30 2006

Iraq is not the first war with ugly surprises and bloody setbacks.

Even World War II, idealized in retrospect as it never was at the
time–the war of "the greatest generation"–had a long series of
disasters for Americans before victory was finally achieved.

The war began for Americans with the disaster at Pearl Harbor,
followed by the tragic horror of the Bataan death march, the debacle
at the Kasserine Pass and, even on the eve of victory, being caught
completely by surprise by a devastating German counterattack that
almost succeeded at the Battle of the Bulge.

Other wars–our own and other nations’–have likewise been full of
nasty surprises and mistakes that led to bloodbaths. Nevertheless,
the Iraq war has some special lessons for our time, lessons that both
the left and the right need to acknowledge, whether or not they will.

What is it that has made Iraq so hard to pacify, even after a swift
and decisive military victory? In one word: diversity.

That word has become a sacred mantra, endlessly repeated for years on
end, without a speck of evidence being asked for or given to verify
the wonderful benefits it is assumed to produce.

Worse yet, Iraq is only the latest in a long series of catastrophes
growing out of diversity. These include "ethnic cleansing" in the
Balkans, genocide in Rwanda and the Sudan, the million lives destroyed
in intercommunal violence when India became independent in 1947 and
the even larger number of Armenians slaughtered by Turks during World
War I.

Despite much gushing about how we should "celebrate diversity,"
America’s great achievement has not been in having diversity but in
taming its dangers that have run amok in many other countries.

Americans have by no means escaped diversity’s oppressions and
violence, but we have reined them in.

Another concept whose bitter falsity has been painfully revealed in
Iraq is "nation-building." People are not building blocks, however
much some may flatter themselves that they can arrange their fellow
human beings’ lives the way you can arrange pieces on a chess board.

The biggest and most fatuous example of nation-building occurred
right after World War I, when the allied victors dismembered the
Habsburg Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Woodrow Wilson assigned a
young Walter Lippman to sit down with maps and population statistics
and start drawing lines that would define new nations.

Iraq is one of those new nations. Like other artificial creations
in the Balkans, Africa and elsewhere, it has never had the cohesion
of nations that evolved over the centuries out of the experiences of
peoples who worked out their own modi vivendi in one way or another.

Tito’s dictatorship held Yugoslavia together, as other dictatorships
held together other peoples forced into becoming a nation by the
decisions of outsiders who drew their boundaries on maps and in some
cases–Nigeria, for example–even gave them their national name.

Even before 9/11, there were some neoconservatives who talked about
our achieving "national greatness" by creating democratic nations in
various parts of the world.

How much influence their ideas have had on the actual course
of events is probably something that will not be known in our
generation. But we can at least hope that the Iraq tragedy will
chasten the hubris behind notions of "nation-building" and chasten
also the pious dogmatism of those who hype "diversity" at every turn,
in utter disregard of its actual consequences at home or abroad. Free
societies have prerequisites, and history has not given all peoples
those prerequisites, which took centuries to evolve in the West.

However we got into Iraq, we cannot undo history–even recent
history–by simply pulling out and leaving events to take their course
in that strife-torn country. Whether or not we "stay the course,"
terrorists are certainly going to stay the course in Iraq and around
the world.

Political spin may say that Iraq has nothing to do with the war
on terror, but the terrorists themselves quite obviously believe
otherwise, as they converge on that country with lethal and suicidal
resolve.

Whether we want to or not, we cannot unilaterally end the war with
international terrorists. Giving the terrorists an epoch-making
victory in Iraq would only shift the location where we must face them
or succumb to them.

Abandoning Iraqi allies to their fate would ensure that other nations
would think twice before becoming or remaining our allies. With a
nuclear Iran looming on the horizon, we are going to need all the
allies we can get.

Mr. Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public
Policy at the Hoover Institution. He is the author, most recently,
of "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" (Encounter Books, 2005).

e.html?id=110009170

Panorama.am

14:15 27/10/06

VTB-ARMENIA BANK DOES NOT PLAN INVESTMENT YET

The management of VTB-Armenia Bank considers it early
to talk about investment. Vasili Titov, senior vice
president of VTB-Armenia Bank, said the bank has its
own capital and does not plan to invest a new capital.
He said the bank undergoes serious audit. `Our aim is
to optimize the work of the network so that it
complies with international standards of service.’

VTB Armenia has the biggest regional network in the
country composed of 100 branch offices. Alexander
Vartanov, chairman of VTB-Armenia Bank administration,
said the bank has a capital of $24 million and serves
89-90% of capital turnover between Armenia and Russia.

Reminder: 70%+1 shares of VTB-Armenia Bank belong to
Russian Bank VTB (Vneshtorbank). V. Titov said VTB is
ready to buy the rest of 30% of shares, which
currently belong to entrepreneur Michael Bagdasarov. /Panorama.am/

Panorama.am

14:34 27/10/06

TIGRAN TOROSYAN: OCTOBER 27 WAS A RESULT OF EVIL AND HATRED

Today the deputies gathered in front of the memorial
erected to the memory of victims of the cruel
assassination of outstanding Armenian political
figures exactly seven years ago. They put flowers in
front of the monument and left with their heads down.

Tigran Torosyan, speaker of parliament, said people
who have known the victims will take the pain with
them till the end of their lives. He is sure that the
incident was a result of evil and hatred.

Viktor Dallakyan, deputy of parliament, said, `October
27 was a planned attempt of coup d’etat and the
terrorists were a tool in the hands of the executors.’
He is sure that in time the offenders will become
known. /Panorama.am/

The New Anatolian
Oct 27 2006

PACE head criticizes both French Armenian ‘genocide’ bill and Turkish
supporters of Article 301

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Rene
van der Linden yesterday strongly criticized France’s lower house of
Parliament for passing a controversial bill that aims to ban
questioning of Armenian genocide claims.

"This is not in line with one of the basic principles of human
rights, freedom of expression," Linden said during his visit to
Ankara yesterday. PACE head underlined that reconciliation efforts
among countries need more freedom of expression among all involved
parties, not unconstructive moves to restrict people’s free
expression of their ideas. Van der Linden also criticized those in
Turkey who are using the French bill as a pretext not to change
controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) which sets
out penalties for "insulting Turkishness." The PACE head clearly
stated yesterday that the Turkish government has to amend the
article, which has been used to bring charges against dozens of
journalists, publishers and scholars.

Van der Linden, during his visit to Ankara yesterday, met with
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Turkish deputies. Before
his departure from Ankara, the PACE president spoke to journalists.

Recalling his support for Turkey’s EU membership process and
highlighting the importance of continuation of the reform process,
Van der Linden underlined that this was in the interest of both
Europe and Turkey. He said that the second phase of the reform
process, the implementation was understandably much more difficult,
since it necessitated the change of mentalities and convincing
people.

Saying that Turkey seems overly frustrated by the criticisms of
Europe, Van der Linden said that most of these criticisms were in
fact aimed at assisting Turkey in the reform process. In a move to
further encourage Turkey on its EU accession process, he said that
Turkish people should not overestimate current discussions in Europe
and see that it will be EU in 15 years later which Turkey will join.

On the debates of so-called Armenian genocide, PACE head stressed the
necessity for all countries to come into terms with its history for a
better future, but he criticized France’s lower house of Parliament
passing a controversial bill to ban questioning of Armenian genocide
claims. "This is a back-step from the freedom of expression, a bad
example," Van der Linden told reporters, and expressed hope that the
controversial bill will not be passed by the upper house.

On the possible "train crash" between Turkey and EU late this year
due to the Cyprus problem, Van der Linden said that this is in no
one’s interest and continuation of Turkey’s EU process was in the
interest of both Europeans and Turkey.

The PACE president will attend a roundtable discussion with legal and
human rights experts at Bilgi University in Istanbul today. On
Saturday he will lay a wreath at the Gallipoli War Memorial and visit
the war graves there as well as meet with a delegation from the
Canakkale Provincial Council.