YEREVAN (ARKA), March 31–Ameriabank and Cascade Bank will merge before the end of this year, Artak Hanesyan, director general of Ameriabank and chairman of the bank’s directorial board, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “Our banks’ shareholders sealed the merger deal today. Such a merger of two banks on market conditions is unprecedented in [...]

YEREVAN (ARKA), March 31–The natural gas price rise in Armenia will drive up inflation 0.5 percent, Gurgen Martirosyan, chief of Armenian National Statistical Service’s unit on prices, said Tuesday at a press conference. “Gas expenses are included in subsistence. If gas prices go up, but prices for other services remain unchanged, the gas price rise [...]

Raffi K. Hovannisian, the first foreign minister of Armenia and the founder of the Heritage Party, delivered the following keynote address during the 2nd Annual PFA Forum at Georgetown University in Washington on March 1. *** It is an honor to be back at Georgetown University, a very important university in a very important capital [...]

YEREVAN (Panorama.net), March 31–Proceeds from Ian Gillan’s charitable concerts with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra amounted to 18,327,000 dram. The concerts, organized by Mediamax and the Australian organization “Do Something” within the framework of Rock Aid Armenia/Armenia Grateful 2 Rock project, took place on March 26 and 27 in the Aram Khachaturian concert hall in Yerevan’s Opera House. [...]

YEREVAN (Armenians.net), March 31–Orange Armenia, a subsidiary of France Telecom, officially presented the iPhone in Armenia today. At the launch today, CEO Bruno Duthoit said that bringing iPhone to Armenia was possible thanks to cooperation between France Telecom and Apple. The company will offer three models to its customers: the 8GB iPhone 3G will sell [...]

YEREVAN (RFE/RL), March 31–Samvel Babayan, a former military leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, warned on Tuesday of a growing threat of another Armenian-Azerbaijani war which he said may break out “at any moment.” “Things are moving towards the war path because Azerbaijan has the impudence to demand everything and refuse to give up anything,” Babayan told a [...]

YEREVAN (RFE/RL), March 31–The International Monetary Fund has disbursed a fresh $73.6 million installment of a vital loan to Armenia, again praising the Armenian authorities’ response to the global financial crisis and their broader macroeconomic policies. The payment approved by the IMF’s Executive Board in Washington on Tuesday will raise to almost $560 million the [...]