Month: October 2008

IRAN UNIVERSITY TO HOLD NANOSCIENCE CONGRESS

Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Oct 7 2008
Iran

Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province, 7 October: The Second International
Congress on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICNN2008) will be held
in Tabriz University from 28-30 October.

Announcing this, secretary of the congress underlined that some 1,200
articles from home and abroad have been submitted to the secretariat
of which 23 top articles have been selected.

Abdolreza Mirhoseyni added the some foreign researchers from Denmark,
Spain, the USA, Russia, Australia, Malaysia, South Korea, Canada,
China, Azerbaijan Republic, Italy, UK and Armenia will take part in
the gathering.

Topics for discussion in the congress include nano-biotechnology,
nano-structured materials, nano-composites, nano-electronics,
nano-mechanics, nano-medicine, nano-sensors, nano-biosensors,
nano-photonics and nano-magnetism, nano-scale fabrications, green
nanotechnology and etc.

ARMENIA SEEKING FRIENDLY TIES WITH AZERBAIJAN, PM

AssA-Irada
October 7, 2008 Tuesday
Azerbaijan

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian has said the vital issue
facing his country today is forging friendly relations with all states
in the region, and Azerbaijan in particular. He said Turkeys recent
proposal to set up a five-nation Caucasus union should be discussed
in the context of cooperation among regional states. Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to establish the union, called
the Caucasus Peace and Cooperation Platform, following a brief war
between Russia and Georgia in August.

Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia have already expressed their backing of
the initiative, while Georgia is yet to state its position. Sarkisian
said Armenia was ready to establish unconditional diplomatic
relations and economic cooperation with Turkey. Restoring our ties,
which have been frozen for 15 years, will lay groundwork for new
cooperation. Armenia and Turkey have been at odds and the border
between the two countries has been closed since 1993 on Ankaras
insistence due to Armenias policy of occupation against Azerbaijan
and the Armenian genocide claims. Sarkisian also made it clear that
Armenia was interested in joining any given regional project. Touching
on peace talks seeking to settle the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict,
he said that similar to Azerbaijan, Armenia appreciates European
values and should aspire to establish close ties with Azerbaijan
and Georgia, the other two South Caucasus republics, within the
European Neighborhood Policy (ENP). Sarkisian added that talks
on Garabagh conflict settlement would intensify after Azerbaijans
October 15 presidential election. Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a
lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994,
but Armenia continues to occupy Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh and seven
other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. The
OSCE Minsk Group, which is co-chaired by the U.S., Russia and France,
is brokering the peace process.

Normalization of Ties with Azerbaijan "vitally important" for Armenia – PM

Day.az
Oct 6 2008
Azerbaijan

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan has said the establishment
of good neighbourly relations with regional countries, first of all
with Azerbaijan, is a "vitally important issue" for Armenia".

In an interview with the Azerbaijani website Day.az, Sargsyan said: "We
are pragmatic about this issue…In the long run, regional cooperation
will become the number one issue in the agenda of all regional states."

Sargsyan told the website that Azerbaijan and Armenia "need to try to
see a common future in 20 or 30 years. Then it will be easier for us
to find mutually acceptable decisions… We believe in Azerbaijan’s
constructiveness".

Sargsyan added that Azerbaijan and Armenia should concentrate on
"values which unite us and not on the circumstances which separate us".

The Armenian prime minister said that Armenia and Azerbaijan were
loyal to all European values and see their future in the EU.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIA’S LAVROV SEES SPEEDY SOLUTION AHEAD FOR GARABAGH

AssA-Irada
October 7, 2008 Tuesday
Azerbaijan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said a culmination
in settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh appears quite realistic. Just two to three issues regarding
the conflict settlement, which are to be agreed at the next meetings
of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, remain unresolved, he told
local Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper. Such meetings, Lavrov said, will
take place shortly after Azerbaijans October 15 presidential election.

First of all, the Lachin corridor is involved. And, as one of the
three mediators, we feel that a culmination is quite real. Certainly,
it is up to Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve it within direct
agreements, but the mediators Russia, the U.S. and France who
perfectly understand all the subtleties and sensitivity of this
process, see the possibility of a culmination, Lavrov said. The three
countries co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which is brokering the peace
process. The Lachin corridor is a road connecting Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh, an Azeri region currently under occupation, with Armenian
territory. The minister said that prior to the escalation of tension
in the Caucasus region sparked by the outbreak of the Russian-Georgian
armed conflict, a very good chance had emerged for advancing Garabagh
conflict settlement by holding meetings between Azeri and Armenian
leaders with the mediation of the MG co-chairs. Then, a substantial
document essentially outlining all principles and mechanisms of a
settlement had been developed. Lavrov went on to say that each of
the parties involved in the process of resolving the Garabagh problem
has its own profound interests.

In particular, Armenia faces the task of overcoming a blockade in
order to further gain access to the rest of the world. According to
Lavrov, the problems that Armenia experienced during the Caucasus
crisis, notably, difficulties with uninterrupted transit of goods
through Georgia that are vitally important for Armenian citizens,
show an absolute necessity and urgency of reaching the speediest
solution to the Garabagh problem. The persistent situation, whereby
South Ossetia and Abkhazia [Georgias rebel regions] will be under a
constant threat of military attack, with the threat of interruption
of this transit vitally important for Armenia lingering on, meets
no ones interests, Lavrov said. He said the importance of preventing
this explains Yerevans aspiration to unlock the Garabagh conflict as
soon as possible, which would serve as a tool not only to normalize
its relations with Ankara, but also to open up Armenias link to the
outside world through the territory of neighboring Turkey. Georgia
launched large-scale military operations on August 8 in its rebel
region of South Ossetia to restore its territorial integrity. Moscow
responded by sending troops to the pro-Russian region which struck at
the Georgian armed forces using overwhelming force. A ceasefire was,
subsequently, reached on August 17.

ORANGE GETS ARMENIA MOBILE LICENCE [FRANCE TELECOM]

Total Telecom
October 8, 2008 Wednesday

Orange has been awarded the third mobile operator license (GSM and 3G)
in the Republic of Armenia. This announcement, which was made public
by the Armenian government today, follows Orange’s submission of a
formal bid of -??51.5 million on October 6.

Following a detailed analysis of local market conditions, Orange firmly
believes in the potential for the Group’s development in the Republic
of Armenia thanks to its experience and its know-how for offering
innovative and high-performance services. Commercial activities will
be launched in the coming months following the formal attribution of
the license and frequencies by the Armenian regulatory authorities.

The Republic of Armenia has a population of around three million
people, of which a third live in the capital city, Yerevan.

VIVACELL-MTS OPENED TWO NEW-GENERATION SERVICE CENTERS

RIA Oreanda
Economic News
October 8, 2008 Wednesday
Russia

Yerevan . ">OREANDA-NEWS . October 8, 2008. VivaCell-MTS announces
the opening of two new-generation service centers in Yerevan – in
19-21, Saryan St. and 9/5 Kochinyan St. The subscribers have access
now to a closer Service Center in their near vicinity. The above
new service centers are open from 9.00 to 18.00 on Mondays through
Saturdays, and at 9.00 -13.00 every Sunday, with a fully trained
and professional customer care team. Here we are again fulfilling yet
another promise. We have promised to be available everywhere throughout
Armenia, and day after day we are keeping this promise. And thats not
all, as the best is yet to come, – noted Ralph Yirikian, VivaCell-MTS
General Manager during the opening ceremony.

The whole range of the VivaCell-MTS products and services are made
available in the newly-opened service centers including international
roaming, post-paid and prepaid packages with respective tariff plans,
invoice settling, different denomination scratch cards, number
selection, GPRS, corporate packages, detailed bills and other services.

With its constantly growing staff, VivaCell-MTS is truly a national
employer with a clear aim to better serve the subscriber. During
the last year the Company has more than doubled the number of its
employees in Yerevan and marzes, a team that is engaged in continuous
professional development program.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE COMING BETRAYAL OF THE ARMENIANS

The Reality-Based Community
October 8, 2008 Wednesday 11:32 PM EST

Oct. 8, 2008 (The Reality-Based Community delivered by Newstex) — I
don’t doubt for a second that Barack Obama is completely sincere in his
belief that the Ottoman Empire committed deliberate genocide against
the Armenians in the second decade of the last century. After all, it
happens to be true. And if that gets him some Armenian-American votes
that otherwise would have gone to John McCain, I won’t be very unhappy.

But the Armenian-Americans will. After Obama gets elected, he will
confront two facts: facts which he surely knows now, and which his
expert advisers and the career diplomatic corps will din into his
ears. First, for reasons of Turkish internal politics, a formal
recognition by the United States of an historical reality that no
non-Turkish historian doubts would make our relationship with Turkey
very much harder, and strengthen the forces within Turkey that are most
inimical to us and to democracy and human rights in Turkey. Second,
our relationship with Turkey, and Turkey’s continued development
toward a democratic country where human rights are respected, matters
enormously to us. Along with Indonesia, Turkey is the Muslim-majority
country most hostile to jihadism, and Turkey is much closer to where
the trouble is. If there’s to be a peaceful settlement in Iraq, the
Turkish government is going to have to hold still for more autonomy
in Iraqi Kurdistan than Turkey wants. For all these reasons, we
need the Turks. We don’t need the Armenians. The President of the
United States is a statesman, not an historian. Yes, it’s completely
unreasonable for both the Kemalist Turkish establishment and the
Islamic-but-not-Jihadist Justice Party that now has a the majority
of the voters behind it to take personally a statement that applies
to a long-dead regime both of them heartily despise. But lots of
unreasonable things are nonetheless true. So Obama will be told that,
while in office, he’s not allowed to state the truth, and the Armenian
community will react bitterly to the double-cross. That’s life in
the big city. Newstex ID: TRBC-0001-28628866

ASHGABAT OPENED III INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING EXHIBITION

RIA Oreanda
Economic News
October 8, 2008 Wednesday
Russia

Ashgabat . ">OREANDA-NEWS . October 8, 2008. The III International
Publishing Exhibition and the International Book Fair have been
opened at the Exhibition Centre in Ashgabat. The organizers of the
three-day forum held in accordance with the Resolution of President
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov are the Turkmen State Publishing Service
and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan.

The guests from 22 countries worldwide including Ukraine, Germany,
Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, the United Nations,
Austria, South Korea, India, Armenia arrived in Ashgabat to take part
in the book forum. They will present the latest technical achievements
in printing industry and demonstrate typography innovations for books
and printed publications. The separate expositions will focus on an
important component of printing business paper production.

The Russian Federation sent most numerous delegation of over a
hundred of participants. Nowadays print workers of Turkmenistan and
Russia are bound with long-term partnership rapidly developed on the
mutually advantageous basis. The Russian delegation represents the
large printing companies Rospechat, the Interregional Association
of Print Workers, the Association of Book Publishers of Russia, the
Guild of Periodical Publishers. These companies together with the
Fund of Social and Economic and Intellectual Programmes of Russia will
attend the events held at the schools and libraries in Ashgabat in the
framework of the printing forum. The programme includes discussions,
meeting with the authors, roundtables and literary soirees.

This book exhibition is held in the period of reforming the national
education system, and therefore the guests of the forum are Russias
largest publishers of academic and scientific literature in engineering
sciences including the Nauka Publishing House.

The specialists of the Nauka Publishing House together with the
colleagues from the publication services of Moscow Institute of
High-Power Engineering, Moscow State Technical Institute and others
will make the presentation of scientific literature at the Turkmen
Polytechnic Institute.

The Turkmen publishers including the Ashgabat Printing House, the Book
Chamber, the editorial self-sustained association, the velayat printing
services and printing houses will widely present their products. Over
20 entrepreneurs engaged in publishing business will participate in
the exhibition. The specialists as well as the people and guests of
Turkmenistan can visit the Exhibition during three days.

RA MINISTER OF ECONOMY RECEIVED NEWLY APPOINTED CZECH AMBASSADOR

RIA Oreanda
Economic News
October 8, 2008 Wednesday
Russia

Yerevan. OREANDA-NEWS On 08 October was announced, that Nerses
Yeritsyan, the RA Minister of Economy received Ivan Jestrab, the
newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
Czech Republic to Armenia (residence in Tbilisi).

Congratulating the Ambassador with the beginning of his mission,
Minister Yeritsyan said, that Armenia gives great importance to the
development of bilateral relations with Czech Republic, as well as
the broadening of cooperation within the framework of the European
Neighbourhood Policy.

Mr. Jestrab emphasized the interest of his country to the Southern
Caucasus countries, especially to Armenia. Touching upon the Czech
Foreign Minister’s and Senate Chairman’s official visits to Armenia,
and the results of Armenian Czech Business Forum (September 12, 2008),
Mr. Ambassador mentioned, that all those events could serve as a good
platform for the future mutually beneficial collaboration.

During the meeting, talking about the level of the economic relations
between the two countries, Nerses Yeritsyan mentioned that the current
economic relations don’t develop dynamically, and the opportunities are
not fully used. Mr. Minister underlined several fields for cooperation,
such as jewellery, chemical and mining industries. Touching upon the
investment possibilities, Nerses Yeritsyan focused his attention on
the services, High-Tech and IT.

Stressing the importance of development of cooperation with the EU
countries, Mr. Minister underlined, that Armenia is making active
efforts to sign Free Trade Agreement in deep with EU countries,
because it will give an additional boost to direct the economic
reforms processes in a right course and will help us to achieve our
final goals.

The Ambassador of Czech Republic thanked the Minister of Economy for
warm welcome and said, that he is really impressed by the progressive
development of Armenia and its readiness for cooperation.

He also underlined, that he’ll support the stimulation of development
of bilateral cooperation between Czech Republic and Armenia.

RA MINISTER OF ECONOMY RECEIVED UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR

RIA Oreanda
Economic News
October 8, 2008 Wednesday
Russia

Yerevan. OREANDA-NEWS On 08 October was announced, that the RA Minister
of Economy Nerses Yeritsyan received Oleksandr Bojko, the Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Armenia.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Ambassador thanked Mr. Minister
for worm welcome and said that the current relations between Armenia
and Ukraine are based on dynamically developing trade and economic
cooperation.

Mr. Bojko stressed the main purpose of his visit – which was the
preliminary discussion for the arrangement of the Armenian presidents
first official visit to Ukraine and formation of Armenia-Ukrainian
intergovernmental commission. He also mentioned that it is possible to
use the opportunity and organize the Armenian-Ukrainian Business Forum.

The Ambassador informed the Minister Yeritsyan, that Ukraine is
interested in development of comprehensive relations with neighbourly
countries, as well as the establishment of the climate of trust and
mutual understanding.

During the meeting Minister Yeritsyan presented to Mr. Bojko the
five governmental wide-national programmes and informed about the
first steps on the way of realization of these programmes. During
the meeting the sides focused there attention on the development of
bilateral mutual advantageous cooperation. Nerses Yeritsyan marked
the IT, agriculture, mining and chemical spheres.

At the end of the meeting both sides expressed willingness to lift
up the level of the Armenian-Ukrainian relations on the new, more
active level of the commercial and economic ties.