Month: June 2005

Frankfurter Rundschau
07. Juni 2005
Äquatorial-Guinea ; Präsident begnadigt armenische “Putschisten”
Nairobi · 6. Juni · cli · Der Präsident von Äquatorial-Guinea,
Teodoro Obiang Nguema, hat an seinem 63. Geburtstag die Begnadigung
und Freilassung von sechs armenischen Häftlingen verfügt.
Sie waren in einem nach internationalen Standards unfairen
Gerichtsverfahren in der Hauptstadt Malabo zu Haftstrafen von 14 bis
24 Jahren verurteilt worden, weil sie im März 2004 bei einem in
Südafrika eingefädelten Putschversuch gegen Nguema beteiligt gewesen
sein sollen. Die sechs Armenier beteuerten stets ihre Unschuld.
Fünf Südafrikaner, darunter der angebliche Rädelsführer der
Putschistengruppe, Nick du Toit, müssen ihre Strafe weiter absitzen.
Du Toit war zu 34 Jahren Haft verurteilt worden war.
Auch Simbabwe hat angebliche Putschisten freigelassen. In dem Land
war eine Gruppe von Südafrikanern bei einer Zwischenlandung auf dem
Weg nach Äquatorial-Guinea verhaftet worden. Sie wurden wegen
Verschwörungsplänen verurteilt. 61 Häftlinge wurden Mitte Mai in
Harare freigelassen und nach Südafrika abgeschoben. Mark Thatcher,
Sohn der ehemaligen britischen Premierministerin, erhielt eine
Bewährungsstrafe.
Äquatorial-Guineas Staatspräsident Nguema regiert sein Land mit
äußerster Härte und unterdrückt jede Opposition.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Environment News Service
June 7 2005
Armenian Government Road Would Slash Rare Nature Reserve
WATERTOWN, Massachusetts, June 7, 2005 (ENS) – The Armenian
government has announced plans to build a new highway that bisects
one of only three pristine forest reserves in the country. The plan
alarms a Watertown based conservation organization that has planted
hundreds of thousands of trees in Armenia since 1994.
The Armenia Tree Project warns that the government’s chosen route for
the highway would mean cutting at least 14,000 old growth trees and
90,000 younger ones.
In Armenia these numbers are significant, the group says, because
while at least 40 percent of the country was once covered with trees,
current estimates place forest cover at around eight percent. At
current rates of cutting, “the last of the forests could be gone in
as little as 20 years,” the Armenia Tree Project predicts.
The new highway is planned to take a route across the Mtnadzor Forest
that covers a third of the Shikahogh reserve in southern Armenia.
Established in 1958, the reserve is inhabited by rare and endangered
plants and animals.
Southern Armenia’s Shikahogh reserve is the planned site of a new
highway. (Photo courtesy World Wildlife Fund Armenia)
Today, as many as 12 leopards live in the Shikahogh reserve, and the
Armenia Tree Project says their habitats would be disturbed by the
road’s construction and the resulting traffic pollution.
The organization’s founder Carolyn Mugar sent a letter on May 25 to
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan, with copeis to the minister of nature protection, the
minister of transportation, and other top officials.
`The Shikahogh forest reserve provides unique habitats for many rare
and endangered plants and animals whose survival depends upon the
government’s responsible stewardship,” wrote Mugar. “We call on you
to protect this reserve for the sake of future generations of
Armenians and the world’s ecosystem.’
“Any gains that may be realized by building this road through the
preserve will be far outweighed by the long-term environmental and
political damage that Armenia will suffer,” Mugar wrote.
A coalition of organizations and individuals, including the Armenia
Tree Project, Armenian Forests NGO, the World Wildlife Fund, and the
Armenian Assembly of America have been working together to identify
viable alternatives to the proposed route which would do less
environmental damage.
They are asking that the government halt the plan to begin immediate
construction until public hearings can be held.
The Armenian government has cited `strategic’ reasons for routing the
highway through the reserve, but the plan has not only aroused
resistance among conservationists, it has caused a split in the
government.
Formerly forested, this area of Armenia is now barren. (Photo
courtesy Armenia Tree Project)
To date, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Defense
have stated their intention to move forward with construction plans
and ignore any proposed alternatives.
In response, Minister of Nature Protection Vardan Ayvazyan has
announced his intention to resign if the road is constructed through
the Shikahogh reserve.
This stated determination to ignore alternative routes has led
conservationists to question the true motivation for the government’s
plan, given the financial value of the oak trees from the old growth
forest that will be destroyed to make way for the road.
The Armenia Tree Project points out that running the highway through
the reserve “would violate numerous national laws and internationally
signed treatises to protect such nature preserves, which are widely
regarded as part of a national heritage.”
`The construction of the proposed road through the preserve will
introduce pollution from passing vehicles into this almost pristine
forest, destroy the habitat for rare wildlife and migratory paths,
and attract illegal logging, depriving future generations of
Armenians of an irreplaceable resource,” wrote Mugar to the Armenian
officials.
“The encroachment by illegal loggers has already destroyed much of
Armenia’s forests during the past decade,’ Mugar wrote in her letter,
which was also sent to government officials by Armenian Assembly of
America Chairman Hirair Hovnanian.
The Armenia Tree Project (ATP) says currently 70 percent timber cut
in Armenia is used for heating because alternate fuel sources are not
available. In cities such as Yerevan, residents desperate for fuel
cut at least two million trees during the energy crisis of the early
1990s.
“Once beautiful parks have now turned to ecological graveyards devoid
of greenery. Today, they collect debris, invite vandalism, are
aesthetically offensive, and are vulnerable to erosion and further
environmental degradation. If this trend continues, Armenia will turn
into a desert wasteland in an estimated 20 years,” the organization
says.
To combat the deforestation, the Armenia Tree Project is producing
40,000 indigenous trees each year on formerly barren plots of land in
refugee villages, where two of their tree nurseries are located, and
planting trees throughout urban communities.
In Aygut, where Armenia Tree Project has established backyard tree
nurseries with local residents, ATP Founder Carolyn Mugar urged
Armenians everywhere to participate in the organization’s Trees of
Hope campaign in observance of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. April 11, 2005. (Photo courtesy ATP)
A rural tree planting program has been launched in Aygut, near Lake
Sevan. Armenia Tree Project Executive Director Jeff Masarjian says
that deforestation there has reached crisis proportions and villagers
are struggling to fend off poverty.
The forests of the area’s Getik River Valley shelter the Lake Sevan
watershed, which although deforested, can still be salvaged, the
Armenia Tree Project believes.
Masarjian says the organization works by partnering with communities
like Aygut to replant the native forests.
In Aygut, families will earn a living by planting and nurturing tree
seedlings in a program intended to gradually transform the entire
community into a forest nursery.
Already, villagers have gathered over 80,000 seeds of 12 local tree
species, including wild apple, wild pear, walnut, linden, hazelnut,
and cherry, to be sprouted in 18 forestry nurseries. The resulting
20,000 seedlings will be planted in Aygut’s declining forests this
fall.
Find out more online at:
The Armenian Ministry of Nature Protection is found at:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 7, 2005 Tuesday 4:17 PM Eastern Time
China in talks over acquisition of Armenian synthetic rubber plant
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
China is planning to acquire a stake in the Yerevan-based Nairit
chemical plant to set up a joint venture and produce synthetic
rubber, Armenia’s Finance and Economics Minister Vartan Khachatryan
said.
China is presently conducting talks with the country’s Energy
Ministry, the holder of the Nairit stock. Until recently the plant’s
official name was Nairit-1.
The setting up of the joint venture aims to boost the production and
sales of Armenian rubber. The size of the stake negotiated by China
as well as the name of the state-owned Chinese company will be
announced after completion of the talks, Khachatryan said.
Nairit, established in 1936, is a unique enterprise in the entire
post-Soviet space which produces chloroprene rubbers. This chemical
giant was the only Soviet supplier of synthetic rubbers and polymeric
latex adhesives – important strategic materials used in the aviation
industry, shoe-making, etc.
In 2001, the enterprise split into Nairit-1 and Nairit-2. The former
repeatedly changed hands. Russia’s Volgaburmash took it over last
year. However, all the transactions failed to pull the company out of
the crisis. It is Nairit-1 that is the subject of talks with the
Chinese at present.
Meanwhile, the Nairit-2 equipment is now being dismantled and taken
to the Chinese province of Shaanxi, where an Armenian-Chinese joint
venture ChinArmenpren will be set up to produce rubber using Armenian
technologies.
It will begin operation next year, Nairit-2 director Albert Sukiasyan
said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EQUATORIAL GUINEAN AUTHORITIES TO HAND OVER SIX ARMENIAN PILOTS TO
ARMENIA’S OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVE
YEREVAN, JUNE 7. ARMINFO. The Equatorial Guinean authorities have not
yet set free the six Armenian pilots imprisoned for alleged complicity
in a coup in Equatorial Guinea but later amnestied by the president of
that country.
Armenian FM representative Gevork Petrossyan went to Equatorial Guinea
Monday evening to get the pilots back. Today morning he met with the
country’s prosecutor general and foreign and justice ministries
officials. The pilots will be handed over to Petrossyan today. When
and how they will return to Armenia will become known later.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 7, 2005 Tuesday 10:10 AM Eastern Time
CSTO to form working expert groups on fighting terrorism
MOSCOW
The working expert groups on fighting terrorism and extremism and
opposing illegal immigration will be formed at the Security Council’s
Secretaries Committee (SCSC) of member-countries of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Tass learned from the CSTO
secretariat’s press service.
“During the meeting of the Permanent Council under the CSTO on
Tuesday the plenipotentiary representatives of Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan coordinated draft
provisions for the working expert groups on fighting terrorism and
extremism and opposing illegal immigration at the Security Council
Secretaries Committee (SCSC) of the countries participating in the
CSTO,” says the report.
Toktasyn Buzubayev, the deputy secretary-general of the CSTO, said,
“The groups will become working bodies of the SCSC to execute the
decisions taken.” “The groups come into being because of the need to
coordinate under the auspices of the security councils the efforts of
various ministries and agencies for fighting terrorism and
extremism,” he said.
The working groups will be drafting on instruction of the SCSC the
proposals for joint practical measures of CSTO countries to fight
terrorism and check illegal immigration, and will participate in
analysing, assessing and supplying information needed to fulfil the
tasks of the SCSC.
The drafts coordinated on Tuesday require the endorsement at the
level of the councils of foreign ministers, defence ministers and the
SCSC. After that they will be referred to the meeting of the supreme
body, the Collective Security Council, in which member- countries of
the CSTO participate.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 7, 2005 Tuesday 6:27 AM Eastern Time
Gazprom to deliver gas to Moldova at average European price
MOSCOW, June 7
Gazprom plans beginning deliveries of gas to Moldova at an average
European price beginning from the next year, the chief of the
company’s board of governors, Alexander Ryazanov, said.
He told a news briefing on Tuesday that a basic price of gas exported
to Moldova is about 80 dollars for 1,000 cubic meters at present.
Moldova fully pays for gas, but its breakaway Dniester region, pays
only 70 percent, Miller said.
Russia delivered 1.75 billion cubic meters of gas to Moldova in 2004
and plans exporting 1.25 billion cubic meters this year.
Gas deliveries under contracts with Gazeksport company to Moldova
were 0.93 billion cubic meters last year and are expected to increase
to 1.1 billion cubic meters in 2005.
The price of gas delivered to Moldova and the transit rate are
regulated by intergovernmental accords, PRIME-TASS reported.
Ryazanov said Gazprom “has gradually come” to all CIS states. Its
further strategy is developing its CIS markets with the provision
that customers pay 100 percent for delivered gas.
Gazeksport’ director Alexander Medvedev said at the briefing that the
company had increased gas deliveries to Georgia and Armenia.
Thus 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas have been exported to Georgia
last year and a similar amount will be delivered in 2005.
Gas deliveries to Armenia will be built up to 1.7 billion cubic
meters, as against 1.3 billion cubic meters in 2004, because of the
increasing use of energy in Armenia, Medvedev said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say. Part A (Russia)
June 7, 2005, Tuesday
SERGEI IVANOV: WE WILL BUILD TWO NEW BASES NEAR THE RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN
BORDER
SOURCE: Profil, No 21, June 6, 2005, pp. 30 – 31
by Svetlana Babayeva
Sergei Ivanov: There are two Russian bases in Georgia nowadays – in
Akhalkalaki and Batumi. There were claims that Russia was not
fulfilling its obligations, that it refused to withdraw from
Georgia… It was not Russia that established the bases in the first
place, it was the USSR. It was a wholly different state with
different military views. These so called heavy bases were
established for the purposes that are no longer valid. We never
intended to stick to them. The problem was different. We needed to
leave in a civilized manner, without any encroachment on the
interests of their servicemen.
That was why the problem concerned time. We have an agreement now
that the process of withdrawal will be completed in 2008, and the
first base (Akhalkalaki, on the border with Armenia) will be
withdrawn in 2007.
It should be added as well that we began preparations for the
withdrawal even before the agreement with Georgia was signed. The
matter concerns complicated military, engineering, and transport
tasks. We will have to withdraw almost 2,500 servicemen with their
families, and they all need apartments to move into.
Question: We are talking of about 6,000 people in all, aren’t we?
Sergei Ivanov: Yes. Not to mention 2,500 vehicles and 80,000 tons of
munitions and equipment. That is why when I hear phrases like “Why do
you persist? You could do it in a single month!”, I invariably take
it as a distortion of facts, deliberate or not. I have just given you
an account of what is to be accomplished. We will do it. We will
withdraw everything, down to the last spoon. All objects will be sold
to the Georgians.
The next question that worries the Russians concerns their security,
the effect this withdrawal will have on it…
Question: I take it that security will not be affected, right?
Sergei Ivanov: We have 3.5 years to build two new bases on our own
territory. They will be located near the Russian-Georgian border. One
base will be established in the Botlikh district of Dagestan not far
from where the borders of Russia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan meet, the
other in Karachaevo-Cherkessia. It will be different bases, different
in quality. They will be established in the mountains and manned by
brigades of mountaineers that do not need tanks or armored personnel
carriers but need helicopters. The bases and their personnel will
cooperate with border guards to secure our territory and make it safe
from terrorists in Georgia.
Question: But Chechnya is nearby too…
Sergei Ivanov: It is, but the future bases will have nothing to do
with it. In Chechnya we have the 42nd Division staffed with contract
servicemen. The military part of the counter-terrorism operation is
over no matter what may be said to the contrary. The Division is
mostly involved in combat training and not in active hostilities.
Question: Will Georgia participate in the funding of the withdrawal?
Sergei Ivanov: We have never brought up the matter and do not intend
to.
Question: Any third country then?
Sergei Ivanov: We have not brought it up. There was a period in the
course of our negotiations with Georgia when we were saying: if you
think the withdrawal takes too long, we could probably speed it up
with foreign funding. In any case, this is what we agreed upon: the
Russian Finance Ministry will provide money (not of the military
budget) for rapid formation of two brigades, construction of
tenements for servicemen, and transportation.
Question: Will all military hardware be withdrawn to Russia?
Sergei Ivanov: Some of the gear from Akhalkalaki will be transferred
to the Russian base in Gyumri, Armenia. I mean trucks and some battle
infantry vehicles. All of that will be done in accordance with the
modified Treaty on Conventional Arms in Europe. All flanking
limitations quotas will be observed. All the rest will be shipped to
Russia. Gear and military hardware from the Akhalkalaki base will
travel to Batumi to be loaded on ships there and be brought to
Novorossiisk. It is easier with the Batumi base which is already on
the sea shore.
Question: Have you settled all matters in Russia? I mean, did you
make the decision on who would be contracted to build new bases or
when the new tenements for servicemen were to appear?
Sergei Ivanov: Yes, all these matters have been settled. There is
only one question that has to be answered yet. I’m talking about
heavy military hardware that will be pulled out. We do not need it in
the mountains…
Translated by A. Ignatkin

ACCORDING TO GERMAN AMBASSADOR TO RA, PROCESSES CONNECTED WITH
EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION WON’T HAVE IMPACT ON NEW NEIGHBORHOOD PROGRAM
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, NOYAN TAPAN. More than tens of local NGOs took part
in the conference on the subject “Civil Society of Armenia and
European Neighborhood European Union Program” held on June 7 by the
Club of Economic Journalists NGO. Mentioning the importance of holding
the conference, Heike Renate Peitsch, German Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary to Armenia, said that the conference shows how
much the Armenian public and NGOs are interested in the discussion of
the European Neighborhood program, which, in essence, is a program of
development of a civil society. The ambassador mentioned that the
declining of the European Constitution in France and Holland can’t
have any impact on the development or the future of the
above-mentioned program. According to her, the future of Europe from
point of view of the Constitution will be decided during the European
Commission’s meeting that will take place next week in Luxemburg.
Tigran Jrbashian, Director of the Center for European Policy and Legal
Consultations, mentioned that the main goal of the European
Neighborhood program is to work out a concrete agenda in relations
with the EU for the term of 3-5 years. It will help to create a zone
of well-being and neighborly relations within the framework of new EU
borders and out of them. According to T.Jrbashian, the main clauses of
the EU program on the part of Armenia chiefly concern increase in
efforts aimed at poverty reduction, protection of environment,
stopping of the work of the ANPP.

Baltic News Service
June 7, 2005
LITHUANIA OFFERS ITS EURO-INTEGRATION EXPERIENCE TO AZERBAIJAN
VILNIUS
Lithuania is prepared to share its experience in conducting
democratic reforms, integration into the EU and NATO, regional
cooperation and peaceful solution of conflicts.
According to a press release from the parliament, this opinion was
voiced by Parliamentary Speaker Arturas Paulauskas, who is currently
visiting Azerbaijan.
This is the Lithuanian parliamentary speaker’s first visit to
Azerbaijan after the restoration of Lithuania’s Independence in 1990.
The parliamentary speaker has met with Azerbaijan’s President Ilgam
Aliev, President of Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company Natik Aliev, Prime
Minister Artur Rasizade, Parliamentary Speaker Murtuz Aleskerov,
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov.
During the meetings with Lithuania’s delegation, the leaders of
Azerbaijan’s parliament stressed that Azerbaijan was interested in
experience in the legislation area, especially when it comes to
regulation of the solution of social issues.
The president of Azerbaijan approved of Lithuania’s initiative to
activate mutual ties and voiced an idea to set up an
intergovernmental commission tasked with developing mutual
relationship between Lithuania and Azerbaijan.
The Lithuanian delegation ran a presentation for the leaders of
Azerbaijan on the Klaipeda sea port and the possibilities of reaching
remote EU markets from it.
The meetings with Azerbaijan’s president, leaders of the parliament
and of the government focused on the possibilities to regulate the
unresolved conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Mountain
Karabah.
Paulauskas accentuated that Lithuania was interested in solving the
conflict peacefully and emphasized that the solving of this matter
should have the widest possible representation of international
community.
Azerbaijan is demanding that Armenia should withdraw its troops from
the Mountain Karabah.
Later this week, the parliamentary speaker will also visit Georgia
and Armenia.
From: Baghdasarian

PROVISIONS OF ARMENIAN-GERMAN INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT CORRESPOND
TO ARMENIA’s CONSTITUTION
YEREVAN, JUNE 7. ARMINFO. Provisions of the Armenian-German
intergovernmental Agreement on financial cooperation within the
Caucasian Initiative’s framework correspond to Armenia’s
Constitution. Such a verdict was returned today by Armenia’s
Constitutional Court.
As informed Armenia’s deputy minister for finances and economy David
Avetissyan, presenting at the courtroom country’s president’s
interests, the Agreement was signed in Yerevan by Armenia’s minister
for finances and economy Vardan Khachatryan and Germany’s Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Heike-Renate Peitsch on
April 7, 2005.
According to the Agreement, Germany will give 7.5 mln euro for the
renewable energy development in Armenia. 6 mln euro will be allotted
as a lax credit for technical modernization of the acting small
hydroelectric power stations (HPS). The credit will be given on 40
year with 0.75% annual profits and the first 10 year repayment
period. The Program will be implemented within 2 years from the day of
its ratification by country’s parliament. A German-Armenian
reinvestment Fund on renewable energy will be established to manage
the credits. In its turn, the Fund will give credits to the small HPSs
through Armenia’s commercial banks to be elected by a tender. The
rest 1.5 mln euro will be given as grants and directed to conducting
consultations for the heads of banks and HPSs.
To note, Germany has given Armenia 127 mln euro since 1995, of them
100 mln euro are credits, and the rest sum are grants. -r-
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress