Month: October 2008

ACCORDING TO ARMAN MUSINIAN, EVERYBODY SPEAKS ABOUT NAGORNO KARABAKH
SETTLEMENT EXCEPT ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Today an extremely dangerous and
unprecedented situation has been formed around the Nagorno Karabakh
problem, when everybody speaks about it except the Armenian
authorities. Arman Musinian, the Spokesperson of first RA President
Levon Ter-Petrosian, stated at the October 16 press conference.
According to him, ways of conflict settlement are spoken about in
Washington, Moscow, Brussels, even in Ankara while official Yerevan
keeps silent and by acting so, deepens society’s doubts that the
authorities do not keep control of the settlement process.

A. Musinian said that the Nagorno Karabakh settlement touches upon
Armenia’s vital interests and deals with national security. Therefore
the forces that will try to make political manipulations with the
Nagorno Karabakh problem will do much harm to Armenia. "And we have
such a political force in Armenia: it is the authorities," A. Musinian
stated.

"I SHOULD LIVE IN RA ADMINISTRATIVE TERRITORY LONGER THAN ROBERT
KOCHARIAN AND SERZH SARGSYAN," SARGIS HATSPANIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. "I have never violated any law, have
respected Armenia’s statehood and as a free person sometimes expressed
a civil position," French Armenian Sargis Hatspanian, a former
freedom-fighter, stated at the October 16 press conference. He affirmed
that former RA President Robert Kocharian signed an order on
expatriating him from Armenia in March only for his publicly supporting
first RA President Levon Ter-Petrosian. S. Hatspanian said that as far
back as in 1998 he applied to the proper bodies with the request to
grant him citizenship of Armenia but was refused with the motivation
that he had not lived permanently in Armenia for 10 years. "Now I am
declaring that I should live in RA’s administrative territory longer
than R. Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan," the former freedom-fighter said.

According to S. Hatspanian, he took part in rallies and sit-down strike
organized in the last decade of February in Liberty Square to express
his protest together with hundreds of thousands of citizens against the
riggings committed in the February presidential elections. "When S.
Hatspanian went to Karabakh to fight he was good, but when he started
protesting against falsifications he became bad," the former
freedom-fighter said.

GHANA’S NEW AMBASSADOR HANDS COPY OF HIS CREDENTIALS TO RA DEPUTY
FOREIGN MINISTER

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 15, NOYAN TAPAN. On October 15, Ghana’s newly
appointed Ambassador to Armenia Edward Apau Sentey (residence Moscow)
handed the copy of his credentials to RA Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham
Gharibjanian, according to a report to Noyan Tapan from RA FM Press and
Information Department.

During the meeting, the interlocutors discussed the possible ways of
development of relations between Armenia and Ghana, mentioning as
prospective fields espesially the spheres of woodwork production,
healthcare, and education. They have also referred to the issues of
deepening the cooperation between the two countries, within the
framework of international organizations, particularly of the UN.

Edward Apau Sentey has graduated from Ghana Military Academy, is a
pilot by profession and a vice-marshal of air forces. In 1969-2005 he
served in the Armed Forces of Ghana. In 2006 he was appointed Ghana’s
Ambassador to RF. He is married.

NEW AMBASSADOR OF GHANA HANDS HIS CREDENTIALS TO RA PRESIDENT

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Edward Apau Sentey, the newly
appointed Ambassador of Ghana to Armenia (residence Moscow), handed his
credentials to RA President Serzh Sargsyan on October 16. Noyan Tapan
was informed about it by the RA President’s Press Office.

Congratulating the Ambassador on the occasion of assuming his post, S.
Sargsyan said that Armenia is interested in development of relations
with African countries and in that context also attaches importance to
establishment of mutually beneficial cooperation with Ghana. The RA
President considered primary the issue of familiarizing the two
countries and peoples with each other and said that common verges of
cooperation will be found without fail in that case.

The sides also touched upon efficient cooperation of the two countries
within the framework of international structures, in particular, within
the framework of UN.

ACCORDING TO BILL SUBMITTED BY ARF, STATE EMBLEM OF REPUBLIC OF
ARMENIA SHOULD NOT BE SUBJECT TO CHANGES

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The National Assembly "ARF" faction
has put three bills into circulation, and the first one envisages that
the state emblem of the RA should not be subject to changes, the
faction member Artsvik Minasian announced at the October 16 press
conference, adding that any person attempting to distort the state
emblem should be held accountable. The second bill envisages declaring
officially August 11 and the following 5 days as holiday days
(Navasard). The third bill proposes cancelling the law’s provision, by
which the head of an institution may dismiss a person who has reached
the age of 65 (pension age) from his/her job.

Speaking about the address of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, A.
Minasian said that appealing to the people and the parliament by means
of such an address is praiseworthy. In his opinion, although the
address fell short of the society’s expectations in connection with the
inquiry into the March 1 events and the imprisoned persons, it is not
ruled out that these issues will be included in future addresses.

As regards the former NA speaker Tigran Torosian’s recently published
article, A. Minasian refrained from making comments, saying he is not
well familiar with the article.

HEAD OF EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS
VISITS ARMENIA

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The head of the European Commission
Directorate General for External Relations Eneko Landaburu paid a
working visit to Armenia on October 16. According to a press release of
the European Commission Armenian Mission, the main purpose of E.
Landaburu’s visit was to discuss EU-Armenia relations, the
implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan, as well
as some regional issues and the Western Partnership Initiative.

During the visit E. Landaburu had meetings with the Armenian president
Serzh Sargsyan, the prime minister Tigran Sargsyan, the minister of
economy Nerses Yeritsyan, representatives of the opposition, the RA
ombudsman, and the former foreign minister Vartan Oskanyan.

ACCORDING TO U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, ATTEMPTS TO MOVE NAGORNO
KARABAKH SETTLEMENT PROCESS OUT OF OSCE MINSK GROUP FORMAT DO NOT NEED
TO BE PAID ATTENTION TO

WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. During RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsian’s visit to the United States his concluding meeting was with
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on October 14.

During the meeting the sides expressed an opinion that the process of
Nagorno Karabakh settlement should be continued by the format of
negotiations carried out within the framework of OSCE Minsk Group.
According to C. Rice, the attempts to move the process out of OSCE
Minsk Group format do not need to be paid attention to. T. Sargsian, in
his turn, emphasized that Armenia is ready to continue the negotiations
process. He classed dangerous statements, which one-sidedly mentioning
only the principle of territorial integrity, disregard other
equal-value and well-known principles of the international law.

C. Rice also touched upon the subject of Armenian-Turkish relations
inquiring about the situation formed after Turkish President’s visit.
The RA Prime Minister said that Armenia does not put forward
preconditions to Turkey for establishing diplomatic relations with the
latter and hopes that Turkey will follow that example.

FORMER RA PRIME MINISTER CONSIDERS INADEQUATE RUSSIA’S RESPONSE TO
GEORGIA IN AUGUST WAR

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The August events in the Caucasus
gave nothing good either to Georgia or to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Therefore launching military operations in the Tskhinvali region should
not be welcomed. Both aggression against Tskhinvali and the inadequate
response were inadmissible. The conclusion is that the result was bad
for everybody and it is impossible to solve anything through military
operations in the Caucasus. By the way, even without Tskhinvali it was
clear that it is this way historically. Wars in the Caucasus have never
given a victory to anyone. This was the evaluation former RA Prime
Minister Hrant Bagratian gave to the August war of Russia and Georgia
at the online press conference organized by the Caucasus Journalists
Network.

Estimating recognition of Abkhazia’s and Ossetia’s independence by
Russia, the former Prime Minister said that it met Russia’s
geopolitical goals, therefore it is normal from Russian point of view.
On the other hand, it shows that Georgia should have seriously attended
to Abkhazians and Ossetians, respected human rights, nations’
self-determination right and tried to find a solution within the
framework of territorial integrity. Unfortunately, it failed for this
or that reason.

According to H. Bagratian, there are no much changes in Armenia’s
position to Georgia after the August events. "One thing is clear that
Armenian-Georgian economic cooperation will decrease a little after
August, as at the worst, the land way to Russia is firmly closed. As to
estimation of relations between Russia and Abkhazia, to put it in the
diplomatic language, the fact of Russian-Abkhazian sea communication is
an "agreement to disagreement," he stated.

Answering the question about the guarantees that Russia will not be
able to involve Armenia in the conflict against Georgia, H. Bagratian
said that "knowing Armenians I can say that we as if genetically bear
the code of friendship with the Georgians. At that, I do not conceal
that we like to tell various anecdotes about each other. I suppose that
the Russians also understand these niceties. And I exclude for all
these three peoples, Armenians, Georgians, Russians the possibility of
provocations for the purpose of aggravating Armenian-Georgian
relations." He also refuted the rumors that "during the latest events
Russian bomber pilots took off from the territory of Armenia,"
mentioning that according to his data, nothing of the kind had happened.

In H. Bagratian’s opinion, Georgia’s geopolitical position plays "the
most immediate role" in Armenian-Georgian relations. He considers that
Georgian-Armenian relations in the region can be considered as model
ones. "Georgia is one of our four neighbors and the only Christian
state among them. Our two peoples during two thousand years practically
did not make any serious claims regarding territory to each other," the
former Prime Minister noted.

ACCORDING TO ARMAN MUSINIAN, ACTS OF VIOLENCE USED TOWARDS OPPOSITION
ARE MANIFESTATION OF FEAR OF AUTHORITIES

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The rally of the Armenian National
Congress scheduled for October 17 will be dedicated to the analysis of
the situation formed around the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
problem. Arman Musinian, the Spokesperson of ANC leader Levon
Ter-Petrosian informed journalists at the October 16 press conference.

He said that the opposition has received the permission to hold a rally
near Matenadaran through the court challenging the refusal of Mayor’s
Office. They also plan to hold a march, which is not authorized by
Mayor’s Office.

A. Musinian said that in the previous two days the Police illegally
hindered the events of nearly 50 members of ANC to notify citizens
about the rally. Moreover, the Police used violence to the participants
of the event, which, according to the Spokesperson, is a violation of
human rights and "small hooliganism." According to him, the actions of
law enforcers surpassing in number the participants of that event
nearly two-fold are a manifestation of fear of the authorities. A.
Musinian called policemen for "not fulfilling a political order" during
the coming rally and refraining from such a conduct.

In response to a journalist’s question A. Musinian said that opposition
rallies will be held until the problems faced by Armenia are solved.
According to him, holding of rallies is one of the ways of political
struggle, and people calling the opposition for giving up rallies are
deprived of the political way of thinking.

WORLD BANK TO PROVIDE CREDITS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM
ENTERPRISES IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. During his visit to the U.S, Armenian
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian met with the U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice who said that the negotiations on the Karabakh problem
have a positive course and serious progress can be achieved regarding
this problem after the upcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan.
The prime minister stated at the October 16 press conference that
Armenian-Turkish relations had also been discussed during the meetings
with high-ranking U.S. officials. The Armenian side reasserted its
position, according to which Armenia is ready to resume negotiations
with Turkey without any preconditions.

T. Sargsian said that at the meetings, C. Rice and U.S. Vice President
Dick Cheney expressed a high opinion about the process of the reforms
being implemented in Armenia. The components of the Millennium
Challenge Program were discussed in detail, with the work done so far
under this program being assessed positively.

Accoridng to T. Sargsian, he also met with the U.S. Secretary of Trade
and discussed the issue of technical assistance for creating a free
economic zone and the problem of assistance to small and medium
enterprises. The World Bank also expressed a willingness to provide
assistance: it will allocate credits for development of SMEs, which, as
the prime minister underlined, will allow to avoid the negative impact
of financial crises. Speaking about the possible impact of the current
financial crisis on the Armenian economy, the prime minister noted that
according to the world’s best experts, its cause is distrust with
respect to financial institutions and the unsatisfactory level of
liquidity abd capitalization of these institutions. T. Sargsian said
that Armenian commercial banks have no liquidity problem now, while
their capitalization is at a high level, so there is no cause for
concern.

It was announced that the IMF will provide technical assistance to
Armenia’s tax and customs sectors.

T. Sargsian also informed those present that during the meeting with
the Georgian prime minister in Washington, an agreement was reached to
hold a sitting of the Armenian-Georgian intergovernmental commission in
Tbilisi on October 27-28 in order to discuss issues related to customs
legislation, transport tariffs, and road construction.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress