Month: June 2005

OSKANYAN TO VISIT THE FAMILY OF HARIRI
A1plus
| 16:11:14 | 29-06-2005 | Official |
Today the RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan will leave for Lebanon
to take part in the events of the 50th anniversary of the Beirut
Haykazyan University. He is invited there as the main speaker.
During the 3-day visit Minister Oskanyan will meet the high officials
of the Republic of Lebanon and will visit the grave of the recently
murdered ex Prime Minister of the country Rafik Hariri.
The Minister will also visit the Kilikia Catholicos Aram I, the
professors of the Haykazyan University, as well as the representatives
of the Armenian community in Lebanon.
The RA Foreign Minister will render a lection in the Haykazyan
University.

HOPEFUL NEGOTIATIONS ABOUT STATUS?
A1plus
| 15:31:20 | 29-06-2005 | Politics |
“Azerbaijan is ready to give privileged rights to the Armenian
community of Nagorno Karabakh, as well as give guarantees of
security. I am convinced that the conflict will be settled in this
context”, announced the Azeri President Ilham Aliev in the interview
to a Turkish TV Company.
He called the results of his latest negotiations with Robert Kocharyan
“hopeful”. According to him, the Armenian side has finally understood
that there is no other way but to continue active negotiation.

“JOLLY TELECOM”
A1plus
| 15:25:56 | 29-06-2005 | Social |
The only competitor of “ArmenTel” “K Telecom” announced about the
tariffs of its service two days before entering the market. In case
of buying a Classic Card they are very close to the lowered tariffs
of “ArmenTel”, , but the competitor of the famous “Easy Card” –
“Alo Card” offers service at quite a low price.
First, “Alo Card” costs 7000 ARMD, and the head of the company Ralf
Yerikyan assured several times that it will not be sold in the black
market at a higher price.
While calling the subscribers of the same telecom a minute costs 48
drams by day and 44 drams by night. On Sundays a minute by day costs
44 drams too. The service is called “Jolly Sunday”.
While calling Karabakh 1 minute of Alo Card costs 110 drams, and of
Classic card 0 55 drams. As for inside Armenia, while calling the
subscriber of “ArmenTel” a minute costs 110/55 drams.
The reloading cards of Viva Cell are of different prices and dates. The
cheapest costs 2000 drams and is valid for 20 days, and the most
expensive costs 18 000 drams and is valid for 300 days.
As for the Classic Card, Viva Cell, in contrast to ArmenTel does
not demand a pre-payment of $100. The card costs 1500 drams, and the
monthly payment is 4000 drams. It should also be added that all the
costs include Value Added Tax.

No alternative to OSCE Minsk Group in Karabakh peace talks – Azeri official
Trend news agency
28 Jun 05
Baku, 28 June, Trend correspondent E. Huseynov: Azerbaijan still
sees no alternative to the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group on
settling the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh,
Novruz Mammadov, the head of the foreign relations department of the
Azerbaijani presidential administration, has told Trend news agency
in an exclusive interview.
“Overall, we are dissatisfied with the Minks Group’s activities,
but the co-chairmen’s interest in the issue has increased recently.
Therefore, in spite of being dissatisfied with their activities,
we said that only the Minsk Group would deal with the issue,”
Mammadov said.
The Minsk Group is a legal body created within the OSCE to settle the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, he said. Asked about Azerbaijan’s efforts
to raise the issue in various international organizations, Mammadov
said the following: “All other activities are part of Azerbaijan’s
foreign policy. During all their meetings and visits, at international
forums and within Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani leadership and the
president are pursuing a policy to gain greater support for the
Azerbaijani position regarding the conflict settlement. Systematic
work is under way in this regard. One of the directions is work
with various bodies, including the Council of Europe, the European
Union and the United Nations. This is all very natural and the work
done with them and certain bodies created within the organizations
– for instance, the OSCE fact-finding mission on resolution of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict – and, overall, decisions taken within the
international organizations have a positive impact on the strengthening
of Azerbaijan’s positions. But from the legal and political viewpoints,
the Minsk Group is dealing with the settlement of the conflict.”

VIVACELL TARIFFS PUBLISHED
Pan Armenian News
29.06.2005 03:17
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On June 29 Karabakh Telecom, Armenia’s second
operator of mobile communications providing its services under VivaCell
trade mark, published the tariffs for the services. VivaCell will
provide two services – Alo (prepaid calling card system) and Classic
(permanent subscription fee). With purchasing the Alo package for
7000 AMD ($15) the subscriber is offered the possibility of speaking
for free to the sum of 3700 AMD with prepayment term of 60 days,
identification of incoming calls, call divert, SMS, voicemail,
multi party conference and international connection. The minute of
conversation between the VivaCell subscribers will cost 90 AMD in rush
hours (7 a.m.-11 p.m.) and 80 AMD from 11 p.m. to7 a.m. The minute of
conversation with the subscribers of other mobile operators (in Armenia
– Armentel) will cost 110 AMD and 90 respectively; with subscribers
of stationary automatic telephone system -90 (80); with subscribers
of Karabakh cellular communication – 110 (90); with subscribers of NKR
stationary automatic telephone system -110 (90). VivaCell international
tariffs are as follows: minute of conversation with Russia and Georgia
will cost 235 AMD in rush hours (7 a.m.-11 p.m.) and 165 AMD from 11
p.m. to 7 a.m.; with other CIS states and Baltic states 285 (200) AMD;
with the US, Canada, Europe and Australia 430 (300) AMD; with Near East
-350 (245) AMD. The subscriber will pay 20 AMD for local SMS and 55 for
an international one. Prepaid cards can be purchased for the term of
20 up to 300 days. The prepaid cards for 20 days will cost 2000 AMD,
for 55 days – 4500 AMD, for100 days- 7000 AMD, for 150 days – 9500
AMD and for 300 days -18000 AMD. Calls to the fire service (101),
police (102), ambulance (103), gas service (104), emergency service
(108) and hot line (111) will be free. Classic package connection
will cost 4500 AMD plus 4000 AMD as monthly fee. With obtaining
the package the subscriber is rendered the following services:
Call Wait/Call Hold, Call Forward, Call Identification (CLIP),
Call Identification Restriction (CLIR), Multi Party Conference,
SMS, Call Barring, International Access, International Roaming,
Data Transmission Service, Detailed Bill. The minute of conversation
between Classic subscribers will cost 48 AMD in rush hours and 44
AMD in free hours; with other mobile operator (Armentel) – 55 (48)
AMD, with subscribers of stationary automatic telephone system -48
(44); with subscribers of Karabakh cellular communication – 55 (48);
with subscribers of NKR stationary automatic telephone system -55
(48). International tariffs and SMS of Classic system will be the
same as that of the Alo. VivaCell will also render a service called
“Happy Sunday” when all the calls between the company subscribers
as well as the subscribers of the Armenian stationary automatic
telephone system will make 44 AMD. Another package called “Corporate
solution” provides for three types of service – Business, Business +
and Optima. They suppose creation of closed groups of subscribers. A
group can include 2-20, 21-100 and 100 and more lines. A minute of
conversation between the group subscribers will cost 40 AMD for the
first group, 38 AMD – for the second group and 36 – for the third
group. A minute of conversation with other VivaCell subscribers will
cost 46(42) AMD for Business, 44 (42) AMD for Business + and 42 (40)
AMD for Optima package holders; with Armentel subscriber 52 (48)
(Business + – 50 (48), Optima – 50 (48)); with Armenian stationary
telephone automatic station subscribers 46 (42) (Business + – 44 (42),
Optima – 42 (40)); with NKR stationary telephone automatic station
subscribers -52 (48) (Business + – 50 (48), Optima – 50 (48)). Tariffs
for international calls and and SMS do not vary. All the prices include
the additional cost tax. It should be also noted that the high prices
for international calls are conditioned by the fact that Armentel
still hold monopoly for international outlet, IA Regnum reported.

ALIYEV: I WISH KARABAKH PROBLEM TO BE SETTLED WITHOUT BLOODSHED
Pan Armenian News
29.06.2005 04:56
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Various developments in the world are not of
benefit to Armenia. Azerbaijan as a part of the Euro-Atlantic region
is establishing relations with the EU and the US. Armenia is pursuing
a different policy, it has other allies”, Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev stated, CNN-Turk reports. I. Aliyev expressed assurance that
“Armenia cannot compete with Azerbaijan economically.” “Azerbaijan’s
budget exceeds Armenia’s four times and I have ordered the government
to drive the gap up to ten times”, he stated. “Partnership with Turkey
is very important for us, since Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia become
a significant force in the region”, he added. “I do not doubt that
we will settle the Karabakh problem. I just want it to be settled
peacefully, without bloodshed”, the Azerbaijani President said.

RUSSIAN TRADE REPRESENTATION TO BE ESTABLISHED IN ARMENIA
Pan Armenian News
29.06.2005 03:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In 2005-2006 Russia will establish its trade
representations in 8 CIS member-states, these being Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Y. MERZLYAKOV: TURKEY’S POSITION IMPORTANT FOR KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
Pan Armenian News
29.06.2005 02:31
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Elmar Mamedyarov was right to say that agreement on
two points of the negotiation process has been achieved. I suppose
it was achieved on the basis of mutual concessions”, OSCE Minsk
Group Russian Co-Chair Yuri Merzlyakovstated, APA Azeri news agency
reports. When asked whether these agreements can be confirmed by
the Presidents he said, “If a definition admissible for both states
is set, I think there is such a possibility.” At the same time he
refrained from commenting on the details. When asked how the visit
of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Baku can tell on
the Turkish-Armenian relations, the Russian Co-Chair noted, “I always
supposed that Turkey’s position is important for the Karabakh conflict
settlement. The normalization of the Turkish-Armenian relations will
have a great impact on the situation in the region.” It should be
noted that when commenting on Elmar Mamedyarov’s statement Armenian
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated that partial agreement was
achieved on one point only. “There are details we disagree on, but
I am convinced that they will be resolved and we will proceed to the
settlement of other issues”, the RA FM said.

ASRYAN GOING FORWARD
A1plus
| 16:44:27 | 29-06-2005 | Sports |
Grossmeister Karen Asryan beat Sergey Volkov in the 10th round of
the European Championship and has now 7.5 points. With this result
he shares the 2nd place with 3 other players. Leader Sergey Karyakin
has 8 points.
Levon Aronyan too won the 10th round and is now in the 6th place with
7 points. The other Armenian players have more modest results and do
not pretend to win medals.
In the 11th round Karen Asryan will play with Liviu Nisipeanu from
Romania, and Levon Aronyan will play with Sergey Tivyakov from the
Netherlands.

Pan Armenian News
CANADA TO ASSIST ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF ARMENIA
29.06.2005 04:18
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Chairman of the Armenian National Assembly Artur
Baghdassaryan met with Canadian Ambassador to Armenia Christopher Westdal,
RA NA press center reported. During the meeting the parties discussed
consolidation of the Armenian-Canadian interstate and interparliamentary
relations. At the diplomat~Rs request Artur Baghdassaryan informed him of the
process of constitutional reform in Armenia and development of democracy in
the republic. In his turn Mr. Westdal noted that political success and
economic growth open a wide outlook for Armenia. He also said Canada is
ready to render economic development of Armenia and deepen Armenian-Canadian
scientific, educational and cultural cooperation. Besides, he invited Artur
Baghdassaryan to Canada and the interlocutors discussed the details of the
visit.