Tuesday 21 October 2008

Armenian News


[please note that there will be a news 'gap' between 23 Oct & 17 Nov]

Global Financial Crisis `Could Hurt Armenia'
By Shakeh Avoyan


The deepening global financial crisis poses no immediate threat to
Armenia's banking sector but could potentially hold back its economic
growth, Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said on Thursday.

Sarkisian argued that Armenian banks and other finance institutions have
sufficient liquidity to weather the storm sending shockwaves through the
world markets. `In that sense, the reliability of our financial sector
is extremely high and gives us no reason to worry,' he told a news
conference.

Sarkisian cautioned at the same time that the crisis could ultimately
hurt the Armenian economy if it continues to deepen in the European
Union and especially Russia, Armenia's main trading partners. A
recession in Russia `could immediately affect us' by slashing
multimillion-dollar remittances sent home by hundreds of thousands of
Armenians working there, said the former longtime governor of the
Armenian Central Bank.

`If economic growth in Russia slows, the incomes of our compatriots will
decrease and so will their private remittances sent to Armenia,' he
warned. `That could have a negative impact on our financial sector and
the level of consumption in general because 80 percent of the
remittances are channeled into consumption.'

The remittances, which reached a new high of $1.32 billion last year and
continued to rise rapidly in the first half of this year, have been a
major factor behind Armenia's robust economic growth.
The growth rate
looks set to main in double digits for the seventh consecutive year.

According to Sarkisian, the Armenian government believes the best way to
reduce the country's dependence on the cash transfers is to `drastically
increase' lending to small and medium-sized businesses. `We have a
relevant understanding with the World Bank and need to attract
additional resources to neutralize possible negative effects,' he said
without going into details.

Sarkisian met senior officials from the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund during a five-day visit to Washington that ended on
Tuesday. As well as attending annual meetings of the two lending
institutions, the Armenian premier met U.S. President Dick Cheney and
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He confirmed that Armenia's recent
rapprochement with Turkey and the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
were high on the agenda of the talks.

Sarkisian said he told Cheney and Rice that Yerevan is disappointed with
Turkish President Abdullah Gul's and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov's speeches last month at the UN General Assembly. `I said
that the Turkish president's and Azerbaijani foreign minister's speeches
at UN General Assembly were like a cold shower for us because they
contradicted the spirit of the meetings and agreements that we had
before
,' he said. `In particular, we find dangerous the phrase `occupied
territories' that was used by the Turkish president.'

The prime minister said Rice assured him that the United States is
opposed to changing the format of the Karabakh peace process spearheaded
by the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe. He cited Rice as also saying that Washington
hopes to achieve `serious progress in this negotiation process' after
Wednesday's presidential election in Azerbaijan.

Opening a weekly meeting of his cabinet earlier in the day, Sarkisian
said he won `the full backing of the U.S. administration' for his
ambitious economic agenda that calls, among other things, for a sweeping
reform of Armenia's tax and customs bodies.
ARMENIANS SLAM ISRAEL'S ARM SALE TO AZERBAIJAN, URGE TO REVERSE ACTION
Hurriyet
Thursday, October 16, 2008 14:25
Turkey

A prominent Armenian activist urged the Jewish community in the
U.S. to reverse the "dangerous" action of Israel's potential arm sale
to Azerbaijan, Turkish Daily News reported on Thursday. (UPDATED)

U.S. Armenians have denounced Israel over press reports that it has
agreed to sell arms and munitions to Azerbaijan, which is involved in a
dispute with Armenia over the ongoing occupation of Azerbaijani lands.

A leading Armenian activist has also accused the American Jewish
Congress, or AJC, a major Jewish association in the United States,
of "supporting Azerbaijan".

The Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), one of the two largest Armenian
groups in the country, earlier this week sent to its subscribers
an article by Jirair Haratunian, the former chairman of the AAA's
board of directors, denouncing the close ties of Israel and the ACJ
with Azerbaijan.

The United Press International, quoting Israel's daily Haaretzi
reported on Sept. 26 that the Israeli government has agreed to sell
mortars, ammunition and military radios to Azerbaijan. Former Israeli
Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer had previously said Azerbaijan
would be a valuable ally for Israel due to its supply of oil and gas.

"A dangerous pattern is emerging in the Caucasus with new reports
that Israel is continuing to sell advanced military armaments to
Azerbaijan, costing hundreds of millions of dollars," Haraturanian
said in his article.

"They sell these arms at a time when Ilham Aliyev, the president of
Azerbaijan, has repeatedly threatened to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh
by military force," he said.

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 due to
Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20 percent of
Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven
surrounding districts.
Aliev Vows 'Total Offensive' Against Armenia
AFP

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev on Monday vowed a policy of "total
offensive" against neighboring Armenia during a hardline speech ahead
of the presidential election this week.

"As long as our territory is under occupation, we will follow a
policy of a total offensive against Armenia in the political,
economic, military and transport sectors," Aliev said.

Azerbaijanis take to the polls on Wednesday to elect a new president
and Aliev, the son of the country's first post-Soviet president, is
the favorite since the opposition is boycotting the vote.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous territory of 150,000 inhabitants,
declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991. The conflict over
Karabakh killed tens of thousands and forced a million people to
leave their homes.

Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire in 1994 but have broken off
all economic and diplomatic relations pending a resolution of the
province's future status. Skirmishes along the border are frequent.


OVER 300,000 ARMENIAN CITIZENS GET OVER POVERTY LEVEL IN 2004-2007
ARKA
Oct 15, 2008

YEREVAN, October 15. /ARKA/. Over 300,000 Armenian citizens surmounted
the low-income poverty threshold in 2004-2007. As a result, the share
of Armenia's poor population decreased by 27.9%.

At the presentation of the survey "Social picture and poverty in
Armenia, Diana Martirosova, Head of the Household Research Department,
RA Statistical Service, reported a 40.9% decrease in abject poverty
in 2007 as compared with 2004, which means that 83,000 people got
over the abject poverty level.

Martirosova pointed out that the poverty problem was not so acute
last year as before.

On the other hand she stressed that poverty remains a problem for
Armenia - over 800,000 people or 25% of the country's population remain
below the poverty level, with 123,000 of them living in abject poverty.

The survey "Social picture and poverty in Armenia" was conducted in the
country from January 1 to December 31, 2007, using the WB methods. It
involved 7,872 households in 45 cities and 289 rural communities. The
survey was co-financed by the Millennium Challenges Armenia Fund.

The results of the survey will be used in assessing the efficiency
of programs implemented in Armenia under a compact signed with the
US Millennium Challenges Corporation.

BBC WORLD SERVICE TRUST PRESENTS A REPORT ON ARMENIAN PUBLIC TV
armradio.am
17.10.2008 15:02

Defining clear editorial lines, improving mechanisms to
measure audience needs, ceasing aggressive commercial policies
and strengthening current affairs programming are some of the
recommendations for Armenian public television in a report by the
BBC World Service Trust presented today in Yerevan.

The report, which was commissioned by the OSCE Office in Yerevan
with the aim of supporting further development of Armenia's public
service broadcaster (PTV), is the result of a five-day needs assessment
conducted by the BBC World Service Trust in July.

"Public television should raise its ambitions in providing programming
of a broadly educational nature that would serve to the interests
of different groups of the community. It should end the practice
of airing programmes made by the government," said Michael Randall,
Projects Manager for Europe and CIS at the BBC World Service Trust.

"We believe there is vast potential for making PTV a leader in
its field and establish a blueprint for public service broadcasting
which could be replicated in countries across the region. However, we
also acknowledge that PTV's ability to strengthen its public service
ethos relies heavily on political will and change in attitude at the
government level."

The report recommended a long-term consultancy programme, whereby
c onsultants will work with producers to support the development
of new programmes and with senior managers to reorganize working
methods. The BBC experts also emphasized the importance of identifying
clear objectives and measurable outcomes, with local civil society
organizations monitoring the impact of the training programme, based
upon agreed performance indicators.

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