Month: November 2006

DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO ADVERTISE ITS MANIFESTO TO WIN VOTERS
Armenpress
Nov 01 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS: The leader of a tiny opposition party
said today it will advertise its own manifesto to win the support
of voters in 2007 parliamentary elections, but will not decline a
cooperation offer from a like-minded party.
Aram G. Sarkisian, head of the Democratic Party of Armenia, told a news
conference today that his party will not strike alliances with other
forces because ‘they are set up to pursue quite different issues.”
Sarkisian said his party will work to form what he termed ‘the third
force’ as opposed to the Republican Party of prime minister Andranik
Margarian and the Prosperous Armenia party of a parliament member
and a millionaire businessman Gagik Tsarukian.

OPENING OF SURP KHACH CHURCH OF AKHTAMAR ISLAND POSTPONED TILL APRIL
By Hakob Chakrian
AZG Armenian Daily
02/11/2006
On October 19, referring to Lraber newspaper of the Armenian Patriarchy
of Istanbul, daily Azg informed that the opening of Surp Khach
Church of Akhtamar Island is envisaged on November 4. Owner of the
construction firm repairing the church, Jahit Zaydanlen, was quoted as
saying that the roof and the floor of the church were reconstructed,
frescos on the walls were uncovered, new windows were installed, the
altar was put into order and the outside bas-reliefs were cleaned. Yet,
he dissembled that the crosses of the chapel and the dome were missing.
Most likely the crosses won’t be erected as the construction works
officially finished on August 30.
As to the opening of the church that will be attended by prime minister
Erdogan it was postponed due to bad weather, CNN-Turk reported.

RA FOREIGN MINISTRY’S EUROPEAN UNION DEPARTMENT HEAD IS APPOINTED RA CONSUL GENERAL TO LOS ANGELES, CA
By Nana Petrosian
AZG Armenian Daily
02/11/2006
By the decree of RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, Armen Liloyan,
the Head of the Department of the European Union of RA Foreign
Ministry, has been appointed RA Consul General to Los Angeles,
California. The press service of RA Foreign Ministry informed that
Armen Liloyan was born in 1971 in Yerevan. He has graduated from the
Yerevan State University, the Faculty of Oriental Studies. He received
the master’s degree in the London Academy.
Liloyan has been working at RA Foreign Ministry since 1995. He
had been working in the diplomatic mission to Great Britain in
1998-2002. Liloyan is appointed the head of the Department of the
European Union since 2002.

EUROPE CRITICIZES TURKEY BUT CONTINUES TALKS
By Petros Keshishian
AZG Armenian Daily
02/11/2006
On November 8, the European Union will make public a very harsh report
on Turkey, Le Figaro reports.
Despite this, the EU is unwilling to suspend accession talks with
Turkey.
The report points out that “the process of reforms has stepped down in
Turkey.” Besides, the Cyprus issue is still unresolved. In December of
2005 the EU demanded that Ankara opens its harbors and airports for
Cypriot ships and airplanes by year-end 2006, otherwise threatening
to reconsider continuation of negotiations.
The ultimatum’s time is getting over, but there is no progress
in Ankara. Generally speaking, the European Commission favors
Turkey’s membership but the current situation raised discords
in Brussels. European commissioners’ stances differ depending on
political interests the countries they represent have. According to Le
Figaro, the French demand partial suspension of the talks (because of
neglecting the requirements of tax union) and the Cypriot commissioner
demands total suspension of membership talks.
In such situation Finland, which currently holds the rotating EU
presidency, suggests organizing the meeting of Turkish and Cypriot
foreign minister in Helsinki on November 5. According to the program
the Finns presented, the EU has to start trading with Northern Cyprus
for Turkey to open its ports to Cypriot ships.
At any rate, a final decision will be taken at the meeting of EU
member-state heads in Brussels on Dec 16. That very day instructions
of the European Commission that were disregarded in the past will be
taken into account. Turkey is particularly criticized for the poor
record in freedom of speech and the rights of women and the Kurds.
EU commissioner for enlargement, Olli Rehn, stated in a private
conversation that Islamization of the Turkish society is also
worrying. The European Commission would not dare raise this issue in
the past.

IRAN TO RESPOND TO ANY PROBABLE PUNISHMENT MEASURES OF UN SECURITY COUNCIL
By Petros Keshishian
AZG Armenian Daily
02/11/2006
MAGATE isn’t able to confirm the exclusively peaceful character of
the Iranian nuclear program, Mohamed al Baradei, head of MAGATE,
stated. Making annual report at the UN General Council, he expressed
concern that Iran didn’t stop the concentration of uranium and
doesn’t make its nuclear program more transparent. At the same time,
he expressed hope that the issue will be settled diplomatically.
As for the nuclear test carried out by the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea, he said it was another issue that arouses concern. Baradei
stated that North Korea should return to multi lateral negotiations
around its nuclear program.
According to Interfax agency, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
stated that his country will take resolute measures if UN conducts any
punishment measures against Iran. At present the bill that envisages
punishment measures against the nuclear program of Iran is being
discussed at the UN. The Russian media informed that RF president
Vladimir Putin assured Ahmadinejad in the telephone conversation
that Russia is for continuing the negotiations for the Iranian
nuclear program.

ANOTHER DISINFORMATION BY AZERBAIJAN
AZG Armenian Daily
02/11/2006
Azerbaijani defense minister, Safar Abiev, stated that at the meeting
of Armenian and Azerbaijani defense ministers at Ijevan-Khazakh
sector organized by representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office,
Andrzej Kasprzyk, on October 20, the Azeri minister raised the
issue of “withdrawing Armenian forces from Azerbaijan’s occupied
lands.” According to a press release of the Armenian Defense Ministry,
no such issue was discussed at the meeting but the sides discussed
issues related to border control and cease-fire maintenance.

CONFERENCE FOR OPEN CODE COMPUTER PROGRAMS
By Karine Danielian
AZG Armenian Daily
02/11/2006
On October 30, “The Role of Open Code Computer Programs Policy in
Development of Information Society” conference launched in “Congress”
hotel in Yerevan.
The conference was organized by the Informational Right and
Policy Internews Center, by the Open Society institute, and the
Internet Society of Bulgaria. The conference is aimed to represent
the experience of the South Eastern European countries in this
sphere. The initiative is also meant to represent all the obstacles and
difficulties of the sphere, the factors that may hinder or contribute
to the development of the open code computer policy in the spheres
of education, local and state government activities.
Experts from Armenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Tajikistan and Russia
participate in the conference.

STREETS IN ARMENIA TO UNDERGO NEW NUMERATION AND TO BE RENAMED SOON
By Karine Danielian
AZG Armenian Daily
02/11/2006
Kamo Areyan, first deputy mayor of the Yerevan, said at a regular press
conference, that the numeration process and renaming of the Yerevan
streets is quite a complicated and urgent issue. He stated that the
address and numerology of a real estate are very important elements
of realty regulation, while the capital has lost the labels of the
old numbers. Areyan said that on December 25 2005, RA Government
adopted the decision to elaborate and introduce a single order of
numeration and addressing, as well as the state registration of real
estate. Areyan informed that the general order of numeration will be
undergo no changes: even- numbered on the right side, odd-numbered of
the left side. “The address will be provided by a responsible body,
who is Yerevan mayor.
Earlier it was the Address Bureau,” he explained. The mayor will take
the relevant decision on provision of an address within 5 days after
submission of an application. Then, this decision will be submitted
to the relevant bodies engaged in address registration processes,
particularly, to the State Realty Register Committee. This committee
is to accept and register or reject an address within 5 days. Then,
all this will be transferred to the address register. At present, 1.258
streets, parks, alleys, 4,566 residential buildings, over 216 flats and
31,000 private houses have undergone the process of being inventoried.

ARAM SARGSYAN WILL ACT ALONE
A1+
[04:59 pm] 01 November, 2006
“In the 2007 Parliamentary elections our party will be an independent
political power with its own program and will not let other parties
interfere”, announced leader of the Democratic party of Armenia Aram G.
Sargsyan in “Pastark” club today.
He added that they will join another political power only if they
are sure that the main principles of the programs of both parties
coincide. “We have chances of becoming the third power after
‘Republican Party’ and ‘Prosperous Armenia'”, said Aram Sargsyan
and added that they will try to have one candidate in each of the 41
majority electoral areas.
Asked the question what measure the DPA will take in order to prevent
the representatives of the party in the electoral committees from being
bribed, Aram Sargsyan answered that they will do everything in order
to choose trustworthy people, although you can never be 100% sure.
Referring to the role of Armenia in the regional developments, Aram
Sargsyan reminded that he is respected who is independent and realizes
his interests. According to him, Armenia has to urgent problems at
preset. The first of them is national security, “Only in that case
can we cooperate with everyone”, Aram Sargsyan said.
The other problem, according to him, concerns our compatriots in
Russia who left Armenia due to objective reasons and are a majority
there. “There are more than a million Armenians in Russia who not
only work for the Russian but also feed 1.5 Armenians here”, he added.
In this connection, according to him, the Armenian-Russian relations
must be kept at a high level.

“ARMENTEL” IS OFFICIALLY NOT SOLD
A1+
[05:11 pm] 01 November, 2006
The RA Ministry of Transport and Communication has not received a
corresponding document from Greek company OTE about the sale of 90%
of the shares of “ArmenTel”, press secretary of the Ministry Tamara
Ghalechyan informed.
Let us remind you that on October 12 RA Minister of Transport and
Communication Andranik Manoukyan informed that OTE will probably
represent the corresponding documents in mid October. According to
him, the Greek company must officially inform about the results of
the competition.
It is noteworthy that the OTE declared an auction in order to sell
90% of the share of “ArmenTel”. 16 companies have participated
in the auction. The companies which reached the second phase are:
“Vympelcom” and MTC from Russia, ETISALAT (Emirates Telecommunications
Corporation/Istithmar ETV -Emergent Telecom Ventures) and VTEL
Holdings/Knightsbridge Associates.