Armenian News‏

EARTHQUAKE MEASURED 5.0 ON RICHTER SCALE
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
18.06.2009 13:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The earthquake that shook Armenia an hour ago
measured 5.0 on Richter scale. The epicenter was 10 km northward from
Garni settlement, the Armenian National Survey for Seismic Protection
(NSSP) told PanARMENIAN.Net.

The tremors in Yerevan and neighboring settlements measured 3-4.

There are no victims or damages.

ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF TURKEY TO ELECT CO-PATRIARCH
Noyan Tapan
June 17, 2009

ISTANBUL, JUNE 17, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. Turkish government
decided to empower the Armenian community of the country to elect
a Co-patriarch.

According to the Marmara daily, which cites the Turkish Hurriyet
daily, the decision was made taking into account the health problems
of Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul Mesrob Mutafian.

The Turkish newspaper wrote that thus the Armenian Patriarchate
receiving the permission to elect, is to apply to the government
during the coming months for doing the election, because the
Patriarch's position has vital importance for the Armenian community
in Turkey. After the appeal the government is to amend the law about
the election of the Patriarch which was used during the elections of
1998. After this amendment the Armenian Patriarch in Turkey should
be elected as a Co-patriarch. According to the Marmara daily, he will
be empowered to wear Patriarch's clothes, but Archbishop Mesrob will
retain his primary position.

ARMENIAN PROPOSAL'S FATE UNCERTAIN-US HOUSE SPEAKER
Bangladesh News 24 hours
June 17 2009

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The future of a US House
resolution calling the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
genocide appeared in doubt on Wednesday after House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi said whether it would come to the floor for a vote "remains
to be seen."

Support for the resolution has eroded sharply since it was passed
by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week. Critical Iraq war
ally Turkey warned it would damage relations with the United States
and President George W. Bush condemned it.

"Whether it will come up or not, what the action will be, remains to be
seen," Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters on Wednesday. She
previously had vowed it would get a vote of the full chamber sometime
this year.

Pelosi said on Wednesday she had always supported the nonbinding,
largely symbolic resolution, but she would be working with other
advocates to see what they wanted to do now.

Lawmakers from both political parties have been withdrawing their
names from the resolution in recent days in the face of criticism from
Turkey and Bush. Some key Democrats as well as Republicans oppose it.

Turkey calls the resolution insulting and rejects the Armenian
position, backed by many Western historians, that up to 1.5 million
Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during
World War One.

The United States is highly dependent on Turkey's Incirlik air
base. About 70 percent of the US military air cargo into Iraq transits
that base, according to the Defense Department.

.U.S. Cuts Aid To Armenia Over `Democratic Governance'
U.S. -- The U.S. Government's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)
logo, undated
11.06.2009
Emil Danielyan

The United States has effectively axed nearly one third of a $235.6
million aid program for Armenia, citing its government's deteriorated
human rights record and democratic practices.

The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) indicated late on
Wednesday that the $67 million project to reconstruct and repair about
1,000 kilometers of Armenian rural roads will not be implemented anytime
soon.

The agency, which administers the U.S. Millennium Challenge Account
(MCA) program, froze the project following a harsh government crackdown
on the Armenian opposition sparked by the disputed presidential election
of February 2008. The MCC board of directors has extended the freeze
during quarterly meetings held over the past year.

In a statement issued after its latest meeting in Washington chaired by
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the board said MCC ` will not resume
funding for any further road construction and rehabilitation.' `The
responsibility for this outcome remains with the government of Armenia,
whose actions have been inconsistent with the eligibility criteria that
are at the heart of the MCC program,' Rodney Bent, the corporation's
acting executive director, was quoted as saying.

`I do not anticipate that the Board will revisit this issue in the
future,' added Bent.

The move came one day after the U.S. State Department reiterated its
discontent with Yerevan's human rights record in an annual report on
U.S. efforts to promote freedom and democracy around the world. It again
described the February 2008 ballot as `significantly flawed' and
criticized the ensuing government crackdown on the opposition.

`Authorities used harassment and intrusive application of bureaucratic
measures to intimidate and retaliate against government opponents,' said
the report. `Police beat pretrial detainees and failed to provide due
process in some cases ¦ Courts remained subject to political pressure
from the executive branch, with the selective prosecution of political
opponents and absence of due process reflecting the judiciary's lack of
independence.'

`U.S. officials repeatedly have warned the government that MCC funding
is contingent upon its progress in democratic practices and in meeting
the MCC indicators,' added the report.

U.S. assessment of the May 31 municipal elections in Yerevan promises to
be just as negative. U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch said
on Tuesday that U.S. Embassy officials who observed the vote witnessed
irregularities `throughout the city.' Yovanovitch said a report based on
their findings will be released shortly.

The U.S. aid suspension led the Armenian government in July 2008 to
allocate about $17 million of its own funds to rural road construction
envisaged by Armenia's MCA compact. The current economic recession and a
resulting major shortfall in tax revenues preclude more such funding
this year. Instead, the government secured in February a $25 million
loan from the World Bank for rural infrastructure rehabilitation.

The MCC decision will not affect the main $160 million segment of the
aid package approved by Washington in 2006. It is due to be spent on
rebuilding and expanding Armenia's irrigation networks.

ARMENIAN LOSES APPROXIMATELY 70 MILLION DOLLARS
LRAGIR.AM
17:43:28 - 11/06/2009

During yesterday's session of the board of directors of the Millennium
Challenge Corporation, the decision to stop financing the program on
the road construction was made. This decision does not concern the
irrigation subprograms of the program, the Radio Liberty informs.

As the Radio Liberty informs, the reason for this decision is the
fact that the steps of the Armenian government do not coincide with
the measurements of the democratic governance of the Millennium
Challenge Corporation.

The executive director of the Corporation Rodni Bent stated that it
is the Armenian government to bear responsibility for this decision,
as the actions of which do not coincide with the necessary indexes
of the Corporation.

In accordance with the contract signed with the Armenian government,
the Millennium Corporation allocates 235, 6 million dollars to
Armenia, 68 million of which was planned to be allocated for the road
constructional works and more than 160 million for the implementation
of the irrigation subprograms.

The corporation has the right to stop the whole program all its
subprograms if the country does not provide for necessary democratic
progress, which is freedom of media, corruption, transparency of the
governmental actions; the radio Liberty reports.

BARONESS COX STRIVES FOR EXPANDING CIRCLE OF NKR'S FRIENDS
Noyan Tapan
June 9, 2009

STEPANAKERT, JUNE 9, NOYAN TAPAN. On June 8, NKR Deputy Foreign
Minister Vardan Barseghian met with the delegation led by UK House
of Lords Deputy Speaker Caroline Cox, who had arrived in Stepanakert
on a cognitive visit.

Issues regarding the settlement process of Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict
were discussed at the meeting. In particular, it was mentioned that
Azerbaijan uses all resources to carry out anti-Armenian agitation
and to misrepresent the essence of the Nagorno Karabakh problem,
which needs active counteraction. In this connection a proposal was
made to publish and to spread books and information materials based
on real facts and exposing Baku.

V. Barseghian said that by carrying out independent foreign policy
and striving for international recognition, NKR pursues a goal to
establish good-neighborly relations with its international partners,
countries, organizations, and private persons.

Baroness Cox, in her turn, said that at each visit she tries to bring
new people with her, thus expanding the circle of NKR's friends hoping
that they will become Artsakh's "ambassadors" and will assist the
Nagorno Karabakh settlement.

According to the NKR Foreign Ministry Press Service, at the end of
the meeting the guests were given compact disks Unpunished Crimes
made by the NKR Foreign Ministry, which present Azerbaijan's crimes
against the peaceful Armenian population.

Armenia Removed From U.S. Human Trafficking Blacklist
U.S. -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds up the the ninth
annual Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report, Washington,
DC, 16Jun2009
17.06.2009
Emil Danielyan

Citing `significant' steps taken by the Armenian authorities, the
U.S. State Department has removed Armenia from a list of countries
which it believes are not doing enough to combat human trafficking
and aid its victims.
The department had for years kept Armenia on the embarrassing `watch
list' in its annual reports on cross-border transport and illegal
exploitation of human beings around the world.

The Armenian government has scrambled to get the country out of the
blacklist with a range of measures against the illegal practice and
its most frequent manifestation: the recruitment and transport of
women for sexual exploitation abroad. The government approved its
second anti-trafficking program in late 2007 and upgraded the status
of an inter-agency government council coordinating its implementation
a year later. The council is now headed by Deputy Prime Minister
Armen Gevorgian.

The authorities in Yerevan have also substantially toughened
punishment for human trafficking and cracked down on local
prostitution rings sending women abroad and the United Arab Emirates
in particular. The number of relevant criminal cases opened by the
Armenian police has risen in recent years.

`The Government of Armenia does not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making
significant efforts to do so,' the State Department said in its
latest Trafficking in Persons report presented by Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. The report scrutinizes the efforts of 175
countries to tackle the problem over the period of April 2008 to
March 2009.

The report notes that Armenian law-enforcement bodies prosecuted
eight individuals for trafficking last year, the same number as in
2007. Four of them were convicted and sentenced to between 2 and 7.5
years in prison. None was given a suspended sentence.

U.S. officials have complained in the past that the Armenian police
and courts are too lenient toward such individuals. In its 2008
report, the State Department stressed that Yerevan should ensure that
convicted traffickers `receive and serve adequate jail sentences.'

One of the apparent reasons for Armenia's removal from the `watch
list' is state prosecutors' decision last December to reopen a
criminal investigation into the 2006 escape from prison of a
convicted trafficker, Anush Zakhariants. There is widespread
suspicion that Zakhariants, who is an Armenian-born Uzbek national,
fled the country with the help of senior law-enforcement officials.

`This was an important step forward and results of this investigation
warrant future monitoring,' the State Department said, referring to
the prosecutors' decision. It called for a `vigorous investigation,
prosecution, and conviction of complicit officials' in this and other
cases.

The department report praised the Armenian government for allocating,
in its 2009 budget, $55,000 to one of the country's two shelters for
trafficking victims run by non-governmental organizations. Still, it
said the government made only `modest progress' in protecting and
helping victims.

`The government identified 34 victims in 2008 and police referred 20
victims for assistance, an increase from 17 victims referred in
2007,' said the report. `Foreign-funded NGOs assisted 24 victims in
2008.'
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