Month: March 2007

IWG didn’t address Armenia to free Samir Mamedov to save him from jail
upon return to Azerbaijan

Arminfo
2007-03-16 14:16:00

German Co-Chair of IWG Bernhard Clasen told ArmInfo correspondent that
the International Work Group on Search of the Missing Persons,
Hostages and release of Captivated in Karabakh conflict zone (IWG)
didn’t request Armenian side to release Samir Mamedov – fearing that
he may be sentenced to long- term imprisonment upon his return to
Azerbaijan.

Reminder: Some days ago, Azeri media spread information as if Bernhard
Clasen addressed Armenia’s authorities on the Mamedov’s case.

Being questioned by the correspondent whether such disinformation
could add to establishment of the "environment of credibility between
the two states", Mr. Clausen said that he regards the occasion as a
"misunderstanding". He added that a misunderstanding can’t have a
negative effect on establishment of credibility between the two
states.

Samir Mamedov has voluntarily surrendered to Armenian side on 24 Dec.
Presently he is in Yerevan Penitentiary of Armenia’s Justice Ministry.

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
March 16 2007

OSCE promotes media self-regulation in Armenia

( OSCE ) – Establishing a media self-regulation system in Armenia, as
well as accountability and professional norms in the coverage of
elections and inter-ethnic relations, were discussed at a seminar
that ended in Yerevan.

The two-day event brought together more than 50 participants from the
Armenian National Assembly, local media outlets, and international
organizations, as well as media experts from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria,
Georgia, Romania and Turkey.

"The ongoing democratic reforms in Armenia call for professional,
independent and responsible media," said Ambassador Vladimir
Pryakhin, the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

"I hope this seminar will help promote better understanding by the
Armenian media community of the process of establishing media
accountability systems."

In a letter to the participants of the seminar, Miklos Haraszti, the
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, said: "It is important
for Armenia to launch a self-regulatory body. While promoting media
professionalism and respect for ethics, the existence of a
self-regulatory mechanism can minimize the chances of State
intervention and help restore civil society’s trust in the media."

Boris Navasardyan, the President of the Yerevan Press Club, said:
"Since 2004, the Yerevan Press Club has been closely co-operating
with the OSCE Office in Yerevan and the Open Society Institute on
ways of introducing an effective self-regulation system for Armenian
media. Introducing norms of professional conduct, particularly in the
coverage of elections and regional problems, is one of the most
urgent issues."

The Yerevan Press Club has called on the media community to jointly
develop a Code of Professional Ethics. So far, 19 media outlets and
leading media NGOs have signed the proposed document. The initiative
helped establish a Media Ethics Observatory which will survey the
fulfilment of the Code of Professional Ethics and gradually become a
prototype of a Press Council in the country.

Participants also noted that the seminar was particularly important
in light of the May parliamentary elections.

The event was organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan, the Office of
the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the Yerevan Press
Club and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation – Armenia.

Armenian Football Teams Chose Antalia Turkish Resort City as Place for
Their Trainings

Arminfo
2007-03-16 14:19:00

The prize-winners of the Armenian football championship, the "Puinik",
"MIka" and "Banants" have chosen the Turkish Antalia resort city as a
place for their trainings this spring.

As "Zaman" Turkish daily reports, the initiative of the Armenian teams
will contribute to the "construction of abridge of trust" between the
peoples. According to the daily, despite the growing pressure on
Turkey by the western countries and by the Armenian Diaspora to
recognize the Armenian Genocide, the relations between the two peoples
in the sports area become stronger. The trainer of the football team
Samvel Petrosian told "Zaman" that "the "Piunik" has no problems in
Turkey". The daily reports that the teams will stay in Antalia within
a fortnight.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 16 2007

Leo Platvoet: I will insist on including my report on missing persons
into the agenda of PACE session

[ 16 Mar 2007 11:10 ]

`I will insist on including my report on missing persons in the South
Caucasus in the agenda of the April Session of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE),’ Leo Platvoet, PACE
rapporteur on missing persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia told
the APA.

He said that agenda of the PACE April session will be discussed in
Strasbourg next week.
`Though I am not the member of the council determining the agenda, I
have already met with some officials dealing with this procedure. I
insisted upon including my report in the agenda of the session. I
will discuss it with the other members of the council next week, as
my report needs to be debated,’ he said. /APA/

IN NIKOL PASHINIAN’S WORDS, UNDER ROBERT KOCHARIAN ARMENIA CONSTANTLY
SUFFERS DEFEATS IN NAGORNO KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Since 1998 when Robert Kocharian
started to attend to Nagorno Karabakh problem Armenia constantly
suffers defeats. Nikol Pashinian, member of Alternative
public-political initiative, editor of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper,
stated this at the March 16 rally. In his words, as s result of RA
President’s wrong policy on Nagorno Karabakh conflict today Karabakh
is perceived as an "occupied territory" by the international
community.

N. Pashinian said that until 1998 NKR was a "full-value negotiations
side and NKR representative as equal sat at negotiations table with
representatives of U.S., France, Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan." And
R. Kocharian, as Alternative’s member emphasized, "forced out"
representatives of NKR from this table as soon as he came to power.

N. Pashinian said that in 2005 the Council of Europe adopted a
resolution, in which for the first time the Armenian side was accused
of making ethnic cleansings in Karabakh and it was registered that
Armenia – member of CE, "occupied" territories of Azerbaijan, which is
also a member of CE. N. Pashinian reminded that the author of that
anti-Armenian resolution is the very David Atkinson who after his
visit to Stepanakert in 1992 made a report in CE, which "was
completely a pro-Armenian document." So, in the words of Haykakan
Zhamanak’s editor, in consequence of RA authorities’ incompetent
policy, D. Atkinson’s position to Nagorno Karabakh conflict also
changed for the worse.

5 LOCAL AND 2 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS’ OBSERVERS ACCREDITED AT RA
CEC

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN. As of March 16, 15:00, five local and
two international organizations were accredited at RA Central
Electoral Commission (CEC) for implementing observation mission at the
May 12 parliamentary elections. Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed
about it from CEC Spokesperson Tsovinar Khachatrian.

In addition to 2292 and 10 observers of Choice is Yours and Center for
Electoral Systems local NGOs, respectively, CIS Interparliamentary
Assembly (12 observers) and CIS Executive Committee (8 observers)
accredited earler, CEC accredited observers of another 3 local
organizations. The All Armenian Center for Long-Term Programs
accredited 12 observers, Apaven 60 observers, F. Nansen Human Rights
Armenian Center 17 observers.

To recap, the deadline for accrediting observers is May 2.

COOPERATION WITH NATO DOES NOT MEAN STOPPING OF COOPERATION WITH
ANOTHER STRUCTURE, ALLIANCE REPRESENTATIVE SAYS

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The NATO is interested in the issue of
cooperation with Armenia, and the sides have a great volume of work to
do together. George Katsirdakis, the head of the Defence Partnership
and Cooperation Directorate of the NATO Defence Planning and
Operations Devision stated about it at the March 15 meeting with
journalists. In his words, the International Partnership Actions Plan
(IPAP) of Armenia involves a great number of events a part of which
has already been implemented, and the others are in process what
proves that Armenia is as well interested in the cooperation with the
NATO.

G.Katsirdakis emphasized that the cooperation with the NATO does not
mean that cooperation with another structure will be stopped. He
mentioned that though the NATO relations with Russia are rather good
but disagreement exists in some issues. In his words, the NATO and
Russia cooperate in the anti-terrorism struggle, in the sphere of
resque works, exchange information, including intelligence data. Joint
military actions are also held, particularly, the NATO forces were
moved to Afghanistan by Russian transport.

"The NATO observes the three South Caucasian countries as one bloc,
only arising of the geographic veiwpoint. But we are very well aware
that the three states differ from each other, and interests of Armenia
do not coincide with interests of Azerbaijan or Georgia," the NATO
representative mentioned. In his words, it would be desirable if the
NATO was able to assist cooperation among those countries, what it may
not oblige them.

In G.Katsirdakis’ opinion, Georgia will hardly join the NATO till
2008. He mentioned that that country got a status of "intensive
dialogue" what does not mean yet that it will become an Alliance
member. There is a similar dialogue with Russia as well, the
administration of which recently stated that it is not ready for the
next stage of membership, membership actions.

G.Katsirdakis mentioned that the NATO may not oblige Turkey and
Armenia to establish bilateral relations. But, in his opinion, it is
appropriate from the viewpoint of regional stability that additional
efforts are made in that direction by both sides.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IN RUSSIAN JOURNALIST’S WORDS, THERE IS LACK OF INFORMATION ABOUT
ARMENIA IN RUSSIA

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN. In spite of strong contacts between
the two countries, there is lack of information about Armenia in
Russia. Alan Kasamov, Director of RIA-Novosti agency’s CIS and Baltic
countries’ department, stated this at the March 16 press conference.

In his words, Russian media do not set themselves the task to fill up
that gap. He advised Armenian media to inform more actively Russian
citizens about Armenia, especially as there are 1.5-2 mln Armenians
among them. A. Kasamov also said that information like any other
goods should be packed up well and provided to the buyer.

Answering NT correspondent’s question, he said that Russian printed
and electronic media unequivocally express negative attitude to
manifestations of xenophobia in Russia. At the same time, A. Kasamov
said that any Russian media can be blamed for giving opportunity of
expression for opinions of xenophobia, showing neutral attitude to
such cases or not very actively agitating tolerance to other nations.

In A. Kasamov’s words, dozens of NGOs uniting Armenians function in
Russia, which can apply to the court with any fact of xenophobia in
Russian media.

Armenian opposition youth set to monitor parliamentary poll

Arminfo
16 Mar 07

Yerevan, 15 March: A number of youth organizations of Armenian
opposition parties plan to join efforts to control the process of the
[12 May] National Assembly [parliament] election, representatives of
the newly created Youth Opposition Council told a news conference
today [15 March].
Young opposition members have declared that one of their priorities is
control over the activities of local observers. "We will do that
because their role is crucial in ensuring the transparency of the
forthcoming parliamentary polls," Narek Galstyan, the head of the
Hunchakian Social Democratic Party’s "Sargis Tkhruni" youth and
student organization, said. He said that after the election, the Youth
Opposition Council will prepare a complete report on the activities of
both local and international observers.
The Council also includes the youth wings of the People’s Party of
Armenia of Stepan Demirchyan, the Republic party of Aram Sargsyan,
and the Alliance of National Democrats of Arshak Sadoyan.

Armenia actively cooperating within CIS military treaty – official

Arminfo
15 Mar 07

Yerevan, 15 March: Armenia is an active member of the [CIS] Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and sees its security within the
activity of this organization. CSTO Secretary General Nikolay
Bordyuzha said this today during a meeting with students of Yerevan
State University.

Bordyuzha said that all government structures in Armenia have been
cooperating with the CSTO. He talked of the organization’s history and
said that the CSTO was established in a period when its member states
were only beginning to form their structures during the disintegration
of the USSR. [Passage omitted: more on history of CSTO]

The CSTO member states have also been against the proposal by the GUAM
(Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) to discuss the "frozen
conflicts" in the UN. Bordyuzha referred to Armenia’s participation in
the CSTO and said that the republic was able to purchase Russian arms
by Russian prices, and Armenian servicemen can study in Russian
military institutions for free.

"It is important for us to build a comprehensive security system. This
is why the cooperation develops in different directions," Bordyuzha
said. Joint work in the field of overcoming technical and natural
disasters will be a new direction of cooperation within the
CSTO. Peace-keeping will be another direction.

Bordyuzha said that a package of documents was being prepared within
the framework of the CSTO, on the basis of which peace-keeping forces
[presumably of the CIS] will be created. They will act with a UN
mandate, and not only in the CSTO member states, but also in other
countries.

Bordyuzha reminded that the CSTO member states have certain
responsibilities, including that they must not built bases belonging
to other countries on their own territory without consulting all the
members of the organization.

Comparing the CSTO with NATO, Bordyuzha said that the alliance was
created more than half a century ago and major efforts had been
invested to present its activity as positive. "We cannot carry out
similar awareness activity, but within our abilities we do carry out
certain awareness work about our activity," the CSTO Secretary General
said. "We do a lot to ensure common security," he added.