Month: June 2005

Polls in separatist Karabakh “better” organized than in Britain, observer
says
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
20 Jun 05
[Presenter] Nagornyy Karabakh is a small state but it has a great
democratic future, the head of the American observers’ group (?Jim
Huper) said. The international observers assessed the elections in
Artsakh [Karabakh] as fair and transparent, announcing that the voting
was held without any serious violations.
Paul Williams, a representative of the Public International Law and
Policy Group, announced that the elections in Artsakh were fair and
transparent which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the
process of settling the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
The observer from the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, Mark
Almond, noted that the election process was democratic. Many known
states could have followed Karabakh’s example. The elections here were
better organized than in Great Britain, he said.
[Correspondent Vage Kostandyan from Artsakh] The fourth parliamentary
elections in the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic deemed valid, no serious
violations were registered, the leaders of the American, Russian and
Great Britain observer groups told a new conference on 20 June.
[Mark Almond, captioned in English with Armenian voice over] The
elections proved that a system of self-determination has been
established in Karabakh. I hope that the OSCE Minsk Group will take
this into consideration in settling the Karabakh problem.
[Passage omitted: chairman of the Karabakh Central Electoral
Commission announced the preliminary results of the election]
Vage Konstandyan, Tigran Babayan, “Aylur”, Stepanakert.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Tajik president to visit Moscow to attend Eurasian body summit
Avesta website, Dushanbe
21 Jun 05
Dushanbe, 21 June: A Tajik delegation headed by President Emomali
Rahmonov will visit Moscow to attend a session of the Interstate
Council of the Eurasian Economic Community [EAEC, to be held on 22
June], Avesta has learnt at the presidential administration. The EAEC
also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Armenia,
Moldova and Ukraine have the observer status.
Rahmonov is expected to hold a number of bilateral talks with his
counterparts as part of the session.
The session will discuss the formation of the EAEC’s single customs
tariff. Moreover, a number of projects, including a blueprint of
cooperation between the community’s member states in the monetary
sphere; a cooperation agreement in the field of organizing an
integrated currency market; agreements on interaction between border
departments in crisis situations on external borders, and other issues
are to be considered.
Furthermore, on 23 June a session of the Collective Security Council
(CSC) of the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] member
states – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan and
Kyrgyzstan – will be held in Moscow. Sessions of the Council of
Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defence Ministers and the Committee
of Secretaries of the Security Councils of the CSTO member states will
be held a day earlier, that is on 22 June.

Azerbaijan proposes restoring traffic to Armenia through disputed
enclave
AP Worldstream; Jun 20, 2005

Azerbaijan has proposed restoring traffic to Armenia through the
disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, the country’s Deputy Foreign
Minister Araz Azimov said Monday.
The made the proposal last week during a meeting of the two countries’
foreign ministers in Paris, Azimov said.
Azerbaijan “expects a positive response on this issue,” he told
reporters, pointing out that reopening traffic could act as a
confidence-building measure between the two adversaries.
The proposed road would pass through Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia
proper and then end in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan, which
borders Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been under control of ethnic Armenians since a
six-year war against Azerbaijani forces ended with a 1994
cease-fire. The war killed some 30,000 people and drove a million from
their homes. The enclave of Nakhichevan is legally part of Azerbaijan,
but is cut off from Azerbaijan proper by Armenia.

A1plus
| 17:35:30 | 20-06-2005 | Regions |
THE BURNS FAMILY HELPS MOTHERS AND CHILDREN
On 21 June Miss Thorda Abbott-Watt, the British Ambassador, and Mrs Rebecca
Kohler, Chief of Party of Project NOVA, will visit Tavush Marz to donate
medical equipment and supplies worth $25,000 to three hospitals. Mr Armen
Ghularyan, the Tavush Marzpet and Dr Karine Dovlatbekyan, the Head of the
Department of Health and Social Affairs, will accompany them. The donation
includes an incubator, a sonograph machine, medical supplies and related
clinical training.
The donation will be given to the Tavoush region. Tavush is one of the most
remote marzes in the country, with a population of 120,000, of which 60%
live in rural areas. The region has suffered disproportionately from the
socio-economic changes of the last fifteen years. It has higher than average
infant mortality and childhood anemia rates and there is limited access to
specialized care for many rural families. Approximately 1000 infants are
born each year in the marz.
The USAID-supported Project NOVA is providing the equipment and clinical
training in co-operation with the British Embassy. The British Embassy also
supports efforts to strengthen the marz-wide infrastructure and community
development through the DfID ARDEP programme.

Armenpress
CUSTOMS SERVICE REPORTS DOUBLED CASES OF CUSTOMS BREACHES
YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS: Armenian customs officials said they
revealed in the first five months of the year 190 instances of customs rules
breaches, a significant increase against 90 such instances in the same time
span of 2004. A spokesman for customs service said the cost of goods which
importers were trying to hide from customs officers last year was 287
million Armenian drams, while in the first five months of this year it was
more than 1 billion drams.
He said the majority of breaches were recorded in Bagratashen and Bavra
border checkpoints with Georgia and Zvartnots airport in Yerevan. An
official of the customs service attributed the growth to better
administration and application of a new methodology.

Armenpress
BANKING OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION TO BE INTRODUCED
YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS; The executive director of the Union of
Armenian banks, Vladimir Badalian, said the Union is planning to introduce
the institution of “banking ombudsman” before the end of the year. He said
there is no body now where a bank customer could take his complaints about
poor performance of banks. He said the banking ombudsman will be chiefly
dealing with regulation of relations between customers and banks. Badalian
said the procedure for introduction of the new system would be developed
soon which should be approved by all local commercial banks

Armenpress
AZERI NEWSPAPER SAYS KARABAKH ARMENIANS TRYING TO PATTERN FROM KOSOVO MODEL
BAKU, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS: A front-page story in a Russian-language
Azerbaijani daily Zerkalo claimed that Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians are moving
increasingly towards replicating the policy of Kosovo Albanians who it said
are making decisive steps towards full independence from Serbia.
Titled “Will Karabakh Become Kosovo,” the story says that Armenians have
proposed a transitional period for Karabakh to allow the international
community to decide whether Nagorno-Karabakh is carrying out democratic
reforms and based on its findings it would decide whether or not to grant it
independence. “It is the same thing the Kosovo Albanians are currently
doing,” the articles says adding that this should seriously hurt
Azerbaijan’s efforts to bring the region back under its control.

Azeri, Armenian presidents to meet late in August
Baku, June 20, AssA-Irada
The next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents will be held in
Kazan, Russia late in August.
Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov told a news conference on Monday that
Azerbaijan has proposed that the two countries’ foreign ministers meet at least
twice before the presidents’ meeting. `In general, the Azerbaijani side wants
the negotiating process to be stepped up’, he said.
Azimov added that it is time to continue the negotiations on the level of
experts.*

A1plus
| 19:10:02 | 20-06-2005 | Politics |
OSKANYAN HAD A GOOD IMPRESSION OF RICE
RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan had a good impression of the US State
Secretary Condoleezza Rice. According to Oskanyan, Mrs. Rice is well aware
of the problems in our region. Mr. Oskanyan discussed with her a wide range
of issues referring to the Armenian-American relations.
The sides referred to the dynamically developing two-party relations,
mentioning that the two countries are leading in a healthy political
dialogue in the commerce and economy fields.
Although during the Rice-Oskanyan meeting issues about the Armenian-Turkish
relations have bee discussed, a meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister never took place or was even offered by the US side.
By the way, issues about the inner developments of Armenia and democratic
processes in Armenia have also been discussed. But Mr. Oskanyan mentioned no
details about this. He only notes that the information given by the Armenian
press that he hindered the meeting of Aram Sargsyan with some US officials
is a complete lie. `It is absurd, a downright lie, and it does not
correspond to reality’, said the Foreign Minister.
He has also met with the US President Assistant on Security issues Stephen
Hedley and discussed the perspectives of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
peaceful settlement, as well as the Armenian-Turkish relations.

PRESS RELEASE
June 16, 2005
American University of Armenia
40 Marshal Baghramian
Yerevan 375019 ARMENIA
Telephone: (37410) 512-522
Fax: (37410) 270-859; 512-512
Contact: Diana Manukyan
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Os Guinness, Public Policy and International Affairs Expert, Speaks at
AUA
Yerevan – On Monday June 13, 2005, within the framework of AUA’s
Professional Lecture Series, the Alumni and Career Development Office hosted
an open lecture by one of the most distinguished and demanded speakers on
public policy and international affairs, Dr. Os Guinness. The theme of the
lecture was “Leadership and Statecraft: The Rise and Fall of Nations at
Times of Moral Crisis.”
Dr. Os Guinness spoke about Armenian freedom and justice, and provided his
insights on the importance of building the rule of law, the institutions and
the ideas `that will really guarantee that freedom, not just for a few, not
just for one generation, but the generations to come.’ He is the co-founder
and a Senior Fellow of The Trinity Forum and a distinguished writer and
speaker living in Virginia, USA. His most recent book, Unspeakable: Facing
up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror, was published in February 2005
and is set to become a classic work in this difficult subject area. It
grapples with the evils unleashed through the genocides of the past century.
Dr. Guinness’ deep concern is to bridge the chasm between academic knowledge
and popular knowledge, taking things that are academically important and
making them intelligible and practicable to a wider audience, especially as
they concern matters of public policy. He has spoken at the White house,
Capitol Hill, Camp David, and several universities nationwide and
internationally.
*******************
The American University of Armenia is registered as a non-profit educational
organization in both Armenia and the United States and is affiliated with
the Regents of the University of California. Receiving major support from
the AGBU, AUA offers instruction leading to the Masters Degree in eight
graduate programs. For more information about AUA, visit
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress