PRESS REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

The daily Hayastani Hanrapetutyun writes that yesterday the 12th session of the Armenia’s National Competitiveness Foundation took place opened by the chairman of the Foundation, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. The daily says Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew was also presented at the event and in his speech referring to the prospects of Armenia’s development the top guest said that if Armenia wants to become competitive country it must follow the U.S. model - that is to say to carry out more aggressive economic policy. The daily writes in respect of Armenia’s neighbors the Singapore minister said that “Georgia will not help you, neither will Azerbaijan, Iran is itself under punitive measures and it is necessary to jump over them. It is necessary to choose Europe, cooperation with Black Sea countries,” he advised. The daily says after the session a joint press conference of the Armenian prime minister and Singapore minister took place and the first question addressed to the guest was about fighting against corruption: where from did the fighting against corruption start in Singapore? And what is necessary to do in Armenia? The daily says in response Lee Kuan Yew said it is necessary to start from top and go down to the bottom. The daily Azg says according to the operative information of the Armenian National Statistics Service, in January-August of the running year the economic decline in Armenia was 18,4%; in January-July it was 18,5%, that is to say it may be registered that the economic reduction in Armenia stopped. The daily says the reduction in industrial sphere for January- August was 11,9%, the greatest reduction has been registered in the construction sphere, but starting from June the tempo of construction started growing. The daily says the economic reduction in Armenia stopped earlier than it has been predicted in the earlier articles where September and October were mentioned too. The daily says it is expected that by the end of the year the decline will gradually start reducing. The daily Kapital writes that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that in Armenian-Turkish negotiation process Turkey’s position remains unchanged – “Until the Azerbaijani occupied territories are not returned the b`order` with Armenia will not open”. The daily says according to Erdogan Turkey considers that Karabakh conflict regulation is very close. The daily says that Turkish prime minister stated that “If we do not see concrete steps from Armenia nothing may be spoken about opening of the b`order`”, the statement was immediately followed by the response of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry which greeted the statement of the Turkish prime minister “which again shows the official position of Ankara”. The daily Aravot writes that Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan commenting on the above mentioned statement of the Turkish prime minister said that “by trying to tie these two processes (Armenian-Turkish relations and Karabakh conflict) both the one and the other may be failed. Many other countries have the same opinion, including OSCE Minsk Group countries which have many `time`s stated that the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations must be without preconditions”.