Author: Andres-Papazian

FOREIGN MINISTER: ARMENIAN PRESIDENT ONCE AGAIN TRIED TO MISLEAD HIS PEOPLE AND THE WORLD

Trend, Azerbaijan
April 10 2013

Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 April / Trend E.Tariverdiyeva /

In his inauguration speech, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
once again tried to mislead his people and the world, Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said, commenting on the
statement by the President of Armenia that Yerevan offers peace based
on human values.

“I wonder what Sargsyan implies? Apparently, occupation of the
territory of a neighbouring country, a complete violation of
international law, bloody ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Armenian
forces on the territory of Azerbaijan, the Khojaly genocide when men
in military uniforms now leading Armenia spared neither women nor
children,” Abdullayev said.

According to him, given these facts, human values are seen by Armenian
President exclusively in the light of his own views.

Today, there is no peace and stability in the region and the constant
tightening of the peace process by official Yerevan is a blow to the
prospects of stability, prosperity and development of the region,
Abdullayev said.

“Armenia is the only one to blame for this. Attempts by the
internationally recognised aggressor to blame others for their failures
look very primitive and irresponsible,” he said.

Commenting on Sargsyan’s words about a new reality in which Armenia
lives, Abdullayev said Azerbaijan has directed the full potential for
the development of the region and successfully implemented the plan
over several years acting as the initiator of many regional projects
of global importance.

“Unfortunately, Armenia misses opportunity after opportunity to become
involved in these regional processes and its leadership is the only one
to blame. Economic growth, as well as other components of Sargsyan’s
‘new reality’ are impossible without participation in these projects,”
he said.

The result of the so-called economic growth in Armenia is evident. The
country is not developing and the fragile economic situation is not
going to change without regional cooperation, Abdullayev said.

According to him, in the first place this short-sighted policy of
Yerevan affects people who are forced to leave Armenia in search of
a better life.

“The Armenian president shamelessly deceives his own people saying
not a word of truth about the current reality. Lack of pragmatism of
the leadership of Armenia has a very negative impact on the economy as
a whole and on each citizen of Armenia in particular,” Abdullayev said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France and the U.S. are
currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

From: A. Papazian

MINISTER OF ECONOMY AGREES WITH ARMENIAN OFFICIALS ON ORGANIZING ROMANIAN-ARMENIAN BUSINESS FORUM

ACTmedia, Romania
April 10 2013

Romanian Minister of Economy Varujan Vosganian agreed with officials
from the Republic of Armenia on holding the fourth session of the
joint Romanian-Armenian commission on economic cooperation in Yerevan,
in June 2013, and organizing a Romanian-Armenian business forum,
reads a release the Ministry of Economy sent on Tuesday.

The Minister of Economy on April 8-9 is on an official visit to Armenia
to attend the events occasioned by President reelect of the Republic
of Armenia Serzh Sargsian being invested.

Some of the fields of economic cooperation that were identified
during the talks held with the Armenian officials are delivering
from Romania installations and equipment for the mining industry
of Armenia, furniture and various items necessary for tourism, but
also importing building materials from Armenia. Other fields with
a potential for the development of the economic cooperation between
Romania and Armenia that were mentioned during the talks were cultural
and recreational tourism, the field of goods and passenger transports,
agriculture, small and medium-sized enterprises. An important part
is to be played by the Romania-Armenia Chamber of Commerce and by
the Armenian community of Romania in materializing the programmes
that were suggested.

Minister Varujan Vosganian had a number of meetings with high ranking
Armenian officials, from among whom mention should be made of Prime
Minister of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Sargsian, Minister of
Economy Tigran Davtian and Minister of Transports and Communications
Gagik Beglarian, who is the head of the Armenian side in the joint
Romanian-Armenian commission on economic cooperation.

During the official talks in Yerevan they made an exchange of opinions
on the current general situation of the economies of the two countries
in the context of the developments of world economy, the stage and
development prospects of the Romanian-Armenian economic and trade
relations and the possibilities to make some mutual investments.

From: A. Papazian

IRAN FOREIGN MINISTER MULLS BILATERAL TIES WITH HIGH-RANKING ARMENIAN OFFICIALS

Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1, Iran
April 9 2013

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has discussed bilateral
relations with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandyan in Yerevan, state-run TV Channel One (IRTV 1)
reported on 9 April.

At the meeting with Sargsyan, Salehi spoke about historical and
cultural relations between the two countries and stressed the
importance of boosting bilateral ties.

Sargsyan said Armenia enjoyed “special” relations with Iran, and
expressed hope that similar to political ties, economic, trade and
cultural cooperation between the two countries would further develop.

Salehi told reporters that “a wide range of projects are being both
implemented and prepared for the implementation. We talked about a dam
and a hydropower plant that are being constructed on the Aras River”.

Mehr news agency reported on the same day that Salehi also discussed
several regional issues and bilateral cooperation at a meeting with
his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandyan.

The agency quoted Salehi as stressing the need to use transit
potentials of both countries in transport and energy areas and ensure
the fulfilment of contracts between the two countries.

The two ministers then also discussed the latest developments in the
region, the Syrian crisis, economic cooperation and the expansion of
bilateral relations, the agency added.

[Translated from Persian]

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA LIKELY SIGN DCFTA BY THE END OF THIS YEAR: DEPUTY MINISTER

YEREVAN, April 10. / ARKA /. Armenia is very likely to sign the deep
and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA) agreement with the EU by
the end of the year, according to a deputy economy minister Garegin
Melkonyan.

“If the agreement is not signed by then, Armenia and the EU will be
very close to it at any rate. The sides have reconciled and approved
the bulk of the agreement text. The rest is being negotiated,”
Melkonyan said during the presentation of a book called “Armenia –
EU: Economic Relations”, released by the Centre for European Studies
of Yerevan State University.

According to him, the goal for Armenia as a country with a small market
is to make foreign markets more accessible not only to promote sales
of Armenian products but also attract potential investors.

“It is quite a different thing when you are simply a three-million
market country, and when you are a country with an access to EU
markets”, he said.

He said Armenia has already signed multilateral free trade agreements
with former Soviet republics. The next goal is to achieve similar trade
relationship with the EU, which is Armenia’s major trading partner.

He said a great deal of job is to be done to develop a package of
tariffs to join EU’s free trade area, because this transition should
be smooth, visible and predictable, given the fact that Armenia’s
revenue from customs duties will decrease in the first period.

He said the next round of talks on Armenia’s accession to DCFTA
is scheduled for April 16-17 to be followed by several more rounds
this year.

The book “Armenia – EU: Economic Relations” consists of an analysis
of the macroeconomic environment in Armenia, its foreign trade and
EU’s influence on these processes. The analysis is based on data up
to 2011.-0-

From: A. Papazian

HERITAGE PARTY VICE-CHAIR SPEAKS OF ARMENIA’S POLICE SYSTEM

22:01 ~U 10.04.13

Heritage party Vice-Chairman Armen Martirosyan, who tops the Barev
Yerevan (Hello Yerevan) list in the elections to Yerevan’s Council
of Elders, was beaten by policemen in Baghramyan Avenue on April 9.

“He [the policeman] must have been experienced severe hardships as
a child. Their Ring operation and sadistic treatment is evidence
of one thing only – they are toadies but not defenders of people,”
Mr Martirosyan said.

He refuted the reports on his broken nose and said that Armenian
policemen’s wages are so low that they “cannot even afford meat.”

Asked about changes in law-enforcers’ behavior since 2008, he said
that “this is a system problem. Unfortunately, Armenia’s police have
proved unable to become defenders of public order. They have remained
the authorities’ servants.”

As to whether he was not surprised at being detained given the
meeting between Raffi Hovannisian and Chief of Armenia’s police
Vladimir Gasparyan last evening, Mr Martirosyan does not link the
two instances with each other.

In response to a remark about people’s disappointment at Raffi
Hovannisian, Mr Martirosyan said that among the disappointed citizens
are those that did not vote for Heritage party leader, those that
tried to make Armenia’s political arena meet their own interests by
means of PR technologies. “Such statements are false,” he said.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO HIS IRANIAN COUNTERPART

April 10, 2013 – 20:31 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan issued a letter
of condolence to his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over
the victims and injuries caused by the earthquake that struck near
Iran’s nuclear city Bushehr.

President Sargsyan offered deep condolences to Iranian people,
sympathizing with the families of those killed, presidential press
service reported.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION PARTY OFFICIAL COMMENTS ON TUESDAY’S INCIDENTS

April 10, 2013 | 16:00

YEREVAN. – Changes were made in Tuesday’s events that were planned in
Armenia’s capital city Yerevan. Opposition Heritage Party Secretary
Stiopa Safaryan stated this during a press conference on Wednesday,
and added that, instead of the rally that was scheduled to be held
at Liberty Square at 6pm, a march was staged because that was what
the people demanded.

In Heritage representative’s words, a part of the people decided
to march, together with the party chairman, former FM Raffi
Hovannisian-who was declared runner-up to the winner, incumbent
President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result of the presidential election
that was conducted on February 18, but who claims to be the real
winner in the vote-, along the Yerevan streets that were blocked,
but since the people themselves had been surrounded, different groups
remained blockaded in variety of places.

Safaryan stressed that Hovannisian did not leave the people on their
own on Baghramyan Avenue; it is just that a part of the people did
not hear his announcement, whereas another part wished to stay there.

In his words, no one had declared Tuesday, April 9 as a day of coup,
or taking control of the Presidential Residence.

Safaryan also informed that the authorities had inserted provocateurs
among the people, and these provocateurs were making calls for shedding
blood and some of them were even inebriated.

As for Hovannisian visiting the Armenian Genocide Memorial together
with Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan, Stiopa Safaryan noted that
Raffi Hovannisian had gone to the memorial together with the people,
whereas Gasparyan had simply accompanied him.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: A. Papazian

YEREVAN MUST REVISE POLICY ON ARMENIA-TURKEY PROTOCOLS – EXPERT

April 10, 2013 | 18:21

YEREVAN.- The issue of Armenia-Turkey protocols has led Yerevan to
a deadlock, political analyst Haykazun Alvrtsyan believes.

The main problem is we are not noticing that bargaining chip is not
in our hands, he told reporters.

“We could revise protocol policy and realize that Turkey has more
influential role in terms of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations,” he noted.

However, Alvrtsayn said it is not late to correct mistakes. The
reelected president and government must raise the issue.

“Unfortunately, statements regarding the protocols voiced by president
and foreign minister suggest we have not realized that we are out,
until the ball is in Turkey’s court,” he said.

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News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: A. Papazian

NEW STAGE OF ARMENIA-EU TRADE AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS TO LAUNCH IN THE MIDDLE OF APRIL

17:16, 10 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The new stage of negotiations regarding
the Armenia-EU Deep and Comprehensive Trade Zone agreement will launch
on April 16-17. The Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of
Armenia Garegin Melkonyan stated this during the presentation of
report entitled “Armenia-EU: Economic Relations: the Impact of Deep
and Comprehensive Trade Zone Agreement on Bilateral Trade Ties.” The
presentation was held on April 10. As reports “Armenpress” Melkonyan
stated: “The majority of the chapters of the agreement have already
been agreed upon. Certain chapters are still included in the agenda
of the negotiations, notwithstanding I don’t see deep and sharp
difference in the approaches adopted by the sides.” In addition the
Deputy Minister stated that taking into consideration the course of
the negotiations, it will be possible to end them by the end of the
current year.

Among other things the Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of
Armenia Garegin Melkonyan emphasized that there are certain nuances
and special attention should be paid to those aspects.

From: A. Papazian

‘AUTHORITIES’ SILENCE IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE’

04:06 PM | TODAY | SOCIAL

The bankruptcy of Armenian national carrier, Armavia Air Company,
was the result of monopoly, says Shahen Petrosyan, former head of
the Armenian Civil Aviation.

He says there is only one option in the given situation. “Armenia
needs to have two air carriers – public and private. This will ensure
healthy competition,” Petrosyan said at the Media Centre.

He is angered by the continuing silence of the authorities.

“Actually, Armavia has run into debts and is disallowed to operate
flights. The field is on the verge of destruction while the authorities
are still silent,” he said.

“The state has not had clear strategy on the issue since 1991,”
said Izabella Muradyan, Deputy Chairperson of Air Communication
Subcommittee of the Public Council. She thinks that Armenia should
have airline regulations.

From: A. Papazian