Month: March 2007

AGREEMENT IS SIGNED ON PROCLAIMING YEREVAN AND LOS ANGELES SISTER CITIES

Noyan Tapan
Feb 28 2007

LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The delegation headed by
Yerevan Mayor Yervand Zakharian was in Los Angeles on February 20-24
to participate in the solemn ceremony of signing the agreement on
proclaiming Yerevan and Los Angeles sister cities. According to the
information submitted to Noyan Tapan by the RA Foreign Ministry’s
Press and Information Department, the solemn ceremony of signing the
agreement on proclaiming Yerevan and Los Angeles sister cities took
place at the February 23 sitting of the Los Angeles City Council.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expressed confidence that this
agreement will become a new stimulus for deepening mutual cooperation
between Los Angeles and Yerevan and for exchange of experience. He
also attached importance to the invaluable contribution of Armenians
in multinational and multicultural Los Angeles.

Y.Zakharian mentioned in his speech that the agreement supposes closer
cooperation of the two cities in the sphere of the newest technologies
and public management, increase of trade relations, closer economic,
cultural, scientific, educational ties.

6 RADIO COMPANIES DISPUTE IN COURT GOVERNMENT’S COMPETENCE TO SET BROADCAST PAYMENTS

Noyan Tapan
Feb 28 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. 6 Armenian radio companies applied
to the RA Economic Court with the request to recognize as invalid
the government’s decision about setting payments for broadcast
frequency. The decision authorizes the RA Ministry of Transport and
Communication to set the amount of broadcast payments.

Lawyer Olga Safarian, who represents interests of these radio
companies, told NT correspondent that in accordance with Article 45 of
the RA Constitution, the order and amount of taxes, duties and other
mandatory payments are prescribed by law. However, according to her,
the Law on Television and Radio does not conatin a provision on the
amount and order of setting broadcast payments.

Representative of the defendant – Head of the Juridical Department
of the RA Ministry of Transport and Communication Artashes Hovsepian
said that the demand of the radio companies is unfounded because by
the law on legal acts, the government regulates legal relations which
are not regulated by the RA Constitution, laws or presidential decrees.

He noted that the radio companies must pay the same amount as they
paid previously. Out of the 64 TV and radio companies registered in
Armenia, 15 did not make payments envisaged for 2006, including the
companies that filed the lawsuit.

These comnpanies state that they do not refuse to pay and dispute in
court not the amount of payments but the order of their setting.

At the February 27 sitting, the court decided to grant O. Safarian’s
petition and postpone the case examination until March 12. Lawyer
Olga Safarian said that she needs time to familiarize herself with
the government’s answer and present her objections.

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS TO PARTICIPATE IN INDIA IN RE-ANOINTMENT CEREMONY OF TANGRA ARMENIAN CHURCH

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Feb 28 2007

DELHI, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The re-anointment
ceremony of the Armenian church of the district of Tangra, the city
of Calcutta, will take place on February 28, presided by Catholicos
of All Armenians.

On the previous day, February 26, His Holiness Karekin II Catholicos
of All Armenians visited the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in
New Delhi.

Mr.Hayk Sukias, the primate of the Calcutta Church Council also
accompanied His Holiness.

As it is mentioned in the information submitted to Noyan Tapan by the
Press Services of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Republic of
Armenia established official diplomatic relations with India in 1992,
and the RA Embassy in Delhi was opened in 1999. This is the first
Patriarchal visit to India during the last 40 years. The Patriarchal
visit of Late Vazgen I Catholicos of All Armenians to India took
place in 1963.

"TURKEY MUST CONCILIATE WITH IDEA OF EXISTENCE OF INDEPENDENT KURDISTAN," HEAD OF KURDISH AUTOCRACY OF NORTHERN IRAQ STATES

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Feb 28 2007

ANKARA, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. "We can not
struggle against the Labour Party of Kurdistan. Turkey must already
adjust to the idea of existence of independent Kurdistan." Mesud
Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Autocracy of Northern Iraq, Chairman
of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan passed among other shocking
statements the above-mentioned two precepts to official Ankara in
the interview given to the Turkish NTV TV channel.

As the Turkish "Zaman" daily states, with this interview Barzani
responded Yasar Buyukanit, the Chief of the Headquarters General of
the Armed Forces of Turkey, who refused to start a dialogue with Kurd
leader of Northern Iraq. "If Buyukanit does not want to speak with us,
it is his affair. We welcome Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s step
for starting a dialogue with Kurds," the Kurd leader mentioned.

Barzani at the same time stressed that Kurds hold out hand of
friendship to Turkey: "There is not fact that we assist the KLP,
but, at the same time, we may not struggle against that party. The
KLP issue must be solved with the help of political but not military
means. Turkey can in any way struggle in its territories, but if
it enters Northern Iraq, we can not remain indifferent, either,"
Barzani mentioned.

The Kurd leader stated that the number of Kurds in all over the
world is 40 million and "they have right to have own state." "The
history has not been just towards Kurds. Turks, Arabs and Iranians
must understand that it is not shameful to speak about this issue
any more," Mesud Barzani stated.

EVENTS DEVOTED TO THE 19TH ANNIVERSARY OF SUMGAIT POGROMS WILL B HELD TODAY IN ARMENIA

arminfo
2007-02-28 10:59:00

A press-conference of the leader of an Initiative group for protection
of Sumgait Armenians’ rights will be held in the "Urbat" club with
participation of the witness of tragic events Roman Hambaryan. By the
initiative of the ARF Dashnaktsutiun, a procession will be conducted
to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial of the Armenian Genocide victims
in Ottoman Turkey, in the neighborhood of which a monument to the
victims of Sumgait events is raised. The ARFD has also organized a
Round Table on the subject "Armenian Response to Propaganda of Turkey
and Azerbaijan".

HEATING EQUIPMEMT INSTALLED AT 48 ARMENIAN FIRE-FIGHTING STATIONS WITH US GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE

Noyan Tapan
Feb 28 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. Heating equipment was installed
at 48 fire-fighting stations of Armenia with funds of the US
government and the Rescue Service of the RA Ministry of Territorial
Governance. 262.079 thousand USD of the program completed on February
27 was provided by the US government, another part, 5 mln drams
(about 14 thousand USD) – by the Rescue Service. 360 megawatts of
power will be saved annually thanks to this program.

The program on heating equipment installation was implemented within
the framework of the USAID-financed energy efficiency program that
started in Armenia in 2001.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KORI UDOVICKI: DISCUSSION OF THE KARABAKH ISSUE IN THE UN DEPENDS ON THE INTERESTS OF THE PARTIES

armradio.am
28.02.2007 16:52

The objective of the US is to serve the interests of all member-states.

Therefore, the progress of the GUAM initiative depends on the fact to
what extent the developments of the discussions on Nagorno Karabakh
will proceed from the interests of Armenia and Azerbaijan," Director of
the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS Kori Udovicki told ArmInfo
correspondent, commenting on the GUAM initiative to raise the issue of
"frozen conflicts" at the spring session of the UN General Assembly.

In her words, the situation will develop as long as it serves the
interests of all the parties. "The UN Development Programme acts in
the sphere of development, and prevention of conflicts is one of the
important components of development," the Regional Director noted.

She added that in this light the "frozen conflicts" are a greater
threat to the long-term and steady development of a country. "We
would like to help the conflicting countries resolve the conflict,"
Kori Udovicki mentioned.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN DAILY ACCUSES US EMBASSY OF MEDDLING IN TV COVERAGE

Hayots Ashkharh, Yerevan,
27 Feb 07

Text of unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Hayots Ashkharh on
27 February headlined "What will the US embassy dictate tomorrow?"

It became known yesterday that the US embassy was rather unnerved by
the fact that the news conference of the founder of the Heritage Party,
Raffi Hovhannisyan, at the Urbat Press Club was not sufficiently
covered by TV, as they believe. Moreover, the embassy phoned TV
companies and demanded explanations in this regard.

Perhaps the given situation can seem disrespectful towards commonsense
to some people. After all, it is up to a TV company to decide how
to cover a particular event and whether to broadcast it at all. But
this is not the first case, is it? US embassies all over the world
constantly show disrespect for commonsense. They consider it quite
possible to interfere in the internal affairs of both foreign countries
and private companies, to dictate TV companies whom to show, how much
to show and how to show.

What will the US embassy in Armenia decide to dictate tomorrow? Who
is allowed to participate in an election, and who is not. Who has
won and who has lost.

Lately, we had to remind the US embassy in Armenia on another occasion
of Article 41 of the Vienna Convention. It says all people having
personal and diplomatic immunity must "respect the laws and regulations
of the host country and not interfere in its internal affairs".

If the host country considers the interference in its internal affairs
to be too persistent, it usually declares the interfere persona non
grata even without explaining the reasons (in accordance with Article
9 of the Vienna Convention) or explaining it by activity incompatible
with a diplomatic post.

The principles "we will do as we like" and "we will dictate to whoever
we like" are applicable to some extent to the internal affairs
of one’s own country but are absolutely inapplicable to foreign
affairs. However, it is quite difficult to imagine a situation when
someone in the United States dares to phone a TV company and demand
explanation as to why the address of a particular politician was not
sufficiently covered. And it is quite easy to imagine where exactly
the US TV company will send the person who phoned.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES REFUSE TO GO TO POLLS WITHIN OLD BLOC

Arminfo
26 Feb 07

Yerevan, 26 February: "Our opposition colleagues have turned down
the proposal of the People’s Party of Armenia [PPA] to run for the
parliamentary election within the Ardarutyun [Justice] bloc formed
in 2003," PPA press secretary Ruzan Khachatryan has said.

She said that since the main negotiators in the recent consultations
were Ardarutyun bloc members, the People’s Party of Armenia proposed
keeping the same name for the new bloc after enlarging it and making
corrections in it.

"People placed trust in the Ardarutyun bloc four years ago. The
bloc had and still has a programme and a key goal – to restore
constitutional order in the country. Since the same political parties
plus the Heritage party of Raffi Hovhannisyan were involved in the
negotiations, the PPA made that proposal, which at the end of the
day was not accepted," Khachatryan said.

She, however, said that the opposition’s unification does not
necessarily imply setting up large election blocs and that this may
cover a wide range of issues from moral and tactical support to such
a crucial measure as oversight of the elections process, voting and
vote counting. "The People’s Party of Armenia backed the Alternative’s
idea to set up an election bloc based on the idea of impeaching the
head of the incumbent regime but several major opposition forces
refused to join it, which made the project lose its significance,"
Khachatryan said.

Throughout the past week, the PPA, the Heritage party, the Republic
party and the National Democratic Union held consultations on
the format of their participation in the 12 May parliamentary
election. Aram Sargsyan, the leader of the Republic party, said that
he would propose that his opposition colleagues form a broad alliance.

The council of Demirchyan’s PPA was supposed to hold a meeting
today [26 February] to pass a final decision on how the party will
participate in the parliamentary election and approve the party’s
proportional representation list. But Khachatryan said that "the
meeting will be held in a couple of days, it was delayed to have some
technical issues settled".

ARMENIAN ELECTORAL BODY APPROVES APPEARANCE, SIZE OF BALLOT BOXES

Mediamax news agency
27 Feb 07

Yerevan, 27 February: Armenia’s Central Election Commission [CEC]
has approved the appearance and dimensions of the ballot boxes and
ballot envelopes.

Transparent boxes will be used in the 12 May parliamentary polls. The
CEC passed a decision to reduce the size of the hole in the boxes
from 21 mm to 15 mm to prevent attempts to drop a large number of
ballots into the boxes.

The ballot envelopes for candidates under the first-past-the-post
system will be white, and those for candidates under the proportional
system will be beige. The CEC emblem will be depicted on the envelopes.

CEC chairman Garegin Azaryan said that the commission had passed
a decision on the procedure of entering data on the results of
voting. The chairpersons of all regional electoral commissions
will have to enter the results of vote counting into a nationwide
database. However, Azaryan said, in Yerevan, the old data transferring
system (using transport means) will be used because Yerevan is not
connected to the computer network. After the records arrive, the data
for Yerevan will be entered into the database too, Azaryan said.