Month: November 2006

ARMENIA AND KAZAKHSTAN SIGNED SEVERAL BILATERAL DOCUMENTS
TREND, Azerbaijan
Nov 7 2006
(gazeta.kz) – A number of bilateral agreements were inked as a result
of the closed and open talks that took place Monday, November 6,
in Astana between Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan, and
Robert Kocharyan, President of Armenia, Kazakhstan Today correspondent
reports.
In particular, an intergovernmental agreement was inked on mutual
travels of citizens. Kassymzhomart Tokayev, Foreign Minister of
Kazakhstan, inked the document from Kazakhstan and Gegam Garibadjanyan,
Foreign Minister of Armenia, from Armenia.
Also a Convention on avoidance of double taxation and prevention
of evasion from payments of income and property taxes was inked
as a result of the talks. Natalia Korzhova, Minister of Finance
of Kazakhstan, initialed the document from Kazakhstan and Karen
Chshmarityan, Minister of Commerce and Economic Development of Armenia,
from Armenia, reports Trend.
An intergovernmental agreement on international road communication was
signed by Serik Akhmetov, Minister of Transport and Communications
of Kazakhstan, from Kazakhstan and Karen Chshmarityan, Minister of
Commerce and Economic Development of Armenia, from Armenia.
Vladimir Shkolnik, Minister of Industry and Commerce of RK, and
Karen Chshmarityan, Minister of Commerce and Economic Development of
Armenia, initialed an intergovernmental agreement on promotion and
mutual protection of investments.
An agreement on co-operation in culture was inked by Yermukhamet
Yertysbayev, Minister of Culture and Information, and Asmik Pogosyan,
Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs of Armenia.

SENATE SPEAKER STARTS VISIT TO ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN
PAP Polish Press Agency
November 5, 2006 Sunday
Senate Speaker Bogdan Borusewicz started Sunday a six-day visit to
Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss diversification of energy supplies,
transit connections and bilateral relations.
The visit will have a parliamentary and political nature but it will
include economic talks, Borusewicz told PAP. He recalled that in
January 2006 he paid a visit to Kazakhstan and added that in late
November or early December he will go to Georgia.
While in Armenia Borusewicz will meet with Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan and chairman of the National Assembly Tigran Torosyan.
Planned is also a meeting with Catholicos Garegin II.
While in Azerbaijan Borusewicz will meet with President Ilham Aliyev,
Prime Minister Artur Rasi-Zade, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammmadiarov
and Economic development Minister Geydar Babayev. The senate speaker
will also meet Chairman of Parliament Ogtay Asadov.
He will also attend the opening of a BAKU 2006 Polish National
Exhibition and of a Polish culture and Polish language centre.

FM CONFIRMS YEREVAN READINESS FOR NORMALIZATION TALKS WITH TURKEY
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
November 5, 2006 Sunday 09:19 AM EST
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan has once again confirmed
the readiness of his country to start a normalization dialogue with
neighboring Turkey.
The day before, the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s Press and Information
Department posted the minister’s comments on the statement by Turkish
counterpart Abdullah Gul in an interview with Radio Liberty.
The minister recalled that last year the Turkish and Armenian
presidents exchanged statements on the settlement between the two
countries, which have no diplomatic relations so far.
Turkey set forward a proposal to Yerevan to create a joint commission
of historians for discussing the issue of Armenians genocide in the
Ottoman Empire in 1915, which is the stumbling stone in normalization.
The Armenian side offered, in turn, to establish an intergovernmental
commission for exchanging opinions on a broad range of issues and
supported normalization without preconditions.
Oskanyan criticized Gul for saying that regular flights between the
two countries and the presence of Armenian citizens in Turkey evidenced
the openness of borders. Oskanyan described the statement as “untrue.”
The minister said that “while the Turkish Criminal Code still
contains the article 301 envisaging criminal punishment even for the
discussion of genocide issues, the claims of open borders cannot be
taken seriously.”
Oskanyan also reaffirmed that “historians from Armenia, Turkey and
other countries have studied the genocide issue outside Turkey and
drew independent conclusions confirming the fact of genocide, which
affected 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

ARMENIAN RESIDENT WOUNDED BY AZERI SNIPER – TV SAYS
Public Television, Armenia
Nov 4 2006
A 28-year-old resident of the village of Aygepar [northeastern
Armenia], Maksim Pogosyan, was wounded by an Azerbaijani sniper on
3 November.
The incident happened on the Aygepar-Movses road at 1350 [0950 gmt]
yesterday, the press secretary of the Armenian Defence Ministry,
Col Seyran Shakhsuvaryan, told “Aylur” news programme.
Pogosyan was taken to hospital of the town of Berd.

BEAT OFFICIAL SNOOPERS THE EASY WAY – JUST LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH
by Rod Liddle
Sunday Times (London)
November 5, 2006, Sunday
You are being watched, right now. I don’t mean by your spouse,
either. She, or he, through the complex transactions of love, has
acquired the right to be privy to your most private and repulsive
moments, for which good luck. I mean by shadowy others, people who
will not have your best interests at heart, who will not give you
the benefit of the doubt. By which I don’t mean the neighbours.
We are the most spied on people in the western world, apparently.
According to the watchdog Privacy International, among the few that
suffer worse intrusion in their lives are the Russians and the Chinese
and -one might argue cruelly -they’re used to it.
Three hundred CCTV cameras, on average, were witness to whatever
dark, dubious stuff you were up to yesterday, for example. They
caught that moment you picked your nose in the traffic jam and swore
under your breath at the driver of the BMW who cut you up at the
intersection. Cross your fingers he wasn’t a black bloke.
They noticed you gazing longingly at that young Polish cleaner emerging
from an office block at 7.30am. They got it all down.
According to Richard Thomas, the UK information commissioner, we are
“waking up to a surveillance society”. (Why, incidentally, do we have
a UK information commissioner? What’s the point of that? And when
was the job advertised?) Our authorities -be they the government,
local councils with their weird gizmos in our waste bins to make sure
we’ve put the right stuff in the right bag, the filth, the taxman,
the credit card companies, our employers and our banks have become
drunk on the idea of complete control. The notion that they will
be able to make important judgments about us without our conscious
involvement, without caveat, is hugely agreeable to them. They have
our lives mapped out before them.
As the appalling Howard Kirk had it in Malcolm Bradbury’s The History
Man, privacy is a redundant, bourgeois concept.
The only recourse left is subtle civil disobedience. It’s no use
torching speed cameras because you’ll invariably be caught doing so
by another, better hidden, camera nearby. Far better that we organise
a mass campaign of lying.
The next time you are asked for superfluous, private, information
on some official form, lie through your teeth. When you break your
arm punching a council official and attend the outpatient department
of your local hospital, put down on the ludicrous “nationalities”
form that you’re an Armenian. Unless you’re Armenian – in which case,
swallow your pride and tell them you’re Azerbaijani.
When the census forms arrive, insist you are the worshipper of a new
cult based around David Miliband. Give them the wrong address, tell
them you’re gay, or transgendered, or dead. Tell them you speak only
Swahili or Gaelic. Lie to them all, the banks, building societies,
your employers if they inquire whether or not you smoke, or how fat
you are. Lie always and for ever.
Refuse to shop in malls festooned with CCTV, or wear a Stone Island
hoodie. Undo their machinations with a surfeit of wholly false
information, the more baroque in its imagining the better. Let them
know that there is one private area to which they do not have access,
or domain.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA SAYS ITS PRICE OF US$110 FOR RUSSIAN GAS WILL REMAIN FIXED UNTIL END OF 2008
The Associated Press
November 4, 2006 Saturday 5:18 PM GMT
Armenia said Saturday that the price it is paying for Russian gas of
US$110 (~@86) will stay fixed until the end of 2008, an announcement
certain to rile neighboring Georgia which has been told to pay more
than double that from next year.
Armenian Finance and Economy Minister Vardan Khachatrian said that
Russia’s Gazprom state monopoly had agreed to freeze the price
until Jan. 1, 2009, in return for Armenia transferring control
of an electricity power generating unit for almost US$250 million
(~@197 million).
He also said that Yerevan was in talks with OAO Gazprom over the sale
of ownership rights to the Armenian segment of a planned pipeline
bringing Iranian gas to the country, which is due to open later
this year.
Gazprom this week said it plans to charge Tbilisi US$230 (~@180) per
1,000 cubic meters of gas, compared with the US$110 that it pays now,
ratcheting up economic pressure against Moscow’s small, pro-Western
southern neighbor.
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said that the sharp price
rise was obviously political because other ex-Soviet nations were
paying far less.
On Saturday, Nogaideli said that Georgia would not agree to pay such
a high rate because it was not commercially justified. “We are not
going to pay an non-market price,” he said.
Energy Minister Nika Gilauri said Friday that talks were taking place
with Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey to secure alternative supplies of
gas. Analysts in Georgia warned of a repeat of the gas war between
Russia and Ukraine at the start of this year when Gazprom cut off
supplies.
That stoppage, amid fierce negotiations over a higher price
demanded by Gazprom, was seen as punishment for Ukraine’s pro-Western
policies. Ukraine, which finally agreed to pay almost double at US$95
per 1,000 cubic meters, has since managed to limit the increase for
2007 to US$130 after Russian-leaning Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych
took over as head of government in the wake of his party’s success
in March polls.
Neighboring Belarus faces a fourfold rise in gas prices to US$200,
although Gazprom is believed to be willing to compromise if the
country hands over 50 percent of the state pipeline through which
Russian gas transits to western Europe.

KAZAKHSTAN, ARMENIA SIGN COOPERATION ACCORDS
Kazakhstan Today news agency website, Almaty
Nov 6 2006
Astana, 6 November: Several bilateral agreements were signed following
talks between Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan which took place in both narrow and expanded
formats in Astana today, the agency’s correspondent has reported.
In particular, an intergovernmental accord on mutual visits of citizens
was signed by Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev and Armenian
Deputy Foreign Minister Gegam Garibdzhanyan.
A convention on avoiding double taxation and preventing income and
property tax evasion was also signed following the talks. The document
was signed by Kazakh Finance Minister Natalya Korzhova and Armenian
Trade and Economic Development Minister Karen Chshmarityan.
An intergovernmental accord on international transport communications
was signed by Kazakh Transport and Communications Minister Serik
Akhmetov and Armenian Trade and Economic Development Minister Karen
Chshmarityan.

KAZAKH-ARMENIAN BODY DISCUSSES ECONOMIC TIES AHEAD OF PRESIDENT’S VISIT
Interfax, Russia
Nov 6 2006
Astana, 5 November. The second sitting of the Kazakh-Armenian
commission on trade and economic cooperation is being held in Astana
today.
The Kazakh side is represented by Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Nurlan
Onzhanov and the Armenian side by Deputy Agriculture Minister Samvel
Avetisyan, a report circulated by the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said.
The meeting is being held without media’s participation. A news
conference is expected to be held in the afternoon, following the
talks.
The bilateral commission is holding the meeting on the eve of Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan’s visit to Kazakhstan. Kocharyan is arriving
in Kazakhstan on 6 November. His talks with Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev are to be held the same day. A number of bilateral documents
are to be signed and a joint news conference of the two countries’
leaders is to take place following the talks.

CULTURE – STATE OF DENIAL
Weekend Australian
All-round Country Edition
November 4, 2006 Saturday
A FRENCH law adopted last month that makes it a crime to deny
an Armenian genocide took place in Turkey during World War I has
been criticised by freedom-of-speech supporters in Europe. The law,
which still has to pass the Senate, has also been linked to Turkey’s
application to join the European Union. According to the Financial
Times Deutschland, a report due out next week is expected to give
Turkey low marks for democratic reforms and delay EU accession.
That the law was similar to Turkey’s repression of recognition of
the genocide was not lost on the Turkish media. The daily Hurriyet
headlined its story on the law “Liberte, egalite, stupidite”.
“Wonder of wonders, France, the celebrated land of Liberte, having
such a massive hiccup over its Fraternite with the Armenians as
to be ready to discard one of the cardinal pillars of the French
Revolution,” complained Karamatullah Ghori in the Turkish Daily
News. Even Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, viewed as a traitor by many
Turks for his recognition of the Armenian genocide, pointed out that
“freedom of expression is a French invention. This law is contrary
to this culture of liberty.”
According to Philip Gordon and Omer Taspinar in The New Republic,
the French law was a dangerous step on a slippery slope. “Indeed, the
new French legislation is just the latest illiberal policy in Europe
masquerading as liberalism … Do we really want the Government to
start deciding that some historical views are acceptable but others
merit prison sentences?”
In French weekly Le Point, Bernard-Henri Levy mounted an argument in
favour of the law, saying that “a little dose of political correctness”
was sometimes necessary. He also took issue with the polemic of British
historian Timothy Garton Ash, who wrote in The Guardian that even
Holocaust denial must be allowed in the name of freedom of opinion
and freedom of scientific research.
According to Gwynne Dyer in Arab News the point of the law was never
to get it on the books, as President Jacques Chirac could veto it.
“It was to alienate Turkish public opinion and curry favour with the
half-million French citizens of Armenian descent.” The action would
also “provoke a nationalist backlash in Turkey, further damaging the
country’s already fragile relationship with the EU”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FAMILY OF SIX, INCLUDING BABY, WHITE-WATER RAFT INTO HUNGARY
Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
November 3, 2006 Friday
Budapest, November 3 (MTI) – Border patrol officials apprehended an
Armenian family of six, including a ten-month-old baby, and their
Russian guide, at a railway station near the Ukrainian border after
they white-water rafted into Hungary along a hazardous section of
the Tisza River, the border patrol media liaison reported on Friday.
An investigation is underway, and most likely the group will be
expelled from Hungary, Jozsef Tanyik said.