Month: December 2008

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES EBRD DELEGATION

Noyan Tapan

Dec 4, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. During the December 4 meeting with
the delegation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD), the Armenian prime minister Tigran Sargsyan presented the
current state of Armenian economy and the 2009 programs, as well
as Armenia’s opportunities to confront the negative effects of the
global financial and economic crisis. In his words, in developing
and implementing anticrisis measures, the Armenian government
takes into account the relative advantages of the country. As
regards the priorities of Armenia’s cooperation with EBRD, the prime
minister pointed out the extension of assistance to small and medium
entrepreneurship, the development of infrastructures (especially in
energy and road construction), the assistance to creation of free
economic zones in Gyumri and the area adjacent to Zvartnots Airport,
abd the development of the capital market.

According to the RA Government Information and PR Department, the sides
also addressed Armenia’s relations with its neighboring countries. The
Armenian prime minister said that Armenia is interested in having
stable and predictable neighbors and welcomes Turkey’s aspiration to
become a member of the European Union. In his words, the reforms to
be implemented on this path will make Turkey more predicatble and
stable. T. Sargsyan expressed a hope that in parallel with these
reforms, the relations with Turkey will improve.

He said that Armenia has good-neighbourly relations with Iran and will
try to maintain them. Speaking about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement process, the prime minister expressed a hope that the
problem will be solved in a peaceful way through political dialog
and negotiations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GAGIK TSARUKIAN REELECTED CHAIRMAN OF NATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan

Dec 4, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. Gagik Tsarukian was reelected
Chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia in the December
4 election held during Committee’s General Assembly.

DISTORTION OF MOSCOW DECLARATION BY AZERBAIJAN DENTS KARABAKH TALKS

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 14:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
met Wednesday with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly rapporteur on
Nagorno Karabakh, Mr. Goran Lennmarker, the RA MFA press office told
PanARMENIAN.Net.

Noting the importance of the Moscow declaration, the Armenian Minister
said that Baku’s attempts to distort its provisions dent the Karabakh
process.

During the November 2 meeting, the Presidents Dmitry Medvedev of
Russia, Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan
signed a declaration envisaging resolution of the Karabakh conflict
on the basis of principles and norms of the international law.

For his part, Mr. Lennmarker stated that the OSCE PA stands for
peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

KARABAKH CONFLICT WILL BE RESOLVED, OSCE CIO BELIEVES

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 14:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ OSCE Chairman in Office, Finnish Foreign Minister
Alexander Stubb hailed the progress in Nagorno Karabakh talks and
voiced hope for resolution of the conflict. He also assessed the OSCE
Minsk Group as the ‘most applicable format.’

"The Helsinki summit will focus on frozen conflicts in the post soviet
area: the situation in South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Nagorno Karabakh
and Transnistria. Although the OSCE failed to prevent the war in
Georgia in August, outsourcing is inadmissible for resolution of the
conflicts in South Ossetia, Nagorno Karabakh and Transnistria. Today,
we stand a better chance to reach consensus," he said, Trend Azeri
news agency reports.

Helsinki hosts Foreign Ministers from 50 countries, 1200 members of
delegations and over 2500 journalists for participation in the OSCE
Ministerial Council due on December 4 and 5.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASSEMBLY OF AZERBAIJANI ARMENIANS: AZERBAIJAN IS A COUNTRY ASSERTING ITSELF ON EXTERMINATION OF CITIZENS

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 15:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan is under criminal rule. Present-day
Azerbaijan is a country asserting itself on extermination of its own
citizens, said the head of Assembly of Azerbaijani Armenians NGO.

"A country which perpetrated genocide against a part of its population
has not right to claim territories," Grigory Ayvazyan told a news
conference today.

"Our Assembly has already sent a note to the Armenian Foreign Ministry
and National Assembly and received a positive feedback. We also
addressed the French Embassy in Yerevan to bring our position to the
notion of Ambassador Bernard Fassier, the Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group. We demand the opinion of the Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan
be taken into account during the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
process," he said.

"We urge compensation for the Armenians, who had to leave their homes,
or secure their return. Now, 50 of Armenians are ready to return to
Azerbaijan to prove that this country is unable to guarantee their
security and that Armenians and Azeris can’t live side by side now,"
he said.

As to referendum on Nagorno Karabakh’s status in Azerbaijan,
Mr. Ayvazyan said it won’t be legal, since Armenians who used to live
in the territory of the former Azeri SSR won’t participate in it.

BILL GATES HOPES OBAMA WILL DOUBLE U.S. ANNUAL INVESTMENT IN FOREIGN AID

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 15:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Microsoft founder Bill Gates hopes President-elect
Barack Obama and Congress immediately craft a wide-ranging stimulus
package, to help jump-start the nation’s sputtering economy, and
double the United States’ commitment to foreign aid.

"Clearly we need a stimulus that doesn’t undermine the incentive
for businesses to be careful about their spending and making those
correct investments," Gates told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an exclusive
interview airing on The Situation Room on Wednesday and Thursday.

Gates, one of the world’s richest men and founder of the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, is also calling on Obama to increase investments
in the nation’s education system and spur technological advances to
improve agriculture, prevent disease, and promote economic growth in
the world’s poorest nations.

"The key point I’d make is that in addition to that stimulus, you’ve
got to fund the kind of scientific work and educational investments
that could really have us be a much better country as we emerge from
the recession," he said.

On his Web site, Obama has pledged to double the United States’
annual investment in foreign aid to $50 billion by the end of his
first term, with the goal of fully funding debt cancellation for poor
nations and fighting AIDS and global poverty.

Gates said he thinks Obama will live up to that commitment.

"Obviously it’s the Congress that gets to actually vote the final
decision for how the money is spent, but I do think he will get to
that commitment," Gates said. "I am thrilled to be able to see that
people are responding to the success stories. Aid from the United
States did go up in the last eight years."

SAMVEL BABAYAN: STEPANAKERT WILL HAVE DECISIVE WORD IN KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 16:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Former NKR Minister of Defense labeled the current
talks on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict as "incorrect."

"Unlike Azerbaijan, we speak of concessions on our part," Samvel
Babayan told a news conference in Yerevan today.

"The talks should include military men, who will say that return of
territories in inadmissible, and geologists, who are aware of NKR
natural resources. Only then politicians can decide which territories
can be returned to Azerbaijan," he said.

"Besides, Karabakh but not Yerevan should hold talks. We have half
million of refugees who have the right to return to their homes. And
finally, Stepanakert will have decisive word in Karabakh conflict
resolution, irrelative of the agreement Armenia and Azerbaijan
achieve."

The recent statement by Ilham Aliyev in Italy proved that Baku wants
all or nothing, according to him.

In an interview with RAI International Italian language channel,
Ilham Aliyev stated that the declaration "doesn’t contain a provision
reading that Azerbaijan obliges to refrain from a military resolution
of the conflict and therefore, any kind of measures, including use
of force and admissible."

"Azerbaijan is not ready for compromise," Babayan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMAN MELIKYAN: MEDIATORS TRYING TO CONVINCE ARMENIA THAT PROBLEM OF ARMENIAN REFUGEES DOESN’T EXIST

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 16:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Nagorno Karabakh will not be resolved though mutual
concessions, former NKR Foreign Minister said.

"It will be either unilateral concessions on Armenia’s part or
the things will remain as they are. If attempts to impose ‘mutual
concessions’ on Stepanakert and Yerevan succeed, we will lose,"
Arman Melikyan told a news conference on Thursday.

The future of the Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan is one of the
most important issues, according to him.

"The liberated territories belong to the Armenians who were exiled
from Azerbaijan," he said, adding that the mediators are trying to
convince Armenia that the problem of Armenian refugees doesn’t exist.

"Our army did their work with honor. Now, politicians and diplomats
should demonstrate their skills to find a solution favorable for us,"
Melikyan said.

OSCE MG CO-CHAIR COUNTRIES’ FMS CALL TO FINALIZE COORDINATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 17:01 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Foreign Ministers of France, Russia, and the United
States – the Co-Chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group – issued a
joint declaration of the on Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the RA MFA
press office told PanARMENIAN.Net.

The declaration says,

"We, the Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries
– France, Russia, and the United States – call on the parties to the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict to build on the positive momentum established
during the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in
Moscow on November 2, 2008. The Moscow Declaration signed that same
day opened a new and promising phase in our shared endeavor to expand
peace in the South Caucasus. In that declaration, the Presidents
reaffirm their commitment to advancing a peaceful settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the framework of the Basic Principles
developed by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs in collaboration with the
leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of their proposals
advanced last year in Madrid.

We call on the parties to work with the Co-Chairs to finalize the Basic
Principles in coming months, and then begin drafting a comprehensive
peace settlement as outlined by those agreed principles. In keeping
with the Moscow Declaration, we call on the parties to work with
the Co-Chairs to develop confidence-building measures, beginning
with pulling back snipers from the Line of Contact to save lives of
innocent civilians and soldiers as our mediators already proposed to
the sides at the highest level during the last visit mid November. It
is urgent for the parties to work with each other, the Co-Chairs,
and the Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office to stabilize
the ceasefire through this and other measures. We reiterate our firm
view that there is no military solution to the conflict and call on
the parties to recommit to a peaceful resolution."

ARKADY TER-TADEVOSYAN: MOSCOW DECLARATION MEANS NOTHING FOR AZERBAIJAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 17:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian side made many mistakes during and
after the war and Azerbaijan made the most out of them, according to
major general Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, commander of NKR armed forces,
the author of Shushi liberation plan.

"The declaration means nothing for Azerbaijan," he told reporters
in Yerevan.

During the November 2 meeting, the Presidents Dmitry Medvedev of
Russia, Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan
signed a declaration envisaging resolution of the Karabakh conflict
on the basis of principles and norms of the international law.

"Those who think that the declaration rules out resolution of
hostilities are mistaken. We should understand that Azerbaijan position
in the talks bases on hypocrisy and lie," the major general said.