Armenian News

Agence France Presse
March 21, 2009 Saturday 10:48 AM GMT
Turkey to launch Armenian-language radio station: report
ANKARA, March 21 2009

Turkey's state broadcaster plans to launch an Armenian-language radio
station this year, Turkish newspapers reported Saturday, amid efforts
by Turkey and neighbouring Armenia to end decades of animosity.

Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) is hoping to have the station on
air in "two to three" months, the Sabah and Vatan dailies said,
without giving further details.

Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic ties and their border has been
closed for more than a decade as their relationship remains hostage to
deep differences over the World War I massacres of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of Turkey.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were systematically
killed by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1917 as their empire fell
apart -- a claim supported by several other countries but
categorically rejected by Turkey.

The massacres led to the once-vibrant Armenian minority to dwindle to
an estimated 80,000 people.

Nonetheless, the two countries have been involved in a tentative
dialogue process to resolve their problems.

Turkey's planned radio station comes as US lawmakers were pushing
President Barack Obama to recognize the killings as genocide even
though such a step would anger Turkey.

Obama, who is expected to visit Turkey on April 6-7, repeatedly
pledged during his 2008 White House run that he would recognize the
massacres as genocide.

Turkey has warned that such a move by the United States would only
impede reconciliation efforts between Ankara and Yerevan.


Turkish children drawn into Armenia row
By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul

Serdar Kaya is 43 and has never been to court before; now he's suing

the Turkish ministry of education.

The father of an 11-year old girl, Mr Kaya is angry that she was forced

to watch what he calls a "very bloody propaganda film" at school.

Sari Gelin, or "Blonde Bride", was commissioned by the Turkish General

Staff and distributed in recent months by the education ministry.

It is an attempt to counter what Turkey calls "baseless" claims that Ottoman

Turks committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915.

The DVD was sent to all elementary schools with a note instructing teachers

to show it to pupils and report back.

At the school of Mr Kaya's daughter, children as young as six had to watch.

"This film is not fit for adults, let alone children," he says.

"They're promoting discrimination, branding certain people as 'others' and

teaching children to do the same. My daughter will not be part of this enmity."
Mr Kaya has applied to the courts to sue Education Minister Huseyin Celik,

arguing the film incites ethnic hatred against Armenians.

There are around 50,000 Turkish-Armenians left in Turkey, mostly in Istanbul.

In a statement last month, the ministry said it had stopped distributing the

film and claimed it was never intended for children.

But teachers are still receiving official reminders to screen it.

'Very dangerous'

Sari Gelin presents the Turkish state's case that the Armenians betrayed

the benevolent Ottoman Empire during World War I, siding with invading

foreign forces and massacring thousands of Turks.

The film says the Armenians were "relocated" as a result of their actions.

There is no mention of the hundreds of thousands who perished or were

killed on the long march through the desert.

Instead, elderly men relate how Armenians cooked Turkish babies alive

and used civilians as firewood.

"The word Armenian is used very many times and always negatively,"

says Ayse Gul Altinay, a board member of the Hrant Dink Foundation.

She has good reason for concern.

Two years ago, Hrant Dink - a prominent Turkish-Armenian writer - was

shot and killed by a teenager, who saw him as an enemy of the state.

So, the foundation created in his memory has also applied to the courts

to get Sari Gelin withdrawn from schools.

"Showing young people a film with graphic scenes of violence, that

repeats over and again that the Armenians stabbed the Turks in the

back, and killed innocent women and babies and civilians is very

dangerous," Ms Altinay says.

"We worry it will create more hatred."

Clear message

Outside the school attended by Mr Kaya's daughter, parents' opinions

were divided.

"I don't think it's right to show children such a film, not at their age,"

another father said.

"But in Turkey, when there's an order from above, the officials have to

comply."

However, one of the teachers disagreed: "We teach children who our

enemies are and which countries tried to divide up our territory, but we

don't teach them about the Armenians.

"So I thought this film was good, and objective."

Turkey is coming under increasing international pressure to

acknowledge the 1915 deportation and mass killing of Ottoman

Armenians as genocide.

The US House of Representatives has just introduced a resolution

on the issue and when Barack Obama was campaigning for the

presidency, he pledged to recognise the Armenian genocide as

a "widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of

historical evidence".

Ankara is lobbying hard against such a move, arguing it would

jeopardise its recent efforts at reconciliation with Armenia.

Official ties with Yerevan were cut in the 1990s, and the countries'

common border was closed.

But while Turkey is open to renewing trade and diplomatic ties with

its neighbour, the distribution of this film suggests it is more closed

than ever to any discussion of its history.

The education ministry's statement calls Sari Gelin a balanced,

historical account, but the clear message it gives Turkish school-children

is that Armenians are traitors and their enemies.

Bench Talk: Prices of medicine on minds of retirees facing dram drop

By Karine Ionesyan
Special to ArmeniaNow
Published: 20 March, 2009

A park bench near Yerevan’s Cascade complex has become debate central

for a group of retirees who gather as weather permits to discuss and debate

current events.

Since March 3 the hottest topic has been the economic crisis, compounded in

Armenia by that day’s severe depreciation of the dram, which slowly continues

to sink.

A recent visit found the old men comparing notes on prices of medications

– a common and crucial concern for them all. The men, like all consumers here,

face the unpleasant reality of a currencly devaluation in tandem with an increase

in the cost of goods, that equates in some cases to a 25-30 percent increase

at the cash register.

Analgin, аskofen, aspirin and other such frequently used drugs have become

20-30 dram (0.06-01 cents) more expensive, the prices of well-known drugs

that bring the temperature down, such as Coldrex, Theraflu have increased by

50 dram (0.16 cents), the prices of pain relievers: Solpadeine and Nurofen have

gone up by 400 dram (1.33 dollars). In the case of more expensive drugs the

increase in the prices is more evident. If in the past one pack of blood pressure

medicine cost 2000-4500 dram ($6.66-15), today it costs 2600-5700 dram

(8.66-19).

“I used to get a 40,000-dram pension ($133 at a 300 dram exchange rate)

and spend it all on drugs – one was eye medicine, the other – for blood pressure,

and the other one was an eye medicine as well,” says 81 year old Sos Babayan.

(For example, the price of one pack of Preductal MR for blood pressure has gone

up from 4700 dram to 5700 dram. (From $15-$19 at a 300 dram exchange rate)

“There are so many of them that I cannot remember what they’re called. Yesterday

I went to a drug-store and saw that the prices had gone up.

Babayan lives alone, his son is working in Russia and helping his father to buy

food and pay the utilities. Babayan will now have to pay 48000-52000 dram for

medicine each month.

“And I mainly buy bread and potatoes to be able to live,” the old man says.

Another old man, 77-year old Hamazasp Poghosyan also used to get a

40,000-dram pension (133$ at the rate of 300 dram per dollar) and spent

30,000 dram (100$ at the rate of 300 dram per dollar) monthly to buy drugs.

“I have two sons who are chemists in Philadelphia. If it were not for them, my wife

and I would be lost,” says Poghosyan, who used to be a trader. Now he will have

to pay 36000-39000 dram for medicine each month.

“All prices have been raised, because the importing companies have raised their

prices,” said one pharmacy shop keeper. “Naturally, our drug-store cannot sell at

lower prices.”

The companies importing drugs, such as AlphaPharm, ArgoPharm, Arnika,

Deghabaza Yerevan, NataliePharm and others also refuse to give any information

to reporters. On the whole, according to the latest surveys conducted by the RA

state committee on economic competition protection, 67 companies in Armenia

import drugs for commercial sales.

In its March 6 session the same committee instituted proceedings at four markets

on the suspicion of unjustified increase of the prices, creating artificial defict, and

making anti-competitive agreements using the return of the ‘floating exchange rate’

policy as a pretext to raise the prices of vegetable oil, butter, household appliances,

and drugs.

“We cannot name specific drug-stores, or specific people, because the case is

still in the phase of ivestigation, and we don’t publicize such data,”says Armine

Udumyan, the press-secretary for the the RA state committee on economic competition

protection, “We can only say that those guilty will definitely be punished by having to

pay a penalty equalling 2 percent of the previous year’s profit.”

Armenian economists think that this committee is not working correctly – it begins to

register only when the prices already go up, without taking preventive measures. They

say that the public must be informed about who has pocketed their money to avoid

forming a negative opinion.

“I consider today’s increases in the prices at the drugs market unacceptable. By raising

the prices in the sphere of drugs, as well as in the other spheres, a number of monopolists

became 30 percent richer in just a few days,” thinks Artsvik Minasyan, economist and

Armenian Revolutionary Federation member.

Minasyan suggests encouraging local production in the sphere of drugs.

This week the National Assembly was supposed to discuss the 15-percent increase

of the customs’ duty, which was naturally going to affect the prices of imported goods,

including drugs. Now the RA government has cancelled the decision and has temporarily

postponed the discussion of the issue.



VOLUME OF STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS TOTAL

$15.8MLN IN ARMENIA ON MARCH 16-20
ARKA
March 23, 2009

YEREVAN, March 23. /ARKA/. Total volume of transactions on USD was
$15.8mln on NASDAQ OMX Armenia on March 16-20, the Press Service of
the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) reported.

According to the report, dollar/dram average weighted rate was 373.38
Drams for $1 in the transactions.

On the country's intrabank market, banks purchased foreign exchange
for a total of $40.3mln at 370.33Drams for $1 average weighted exchange
rate and sold foreign currency for $70.4mln at 375.02Drams for $1.

On the interbank market, volume of transactions on foreign exchange
purchase/sale was $33mln at 370.37Drams for $1 average weighted
exchange rate in the period.

In the period from March 9 to March 15, the volume of loans extended
by Armenian banks in Drams was 7.1bln Drams, in dollars - $12.7mln.

On January 27 2009 Armenian Stock Exchange open joint stock company
was officially renamed as NASDAQ OMX Armenia open joint stock company.

It was founded a self-regulating organization registered in Armenia
on February 13 2001 embracing 21 dealer organizations. On November 9
Armex was reorganized to an open joint stock company. OMX has been the
100% owner of Armex and the Central Depository since January 7 2008.

The license for auctions on currency supply/sale was issued to NASDAQ
OMX Armenia on November 7 2005.

By February 20, twenty-three securit ies underwent listing on NASDAQ
OMX Armenia stock exchange with the capitalization reaching 53.3bln
Drams. ($1=372.02Drams).

In a survey on software piracy published in the Financial Times on 15 March,

Armenia tops the list with the highest piracy rates with 93% of programs used

illegally, representing a loss of $8 million to the companies involved.

Second come Bangladesh and Azerbaijan at 92% each but with higher values of

$92 million and $50 million respectively.

The lowest percentage is in the USA at 20% but the loss value is highest at

more than $1 billion.
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