Month: October 2008

ROBERT KOCHARYAN’S HERITAGE

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
30 Sep 2008
Armenia

There is an opinion that if we want to settle the internal political
situation we must firstly get rid of Robert Kocharyan’s heritage. What
is your opinion about it? In response to this question given by one
of the journalists Robert Kocharyan said: "It is impossible to get
rid of my heritage, because firstly it is the accomplished Republic of
Armenia, the better Yerevan, the restored Gyumri, the Northern Avenue,
this Saralanj highway, where we are standing at the moment. How can
we get rid of all this I don’t understand? If some people do want,
they can try. But they must firstly destroy all this."

THE PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SUPERVISORY PALACE

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
30 Sep 2008
Armenia

"Bargavach Hayastan" doesn’t shoulder any political responsibility for
Ishkhan Zakaryan. For around one year his brother-in-law didn’t fulfill
his working obligations and Vardan Vardanyan refused to appoint him
as Chief of Administration. At the moment the same person is holding
a position in the Supervisory Palace headed by Ishkhan Zakaryan. So
he was sent to make inspections in his previous working place. By
Vardan Vardanyan’s initiative, the supervisory service under the
country’s President is also making inspections in the Ministry of
Town-Construction.

No breach has been found. You can check all the documents. There are
additional payments, because the work that has been implemented was
more than it was predicted. We don’t avoid any type of inspection,"
Gagik Tsarukyan announced.

AS WAS EXPECTED

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
30 Sep 2008
Armenia

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has made the following statement in New
York, "Unless Armenia liberates the occupied territories of Azerbaijan,
opening the borders with that country will be out of the question."

INFORMATION ON KARS-AKHALKALAKI-BAKU LINE INEXPEDIENCE RESEMBLES BLUFF

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.09.2008 16:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Reports on inexpedience of Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku
are far from being real and resemble a bluff, said a contributing
analyst at Jane’s Information Group.

"Turkey just offered to build a new Kars-Gyumri line to engage Armenia
into the project. At that, it doesn’t imply repair of the existing
track but construction of a new one," Richard Giragosian commented
to a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Reports say that during the September 16 coordination council meeting,
the Turkish side questioned advisability of the project in connection
with the recent regional development.

In total 98 kilometers (61 mi), the line is supposed to be built
between Kars and Akhalkalaki, with 68 kilometers (42 mi) within
Turkey and 30 kilometers (19 mi) in Georgia. The existing line from
Akhalkalaki on to Tbilisi and Baku will be modernized.

For the construction of the railroad on Georgian territory, Azerbaijan
is providing a US$220 million loan, repayable in 25 years, with an
annual interest rate of only 1%.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MIKHAIL ALEXANDROV: ARMENIA’S REGIONAL IMPORTANCE GREW

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.09.2008 17:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It was clear from the first that the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku (KAB) is expensive and economically inexpedient,
a Russian expert said.

"The only "advantage" of this project was a political goal to isolate
Armenia," Caucasus expert at the Institute of CIS Studies Mikhail
Alexandrov told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

"However, the South Ossetian crisis made Turkey more cautious
about political projects. Here, Russia’s influence on this country
should not be underestimated. Ankara has understood that the West’s
further penetration in the Caucasus is pregnant with grave economic
consequences. Security of energy sources transportation can also be
jeopardized. Baku-Supsa oil pipeline has already been closed while
Baku-Novorossiysk has been enabled," he said.

"Under the circumstances, Kars-Gyumri is cheaper and more secure that
the KAB. I can presume that Armenia’s regional importance has grown,"
the expert said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN, GEORGIAN PRESIDENTS MEET BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.09.2008 18:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is currently in
Georgia on a formal visit. A meeting with his Georgian counterpart
Mikheil Saakashvili behind closed doors was followed by expanded talks.

In the evening, the Presidents are expected to make a joint statement.

Serzh Sargsyan will meet with parliament speaker David Bakradze. He
will lay a wreath to the memorial in Heroes’ Square and meet with
students and teaching stuff of Tbilisi State University. Besides,
he will meet with representatives of the Armenian community of Georgia.

Sargsyan and Saakashvili will also take part in the ceremony of laying
of the foundation stone of the monument to Sayat-Nova, the Armenian
poet who wrote verse in Armenian, Georgian, Azerbaijani and Farsi.

FORBES: ANKARA DOESN’T WANT OBAMA TO WIN OVER HIS PLEDGE TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.09.2008 18:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ There is no doubt that much of the Muslim world
is rooting for Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race, Asli
Aydintasbas, an Istanbul-based journalist and former Ankara bureau
chief of the newspaper Sabah, writes in "Obama, Turkey And The
G-Resolution" published by Forbes magazine.

"But here in Turkey, the Obamania in the rest of the Muslim world was
quick to fade early in the race. Once intrigued by the young senator
and his life story, much of the Ankara establishment and the Turkish
elite now say they prefer John McCain to snatch the presidential
seat. And all this has little to do with Barack Obama himself,"
the article says.

"Modern Turkey is a nation still sorting through the cultural and
political clashes that have emerged with the foundation of a secular
modern republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. It
is a nation accustomed to both domestic and foreign conflict and
obsessed with the idea of its loneliness on the world stage. So it
is no surprise that, on any given subject under the sun, most Turks
would ask, "But is it good for Turkey? In this case, the political
establishment in Ankara and Turkey’s secular elite seem to think that
Barack Obama is not good for Turkey," it goes on.

It all has to do with the Armenian issue, according to a Turkish
politician.

"Barack Obama has pledged he would support a genocide resolution. Worse
for Ankara, his running mate Senator Joe Biden has long been an
ally of Greek and Armenian lobbies in Washington and sponsored bills
questioning Turkish policies on Cyprus and Armenia," he said.

"John McCain on the other hand knows Turkey well and can understand
our strategic value," the politician added.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN VISITS CHINESE EMBASSY IN ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
Sep 30, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS: On the occasion of the national
holiday of People’s Republic of China – the 59th anniversary of the
establishment of the Republic, Armenian President Serzh Sargsian
visited today the Chinese embassy in Armenia. .

The president’s press service told Armenpress that the President
congratulated the staff of the embassy on the national holiday. .

During the talk with the Chinese ambassador the sides noted that they
are pleased with the high level of cooperation and political dialogue
between the two countries.

URGENT SESSION OF NA TO BE CALLED OCTOBER 2

ARMENPRESS
Sep 30, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS: Armenian National Assembly Speaker
Hovik Abrahamian signed a decree on calling an urgent session of
parliament on October 2 at 18.30 on the initiative of the Armenian
president.

The NA press service told Armenpress that the agenda of the NA session
includes the speech of the Armenian president to the people and the
National Assembly.

WE SHOULD NOT EXPECT MUCH, AS THE PRESENT PROBLEMS HAVE A VERY LONG STORY
By H. Chaqrian

AZG Armenian Daily
01/10/2008

Armenia-Turkey

Says Turkish Foreign Minister

On September 26 in New York took place the trilateral meeting of
Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Seemingly, the
most important achievement of that meeting was the decision was to
continue dialog between the aforementioned states in that format. The
meeting caused much consideration in international press, and the
response was positive for the most part.

Before referring to the comments, it should be mentioned that the
trilateral meeting was preceded by another meeting of Edward Nalbandian
and Ali Babacan, which lasted for about 40 minutes.

In a joint press conference after the meeting of the three Foreign
Ministers Ali Babacan said that Caucasus has great capacities. "if
peace and stability in Caucasus are achieved, great things can be
done. It is also important in sense of geopolitical location of
the region. Today we discussed the opportunity of establishing the
Caucasian Stability and Partnership Platform, as well as issues
peculiar to the region."

The Armenian Foreign Minister thanked his Turkish colleague for
arranging the meeting and appreciated Turkey’s initiative about the
Platform. He said that the Armenian and Turkish discussed opportunities
of full normalization of the relationships between the two countries
and exchanged opinions.

Mamedyarov said that taking into consideration all the risks and
problems in Caucasus, the meeting of the Armenian Turkish and
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers was very important.

On the same day Ali Babacan gave a live interview to CNN-Turk. He
said that the dialogue between Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan shall
continue in the trilateral format and said that diplomatic contacts
between Armenia and Turkey, which started almost a year ago, shall
develop. Referring to the issues of opening the Armenian-Turkish
border and of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Foreign Minister said,
"We should not expect much, as the present problems have a very long
story, some of them were originated in the times of World War 1. We
will proceed at a slow pace. We have a plenty of problems to consider".

We would like to add that Turkey removed any restrictions from its
airspace for flights to and from Yerevan. The Embassies of Turkey
received permission to attend receptions organized by the Armenian
Embassies around the world.