/ArmeniaNow.com/ The Armenian translation of Hrant Dink's book (written in Turkish) titled “İki Yakın Halk İki Uzak Komşu” (Two Close People Two Far Neighbors), funded by the International Hrant Dink Foundation, was presented Wednesday in Yerevan.

Hrant Dink, well-known Turkish-Armenian journalist, was assassinated by a Turkish national extremist in 2007, in front of Agos daily in Istanbul, where he was chief editor.

The book is the author’s personal opinions, idea and thoughts about Armenian-Turkish relations. As the translator of the book says, in the book Dink presents rather a new approach for creating Armenia’s and Turkey’s common future and resuming their past.

“Many called Dink romantic, but his articles prove that he was, in fact, very realistic,” says translator Mkrtich Somunjian, adding that even though the articles included in the book were written by Dink many years ago, they remain contemporary.

/Aysor.am/ “If the Upper Lars checkpoint opens, the Armenian volume of freight by road transport will increase,” said Armenia’s Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian at the press conference.

“This road connection will create favorable conditions for Armenian economy. I hope the checkpoint will operate since spring 2010,” he added.

In accordance with the agreement between the Moscow and Tbilisi sides, the Upper Lars checkpoint is expected to open in spring 2010. The decision to open the checkpoint is made, announced recently Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze.

/ArmeniaNow.com/ The year of 2009 was a year full of ordeals for Armenia’s economy, bringing the boisterous growth of the past 10 years to a jarring end.

Armenia has not managed to avoid the influence of the world economic crisis, which revealed a weakness in the economy that some had warned against but none heeded – primarily focusing on the precarious balance from growth generated by non-sustainable sources (i.e., mining, construction).

A 16-percent economic decline was registered in Armenia during 11 months of 2009, as compared with the same period last year. December is expected to produce slightly less than a one percent increase, yield a 15 percent decline for the year.

Financial expert Bagrat Asatryan, former head of the Central Bank in Armenia (1990s) and lecturer of economy at Yerevan State University says that the economic decline is more severe if the gross domestic product (GDP) is expressed in dollars.

/ArmeniaNow.com/ On Friday (December 25) Human Rights Defender of Armenia presented the ‘Public Ad Hoc Report Ensuring Right to a Fair Trial in the Republic of Armenia’ report. The study by Armenia’s public defender is an indictment on Armenia’s judicial system, revealing courts that are not independent and a process that does not guarantee fair treatment or protection.

The 60-page report consists of the monitoring results of court sittings, carried out by representatives of the Ombudsman’s office over several years.

The report pays great attention especially to the court cases of disputes over right to property of citizens since 2001 (who were evicted from their houses, on the government order of “state needs”). It also closely examined cases of prisoners who were detained as a result of March 1-2, 2008 post election clashes.