Tigran Sargsyan: agri- Seven Armenians to culture will be priority Run for Election to for the Parliament of in 2011 Page 3 PAGE 5 ARMENIA HIGHLIGHTS

Weekly Digest of the Government of Armenia

January 25-31, 2011 THEMA

“Quote of the week”

“no incidences of VAT refund delays or non- payments have been recorded over the last two years and they will be ruled out ahead.“

Working visit of President Tigran Sargsyan Prime Minister of RA Serzh Sargsyan to Germany On February 4, the delegation head- is in Germany on a working visit, at ed by President Serzh Sargsyan ar- the conclusion of the first day of the rived to the Federal Republic of Munich Security Policy Conference Germany on a working visit to partic- met today with the Minister of For- Upcoming Events ipate at the Security Policy Confer- eign Affairs of Australia Kevin Rudd. ence which commenced in Munich. The President of Armenia discussed The Conference brought together with the Head of the Australian For- February 16: Working visit of leaders of states and governments eign Office the Armenian-Australian PM of Georgia to Armenia from a dozen states and many in- bilateral relations and prospects for ternational organizations, heads of their development as well as issues February 25-28: “Bridge 2011 foreign affairs and defense agen- pertinent to the cooperation of the two “ economic forum to be hosted in cies, other high ranking officials. states in international organizations. Tsaghkadzor The agenda of the Munich Confer- The parties highlighted the bridging role ence contains a number of important of the Armenian community in the de- issues which relate to the challeng- velopment of bilateral relations, which es of global policies. Discussions in their opinion could also consider- will be held in the framework of ably promote the trade and economic the official segment of the Con- cooperation. They also spoke about the ference and also during numerous possibilities of attracting Australian in- USEFUL LINKS informal meetings of the partici- vestments into the Armenian economy. • www.president.am pants. Today, among other topics On February 5, President Serzh Sarg- • www.gov.am the participants of the Conference syan will continue to participate at the • www.parliament.am will discuss issues pertinent to the works of the Security Policy Conference • www.mfa.am impact of the financial crisis on and will also hold bilateral meetings. • www.armenpress.am the global stability and security. February 4, 2011 www.president.am • www.panarmenian.net President Serzh Sargsyan, who • www.matenadaran.am ARMENIA HIGHLIGHTS CHRONICA Pension-lines to be ruled out Headlines of eminding his previous directive concern- ment of VAT for over AMD 300mn worth the week Ring the streamlining of the process of of goods imported by SPAYKA Ltd in the • February 1: Armenia may pension payment, Prime Minister asked the period between February 1, 2011 and Decem- lease Ukraine-manufactured buses Minister of Labor and Social Affairs what ber 31, 2013. Under the investment program, • AH had been done to that end. Based on the com- a 24ha wide greenhouse complex and a fruit • February 2: Armenian Ombudsman ments of the Minister, and vegetable process- submits resignation letter to parliament the Prime Minister ing plant will be built • AH concluded that as from in Armenia owing to • February 3: Armenia, Italy to ex- this March the pension- which imports will be pand interparliamentary cooperation ers will no longer have taken up to 70 thousand • to stand in line while tons a year with 500 • February AH 4: iPhone App getting their pensions. new jobs available at dedicated to Armenian Geno- The government de- the plant. Another deci- cide recognition to be developed cided to defer until Feb- sion was passed to ex- • ruary 1, 2014 the pay- tend until April 30, 2012 • February 5: Synop- the temporary import regime for such goods as will be imported by VKS Armenia Ltd under sys Armenia educational pro- specific declarations. The company currently employs 335 persons most of which are wom- gram to be introduced in JNTU en. A new clothing factory will be set up in Amasia community of Shirak marz. In this con- • AH nection, the Prime Minister stressed the need for giving wide public coverage to the forego- • FEBRUARY 6: Armenian Geno- ing decisions and charged the Minister of Economy to inform the public on a regular basis. cide: Sweden ready to sacrifice The government allocated AMD 10012000.0 thousand from its reserve fund to address the historic truth to please Turkey problems faced in the provinces. Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said the decision had been • AH passed based on a presidential directive aimed at raising rural population’s living standards. • February 7: Expert: or- The Executive approved a package of amendments to several previous decrees in or- ganization of “Twitter revo- der to streamline household vulnerability assessment and certification process- lution” in Armenia not easy es or establish alternative procedures to that effect. At the same time, it was decid- AH ed that the household evaluation (registration) operations scheduled for the months of January and February, 2011 will be carried out on February 11 and March 11, 2011 respectively. According to the Prime Minister, these measures seek to define the targets of the govern- Constitution - a norm of ment’s social programs. The findings of the Control Chamber and the Ministry of Labor and life and behavior Social Affairs evidence several irregularities available in the lists of beneficiaries. The gov- ernment’s initiative will help save up additional funds to boost the level of welfare benefits. February 3, 2011 full story www.gov.am

The newly appointed Ambassador of Ireland presents the copies of his credentials to the Minister of For- eign Affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian

pressed confidence that the newly ebruary 6 is the 15th Anniversary of RA appointed Ambassador of Ireland FConstitutional Court (RA CC). In 1996- will have his important contribution 2010 RA CC made 931 rulings as a result of to the development of bilateral rela- final hearings. Only during the last 4 years RA tions between Armenia and Ireland. CC received 208 applications by abstract order, The sides stressed the importance of and 1327 applications by specific order, legal the necessity of intensification of po- advices were delivered to 2265 citizens. 7.6% litical dialogue and trade-economic of applications presented to RA CC by specif- ties through the expansion of high- ic order in the period from July 1, 2006 till the level reciprocal visits, regular con- beginning of the current year were admitted sultations and legal-contractual field. for investigation. By the way, the average Eu- n December 7, the Armenian In the course of the meeting pos- ropean index is 3-5%. During the same period OForeign Minister Edward Nal- sibilities of interaction in interna- on 37 cases investigated on the basis of 88 in- bandian received John Ruan, the tional organizations, as well as in dividual applications, the provisions which lit- newly appointed Ambassador of the frameworks of the Eastern Part- igated the laws were recognized not conform- Ireland to Armenia (residence in nership Program were discussed. ing to the Constitution and were invalidated. Sofia) on the occasion of present- The sides also touched upon a Within the framework of the events, dedicated ing the copies of his credentials. number of regional issues and to the 15th anniversary of the Constitutional Minister Nalbandian congratu- the ways of their solutions. Court, an exhibition, titled “Constitution and lated Ambassador Ruan on the oc- February 7, 2011 www.mfa.am Art”, was also opened yesterday at the RA CC. casion of his appointment and ex- February 5 2011, full story www.hhpress.am

2 AH ARMENIA HIGHLIGHTS RES PUBLICA The Armenian Chess Federation held its annual “Who Are the Armenians?” conference book by Susan Pattie pub- board and set were the main directions for lished in London the Federation’s activities in 2011-2012. Later, there took place the elections for the President and members of the Board. The activities of the Federation for 2009- 2010 were assessed as satisfactory. President Serzh Sargsyan was reelected the President of the Armenian Chess Federation. Elected were also 64 members of the Board. n February 1, at the Tigran Petros- Later, there took place the award giving cer- Osian Chess Palace, the Armenian emony for the winners of the premier group Chess Federation held its annual confer- of the Armenian Championship. President ence to hear reports and elect new offi- Serzh Sargsyan handed awards to the Cham- ho Are the Armenians?” cials. The conference was chaired by the pion of Armenia for 2011 Robert Hovan- “Wbook by Susan Pattie with President of Armenia, President of the Ar- nissian, silver and bronze winners Samvel Gagik Stepan–Sarkissian and Maral menian Chess Federation Serzh Sargsyan. Ter-Sahakian and Zaven Andriassian. It was Kerovpyan was published in London. At the conference presented were the re- noted that for the first time in the history of This is a guide for both children and port on the Federation’s activities in the national championships, all participants adults to learn about the Armenian 2009-2010, the report of the control of this tournament were grand masters. people., a source in London told Pan- February 1, 2011 full story www.president.am ARMENIAN.Net 2 companies win tender for production of biometric pass- Aimed at children aged 5 – 12, the ports in Armenia book brings the 3000-year-old Arme- ublic Relations Manager of the ment will adopt the final decision after nian history and culture to life through PAgency for Government Purchases consideration of the projects. folktales, language, food, religion, Vasak Tarposhyan said that Polish Se- The tender for production of biometric music, dance, art, poetry, sports and curity Printing Works company and passports was held from October 27 to games. The book includes informa- French Oberthur organization won December 10, 2010, with participation tion about the Republic of Armenia the tender for production of biometric of eight foreign companies. and also explains how Armenians have passports in Armenia. Armenian citizens can receive biomet- made homes all over the world. Who The companies were selected by two ric passports and electronic ID cards are the Armenians? presents the lives formats. The Polish company esti- from Sept. 2011. Biometric passports of children in Armenia and Diaspora mated the project at 4,300,000 euros, will contain the citizen’s name and last which should be paid as a lump sum. name, date and place of birth, photo- countries showing how they live today. Oberthur estimated the project cost to graph and two fingerprints (EU re- A CD is included with songs, poems, make $22.5mln, which can be paid quirement). Electronic ID cards will dancing music and spoken words. within five years. contain the same data, but with an elec- February 5, 2011 www.panarmenian.net Tarposhyan told a PanARMENIAN. tronic signature instead of fingerprints. Net reporter that the Armenian govern- 01 February 2011, www.panarmenian.net Henrik Mkhitaryan: team victory most im- Bako Sahakyan: living conditions in Artsakh State portant for me University’s dormitory should be improved

on the current state of affairs. hakhtar midfielder Henrik Mkhi- The President noted that the existence Staryan who scored the third goal of dormitories corresponding to mod- in the match against Rosenborg in the ern standards is among pivotal com- semifinal of Copa del Sol said it was a ponents of the educational process. hard fight. Mr. Sahakyan gave relevant in- “Scandinavians are well trained and structions to heads of appropri- got the added evidence of it as we ate structures to elaborate compre- watched Rosenborg's match v Spar- hensive programs for improving tak,” Mkhitaryan said. “I am happy to conditions in the university dormitory. have scored a goal. Team victory is the n February 1, President of the NKR Prime Minister Ara Harutyun- ORepublic of Artsakh Bako Sa- yan and other officials participated in most important for me. Now, we are hakyan held a working consultation the consultation, the Central Informa- training for the match against Roma on improving living conditions in Art- tion Department of Artsakh Presi- due on February 16.” sakh State University’s dormitory. dent’s Office reported. The sides also January 5, 2011 www.panarmenian.net Rector of the university Stepan touched upon a number of regional is- Dadayan delivered a report sues and the ways of their solutions. January 31, 2011, www.panarmenian.net 3 AH ARMENIA HIGHLIGHTS PRO PATRIA Armenian business in Georgia Armenia: Songs revealed on February 10th n 2010, 103 Armenian companies tractive location for Armenian inves- Iregistered their business in Georgia. tors. Former head of the Armenian In the public registry agency in 2010, Central Bank, Bagrat Asatrian, stated there were registered 25 individual that Georgia has distinct rules which entrepreneurs, 2 non commercial le- are followed stably. He also mentioned gal entities, one affiliation for foreign that money goes into directions where enterprise and 75 organizations of lim- there are better conditions. He thinks ited liability. As the agency Regnum that there is significantly less corrup- informs, based on non official data for tion in Georgia. Armenian capital the last two years, around 4 000 entre- has been moving to Georgia for sev- preneurs have moved their businesses eral years, however this process cur- from Armenia to Georgia. More and rently receive high scrutiny, thinks more businesses are slowly transfer- Asatrian. According to him, taxation ring their activities from Armenia into procedures are transparent in Geor- Georgia. The Armenian media actively gia and business is secured from dif- discuss this trend regularly. For several ferent types of surprises whereas the years, Georgia has become a very at- situation in Armenia is not similar. February 7, 2011 www.messenger.com.ge Armenian Patriotism, Revisited hen writer Garin Hovannisian goes waking up after decades of silence.” Whome to Armenia in a few days, he Garin was 3 years old when his father an- will feel weirdly homesick. “It’s so strange. nounced they were moving to Soviet Arme- I always miss the place where I’m not,” he nia. It was 1989. It was kind of a shock. “My says, sitting in a café in Glendale, the one poor mother!” Garin says. “She was actual- place in where there are so ly a refugee from Soviet Armenia. She had many Armenians it can seem like you al- just become a successful lawyer herself.” National final might be delayed ready are in the old country. To understand Nevertheless, they traded the house in Armenia: his very contemporary kind of longing, you Brentwood for an apartment in Yer- ongs revealed on February 10th have to go back a bit, to the Ottoman Em- evan. Garin’s dad didn’t have a job SArmenian Head of Delegation, Ms pire. Specifically, to a guy named Kaspar. lined up in Armenia, but his revolution- Gohar Gasparyan, told OGAE Arme- Kaspar was Garin’s great-grandfather, one ary and democratic hopes were high. nia that the information concerning the of the tens of thousands of people fleeing You can live on patriotism, it turns out. four entries to be performed by Emmy at the Armenian genocide. When the Otto- Raffi joined up with the people who the country’s national final will be dis- man Turks butchered the men of his vil- would become the country’s new lead- closed on February 10th. She went on to lage, Kaspar escaped to the San Joaquin ers and made himself indispensable: say that the show, originally scheduled Valley, where he started a grape farm. visiting the Karabakh conflict’s front for February 19th, might be postponed. He gave his kids American names and lines one day, arranging interviews be- On February 10th, Armenian broad- taught them to embrace their adoptive tween the new democratic party’s mem- caster ARMTV will also confirm the country. One of these kids was Richard. bers and the world’s press the next. exact date when the song selection for Richard did not love the vines and the farm. In 1991, following mass demonstrations Emmy will be held. A total of four en- He fled his home, too, but to Los Angeles and throughout the Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s tries will be presented. The winning a professorship at UCLA, where he found- empire crumbled and Armenia declared song will be decided through a mixture ed the department of Armenian studies. independence from the Soviet Union. The of jury and televoting at a 50/50 split. Richard, in turn, begat a son named Raffi, fledgling government needed just such a Emmy was selected to represent Arme- who grew up in Brentwood, played football natural connector, a person who knew law nia back in December 2010. She tried to at Palisades High, became a lawyer and and the outside world, who had contacts in represent the Caucasian country at the married. Raffi set up practice and made lots the , who could speak Eng- Eurovision Song Contest last year when of money. He became, in short, the epitome lish, French and Russian. Soon Raffi was she competed at the Armenian national of the American dream. You’d think this is appointed the new Republic of Armenia’s final with Mihran. Eva Rivas won the where the story ends, everybody fat, ful- first minister of foreign affairs. He negoti- ticket to Oslo and thus got the chance to filled and happy. And it could have ended ated diplomatic relations with every foreign represent Armenia at the 2010 Eurovi- there. But if you read the book Garin — country. He raised the new flag at the Unit- sion Song Contest with Apricot stone. Raffi’s son — has written on the subject, ed Nations. He installed the ministry’s first Armenia will compete in the first half of you’d see it’s actually only the beginning. fax machine. “We recognize,” came the the first semifinal of the 2011 Eurovision Because then, the father- return transmissions, communiqués from Song Contest, to be held on May 10th. land called. Or rather, faxed. Britain and Japan and Mexico, acknowl- www.eurovisionfamily.tv “My dad sat in his office in Century edging the new country’s independence. City and realized history was wak- February 3, 2010, ing up miles away,” he says. “It was full story www.laweekly.com

4 AH ARMENIA HIGHLIGHTS DIASPORA Karabakh Mediators Seven Armenians to Run SargisianThreatens to for Election to the Par- Scrap Turkish-Armenian Discuss Karabakh in liament of Turkey Accords Armenia resident Serge Sargisian has threatened Pto formally annul Armenia’s normali- zation agreements with Turkey if Ankara continues to link their parliamentary rati- fication with the Nagorno-Karabagh con- flict.In an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station aired late last Wednesday, healso said that Armenia is prepared for another war with Azerbaijan and insisted even members of Istanbul’s Arme- that Karabagh’s final status be determined Snian community are seeking par- by the disputed territory’s predominantly he U.S., Russian and French diplo- liamentary deputy posts, holding out Armenian population. Sargisian made Tmats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk the promise that the June general elec- clear that the stalled process of Turkish- Group met with Armenia’s leaders on tions may see the group represented Armenian normalization could resume Wednesday at the start of a fresh round of in Parliament for the first time in five only if Turkey’s parliament ratifies “with- regional shuttle diplomacy aimed at brok- decades, Hurriyet Daily News reports. out preconditions” the protocols signed by ering a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh. Six of the candidates have been of- the two governments in October 2009. “I The mediators refused to talk to media fered nominations by political parties, therefore see no point in starting new nego- as they proceeded to the presidential while one is running as an independent. tiations,” he said. “The only continuation palace in Yerevan after talks with For- “I am an Armenian, but I am also a part of can be the ratification of those protocols eign Minister Edward Nalbandian. “We the whole. If I join Parliament, of course by Turkey’s parliament.” “If all continues won’t be answering any questions,” the I will bring my community’s problems like this, it is possible that the only way group’s French co-chair, Bernard Fass- to the fore. But I would like to represent out for us will be the withdrawal of our ier, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. the whole [country] as well,” Arev Cebe- signature from those protocols, and in that President Serzh Sarkisian’s office gave no ci, from the main opposition Republican case, those protocols will have no legal details of his meeting with the co-chairs. People’s Party, or CHP told the daily. force anymore, even after being ratified A separate statement by the Armenian In one of the three Istanbul con- by Turkey,” he warned. Shortly after the Foreign Ministry said Nalbandian dis- stituencies, where many Armeni- signing of the protocols in Zurich attended cussed with them the results of his Janu- ans reside, independent Armenian by top diplomats from the United States, ary 24 meeting in Moscow with the Az- candidates will run for Parliament. Europe and , Ankara made clear that erbaijani and Russian foreign ministers. The Armenian community in Turkey the Turkish parliament will not ratify them None of the three ministers issued any has not had a representative in Tur- without decisive progress in the Karabagh statements after the Moscow meeting. key’s law-making body since the 1960s. peace process. They already met in the Russian capi- February 7 2011, www.massispost.com February 3, 2011 www.mirrorspectator.com tal on December 9, just over a week after the failure by Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s presidents to reach any Ethnic Armenians in Turkey fear to send their chil- agreements on the margins of an OSCE dren to Armenian schools - ECRI summit held in Astana, Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, Armenia’s Defense Min- ed unfairly, says a report issued by the istry announced on Wednesday that it European Commission against Racism has ordered its forces to take “large- and Intolerance (ECRI). scale measures” against what it called This is the commission's fourth report increased Azerbaijani sniper activ- on Turkey, criticizing the country for ity along the Karabakh line of contact. its policies against ethnic minorities. “Worrisome developments are taking The authors of the document call on place in Azerbaijan, and we are taking the Turkish authorities to review ar- appropriate steps to strengthen our de- ticle 42 of the constitution to remove fense,” ministry spokesman Davit Kara- the existing bans on ethnic minorities' petian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. right to receive education in their na- “We will mainly be taking defen- tive language, as well as take appropri- sive measures that will hurt those on ate measures to prevent anti-Semitism the Azerbaijani side who will dare thnic Armenians in Turkey avoid in the country. to take offensive actions,” Karape- Esending their children to Armenian February 9, 2011 tian said. He refused to go into details. schools fearing that they may be treat- www.armeniadisapora.com February 4, 2011 www.asbarez.com

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