New Red Data Book of Armenian flora and fauna to be released in autumn 2010
May 22, 2010 – 18:04 AMT 13:04 GMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –
New Red Data Book of Armenian flora and fauna to be released in autumn
2010, the head of RA Nature Protection Ministry’s Bio- and Water
Resources Department, Tatiana Danielyan stated.
As she noted, the book was replenished with new species of rare plants
and animals.
Last Red Data Book was published in Armenia in 1990.
ARMENIA’S FORMER PRIME MINISTER SAYS CONTINUATION OF GLOBAL CRISIS POSSIBLE
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 20, 2010 – 15:58 AMT 10:58 GMT
Armenia’s former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratyan said that the global
financial crisis will possibly continue.
He named three reasons, due to which the crisis can’t be thought as
overcome. First, banks not only grant loans to business, but also
become its shareholders; second, largest corporations will not be able
to meet their obligations to pension funds; third, inconsistence of
currency during budget’s formation.
According to Bagratyan, the new crisis will reach Armenia in six
month and its new wave will be stronger that is reasoned by decrease
in prices for copper and molybdenum.
He added that many experts were predicting sharp centralization of the
world economy, as well as "explosion" of economy in countries of the
Central Europe, as average pensions are rather high in these countries.
"Due to this, it is possible that a new wave of the crisis will reach
Armenia in September-October 2010," Bagratyan said, adding that the
government does not take steps to prevent it.
Besides, the former PM advised the population to purchase precious
metals, specifically palladium, to be able to withstand the crisis
challenges.
LE MINISTRE ARGENTIN DES AFFAIRES ETRANGÈRES EN ARMENIE
par Stephane
armenews
vendredi21 mai 2010
ARMENIE
Le Ministre argentin des Affaires Etrangères Jorge Taiana est arrive
en Armenie pour une visite de travail a l’invitation du Ministre
armenien des Affaires Etrangères Edouard Nalbandian.
Dans le cadre de de sa visite Jorge Taiana va rencontrer le President
armenien Serge Sarkissian et le Ministre des Affaires Etrangères
Edouard Nalbandian.
Le ministre Taiana participera a la ceremonie officielle inaugurale
de l’Ambassade d’Argentine en Armenie.
A STUDY ON FAMILY VIOLENCE IN SHIRAK PROVINCE
ARMENPRESS
MAY 21, 2010
GYUMRI
"Supporter" ("Ajakits") charitable non-governmental organization has
conducted polling in Shirak province to find out the extent to which
the family violence is spread.
Director of the organization Heghine Lazarian told Armenpress that
violation cases have been registered either in the family or in the
surrounding of the 60 %.
According to H. Lazarian, the number of the people who undergo
violence is actually larger, just many do not voice about this
phenomenon. All the forms of violonce come across. According to the
director, if previously the speech was about the physical violance,
then today the society being quite competent on different forms of
violence, also speaks about the psychological and sexual forms.
"We cannot distinctly say of which kind of families the violence is
typical, but we find that the ones having a low life and education
level comprise a larger number. I do not reject that this defective
phenomenon also comes across in well-to-do families . This is a
general phenomenon, that exists in the soceity.
The worst is that the families where violance is committed against
the mother, grandmother or another member of the family in presence
of the chilld, the latter, too, becomes a victim. That is why we must
prevent the violance from the very beginning," H. Mkrtchayn said.
CENTRAL BANK: 1.3% INFLATION IN ARMENIA IN APRIL
ARKA
May 21, 2010
YEREVAN
Armenia recorded 1.3% inflation in April, compared with March, the
board of the Central Bank of Armenia said at its regular meeting.
As a result, year-on-year inflation went two percentage points down
to 6.8% in April.
The central bank’s board also said that food prices grew 0.7%
adding 0.36 points to inflation, nonfood prices climbed 1.8% fueling
inflation by 0.3 points and services jumped 2.2% giving another 0.65%
to inflation.
April’s inflation was mainly due to 37.5% in gas price rise, which
whipped up inflation by 0.5 percentage points and 5.5% drinking water
price increase that fluffed up inflation by 0.03 points.
Increase in prices for sugar, fruits, petrol and diesel, meat products,
adipose and vegetable oil rose as well adding 0.1 points to inflation.
Instead, eggs, vegetables and potatoes became cheaper.
National Statistical Service of Armenia says 8% year-on-year inflation
was recorded in Jan-Apr 2010, and consumer prices went 4.2% up in
Jan-Apr 2010, compared with December 2009.
EDWARD NALBANDIAN: ARMENIA-ARGENTINA RELATIONS ENTERING NEW STAGE
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 21, 2010 – 14:47 AMT 09:47 GMT
Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana’s presence at the opening of
Argentina’s Embassy in Yerevan proves that bilateral relations are
entering a new stage, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated.
During the meeting with his Argentine counterpart, Minister Nalbandian
expressed hope Mr. Taiana’s visit will promote collaboration between
Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Argentina as well as help boosting
high tech and cultural cooperation.
Mr. Taiana, in turn, emphasized the importance of expansion of
bilateral ties.
The Argentine top diplomat is also expected to attend the Armenian
Genocide Memorial.
LARISA ALAVERDYAN: EP RESOLUTION ON KARABAKH RESULT OF ARMENIA’S PASSIVITY
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 21, 2010 – 16:26 AMT 11:26 GMT
European Parliament’s resolution on the South Caucasus, containing
negative stipulations on the Karabakh conflict, is unacceptable to
Heritage party.
The resolution is a result of RA parliamentary delegation’s passivity,
Heritage secretary Larisa Alaverdyan stated.
Mrs. Alaverdyan slammed the EU for viewing the South Caucasus as a
merely oil-and-gas corridor.
EDWARD NALBANDIAN: ARMENIA-SYRIA RELATIONS MOVED TO QUALITATIVELY NEW LEVEL
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 21, 2010 – 19:41 AMT 14:41 GMT
On May 21, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met with a
delegation of Syria’s Christian Church bishops led by the head of
Damascus Eparchy, who arrived in Armenia on the invitation of Holy
Echmiadzin.
As RA Foreign Minister emphasized during the meeting, Armenia-Syria
relations moved to qualitatively new level. He specifically noted
intensified collaboration in cultural and economy spheres.
At the request of his guests, Edward Nalbandian presented Armenia’s
position on regional issues, RA Foreign Ministry press service
reported.
MOSCOW’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS RENEWED HOSTILITIES BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA…
Today
s/68391.html
May 21 2010
Azerbaijan
Day.Az interview with editor-in-chief of Russia-based Kommersant
newspaper, member of the Central Council of the All-Russia Congress
of Azerbaijanis Azer Mursaliyev.
In your opinion, did the Russian President’s latest visit to Turkey
and Turkish PM’s recent visit to Azerbaijan revive the resolution of
the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to a certain extent?
Numerous bilateral and trilateral initiatives on resolution of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have been advanced so
far. None of them have led to real resolution of the conflict.
Similarly, the above said visits have caused no shifts in the conflict
resolution. There is simply working process underway.
In your opinion, has Russia changed its stance in terms of
understanding causes and consequences of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?
If you talk about general trends, Russian political elite perceives
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia as a kind
of reality. Few people in the Russian establishment are interested
in what are the real causes and consequences of this conflict.
They are more interested in what consequences resumed military action
between Azerbaijan and Armenia will have and whether it will affect
Russia since the hostilities will take place not far from the southern
borders of Russia which can cause many problems for the country.
Therefore, "frozen" state of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is more advantageous for the Russian political elite.
Then why Armenia is dissatisfied with the rapid warming in the
Russian-Turkish relations?
I find it difficult to say why Armenia is so indignant over overall
development of Russian-Turkish relations. It can be assumed there
is a reasonable cause. But equally, we can assume that there is
no reason for Armenia’s concern and all its fears over the current
warming in the Russian-Turkish relations are groundless. In general,
speaking about the Azerbaijani-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
it should be noted that Armenia must either admit the annexation of
Azerbaijan’s territories or it should liberate them.
There are no prerequisites for the world community to accept the
fact of annexation of Azerbaijan’s territories by Armenia. Similarly,
Armenia has no ability to absorb the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
Therefore, it is possible that the Armenian political establishment
will finally understand that Azerbaijan’s occupied lands must be
liberated. Naturally, an understanding of this fact in Armenia is
transformed into a search of what could be bargained in the case of
de-occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories.
It is believed that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan can decide to
de-occupy Azerbaijan’s territories if only he is given guarantees by
superpowers that he will not be ousted.
Such a version, like many other versions, has a right to exist. But
in my opinion, no leader of any state in the world can argue with
certainty that disgruntled people will never stage a revolt in his
country. Moreover, the world history has seen no cases when conflict
resolution depended on a single person, head of the country involved
in this conflict. But there are many examples of how conflicts
are solved if there is a consensus of all parties involved in
its settlement. Such a consensus does not exist in case of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
OPPOSITION BLOC AGAIN BLASTS COUNCIL OF EUROPE [THE U.S. GOVERNMENT DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ARMENIAN DEMOCRACY. THE EU AND COE HAVE FAILED US IN MANY
Irina Hovannisian
/article/2049386.html
21.05.2010
The Armenian National Congress (HAK) accused the Council of Europe’s
Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on Friday of disregarding its own
resolutions on Armenia that demand an end to the 2008 government
crackdown on the opposition alliance.
A senior HAK representative deplored the PACE Monitoring Committee’s
failure to again discuss the political situation in Armenia at its
latest meeting held in Paris Wednesday.
The issue had been included on the meeting’s agenda earlier this year.
However, the discussion did not take place because of the absence
of the committee’s two co-rapporteurs on Armenia, John Prescott and
Georges Colombier. The latter cited health reasons, while Prescott
blamed post-election uncertainty in his home country, Britain.
The co-rapporteurs have repeatedly postponed fresh fact-finding visits
to Yerevan since last fall.
"They can always find excuses for not doing something," scoffed Arman
Grigorian, the HAK’s representative to the Council of Europe. "But
this is not first time that their visit to Armenia and the discussion
of the situation in Armenia by the Monitoring Committee is delayed."
"Which lead us to conclude that the situation in Armenia is quite
low on their list of priorities. And we can’t find this acceptable,"
Grigorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
The PACE has adopted several resolutions on Armenia since the March
2008 post-election clashes in Yerevan and the resulting government
crackdown on opposition groups led by former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian, the HAK’s top leader. It has threatened to impose
sanctions against the Armenian authorities unless they properly
investigate the unrest and free opposition members arrested on
"seemingly artificial or politically motivated charges."
The most recent PACE resolution adopted in June last year
welcomed a general amnesty that led to the release of more than 30
oppositionists. But it said only the release of all Ter-Petrosian
loyalists remaining in jail would "provide the necessary basis for the
start of the dialogue and reconsolidation that is needed to overcome
the political crisis."
At least 13 individuals, who are considered "political prisoners" by
the Ter-Petrosian-led opposition, remain behind bars at present. The
authorities insist that none of them was jailed for political reasons.
Grigorian claimed that President Serzh Sarkisian’s administration
has failed to comply with the resolution and blamed the PACE for that.
"The Council of Europe is not sufficiently trying to ensure the
implementation of those resolutions," he said. "Otherwise, we would
not have had the situation in which we are now."
"The Council of Europe is not taking seriously its obligations
regarding Armenia," added the U.S.-based opposition figure.
The PACE has refrained from discussing Yerevan’s compliance with the
June 2009 resolution at its quarterly plenary sessions in Strasbourg
for almost a year, leaving it to the Monitoring Committee to deal
with the matter. The committee last discussed developments in Armenia
in March.
David Harutiunian, the head of the Armenian parliamentary delegation
at the Strasbourg-based assembly, presented it with a tentative
timetable of political reforms which the authorities have pledged to
implement. The promised reforms would largely amount to fresh changes
in Armenia’s electoral, judicial and law-enforcement legislation. The
HAK has dismissed them as a gimmick.
The issue was high on the agenda of PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu’s
visit to Yerevan last week. While reporting "very encouraging"
assurances from Harutiunian, Cavusoglu criticized the authorities
for their refusal to free all oppositionists remaining in prison.