Month: November 2009

COALITION PARTNER THREATENS TO QUIT YEREVAN COUNCIL

Asbarez Staff
Nov 19th, 2009

Prosperous Armenia Party Leader Gagik Tsarukian

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-A junior partner in Armenia’s governing coalition
reaffirmed on Thursday its threats to walk out of Yerevan’s municipal
council if its pro-presidential majority and Mayor Gagik Beglarian
continue to run the city "single-handedly."

The Prosperous Armenia Party, the country’s second pro-establishment
force, issued such a warning after President Serzh Sarkisian’s
Republican Party pushed through a controversial legal amendment
through the council over its objections on Wednesday. The amendment
lowered from 33 to 17 the minimum number of councilors allowing the
assembly to make a quorum.

Arman Vartanian, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia faction in the
65-member Council of Elders, described that as the latest example of
the Republican Party ignoring the opinion of its coalition partner
in municipal affairs. He said the party led by businessman Gagik
Tsarukian will give up its 17 council seats if the Republicans carry
on with their "crude political approach."

"We have certainly talked to Mr. Tsarukian about these issues,"
Vartanian told RFE/RL. "Mr. Tsarukian’s position is that we should
work as effectively as possible, try to reach common denominators with
our partners but if they don’t attempt to understand that adequately,
then we will make a decision.

"That is, we will ask the party to discuss the issue of our working
or not working [in the council.] None of us is clinging to their
mandates and posts."

The leader of the 35-strong Republican faction in the Yerevan
legislature insisted earlier on Thursday that Tsarukian’s party has no
"well-founded grounds" to quit the council. "At least our faction has
given them no reason to do that. Nor has the mayor," Derenik Dumanian
told a news conference.

"Prosperous Armenia is our coalition partner, and I think that we will
remain coalition partners until the next parliamentary elections,"
said Dumanian.

The council’s credibility and legitimacy was already damaged by the
opposition Armenian National Congress’s decision to spurn the remaining
13 mandates allotted to it as a result of the May 31 elections. The
opposition bloc rejected the official vote results as fraudulent.

ZBOGAR: EARLY RESOLUTION OF KARABAKHI CONFLICT IN CE INTERESTS

Yerkir
19.11.2009 12:12
Yerevan

Yerevan (Yerkir) – Early settlement of frozen conflicts, in particular
Karabakh conflict is in general interest, including the Council of
Europe, Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar said Nov. 18 after
Slovenia assumed presidency of the Committee of Ministers.

Zbogar underlined that though CoE is not involved in Karabakh peace
process, while OSCE Minsk Group is, the Council still can do much
to accelerate establishment of confidence between the two countries,
as well as contribute strengthening of interregional cooperation in
South Caucasus. First of all Azerbaijan and Armenia should seek ways
to resolve the conflict.

Commenting on "Eastern partnership" program, Zbogar stated that it is
aimed at creation of close cooperation atmosphere between EU member
states. "We expect reforms and development from the countries. We wish
to set on foot the reforms, development and progress in these states.

The means mentioned above might indirectly assist the Karabakh conflict
resolution," the official concluded.

LOCALS PROTEST AGAINST OPENING OF UPPER LARS CHECKPOINT

Yerkir
19.11.2009 13:25

Yerevan (Yerkir) – The local population of Georgia’s Kazbegi region
is against the reopening of the checkpoint at the Upper Lars between
Russia and Georgia. The locals have scheduled a rally to be held on
November 21 in Stepanitsminda, and say this is their own initiative
and no political party will attend the rally.

They say they are against the opening of the checkpoint because it
might result in Ossetians being settled in the region leading to a
separatist movement.

RUSTAMYAN: AZERBAIJAN SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF TURNING KARABAKH PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT INTO ARMED CONFLICT

Yerkir
19.11.2009 16:27

Yerevan (Yerkir) – Armen Rustamyan, a member of the ARF faction in
parliament and the chairman of the parliamentary committee on foreign
relations, has put into circulation a draft statement by the parliament
on Azerbaijan’s responsibility in case of turning the Nagorno Karabakh
settlement into an armed conflict.

In response to the Karabakh people’s self-determination aspirations,
Azerbaijan unleashed a war in 1991-94, Rustamyan said. He added that
Azerbaijan is now trying to pave a way for a new aggression, taking
advantage of the unawareness of many international bodies.

The draft statement will be debated at the Committee on Foreign
Relations, and if approved, will be then sent to the National
Assembly to be included in its agenda. If adopted by the National
Assembly, it would mean that Armenia, on the parliamentary level,
states Azerbaijan’s reluctance to recognize the NKR as a full-fledged
party to the settlement negotiations would fail the settlement process.

IMF ISSUES LOANS TO ARMENIA DUE TO "MILD" POLICY ON TURKEY, KARABAKH

Haykakan Zhamanak
Nov 13 2009
Armenia

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to provide loans
to Armenia due to Armenia’s "mild" position in the process of
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations and the Nagornyy Karabakh
settlement although the Armenian government violates a condition for
the provision of IMF loans.

The Armenian government has broken one of the "important conditions"
for the provision of IMF loans to Armenia, which is that the Armenian
government should stay committed to its policy of floating exchange
rate of the Armenian national currency dram, the paper said. Instead,
the Armenian government spent about 700m dollars from its foreign
reserves to keep the dram stable at the end of 2008 and beginning of
2009, the paper quoted the IMF’s permanent representative to Armenia,
Nienke Oomes, as telling a news conference in Yerevan on 12 November.

The paper said the move could have been a basis for the aggravation of
relations between Armenia and the IMF. However, after a 480m-dollar
IMF loan had been spent to replenish Armenia’s foreign reserves,
the IMF decided on 30 October to provide Armenia with an additional
60m-dolalr loan, Nienke Oomes told the news conference.

Armenia’s Central Bank has spent 180m dollars to keep the exchange rate
stable within the past couple of months, and the bank was carrying
out another 3.5m-dollar intervention at the moment Oomes was holding
the news conference, Haykakan Zhamanak said in a separate report on
13 November. Oomes told the news conference that the IMF criticized
the government, but not in public, and added she was trying to
convince the Armenian authorities not to carry out interventions in
January-March 2009, but in vain, Haykakan Zhamanak reported. The IMF
and international financial organizations, in general, are supporting
the Armenian authorities in their best way "exclusively in exchange
for [Armenia’s] ‘mild’ position displayed in the improvement of
Armenian-Turkish relations and the issue of the Karabakh settlement",
the paper quoted unnamed pro-government experts as saying. The experts
believe that the IMF is carrying out a "risk-free" test on Armenia.

"Even if the test is not successful, Armenia will owe the IMF money
and will depend on it even more," Haykakan Zhamanak reported.

Armenia’s Central Bank announced on 3 March 2009 that it would be
guided by a floating dram exchange rate from that time on, with the
dram depreciating by 22 per cent within one day alone. The World
Bank’s Armenia office welcomed the depreciation of the dram and the
International Monetary Fund announced the provision of a 540m-dollar
loan to Armenia, Haykakan Zhamanak reported on 4 March. The paper
opined that the shift to the floating exchange rate was "primarily to
the benefit of oligarchs" and was an attempt to "create an illusion
of stability so that ahead of the 1 March [opposition] rally people
do not understand what disaster will come". Interventions worth 600m
dollars were made in the domestic market out of only 1.6bn dollars of
Armenia’s foreign reserves in order to maintain 305 drams per dollar
exchange rate, Haykakan Zhamanak reported on 4 March. The chairman
of the country’s Central Bank, Artur Javadyan, said on 3 March that
the dram exchange rate would be 360-380 drams per dollar in 2009,
Haykakan Zhamanak reported on 4 March.

TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS TURKEY’S FINAL PERSPECTIVE IS EUROPE

Anadolu Agency
Nov 17 2009
Turkey

ANKARA (A.A) -Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that
Turkey would never give up its final perspective Europe.

Davutoglu said during a debate at the parliament on the budget of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Turkey cannot be offended in its
relations with Europe, the United States, the Middle East and the
Central Asia. Turkey is a regional actor. Also, our unique geographical
position entails us to develop foreign policies for many regions at
the same time. We cannot say that we do not care about what happens
in Europe or in Iran."

Referring to the protocols signed with Armenia, Davutoglu said, "our
target with those protocols is mutual recognition of the borders by
Turkey and Armenia. The protocols clearly define the borders. There
is nothing in those protocols against Turkey’s interests."

"Azerbaijan has lost 20 per cent of its territories. This status quo
has not changed for the past 17 years. We attach great importance to
protection Azerbaijani territories. If we do not try to change the
status quo for another 10 years, it will become permanent. Our target
is to change the situation in the region through diplomatic ways. In
that case, Turkey-Armenia relations can be normalized. Also, we can
create a peaceful atmosphere between Azerbaijan and Armenia that
can pave the way to end of occupation of Azerbaijani territories,"
Davutoglu added.

KARABAKH AND ARMENIA-TURKEY RAPPROCHEMENT NOT CONNECTED, SAYS SWISS FOREIGN MINISTER

Tert
Nov 19 2009
Armenia

There is no formal relation between resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict and Turkey-Armenia rapprochement, Swiss Foreign Minister
Micheline Calmy-Rey told Azerbaijani news agency Trend News today.

Calmy-Rey was commenting on the non-ratification of the
Turkish-Armenian protocols.

Calmy-Rey also said the two countries should ratify the Turkish and
Armenian protocols in the rapprochement process.

"We hope both Turkey and Armenia will ratify the protocols soon," the
minister said, noting that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution
and Turkey-Armenia rapprochement have no formal relation.

According to official, the processes are connected, yet independent
at the same time.

"The OSCE Minsk Group is engaged in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The
other process deals with the normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations
with Swiss mediation," she said.

The minister expressed hope in the prompt ratification of the
protocols.

"We hope the ratification process will be held soon. The processes
are not connected. Of course, progress on one issue will positively
impact the second affair," the minister added.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BRUTAL MURDER ON YEREVAN’S MYASNIKYAN BOULEVARD

Tert
Nov 19 2009
Armenia

Around 1 am on November 19, RA police Artashat division received
notice from Artashat Hospital that they had received a man who had
died of gunshot wounds.

According to a statement by the RA police, the team on the scene
established that around 11:50 pm on November 18 on Myasnikyan
Boulevard, a vehicle with unknown license plate number approached
Khosrov Forest State Reserve NGO Director, 51-year-old Samvel
Shaboyan’s Toyota Prado, license plate number 007 LL 71, from the
right and subsequently began shooting at the vehicle.

The shots were fired at the right side of the vehicle’s backseat
where Shaboyan was seated. Evident on the back, right-hand-side door
are 30 bullet holes. The cause of Shaboyan’s death was established
to be from gunshot wounds.

As informed by RA police spokesperson Varuzhan Balyan, Samvel Shaboyan
was the brother of Goravan village resident Perjik Shaboyan, who was
murdered on June 20 by regional governor Petrosyan. According to
information provided by the police, Karen Petrosyan, the regional
governor’s nephew, was arrested a few hours later, under suspicion
for committing the crime.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PM LEAVES FOR YALTA ON NOVEMBER 20

Tert
Nov 19 2009
Armenia

On November 20, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan leaves for the
Ukrainian city of Yalta to participate in the Heads of State of the
Commonwealth of Independent States Council’s next session.

As announced by the RA government, the delegation headed by the prime
minister is comprised of Head of RA Government Staff Davit Sargsyan,
RA Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Republic
of Belarus Oleg Esayan, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador
of the Republic of Armenia to Ukraine Armen Khachatryan and other
officials.

WALL OF ARMENIAN CHURCH COLLAPSED IN TBILISI

Tert
Nov 19 2009
Armenia

A wall of an Armenian church on Abo Tbileli Street in Tbilisi’s
Sololaki district collapsed last night. The collapse damaged other
nearby buildings, but luckily, no one was injured, reports The
Georgian Times.

The Armenian church was closed due to the critical state of the
historic building.

Locals say that the recent rains inflicted more damage on the church
and the wall of the amortized building was ruined as a result.

The district governor viewed the damaged building and promised the
locals to allocate funds for rehabilitation works.