Month: June 2005

Interfax.ru, Russia
June 6 2005
Russia to move some armaments from Georgia to Armenia – minister
ST. PETERSBURG. June 6 (Interfax-) – Some Russian armaments will be
moved from bases in Georgia to the Russian base in Armenia, Defense
Minister Sergei Ivanov told a Monday press conference in St.
Petersburg.
“The armaments will not be transferred to Armenia. They will be
simply moved to another Russian military base,” he said.
He said Russia would stick to limits on armaments under the Treaty on
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
Russia will start withdrawing two military bases from Georgia in 2005
and complete the withdrawal in 2008, he said.
It was not Russia but the former Soviet Union that opened the bases
in Georgia, he said. “These bases are not important from the military
point of view,” he said.

Independent Online, South Africa
June 6 2005
Equatorial Guinea pardons coup plot pilots

Yerevan – Equatorial Guinea has pardoned six Armenian flight crew
members convicted last year of plotting to overthrow the president of
the tiny West African country, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said on
Monday.
The Armenians were among dozens of foreigners jailed in Equatorial
Guinea and Zimbabwe over the aborted coup, which Mark Thatcher, son
of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has been accused
of helping to finance.
The pardon was issued by Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema Mbasogo, Hamlet Gasparyan, spokesperson for the Armenian
Foreign Ministry, said.
The six have been held in the notorious Black Beach prison in
Equatorial Guinea’s capital, Malabo. Rights group Amnesty
International said in April they risked starving to death.
Mark Thatcher has denied any role in the coup plot.
The Armenians were employed by an aircraft leasing company to fly
cargo around Africa. They have denied being involved in the plot and
Amnesty said their trial was “grossly unfair”.

Macedonian Press Agency, Greece
June 6 2005
DECISION ON THE NEW BSTDB PRESIDENT IN THESSALONIKI NEXT MONTH
Yerevan, 6 June 2005 (15:19 UTC+2)

The crucial decision on who will be the new President of the Black
Sea Trade and Development Bank, BSTDB, will be made in Thessaloniki
in July, while the likelihood of current President Mustafa Gurdin
from Turkey to remain in his post is not ruled out.
According to a statement to MPA by BSTDB Governor Giorgos Mergos, the
boards of directors and governors will meet on July 30 and 31 to
reach a decision on who will take over the bank’s presidency for the
next term. However, he clarified that for the moment is not clear
which of the BSTDB member states will present candidates.
In the 7th Annual General Assembly meeting of the bank’s shareholders
held in Yerevan, Armenia yesterday, it was decided that Azerbaijan
will succeed Armenia in the BSTDB Board of Governors Presidency.
Also, the governors of Moldavia and Russia were elected as Board of
Governors deputy presidents for the period until the BSTDB next
general assembly meeting to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan on June
11, 2006.

RIA Novosti, Russia
June 6 2005
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Oil or Politics?
16:15
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti economic commentator Vasily Zubkov) – The
ceremony of commissioning the Azerbaijani section of the new
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline again drew the attention of
analysts to the project.
Moscow did not support the idea of the pipeline but did not interfere
with it either, though it had said that it would not provide oil to
it. Sergei Grigoryev, vice-president of Transneft, had said that each
state had an inalienable right to build what it needs. I would add,
even if the project were unprofitable. Baku cannot supply as much oil
as the new, highly expensive pipe from the Caspian to the
Mediterranean can pump. Nobody is talking any more about the
allegedly giant underwater oilfields on Azerbaijan’s shelf. The truth
is that the bulk of oil is concentrated on the eastern, Kazakh, coast
of the sea.
The competition of oil companies for transportation routes, which is
always tough, has never been so politically loaded as in the case of
the BTC, described as the main geopolitical project of the U.S. in
the former Soviet states. The late president of Azerbaijan Geidar
Aliyev had said that the pipeline would pump oil in one direction and
politics in the other. Oil has not started flowing west yet, but
Georgia, a member of the project, has been shaken by a pro-American
revolution.
Americans spent through the nose to create the first stage of the
Great Oil Road, laying pipes by a route bypassing Russia, which, as
it grew stronger economically, is making public its view of
developments in the former Soviet states, in particular on its
southern borders, increasingly often. But will this pipe lower the
transit potential of Russia?
The new supermodern ports on the Baltic Sea, the upgrading of the
Baltic Pipeline System to 60 million tons this year, and the nascent
construction of pipelines in Russia’s European north and the Far East
will guarantee Russia a long geopolitical transit life in Eurasia.
The rerouting of Azerbaijani oil from Novorossiisk to the new pipe
was hardly noticed, because it accounted for a mere 1% of Russia’s
oil exports. Baku says openly that it would like Russian oil
companies to become its clients; it needs them to ensure the BTC’s
estimated capacity of 50 million tons a year. Besides, the capacity
of the Russian pipe monopolist, Transneft, has been larger than the
oil output for a second year running, according to its president
Semyon Vainshtok. The production of oil is lagging behind the
construction and modernization of pipelines and ports, though this
year Transneft plans to increase export deliveries by 16% to 255
million tons.
There will be a surplus of pipe capacities in the future, and so
Russia does not plan to change export routes. A spokesman of LUKoil,
which works energetically on the Caspian shelf, told RIA that the
current rates and the absence of “lines” for Transneft’s pipe suit
his company. Rosneft and other oil majors do not plan to change
export routes either.
Russia plans to complete the construction of an alternative route to
the BTC, from Burgas in Bulgaria to Alexandroupolis in Greece,
bypassing the Turkish straits. It will be more profitable than the
BTC: its length is slightly more than 300km (1,767km in the case of
the BTC), its throughput capacity is 35-50 million tons (50 million)
and it will cost about $700 million (some $4 billion). With the
completion of this pipe, tankers with Russian oil will no longer have
to spend weeks in the Turkish straits.
Baku thinks that the Kazakh oil can “save” the BTC, to a degree.
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev was the highest foreign
guest at the commissioning ceremony and expressed interest in the
pipe, but his republic will not hurry to sign a contract. This
proceeds from the recent statement by Lyazzat Kiinov, deputy minister
of energy. He said that his country had an operating project
Aktau-Baku and hence the new pipe would be filled exclusively by
Azerbaijani oil. Kazakhstan will ponder participation in the BTC
project only when the new pipeline to the Mediterranean is completed.
What effect would it have on the Transcaucasus? Though there is not
enough oil for the pipe so far, the aggregate capital of companies in
the BTC consortium is $1 trillion, which makes the pipe an instrument
of powerful political influence in the region. This is the opinion of
Eduard Agadzhanov, of the Armat Center of Democratic Development and
Civil Society (Armenia). In view of the unsettled Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, the powerful U.S. assistance to Baku
is radically changing the geopolitical situation in the region.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
June 6 2005
SPEAKER OF LITHUANIAN SEYM MEETS WITH AZERBAIJANI COUNTERPART
[June 06, 2005, 16:57:36]
Visiting Baku delegation of the Lithuanian Seym led by Speaker
Arturas Paulauskas met with Chairman of the Milli Majlis (Parliament)
of Azerbaijan Murtuz Alasgarov on June 6.
Speaker M. Alasgarov noted that since Azerbaijan re-gained
independence, it has chosen the way of integration into Europe, and
has established very friendly relations with the countries of the
continent and Lithuania, in particular.
Having expressed hope for this visit’s contribution to development of
cooperation between the two countries, the MM Chairman emphasized
that the antiparliamentary friendship groups could have played an
important role in deepening of bilateral ties.
He told the guest of the achievements the Republic had gained in
economic development and work done for poverty reduction in the
country. The Speaker added however that these positive processes face
serious obstacles posed by the country’s most painful problem, the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. He updated the
guest on the roots and aftermath of the problem.
Speaker of Lithuanian Seym Arturas Paulauskas mentioned deep roots of
the relationship between the two countries, noting his one in very
interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan. He said the goal of his
visit was to give a new impetus to development of the bilateral
relations, and that as NATO as EU member, Lithuania can provide any
support to Azerbaijan. As for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mr.
Paulauskas ex[pressed opinion that international community should
intensify efforts to peacefully solve the problem as soon as
possible.
The parties have also discussed a number of other issues of mutual
interest.

General Andranik’s statue erected in French town
06.06.2005 17:21
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – A monument of General Andranik was unveiled on June
4 in the French town of Pleci-Robinson near Paris. Armenian Ambassador
to France Edvard Nalbandian and the town’s mayor Philip Pemsek
attended the ceremony.The monument is a gift from Yerevan’s Arabkir
district municipality.
This is another addition to over 100 monuments, streets and squares
dedicated to the Armenian people across France. High-ranking French
and Armenian officials attended the ceremony.

A1plus
| 15:37:13 | 06-06-2005 | Social |
ARMENIAN PILOTS FORGIVEN
On Sunday the President of the Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema
granted freedom to the 6 Armenian pilots who were imprisoned for a long time
with the accusation of participating in an attempt of political revolution
in the African country.
According to the Radio station `Azatutyun’ the forgiveness was granted as a
humanitarian act in connection with the 63rd anniversary of the President
Nguema which is celebrated in Equatorial Guinea as a national holiday.
According to the Presidential decree, the 6 Armenian pilots must be
immediately released and `be given to the authorities who will take care of
them to be transported to Armenia’.
The Armenian pilots were arrested last year in March and in November they
were sentenced to 14-24 years of imprisonment, being accused of
participating in an attempt of coup d’etat against the Equatorial Guinea
President.
The Armenian pilots who had arrived in an Armenian plane in Equatorial
Guinea in 2004 January, had managed to carry out only one flight to the
Congo Democratic Republic before being arrested.
For setting the Armenian pilots free the Armenian authorities and President
of the World Armenian congress and Union of Armenians in Russia Ara
Abrahamyan made all efforts.

A1plus
| 15:59:32 | 06-06-2005 | Social |
ARMENIAN ECOLOGY IN DANGER
According to Karen Afrikyan, head of the non-governmental organization
`Forests of Armenia’, the road to be constructed through the Shikahogh state
reserve to Iran is a huge danger strategically and ecologically.
According to him, the road will be a target for Azerbaijan. As for the
ecological harms, not only 26 000 big and 117 000 small trees will be
chopped down, but also 70 plants recorded in the Red Book will be
annihilated. As Mr. Afrikyan said, there are alternative solutions to this
problem, for example, the road can be constructed though the village
Shishkert near the reserve; thus the forest will not be damaged.
Today in the UN Armenian office the presentation of the books devoted to the
ecological problems published by the non-governmental organizations `For
Steady Development’ Association and `Ecological Academy’ took place.
According to Karine Danielyan, head of the Association `For Steady
Development’, publication of the books about ecological problems will raise
public awareness about the issue.
Mrs. Danielyan also spoke about the Shikahogh reserve problem. According to
him, Azerbaijan has been raising the issue in international structures
lately that ecologically Armenia can be dangerous for the Trans Caucasian
region. `Chop down forests as we do, the situation can be dangerous not only
for us, but also for our neighbors.

A1plus
| 14:47:31 | 06-06-2005 | Politics |
AUTHORITIES RE-ELECTED AS A RESULT OF DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS
The peculiarity of the elections of local governing bodies that took place
yesterday in some communities of Armenia is that in all of them the present
authorities were re-elected. In Spitak 6 774 of the 11 100 electors took
part in the elections. The present mayor Vanik Asatryan gained 4 272 votes,
Varazdat Danielyan – 1 808, and Aramayis Matevosyan – 319.
The hottest struggle was expected in Davtashen. From 26 835 electors only 12
503 took part in the election. Present community head Sourik Ghoukasyan
gained 6311 votes, and ex-deputy Rouben Gevorgyan – 5396.
In Norq-Marash community 5127 electors from 8 300 participated in the
elections. 5040 of them voted for the community head.
In the Malatia-Sebastia community only 27 005 electors from 92 500
participated in the elections. 21 022 of them voted for the present
community head Aghvan Grigoryan, and Samvel Hovsepyan gained 4 672 votes.
Strangely enough, the Central Electoral Committee did not receive complaints
from any candidate.
All the political powers found these elections extremely important as a
usual «exam» of democracy. As a result of the democratic elections the local
authorities were re-elected

A1plus
| 14:33:08 | 06-06-2005 | Economy |
DONORS LIKE THOSE WHO ARE DEVOTED
Will the involvement of the Trans Caucasian countries in the EU «New
Neighbors Program» contribute to their membership in the structure or vice
versa? The question sounded during the 7th annual meeting of the heads of
the Commerce and Development Black Sea Bank, but there was no answer.
«We have been interested in the region for the last 14 years», said
representative of the European Committee Andreas Papadopoulos. By the way,
high-ranked officials of Black Sea region countries, as well as
international financial structures take part in the two-day events.
Papadopoulos represented those financial profits anticipated from the
program for the Trans Caucasian countries.
«Free commerce, access to the European market, free transportation of
capital and work power, sensible macro economical policy», he enumerated.
And what does the EU expect in return? «Devotion to the program», the EU
representative informed.
RA Finance and economy Minister Vardan Khachatryan informed the
representatives of 11 countries and different international organizations
that Armenia holds a policy of open doors. A report full of numbers was
represented about the economical growth in the country for the last 4 years.
«We have a steady macro economical growth, rapidly developing economy,
legislation contributing to investments, and working power», enumerated Mr.
Khachatryan. The latter also found important the regional cooperation and
the opening of the border with Turkey.
The representatives of Turkey also participated in the meeting.