Month: June 2005

“TURKEY IN A NEW GEOPOLITICAL SITUATION: EXPECTATIONS IN ARMENIA”
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, JUNE 27. ARMINFO. A Round Table Discussion “Turkey In A
New Geopolitical Situation: Expectations In Armenia” Will Be Held At
Congress Hotel In Yerevan On June 28. The Organizer Is The Center For
Strategic Analysis SPECTRUM. The Event Is Sponsored By The Friedrich
Ebert Foundation With Support Of German Embassy In Armenia. Dr.
Gayane Novikova, Director Of The SPECTRUM, H.E. Ambassador Heike
Peitsch, Germany (Confirmed) H.E. Ambassador Armen Baibourtian, Deputy
Minister Of Foreign Affairs Of RA (Confirmed) Will Make Welcoming
Speeches. Well-Known Armenian Politologists, Scientist-Historians
And Economists Are Expected To Speak At The Roundtable Discussion.

ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN RELATIONS FAR FROM BEING MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL: LPPA LEADER
YEREVAN, JUNE 27. ARMINFO. The talk of mutually beneficial
Armenian-Russian relations is mere speculation, says
Liberal-Progressive Party of Armenia Hovhannes Hovhannissyan.
Today Armenia buys gas from Russia at $73 for 1,000 c m. The
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline project is humiliating for Armenia as the
gas will be supplied exclusively to the Russia-owned Hrazdan Thermal
Power Plant thereby catering for the Gazprom monopoly in Armenia.
Operating on Russian uranium the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will
pose a serious threat to Armenia’s environment in some 2-3 years. The
talks for the construction of the Iranian-Ukrainian gas pipeline via
Georgia will lead to Armenia’s full isolation. So Armenia’s energy
independence has become very much vulnerable.
At the same time Hovhanissyan highly appreciates the EU program
to create alternative energy sources in Armenia. The Japanese loan
for the Yerevan Thermal Power Plant modernization is the first step
towards secure energy in the country.
Since 2002 ArmRosgazprom has purchased gas at $54 for 1,000 c m selling
it to the consumer for $73. The world gas price is $160 for 1,000 c m.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MAGIC SOUNDS OF STRING SECTION OF STRADIVARIUS IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, JUNE 27. ARMINFO. Magic sounds of Stradivarius strings
can be enjoyed in Yerevan for the first time. The only concert
performed by Japanse quartet “Tokio” within the framework of the 6th
International Music Festival “Prospects of the 21st” will be held at
Aram Khachaturyan Concert Hall on July 1.
Director of Armenian Music and Information Center, Composer Stepan
Rostomyan said at a press conference today that the world acknowledged
quartet will play on the famous strings of Stradivarius: violins
of 1680 and 1927, alt of 1071, violoncello of 1736. After the great
Nicolo Paganini played on this strings in the 19th century, they have
been called “Quarter of Paganini.”
It is a great honor for us to receive such talented musicians,
Rostomyan says. Meanwhile, he says, the quarter will receive a small
envelope of gratitude for it concert and not its usual honorarium.
The quartets of Johanes Brams and others will sound. The tickets will
cost 3-20,000 AMD. The quarter Tokio created on the initiative of
Japanese students in New York 35 years ago. It has held concerts at the
most respectable halls in the world. Festival “Prospects of the 21st”
is supported by the Armenian Foreign Ministry and Culture Ministry.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA’S FOREIGN MINISTRY REFUTES INFORMATION OF BAKU’S MASS MEDIA
ON OSKANIAN-MAMEDYAROV TALKS IN BRUSSELS
YEREVAN, JUNE 27. ARMINFO. Resources in Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Armenia refuted the information of Baku’s mass media on the
negotiations of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan taken
place in Brussels recently. As Press Secretary of Armenia’s Foreign
Ministry Hamlet Gasparian told ARMINFO, such a meeting was not planned
and no such a meeting was held. He reminded that meetings of the
foreign ministers of the two countries are initiated and held under
the patronage of the cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group for settlement
of the Karabakh conflict and aimed at discussion of this issue. At
the same time the resources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Armenia considered possible that the ministers could simply meet within
framework of an arrangement as well as the its remaining participants.
To remind, according to the information of TURAN, Foreign Ministers
of Armenia and Azerbaijan Vardan Oskanian and Elmar Mamedyarov in
Brussels within the framework of the international conference on
Iraq held an individual meeting. As the resource reports, the foreign
minister Mamedyarov had informed journalists. According to him, they
had discussed “elements of the agreements reached by the presidents
of the two countries in Warsaw”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan has over 300,000 drug addicts – TV
ANS TV, Baku
26 Jun 05
[Presenter] Some children turn into drug addicts after being
abandoned. Now, there are over 300,000 drug addicts in Azerbaijan.
But this has nothing to do with children. Drug trade has long been
a serious business in the country. And sometimes the law-enforcement
bodies themselves turn out to be the patrons of this trade.
[Correspondent] There are hundreds of thousands of drug addicts
in Azerbaijan. Although official figures put the number at 18,000,
unofficial figures say there are more of them.
[Mazahir Afandiyev, captioned as coordinator of the South Caucasus
anti-drug Programme] Of course, this figure is ridiculous. There are
over 300,000 drug addicts in Azerbaijan.
[Correspondent] What is appalling is that 75 per cent of Azerbaijan’s
drug addicts take heroin, which is a hard drug.
[Afandiyev] Mathematical calculations show Azerbaijan’s demand for
drugs is nearly 1 tonne [as received].
[Correspondent] Who smuggles drugs into Azerbaijan? Let us look into
this first. Afghanistan accounts for 90 per cent of the heroin and
opium produced in the world, the UN says. The CIS [Commonwealth of
Independent States] countries, particularly Russia, are the main
consumers of the Afghan drugs. The CIS countries use drugs in almost
primitive ways.
However, western countries have gone a bit further, producing
ecstasy pills in special labs. Azerbaijan is geographically suitable
for the transit of drugs. So the drugs produced in Afghanistan
are smuggled into Russia and the west via the South Caucasus,
in particular Azerbaijan. There are four routes for this. The
first route is Afghanistan-Iran-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Europe. The
second route is Afghanistan-Iran-Nagornyy Karabakh (which is an
uncontrolled zone)-Armenia-Georgia-Europe. The third route used for
the transportation of drugs is Afghanistan-Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia. And
finally, the fourth route is Afghanistan-the Central Asia-the Caspian
Sea-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Europe.
[Passage omitted: more details on drug trafficking routes]
The most widely used drugs in Azerbaijan are opiates, heroin,
medicines, hemp, ecstasy, hashish, cocaine and LSD.
Heroine is mostly used in Lankaran District (64.6 per cent).
Azerbaijan’s smallest consumer of heroin is Quba District (47.6 per
cent). Baku’s drug addicts mostly use ecstasy and heroine. Most of the
drug addicts have been injecting drugs into their veins for five years.
[Passage omitted: minor details]
Drugs can be bought on the black markets of Baku, Sumqayit, Ganca,
Lankaran, Calilabad and Astara.
[Israfil Aliyev, captioned as head of a working group of the state
anti-drug commission] In the past, there was a certain Madina [a
female name] in Sovetskiy [a quarter in Baku] or Zeynab in Yuxari
Dagli [quarter in Baku] who used to sell drugs. Things have changed
now. Among the drug traders you may find some people who you would
never think fit the description.
[Correspondent] The most appalling fact is that the number of drug
addicts grows in Azerbaijan, while their age goes down.
[Passage omitted: minor details, cites statistics as saying that the
youngest drug addict is 14-year-old; 10 per cent of schoolchildren
use drugs]

Azerbaijan, Armenia agreed on two more issues – Azeri foreign minister
Assa-Irada
27 Jun 05
Baku, 27 June: “We managed to come to an agreement on two issues of
principle with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan in Paris,”
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told Assa-Irada.
Mammadyarov did not specify what they had agreed on, saying that the
sides had agreed to keep it confidential. He also said that despite
the progress in the talks, the sides had not yet been able to achieve
agreement on certain issues, he said.
“Of course, we will discuss these issues in the future. We will decide
what we should do to achieve our goals,” Mammadyarov said. He went on
to say that the talks were currently being conducted in keeping with
the principles defined by the [Azerbaijani and Armenian] presidents
in Warsaw and the foreign ministers were trying to reach consensus
on those principles.
[Passage omitted: the ministers had a brief unofficial meeting in
Brussels]
Mammadyarov said he could not confirm Deputy Foreign Minister Araz
Azimov’s forecast that the peace process might yield results in August.
“It is very difficult to name a date for this. To be honest, I do not
believe that the talks will give results by late August. Much will
depend on the presidents’ meeting in Kazan in late August,” he said.
[Passage omitted: the Armenian side denies reports about the ministers’
unofficial meeting in Brussels]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SCHOOLS FOR PERSONS NEEDING SPECIAL CONDITIONS OF EDUCATION WILL BE CREATED IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, JUNE 27. ARMINFO. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan signed
a law on education of persons needing special conditions of education
on June 25, the presidential press-service reports.
The document regulates the legal, organizational and financial base
of education for persons needing special study conditions. The bill
notes that they have a right to special pre-school and secondary
education. For this purpose, it is planned to organize special
schools, to draw up the corresponding educational programs and to
form the certifying commissions. Special schools will be financed
both by the state budget and the other sources not forbidden by the
legislation. The bill will come into force on the expiry of 10 days
after its publication.

AART DE GESE: ARMENIA IS THE ONLY TRANSCAUCASIAN REPUBLIC, WHERE IT-TECHNOLOGIES ARE DEVELOPING
YEREVAN, JUNE 27. ARMINFO. General Director of world leader in
the sphere of e-design of automatized technologies – the American
company of Synopsys Aart de Gese gave certificates 64 graduates of
the training center Synopsys-Armenia on June 26, which jointly with
the Yerevan Engineering Institute founded Department on training of
chip-design specialists.
“Armenia attracts us rather the high qualification of man power
than its cheapness”, Gese told journalists. He mentioned that the
Synopsys is represented in 60 countries and it is implementing
joint educational projects with 400 universities. According to him,
Armenia is the only TransCaucasian republic, where IT technologies are
developing. “In Georgia and Azerbaijan we have not noticed presence
of high technologies”, he said.
Vahram Muradian, Director of Synopsys-Armenia, which supplies
components and chips to Taiwan, informed ARMINFO that the company
continues to increase the export volumes.
Secretary of the information technologies assistance fund of Armenian
government Armen Grigorian informed journalists, the positive dynamics
in the sphere was continued this year. So, the number of people
engaged in the sphere of IT-technologies increased by 20%. Now about
5,000 specialists work in the sphere of IT-technologies in Armenia.

WE WILL HARDLY MANAGE
A1plus
| 16:13:45 | 28-06-2005 | Politics |
During today’s press conference Tigran Torosyan and Shavarsh Kocharyan
stated that a great amount of work should be done to bring the draft
constitutional amendments to correspondence with the demands of the
Venice Commission. To note, the second reading is to be held in August.
Tigran Torosyan excluded the possibility of conducting the
referendum in October simultaneously with the elections to the local
self-government. When reminded about the Venice Commission’s resolution
which says that the referendum should be held no later than in November
2005, Tigran Torosyan said that November is the most appropriate term.
“The second reading will be held late August, then the draft will be
submitted to the Preseident, who will have to take decision during
21 days. No sooner than 45 days and no later than 60 days the date
of the referendum should be fixed. To all appearances it will be in
November”, Tigran Torosyan said

REFERENDUM TO BE HELD IN NOVEMBER
A1plus
| 15:55:42 | 28-06-2005 | Politics |
“Armenia achieved unprecedented success in Strasbourg”, Armenian
National Assembly Vice Speaker, head of the Armenian delegation to
PACE Tigran Torosian stated when commenting on the PACE summer session.
Contrary to previous press conferences, Tigran Torosyan and Shavarsh
Kocharyan representing Justice faction showed solidarity.
According to Shavarsh Kocharyan Armenia has an unprecedented
opportunity to get out of crisis. In his words, conduction of normal
parliamentary elections is questioned in Azerbaijan; in Georgia the
authorities of the President have been expanded and pressure on the
local self-government bodies is exerted.
In his turn Tigran Torosyan said that the RA authorities have no
discrepancies with the Venice Commission on the key issues. In his
words, the reforms are carried out not by request of the Europeans
but are essential for the development of the republic.
“It is a vital issue and it is harmonic with the European system of
values”, Shavarsh Kocharyan noted adding that the Constitution is
more important than the relationships between the authorities and the
opposition. Due to this reason the parliamentary opposition intends
to stop boycotting and take part in the parliamentary debates.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress