Month: March 2007

RESULTS OF ARMENIA’S COOPERATION WITH NATO DURING FIRST YEAR OF IPAP TO BE SUMMARIZED IN APRIL

Noyan Tapan
Mar 14 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The results of implementation of
Armenia’s Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with the NATO
during the first year will be soon discussed at the NATO. Samvel
Mkrtchian, Armenia’s Resident Representative to NATO, stated at
the March 14 press conference that the preliminary date of the
discussion to be held in Brussels is April 4 but this date may be
changed. It was noted that the discussion will take place in the "26+1"
format. According to S. Mkrtchian, the duration of an Individual
Partnership Action Plan is usually two years, after which the plan
can be continued as in case of Georgia.

ARMENIA’S STATE COMMISSION ON POWS, HOSTAGES AND THE MISSING PERSONS RECEIVED NO REQUEST TO RELEASE OF AN AZERI SOLDIER SAMIR MAMEDOV

Arminfo
2007-03-14 19:36:00

The Armenia’s State Commission on POWs, Hostages and the Missing
Persons received no request to release Azeri soldier Samir Mamedov,
Armen Kaprielyan, Head of the Work Group of the Commission, told
ArmInfo correspondent. As per the agency’s information – referring
to Shain Sailov, Secretary of Azeri State Commission – a request from
Azeri side was sent to Armenian Commission.

The source informs that Bernhard Clasen, Co-Chair of the International
Work Group for search of the missing persons, and captivated in the
Karabakh conflict, – requested Armenian side to release S. Mamedov.

Karine Minasyan, Armenian coordinator of the Work Group, told ArmInfo
correspondent that Mr. Clasen didn’t request Armenian authorities in
this regard.

"What answer can be expected if there was no request?" K.Minasyan
noted. She reminded that the International Working Group is aware of
Mamedov’s situation, however, it didn’t receive any official request
from the Azeri State Committee to take up this issue. K.Minasyan added
that the Group usually works at the requests of State Committees and
relatives of the missing persons, POWs and hostages.

To note, Samir Mamedov voluntarily crossed the Armenian border on
Dec 24, 2006. At the moment, he is in the "Yerevan" penitentiary of
the Armenian Justice Ministry.

NATO HAS NO PLANS TO DEPLOY BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENCE UNITS IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

Arminfo
2007-03-14 19:32:00

NATO has no plans to deploy ballistic missile defense units in the
South Caucasus, says the permanent representative of Armenia to NATO
Samvel Lazarian.

Lazarian says that the statement about BMD units deployment was a
trial balloon and he is presently inquiring into the details of the
US general’s statement.

Lazarian says that NATO has no such plans. Moreover, neither Georgia
nor Azerbaijan have reported any plans to provide their territories
for NATO BMD units and thereby to speed up their admission into the
alliance. Perhaps, certain circles are negotiating such possibility
but there is no official information yet, says Lazarian.

He notes that NATO needs guarantees of internal unity in the
region. Even in case of Georgia, NATO will never agree to admit a
country having unresolved conflicts as such countries may use the
alliance for their own interests.

Besides, in case of Georgia, the conflicts involve Russia and NATO
will never agree to enter into direct conflict with that country,
says Lazarian.

THE TALKS WERE SLOW TO MOVE, DESPITE THE EXISTING GROUNDWORK: ARMENIAN FM

Arminfo
2007-03-14 19:28:00

Armenia’s Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanian, concluded a regular
meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, together with the
Azerbaijani FM, in Geneva, reports the press service of the Foreign
Ministry of Armenia.

This meeting followed a recent visit to the region by French co-chair
Bernard Fassier, who, on behalf of the other two co-chairs Yuri
Merzlyakov of Russia, and Matthew Bryza of the US, attempted to
ascertain the positions of the two presidents, in the run-up to this
meeting of foreign ministers.

Minister Oskanian said, "The talks were slow to move, despite the
existing groundwork, as attempt was made to discuss second-layer
details pertaining to the principles in the document. Although there
is clearer understanding of each other’s positions, one thing is
evident that there are deep differences.

We believe that there can still be enough progress to warrant a
meeting of the presidents, and for that reason we agreed to another
meeting in April."

The Minister explained that Armenia remains committed to the principles
in the document that is being negotiated. Although there are many
secondary issues outstanding still, the principles contained in the
document address the fundamental issues with the right trade-offs,
that could lead to a lasting resolution.

ARMENIA’S DEFENCE MINISTRY DENIES THE INFORMATION OF AZERI MEDIA ON BRAKING THE CEASE-FIRE

Arminfo
2007-03-14 19:26:00

The Ministry of Defence denied the information spread by Azeri Mass
Media on that the cease-fire was broken by Armenian side.

"This does not correspond to the reality," Seyran Shakhsuvaryan,
Spokesman of MOD, told ArmInfo correspondent.

Azeri Agency APA reported that in the result of the broken cease-fire,
in Myazyam village of Gazakh region, an Azeri militaryman gor wounded
in his hand.

However, the Azeri Ministry of Defence denies the information. Ramiz
Melikov, Spokesman of Azeri MOD, said that he was not informed
about it.

It can be a regular attempt to explain wounds of an Azeri soldier by
assigning breaking of the cease-fire to Armenians.

It was planed to hold OSCE monitoring at the contact line of Armenian
and Azeri armed forces in Gazakh-Ijevan region today. However, there
is no information on the monitoring yet.

AZERI, ARMENIAN MINISTERS MEET TO DISCUSS KARABAKH

Day.az website, Baku
14 Mar 07

14 March: Another round of negotiations on settling the Karabakh
problem has been held in Geneva between Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

They discussed a document containing basic and fundamental principles
of settlement, drafted by the [OSCE] Minsk Group co-chairs.

Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuriy Merzlyakov said
that the basic principles include two main issues – withdrawal of
the Armenian troops from the districts around Nagornyy Karabakh
and determination of the status of the unrecognized republic till a
referendum is held.

[Passage omitted: Merzlyakov said Karabakh needs contacts with
international organizations]

PROPERTY OF ARMENIAN AIRWAYS TO BE AUCTIONED AGAIN

Noyan Tapan
Mar 14 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Property of only 2 mln drams out of
the bankrupt airline Armenian Airways’ property of the total value
of 38 mln 751 thousand drams (about 110 thousand USD) was recently
sold by auction. Hrant Ghambarian, Chairman of the Armenian Airways’
bankruptcy commission, told NT correspondent about it. According to
him, IL-86 plane that was put up at auction several times has not
been sold again. For this reason the plane’s reserve price of 122
mln 880 thousand drams was reduced by 10 mln drams. H. Ghambarian
said that the next auction will be held on March 28.

PROPOSED GENOCIDE RESOLUTION NAMING TURKEY RISKS DAMAGE TO U.S. SECURITY, SAYS RICE, GATES

The Associated Press
International Herald Tribune, France
March 14 2007

WASHINGTON: The U.S. secretaries of state and defense contend that
the security of the United States is at risk from proposed legislation
that would declare up to 1.5 million Armenians victims of a genocide
on Turkish soil almost a century ago.

In joint identical letters to the speaker of the House of
Representatives and two other senior members, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the resolution
also could inflict significant damage on U.S. efforts to reconcile
the long-standing dispute between the West Asian neighbors.

The appeals went to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Rep. John
Boehner, leader of the House’s Republican minority; and Rep. Tom
Lantos, the Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of one of the letters Wednesday.

It was dated March 7, two days after Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian was in Washington to visit Rice and said afterward that
"Turkish lobbying at a government level" threatened to scuttle the
resolution.

A Democratic aide said Pelosi, who controls the House agenda, has
no plan to bring the proposal before the House soon. The aide spoke
anonymously because final plans have not been approved.

A congressional staff aide, also speaking without attribution,
said it is understood that Lantos, whose committee would deal with
the resolution, was awaiting word from Pelosi. Both the speaker and
Lantos have been supporters of the legislation.

The dispute involves the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of the
Turkish state. Armenian advocates contend they died in an organized
genocide; the Turks say they were victims of widespread chaos and
governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in the
years before Turkey was born in 1923.

The bipartisan resolution was introduced on Jan. 30.

Passage of the resolution would harm "U.S. efforts to promote
reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and to advance recognition
by Turkey of the tragic events that occurred to ethnic Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire," the letters said.

They said the United States is encouraging "our friends in Turkey to
re-examine their past with honesty and to reconcile with Armenia, as
well as security and stability in the broader Middle East and Europe."

Rice and Gates reminded the lawmakers of repercussions from a vote
in the French National Assembly last October to criminalize denial
of Armenian genocide. "The Turkish military cut all contacts with the
French military and terminated defense contracts under negotiation,"
the letters said.

Similar reaction against passage of the House resolution "could harm
American troops in the field, constrain our ability to supply our
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and significantly damage our efforts
to promote reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey at a key turning
point in their relations."

Turkey has NATO’s second-largest army. The U.S. Air Force has a major
base in southern Turkey near Iraq, which it has used for operations
in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Between the Persian Gulf War in
1991 and the Iraq war, warplanes from Incirlik Air Base enforced a
flight ban in Northern Iraq against the Iraqi air force.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BALANCE OF FORCES IN REGION IMPORTANT TO ARMENIA

Arka News Agency, Armenia
March 14 2007

YEREVAN. March 13. /ARKA/. Retaining of balance of forces in the
region is of principled importance to Armenia, the member of the
ARF Dashnaktsutyun high authority, Minister of Science and Education
Levon Lazarian reported on Monday. He said that mechanisms to ensure
regional balance of forces have strategic significance for the future
of our country and people," Lazarian said.

According to him, retaining of regional balance should be viewed in
three planes: civilized, political, and national.

"Values of different civilizations collide in our region, and our
people is one of the few Christian nations not considered alien in
the Muslim world and retaining close ties with the European system
of values considered a fundament of the Christian civilization,"
Lazarian reported.

According to him, this makes Armenia an important factor of retaining
regional balance from the viewpoint of a civilization. Besides this,
global interests face each other in the region from a political
viewpoint.

"A one-sided polarization of forces does not ensure positive
development of our people. We have to do everything to balance the
most different political interests, and it is of high strategic
importance for us," he said.

The ARFD representative also pointed to the important of providing
balance at the national level, because the Armenian people, dispersed
all over the world, "living in different conditions, needs provision
of mechanisms of balance that will lessen natural and objective
disagreements in our life and activity".

According to Lazarian, from these realities proceeds the country’s
complimentary policy, by which Armenia has achieved concrete successes
and obtained confidence and authority in the world.

Lazarian also added that Armenia does not want its bilateral relations
to be conditioned by the relations of third countries.

TOP GENERAL SLAMS PARLIAMENTARY IMMUNITY
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 14 2007

Seyran Saroyan, an influential army general who recently retired from
the military to join the election campaign, on Wednesday called for an
end to immunity from prosecution enjoyed by Armenian parliamentarians.

Saroyan, who commanded Armenia’s Fourth Army Corps until last month,
is running for parliament in a single-mandate constituency covering
his town of Echmiadzin and surrounding villages. He has been endorsed
by the governing Republican Party (HHK) led by Defense Minister
Serzh Sarkisian.

"If we want to have normal deputies we must abolish that immunity so
that everyone comes to the legal field," Saroyan told RFE/RL in an
interview. "If, God willing, I get elected, that will be my first
objective. And we’ll then see whether so many people will again
scramble to get into parliament."

The 39-year-old prominent veteran of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh did
not say how he would go about scrapping something which is enshrined
in the Armenian constitution. The constitution can be amended only
by means of a referendum.

Saroyan’s surprise decision to quit the armed forces and become a
politician was announced amid rumors that the HHK is looking for ways
of unseating Hakob Hakobian, a controversial pro-government lawmaker
who is expected to go on trial on charges of tax evasion and assault
later this year. Hakobian, who joined the HHK last year, is running
for parliament from the same constituency.

Saroyan insisted, however, that the decision to contest the May 12
elections was entirely his, saying that Armenia needs "people like me
who think about developing the country." "We have mainly the rich and
the poor," he complained. "If we don’t have a sizable middle class
in our country, we won’t achieve anything."

Saroyan added that as a member of the National Assembly he would
strive to enlarge the Armenian middle class by advocating a tougher
government crackdown on widespread tax evasion. "Nobody must have
the right to steal anything from this state," he said.

Saroyan, who had been promoted to the rank of major-general by
President Robert Kocharian at the age of 32, is believed to have made a
big fortune over the past decade thanks to his proximity to successive
governments in Yerevan. He as well as another top army general, Deputy
Defense Minister Manvel Grigorian, wield a considerable economic and
political clout in the Echmiadzin area.

Critics have long accused the two close friends of dominating the
area through an atmosphere of fear. Many residents of Echmiadzin, a
historic town 20 kilometers south of Yerevan, would agree with this
assertion. "We live in a military zone with a military discipline,"
one of them told RFE/RL.

While admitting that he is a wealthy person, Saroyan claimed that
he owns no businesses in Armenia. "I only have businesses abroad. I
received them as gifts from my friends long time ago," he said,
speaking in an Echmiadzin winery which is officially owned by his
father.

The bearded general also opined that low-income Armenians should
be happy to be represented and governed by wealthy individuals. "A
poor person can’t take care of other poor people," he said. "Only
well-to-do people think about good things."