Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

IRAN, BULGARIA RATIFY AGREEMENT FOR AVOIDANCE OF DOUBLE TAXATION

Asia Pulse
Jun 08, 2006

TEHRAN, June 8 Asia Pulse – The Guardian Council ratified here
Wednesday an agreement for avoidance of double taxation between Iran
and Bulgaria to make it possible to became a law, the economic and
finance minister’s public relations department reported.

The agreement was previously approved in the Majlis. The law covers
avoidance of taxes on income acquired in housing, agriculture sectors
as well as various private sectors professions and extraordinary
incomes, the ministry reported.

Iran has signed agreements with 48 nations encouraging joint trade
and investments.

The agreements stipulate that the governments of the countries involved
finance private companies doing business in their territories thereby
making them partners in economic development.

Iran has inked accords with 34 countries for removal of double taxation
on trade and investments which can increase the flow of capital into
the national economy.

In addition to double taxation agreements Iran has also signed
agreements to boost its trade exchange.

The number of customs agreements signed with foreign countries now
stands at 31.

The report added, “Out of the signed documents, 19 have been ratified
by Iranian Majlis and the rest are being assessed by various Majlis
commissions.

“The ratified customs agreements have been signed with Italy,
Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba,
Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Sudan, Pakistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon and Tunisia.” Talks are currently underway between
Iran’s Customs Administration and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Hungary,
Morocco, China, Iraq and Nigeria. Once the negotiations are finalized,
customs cooperation agreements will be signed with those countries.

WORKSHOP ON ARMENIAN ECONOMY AT UCLA
By Hakob Tsulikian

AZG Armenian Daily
07/06/2006

A press release from the University of California, Los Angels,
informs that on May 14 the chair of Armenian Studies organized
workshop “Armenia: Challenges of Permanent Development” during which
economists, financial policy specialists and sociologists tried to
discuss achievements and shortcomings in issues of Armenian economy
development and poverty reduction.

In his opening speech Prof. Richard Hovhannisian noted that after 19
conferences on cities and provinces of historic Armenia its now the
time to tackle challenges facing the present-day Republic of Armenia.

Famous economist Prof. Armen Alchian was the honored guest of the
workshop. Born in Fresno in 1914, he majored in economy at the Stanford
University. From 1946 for 50 years he was a member of UCLA staff.

Alchian’s father emigrated to the USA from Erzrum and his mother was
one of the first Armenians born in California.

In his childhood memories Alchian told about Zoravar Andranik who
lived in their house for several months in 1920.

Professors Harold Demsetz, Michael Intriligator, Dr. Enrique Gelbard
and others held speeches at the workshop.

Embassy of The United States
Yerevan, Armenia

The Fight Against Trafficking in Persons in Armenia
On June 5, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice released the Department of
State’s fifth annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. This annual report
is intended to raise global awareness of human trafficking, underscore the
growing efforts of the international community to combat this problem, and
encourage nations around the world to take effective actions against this
abuse. The report puts it bluntly: Trafficking in persons is modern day
slavery, and it is a crime that affects virtually every country, including
the United States.
To my regret, Armenia still has a significant trafficking in persons
problem. This year, Armenia was once again placed on the TIP Report’s Tier 2
Watch List. Countries that do not comply with the minimum standards to
combat trafficking, but that are making significant efforts to meet those
standards, are classified as Tier 2. Armenia was placed on the Watch List
for a second consecutive year because of its failure to show evidence of
increasing efforts over the past year, particularly in the areas of
enforcement, trafficking-related corruption and victim protection. While the
government improved overall implementation of its anti-trafficking law, it
did not impose adequate penalties for convicted traffickers. It did not
vigorously enough investigate and prosecute ongoing and widespread
allegations of public officials’ complicity in trafficking, and victim
protection efforts remained in an early, formative stage.
In order to improve its efforts and to avoid dropping to Tier 3, a step that
can lead to the withholding of U.S. non-humanitarian and non-trade related
assistance, Armenia needs to more aggressively prosecute traffickers and
mete out more significant penalties to convicted traffickers. The government
ought to vigorously investigate and prosecute all allegations of public
officials? complicity in trafficking, and should improve its victim
protection efforts to help victims of this serious crime.
The United States, the Republic of Armenia and all countries around the
world must work together to combat and eventually eliminate trafficking in
persons. In addition to the $400 million in international anti-trafficking
assistance that it has contributed to date, the U.S. government continues to
fight trafficking in persons in the United States and throughout the world.
As President George W. Bush recently noted, “Our nation is determined to
fight and end this modern form of slavery.” For millions of enslaved people
around the world, this new abolitionist movement has come none too soon.
John M. Evans
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia

ALIYEV MEETS FM OF BELGIUM, OSCE CHAIRMAN-IN-OFFICE

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 5 2006

President Ilham Aliyev on 5 June in Bucharest has met Foreign Minister
of Belgium, OSCE Chairman-in-office Karel de Gucht.

In the meeting, discussed was the current status of the negotiations
concerning the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh
conflict and other questions of mutual interest.

Mr. Karel De Gucht extended his congratulations to THE President of
Azerbaijan on reach of the Azerbaijani oil to the Turkish Ceyhan port.

CHANGE ENVISAGED IN NA ARF FACTION’S STAFF

YEREVAN, JUNE 2, NOYAN TAPAN. In connection with being elected as
Rector of Armenian Engineering University on June 2, member of NA ARF
Dashnaktsutiun faction Vostanik Marukhian will soon prematurely resign
his MP commission. He had been elected RA MP by a proportional system
in 2003, so the next candidate of ARF Dashnaktsutiun’s preelection
list will replace him at the parliament.

As Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed by Armen Rustamian,
representative of ARFD Armenian Supreme Body, Chairman of RA NA
Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, at the June 3 sitting of the
Supreme Body it will be clarified who will replenish the parliamentary
faction’s staff in the future.

Armenian government ousting Greek telecom giant, favouring Russians –
paper

Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
3 Jun 06

Text of Vaagn Ovakimyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Aykakan
Zhamanak on 3 June headlined “OTE is in a mousetrap”

The pro-government press in Armenia recently disseminated reports on
the inevitable sale of ArmenTel to Russians. Of course, these reports
are based on Russian sources. It is interesting that this stir began
after a newspaper published an article regarding OTE which failed to
agree ArmenTel’s price with potential Russian buyers. This article
caused a stir in certain circles, which is strange enough. These
circles are saying that the future owner of ArmenTel will be a Russian
company.

It should be mentioned that Russia’s Sistema Telecom, which is part of
the Russian financial group Sistema, officially announced its
intention to buy ArmenTel in early April. Moreover, they mentioned a
possible price to be paid for ArmenTel – some 350m dollars, while OTE
announced through unofficial channels that the price its prefers is at
least 400m euros. That’s to say, the Russians intend to pay 150m
dollars less than the Greeks want. It is still not known whether the
Russians have grounds to insist on this price, why the buyer and the
seller failed to reach an agreement and why OTE is trying to find new
buyers. Two days ago, pro-government circles issued a report that
shed light on these developments. That’s to say representatives of the
British HSBC Bank are currently in Armenia to negotiate with possible
buyers and secure a profitable deal. They are trying to agree details
of the sale with the Armenian government, or to be more precise, to
find out the condition of the property. It turns out that the Armenian
government wants to amend Licence No 60 issued to ArmenTel if the
company is sold.

Incidentally, the government intends to end the company’s monopoly on
the Internet and IP telephony. In this case, the company’s price will
considerably fall. The government’s approach seems to be clear at
first sight. A new owner, a new licence. Moreover, the government’s
approach seems to be in favour of Armenian companies as this will
secure competition in the aforesaid spheres.

However, the matter is that the government is doing this not to create
competition, but to enable the Russians to buy ArmenTel for as little
money as possible. With or without a licence, Armenian companies have
no money to access the international market because this requires
dozens of millions of dollars.

Amendments to the licence will not lead to any changes in the IP
telephony sphere either. Despite ArmenTel’s monopoly on IP telephony,
there are numerous Armenian companies engaged in this sphere. Even if
all monopolies are taken away from ArmenTel, this company will
continue having a natural monopoly on Armenia’s telecommunications
system as no-one will set up a new “ArmenTel plus”. The establishment
of such a company is economically unfavourable as the country’s
telecommunications market is too small and limited.

In fact, the government’s demand aims to favour a possible Russian
buyer.

Having “an outpost” like Armenia, the Russian buyer has every reason
to make no compromise on the price to OTE. The latter cannot sell its
stake to anyone else as the consent of the Armenian government is
required for this. In these conditions, the only way out for the Greek
company is to abandon the idea of selling its stake. However, it might
turn out that making such a decision is not easy either, i.e. it is
not so difficult for the Armenian government to force a company to
take any step they like. Of course, the Armenians are relatively
polite in this regard as they are dealing with the Greeks. However,
when the Russophilia of the Armenian government is in question, their
politeness disappears.

COALITION WAS NEW BUT DID NOT BRING ALONG ANYTHING NEW

Lragir.am
02 June 06

There are no major controversies between the Country of Law Party
(Orinats Yerkir) and the other forces in the coalition. On June 2 this
was stated by Karapet Rubinyan, All-Armenian Movement, the former
deputy speaker of the National Assembly. According to him, Arthur
Baghdasaryan was simply dissatisfied with his present status and
future prospects.

`Arthur Baghdasaryan thinks he deserves more. I do not want to judge
how fair his calculations are, but Arthur Baghdasaryan thinks so and
he chose another path to achieve more,’ said Karapet Rubinyan. He
thinks the rest of the path will become visible in the result of the
activities of the Country ofLaw.

The member of the All-Armenian Movement forecasts that at some point
on this path Arthur Baghdasaryan will go on to criticize the
government more severely.

Karapet Rubinyan, says despite the statement made by the president
three years ago that the coalition is something new in the Armenian
political life, he has not seen anything new over these years that the
coalition has brought along.

FRANCE HOPES FOR DECISIVE PROGRESS IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.06.2006 15:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Along with US and Russia, France is a co-chair
country of the OSCE Minsk Group for settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, French Ambassador to Armenia Henry Cuny stated in an
interview with PanARMENIAN.Net. In his words, after the Rambouillet
meeting along with the US and Russian partners France increased
contacts between Yerevan and Baku to arrange a new meeting of the
two Presidents, scheduled in early June.

“This is why representatives of MFA of third countries visited Yerevan
and Baku along with the co-chairs.

Along with Washington and Moscow, we hope for decisive progress and the
two Presidents will have to complete the work of the mediators, done
within latest two years. The moment is very favorable for a settlement
now, taking into account that there are no elections either in Armenia
or Azerbaijan and we will hardly have a chance soon,” he remarked.

The diplomat noted that in case an agreement is reached, they will
provide wide political support and the necessary financial assistance
to both parties of the conflict within a shortest possible period.

THE GAVAR RESIDENTS ARE PREPARING FOR A FESTIVAL

A1+
[08:22 pm] 30 May, 2006

Active rehearsals have started in the Gavar State Dramatic theatre
after Levon Qalantaryan. The staff of the theatre is preparing for
the festival which will be held on July 3.

The festival is devoted to the 80th anniversary of renowned actress
Metaqsya Simonyan and will be held in the State theatre after Gabriel
Sundukyan. The play “Mother Kuraj” will be staged by the Gavar actors.

Chief producer of the theatre Garnik Poghosyan claims that they
attached their attention mainly to the women’s characters. The
performance will be named “The women and the war.” The actors were
concerned with the success of the performance before the rehearsals.

The concern is most likely determined by the fact that we don’t act,”
noted RA renowned actress Anahit Movsesyan with regret and added
they last acted on the stage in 2005. The performance “The women and
the war” will be staged in Gavar on June 10 – 15 before being staged
in Yerevan.

TV Company “Kyavar” of Gavar.

NO BREAKTHROUGH IN SECRET TURKISH-ARMENIAN TALKS

The New Anatolian, Turkey
May 31 2006

Secret talks between Turkey and Armenia, launched after Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote a letter to Armenian President Robert
Kocharian, have failed to make any headway coming out of their third
round, said media reports yesterday.

A part of the third session of secret talks was held on the sidelines
of the Turkey-European Union Troika meeting in Vienna, Austria last
March. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul closely followed the meetings
with Armenian officials that were kept secret from the media,
CNN-Turk reported.

Sources say that the Armenian response reached Ankara early this
month to Turkey’s suggestion for the establishment of two committees
to discuss mutual relations wasn’t welcomed, and the answer “to the
Turkish suggestions that they received was watered down.”

The Turkish side had proposed the establishment of two committees to
simultaneously hold talks on political issues and the Armenian genocide
allegations. In response, Yerevan rejected the Turkish suggestions,
stating that holding discussions about the “genocide” would make the
controversial issue debatable. It underlined that scholars can debate
the issue in conferences. Nevertheless Armenia did request the revival
of political talks between the two countries.

Following Yerevan’s objection to the establishment of the two
committees, including one comprised of historians from both countries
to study the Armenian genocide claims, Ankara is now preparing for
the fourth round of secret talks.

Foreign Ministry officials underlined that continued debates over
the genocide claims have “poisoned” Turkey’s relations with other
countries. Ankara will continue to exert effort to find a middle
ground and to solve its problems with Yerevan, they added.