"The parliament of Santa Cruz province condemns the threat to deport 100 thousand illegal Armenian migrants from Turkey," the statement says.

Because of overdollarized Armenian economy, control over inflation is one of the main challenges Armenian government faces, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank Armenia, Astrid Clifford stated. Inflation in Armenia remains high: price increase is observed in consumer market, caused by the impending price rise for energy carrier tariffs (gas price increase is expected on April 1); summer will see water price increase. Local forecasts are also unfavorable.

The week began with the Armenian President’s official visit to Syria. On March 22, on the invitation of his Syrian counterpart, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Syria with his wife Rita Sargsyan in the frames of a three-day official visit.

Latest developments in the Armenian-Turkish relations, or rather in the relations of Turkey-world community were not so much unexpected as, to put it mildly, bewildering. Turkish President Abdullah Gul won this year’s prestigious Chatham House prize, and Woodrow Wilson Award was granted to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. However, her drop of poison added German Chancellor Angela Merkel, declaring that Turkey could be offered only a “privileged partnership”. But there was nothing new in this statement: as long as France and Germany work together Turkey’s entry into the EU is booked.

Number of internet users increased 47.75 times over the period of 1998-2008, according to bbcrussian.com. Thus, 4000 internet users were registered in Armenia in 1998, their number increasing to 30 000 the next year. As of 2008, 191 thousand internet users were registered in Armenia. Obviously, BBC Russia information service used statistical data provided by international electronic connection union to make the statistic report. Meanwhile Armenian experts repeatedly noted that the statistic data cited is not complete, as mobile internet users were not taken into account while composing the assessment.

Yerevan hosted two major events last week: the opening of Armmono Festival of Mono Performances and Day of Francophonie in Armenia. The former offered an opportunity to watch the performance of 18 theater stars from 7 countries while the latter featured a concert of Armenian pop stars singing in French.

Wrestling: Armenian national Greco-Roman wrestling team coach Levon Julfalakyan informed PanARMENIAN.Net of the RA National Olympic Committee’s decision not to send wrestlers to European Championship to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan. “Thus, our sportsmen will have enough time to train for the World Championships Moscow will host September 6 to 12,” he said.

February 15 is International Childhood Cancer Day. New cases of cancer in Armenia account for 7000 annually, including about 100 children under 15. The figure is terrifying, although they don’t differ much from the world statistics. Cancer is a very insidious disease without marked initial symptoms. In most cases, the latent period of the disease is durable and it can hardly be detected in the initial stage.