Month: May 2008

AZERI PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV HAS PRAISED THE STATE OF AZERBAIJAN’S RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA

Interfax News Agency, Russia
May 15 2008

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has praised the state of Azerbaijan’s
relations with Russia and has expressed confidence the two countries
will build up their cooperation.

Aliyev was speaking at a meeting in Baku on Wednesday with Russian
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, who was also upbeat about
Azeri- Russian relations.

Karasin credited relations between Russia and Azerbaijan with being
dynamic and said the Russian leadership attached great importance to
building up ties between the two countries.

Karasin was on a visit to Baku that included a meeting with Azeri
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov at which the Russian official
expressed complete support for Azerbaijan’s policy of seeking to
restore its sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-speaking
enclave in Azerbaijan that has been the source of a two-decade conflict
between Azerbaijan and Armenia and is a de facto independent state.

Karasin also said Moscow wanted the Minsk Group, a mediating body
appointed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
to continue to coordinate efforts to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

Mammadyarov told Karasin that bringing Nagorno-Karabakh back under
Azeri control was the only acceptable settlement option and that
it would serve to strengthen stability in the region and improve
relations between its nations.

On Thursday, the Azeri Foreign Ministry argued that a recent visit
by new Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to Nagorno-Karabakh had made
the conflict settlement process more difficult.

The sooner the Armenian side realizes this the more it will gain for
itself, ministry spokesman Xazar Ibrahim told a briefing in Baku.

Ibrahim said Armenia had not made a single constructive move since
Sargsyan took office.

We still hope that the Armenian leadership will make an accurate
assessment of the situation and take proper measures, the spokesman
said.

NO POSITIVE CHANGES IN YEREVAN’S POSITION ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH – AZERI FOREIGN MINISTRY

Interfax News Agency
May 15 2008
Russia

New Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s recent visit to
Nagorno-Karabakh does not provide positive preconditions for resolving
the conflict, Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim said
at a news conference on Thursday.

"The sooner Armenia understands this the better," Ibrahim said.

Since the new president came to power in Armenia, Yerevan has not
taken a single constructive step, he said.

"We are still hoping that the Armenian leadership will assess the
situation correctly and take appropriate measures," he said.

YEREVAN RIOT PARTICIPANT SENTENCED TO 3.5 YEARS IN JAIL

Interfax News Agency
May 15 2008
Russia

The Yerevan Criminal Court sentenced Mkrtich Abramian to 3.5 years in
custody on Thursday for taking part in the Yerevan riots on March 1,
Armenian Appeal Court press secretary Alina Yengoyan told Interfax.

Fifty-four people are pending trial on riot charges.

As of May 12, 40 criminal cases of 43 individuals were transferred
to court by the Armenian Special Investigation Service and nine by
the National Security Service.

All in all, courts will hear 49 criminal cases of 52 individuals
initiated by the National Security Service.

The opposition led by ex-president and presidential candidate Levon
Ter-Petrosian began protests against the results of the February
19 election. The protests developed into clashes with the police on
March 1. Ten people died and over 250 were injured.

Ter-Petrosian’s supporters still refuse to recognize the election
results.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN, AZERI PRESIDENTS WILL MEET IN ST. PETERSBURG ON JUNE 7

Interfax News Agency
May 15 2008
Russia

The first meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijan’s presidents,
Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, respectively, will take place in
St. Petersburg on June 7, Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandian
said.

The parties will be discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the
minister said.

"The Armenian and Azeri presidents will meet on the sidelines of
the informal summit of the CIS heads of state in St. Petersburg,"
Nalbandian told journalists.

RUSSIA’S MEGAFON RULES OUT ARMENIAN EXPANSION
by Michael Lacquiere

World Markets Research Center
Global Insight
May 16, 2008

Russia’s third-largest mobile operator, MegaFon, has indicated that
it has no plans to expand into the Armenian market, according to
company representative Tatyana Zvereva, as quoted inARKA. Armenia’s
existing two mobile operators, Armentel and VivaCell, are owned by
MegaFon’s two Russian rivals, VimpelCom and Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)
respectively. A third GSM licence in Armenia is due to be issued this
year at a starting price of 10 million euro ($15US.5 million).

Significance:With its ownership structure now becoming clearer,
MegaFon is beginning to outline its long-term strategic plans, which
appear to include a possible initial public offering (IPO), as well as
entry into the Iranian mobile market (seeRussia: 14 May 2008:and13
May 2008:). Unlike MTS and VimpelCom, MegaFon has opted against
expansion across the CIS region, with Tajikistan the only country in
which it has a presence beyond Russia. While the investment of MTS and
VimpelCom has helped to stimulate subscriber uptake in Armenia, mobile
penetration in the country remains fairly low and a third operator
would therefore have a reasonable chance of establishing itself.

CONFERENCE FOR PLANNING OF NATO EXERCISES WILL TAKE PLACE IN YEREVAN

DEFENSE and SECURITY
May 16, 2008 Friday
Russia

The conference for planning exercises Cooperative Bow, Cooperative
Lance and Brave Lynx-2008 in the framework of NATO Partnership for
Peace program will be opened in Yerevan on May 14, reports Colonel
Seiran Shakhsuvaryan, press secretary of the Defense Minister of
Armenia. According to Shakhsuvaryan, the main conference for planning
of the exercises will take place between May 14 and 16.

GUAM AS POMPOUS PROJECT WITH LIMITED CAPACITIES
by Sergei Zhiltsov

DEFENSE and SECURITY
May 16, 2008 Friday
Russia

NOT A SINGLE REGIONAL PROBLEM SOLVED, GUAM IS DOOMED TO A QUIET DEMISE;
Proclaiming itself ready to tackle local problems, GUAM aspires to
leadership in the Black Sea region. Bold declarations are all it has
been good for so far.

The Black Sea region attracts more and more attention. Regrettably, it
is the conflicts that usually attract attention and not the successes
of economic or political integration accomplished by the countries of
the region. Tension mounting in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict area,
Tbilisi’s never ending accusations of Russia, dummies presented as
Black Sea Fleet missiles – this is a short list of the latest events
in the region.

It is clear now that regional organizations like the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation Organization and GUAM (an alliance of Georgia, Ukraine,
Moldova, Azerbaijan) are absolutely helpless in dealing with regional
problems, and GUAM doubly so.

Proclaiming itself ready to tackle local problems, GUAM aspires to
leadership in the Black Sea region. Bold declarations are all it has
been good for so far. GUAM miserably failed to solve any problem of
the host the region is facing.

GUAM remains an outfit with a thoroughly amorphous structure with
good intentions and unclear prospects, with bold ambitions but
limited capacities. Not even its expansion will make GUAM any better
in everyone’s opinion. Its activities have done nothing to promote
measures of trust or strengthen regional security. On the contrary,
they have facilitated tension in the relations between GUAM members on
the one hand and countries like Armenia and Turkmenistan on the other.

Kosovo’s precedent in the meantime made GUAM’s standing even more
precarious. Its declaration of independence destabilized most
members of the organization. Georgia (with its runaway Abkhazia and
South Ossetia), Moldova (Trans-Dniester region), and Azerbaijan
(Nagorno-Karabakh) refuse to recognize Kosovo as a sovereign
state. Ukraine chose to remain neutral on the subject, its decision
all but putting GUAM on the brink of collapse. Moldova announced that
it might quit GUAM. In fact, it has not regarded membership in GUAM as
one of the foreign political or economic priorities for some time now.

As an international structure, GUAM lacks a mechanism of conflict
settlement in the Commonwealth. All attempts to set up a regional
security framework without Russia and actually against Russia and
its clout with the countries of the region are doomed. Ukraine’s and
Georgia’s efforts to put together a peacekeeping contingent under the
GUAM aegis are thwarted by the Moldovans and Azerbaijanis who do see
any point in involving themselves in a structure that cannot be used
in the Trans-Dniester region or Nagorno-Karabakh anyway. Moreover,
Kishinev and Baku know better than to create additional problems in
their relations with Moscow. Problems are guaranteed as soon as GUAM
goes military.

Washington’s efforts in the Black Sea region have failed to make it
more secure or advance bilateral and multilateral contacts between
the countries of the region. One might say that GUAM remains in
the periphery of Washington’s foreign policy despite all its recent
initiatives. The structure will probably remain in a stupor, but the
United States will certainly keep it together as an instrument in
its geopolitical wars on Russia.

ARMENIAN SOLDIER DIES OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN CEASE-FIRE BREACH

Armenian Second TV Channel
May 15 2008
Armenia

Armenian servicemen Andranik Tovmasi Hayrapetyan, 19, today died
of wounds received at one of the military posts as a result of the
enemy [Azerbaijani troops] fire. The Armenian Defence Ministry
press service said that the incident took place at about 1145
[0645 gmt]. Hayrapetyan received a deadly abdominal wound from the
enemy and was immediately taken to hospital where he died at 1230
[0730 gmt]. Andranik Hayrapetyan was drafted into the army from
Charentsavan town in the autumn of 2007. The Defence Ministry said
that an investigation had been launched into the case.

ARMENIA PURSUES CAUTIOUS POLICY TOWARD ISRAEL

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.05.2008 14:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The active Israel-Turkey economic and political
cooperation compels Armenia to pursue cautious policy toward the
Jewish state, a Russian expert said.

"Israel is displeased with the Iran-Armenia cooperation, the more so
because there are influential supporters of closer ties with Tehran,"
head of the interethnic department at the institute of political
and military analysis Sergei Markedonov wrote in "Israel: Caucasus
Priorities" article.

"The initial serious contacts between the foreign ministries of
Armenia and Israel were established in early 1990-ies. However,
in 2002 Israeli Ambassador to Georgia publicly refused to name the
Armenian massacre in the Ottoman Empire a genocide," he said. "Israel
in also discontent with the way Armenia media covered the developments
in Lebanon in 2000 and 2006."

"Nevertheless, an Armenian delegation which included then-Prime
Minister Serzh Sargsyan and CB President Tigran Sargsyan visited
Israel in 2005. According to Alexander Zinker, first chairman of the
Israeli-Armenian parliamentary friendship, the two states could become
partners in IT development, for Israel is the third major exporter of
hi-tech while Armenia is remarkable for its programmers and specialists
in electronic devices," Markedonov concluded, politcom.ru reports.

COE DEPUTY SEC. GEN. ARRIVING IN ARMENIA MAY 20

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.05.2008 16:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Deputy Secretary General of the Council of
Europe, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, will visit Yerevan to participate in a
conference on domestic violence, organized by the Armenian Ministry of
Labor and Social Affairs on 20 May, reported the OSCE Yerevan Office.

During her visit, Ms de Boer-Buquicchio is due to meet with the
President of the National Assembly of Armenia, Tigran Torosyan, the
Prime Minister, Tigran Sargsyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Edward Nalbandian, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arman
Kirakossian, the Minister of Justice, Gevorg Danielian, the Minister of
Labour and Social Affairs, Aghvan Vardanian and the Armenian Ombudsman
Armen Harutyunyan.