FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE On December 31, 2010, Policy Forum Armenia (PFA) issued its Report on “The State of Armenia’s Environment.” The Report provides an overview of environmental challenges facing Armenia and highlights the severity of the current situation. It is intended to serve as a reference to a complex set of environmental problems and issues that are closely intertwined with the country’s development. Corruption and environmental activism are also discussed in some detail in the Report.

Lieutenant Artak Nazaryan, commander of a riffle platoon based in the Tavush region on the border with Azerbaijan, was found dead on July 27, 2010,with a bullet shot through his mouth. Although the medical examiner found indications of life-threatening injuries inflicted on Lt. Nazaryan’s body hours prior to his death, the official verdict is suicide.

Armenia will not reach a higher level of development unless its leadership changes the “oligopolistic” structure of the national economy, bolsters the rule of law and shows “zero tolerance” of corruption, the World Bank’s managing director warned over the weekend.

Robert Fisk, The Independent, 8 October 2009 In the autumn of 1915, an Austrian engineer called Litzmayer, who was helping build the Constantinople-Baghdad railway, saw what he thought was a large Turkish army heading for Mesopotamia. But as the crowd came closer, he realised it was a huge caravan of women, moving forward under the supervision of soldiers.