Author: Antonian Lara

ARMENIA NEGOTIATES WITH EU FOR SIGNING FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

ARMENPRESS
Feb 17, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 17, ARMENPRESS: Armenia is conducting negotiations
with EU for signing an agreement on the implementation of free trade.

Press service of the Armenian Economy Ministry told Armenpress that
the agreement supposes a higher level of implementation of trade
and good conditions. An EU fact-finding group has already arrived in
Armenia and will meet February 18-19 with different experts, heads
of ministries and departments to discuss Armenia’s legislative acts
referring to trade.

As a result of discussions it will be clear what issues exist
in Armenia’s legislative field and what changes must be made. The
process of signing of the agreement demands long time and as a result
of 2-year work it will be possible to sign an agreement which will
give an opportunity to the Armenian producers export their products
without preconditions and duty free.

Armenia has signed free trade agreements with Russia, USA, Canada
and Japan.

ESTEEM STARTS FROM NATIONAL ANTHEM

A1+
[07:43 pm] 16 February, 2009

Starting from February 16 the national anthem will be played in all
Armenian schools every Monday.

Today the pupils of Abovyan’s secondary school N2 started their
lessons under the tune of Our Homeland. Schoolgirl Lianna says the
sounds of the national anthem encourages them.

A child should know the national anthem from birthday as it symbolises
the great respect for the country, says Pedagogue Frunze Begoyan.

Let’s remind that none of the Armenian MPs, except the Heritage
Faction, sing when the anthem is played in the parliament.

"HOUSE OF EUROPE" IN YEREVAN

Panorama.am
12:18 17/02/2009

"House of Europe" has been established in Yerevan. The German
University in Armenia and the European Movement of Armenia will
function in the "House of Europe", reports the office of European
Movement of Armenia.

According to the source discussions, round table meetings on European
developments, political events will be organized. A discussion has
been also conducted with the participation of the Ambassadors of
France and Poland to Armenia Serge Smessov and Tomaz Knotche

CSTO AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION TO ENLARGE COOPERATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.02.2009 18:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Nikolai Bordyuzha, Secretary General of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization met with Mr. Enrico Ponziani,
head of IOM Moscow Mission, on Feb. 16 to discuss cooperation in
counteracting illegal migration and trafficking in people.

Nikolai Bordyuzha briefed Enrico Ponziani on the measures taken for
the purpose.

For his part, Mr. Ponziani said IOM is ready to assist conduction of
comparative legal analysis of CSTO legislative norms.

The participants also noted the positive results of implementation of
the international protocol on cooperation between the CSTO secretariat
and the administration of the International Organization for Migration
signed on July 26, 2006, the CSTO Yerevan Office reports.

OSCE PA WINTER MEETING SET TO DISCUSS EUROPEAN SECURITY ARCHITECTURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.02.2009 17:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ More than 270 parliamentarians from the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly are scheduled to attend the Eighth Winter
Meeting in Vienna 19-20 February, where the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office,
Greece’s Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, will address the opening
session on Thursday morning, February 19, the OSCE PA press office
told PanARMENIAN.Net.

Other speakers include the President of the Austrian Nationalrat,
Barbara Prammer; the President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly,
U.S. Congressman, John Tanner; and OSCE PA President, Joao Soares.

One of the highlights during the Winter Meeting will be a special
debate on Friday morning, 20 February, about the initiatives by Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for
new European security arrangements. The OSCE parliamentarians will
hear from Alexander Groushko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
of the Russian Federation; Veronique Bujon-Barre, Deputy Director
for Political and Security Affairs of the French Foreign Ministry;
and OSCE PA President Joao Soares.

The debate, as other sessions and the meetings of the three General
Committees during the Winter Meeting, is open to the press.

During the closing session on 20 February, the delegates will hear
presentations by the OSCE PA’s Special Representative on Gender
Issues, OSCE PA Vice-President Tone Tingsgaard, and by Panos Kammenos,
Greek Vice Minister of Mercantile Marine, Aegean & Island Policy, on
"Piracy As a New Security Threat."

The Winter Meeting’s agenda also includes a special presentation on
Kazakhstan’s preparations for its OSCE Chairmanship in 2010 by the
Kazakh delegation, led by its head of delegation and OSCE PA Vice
President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

The OSCE PA Winter Meeting, addressed by the top officials of the
OSCE, including the Secretary General and Heads of Institutions is
the second largest event in the OSCE PA calendar, topped only by the
Annual Session, which is due in Vilnius, Lithuania from June 29

AUCTION FOR "BJNI" OVER: ONE BID RECEIVED

armradio.am
16.02.2009 16:07

On 16 at 1 p.m. the electronic compulsory auction for the property and
property rights of "Bjni" Mineral Water Company came to an end. One
bid was submitted, Press Secretary of the Judicial Acts Compulsory
Enforcement Service of Armenia Ruben Grdzeyan told "Radiolur."

"The auction is over. Consistent with the Armenian legislation, the
information about the participants of the tender is kept secret,"
he said.

The preliminary price set by the Bailiff Service for the property of
the factory, including rights for trademarks, was 4,934,943,264.3
Drams at the first auction. The amount to be recovered from Bjni
factory is almost 4.356bln Drams.

Under the country’s law about public sale, if no bids are received
the new auction is to be announced on the third working day after
the final day of the previous one and the starting lot price is to
be reduced by 10% there.

The starting price of the second auction is over 4.441bln Drams.

"HISTORY OF ARMENIA’S NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES" FOUR-VOLUME BOOK PREPARED TO PUBLICATION

ARMENPRESS
Feb 13, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS: The "History of Armenia’s neighboring
countries" four-volume book is prepared to be published. It will
particularly present the ancient, middle age, new and newest periods
of history of Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Middle East countries and
how they concern the Armenian people.

Head of the institute of oriental studies of Armenian national
academy of science, scientist on Turkey Ruben Safrastian told
Armenpress the works are already being conducted for two years and the
four-volume book will be ready in 2010. R. Safrastian assessed it as
an unprecedented initiative and a basic scientific work. Head of the
institute expressed hope that the book will contribute to Armenia in
the issue of formation of foreign policy.

The program is being financed by the Armenian government.

U.S. LAWMAKERS CALL ON 111TH CONGRESS TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.02.2009 17:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A letter seeking U.S. House cosponsors for a renewed
drive to secure the adoption of the Armenian Genocide Resolution was
circulated today on Capitol Hill by the legislation’s lead authors,
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and George Radanovich (R-CA), and
Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and Mark Kirk
(R-IL), reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

"We join today with millions of Armenians throughout the United States,
in Armenia, and around the world in welcoming the launch of this new
drive toward U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide," said Aram
Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "It’s always the right time
to take a stand against genocide. Now – with long-standing advocates
of this noble and necessary cause in the White House, leading the
State Department, serving in the Cabinet, heading up both Houses of
Congress, and chairing key Congressional committees – we are set to
overcome the final barriers to full and formal U.S. recognition of
the Armenian Genocide."

In the letter, the four legislators invited their House colleagues
to join the resolution as original cosponsors, which will mean
that they will be listed as supporters starting from the day of
its introduction. During the recently concluded 110th Congress, an
identical measure secured the support of 212 cosponsors, was adopted
by the Foreign Affairs Committee, but was eventually blocked from a
vote on the House floor by sustained attacks by then-President George
W. Bush and his Administration.

ALLIANCE OF DICTATORSHIPS: MOSCOW IS TRYING TO FRIGHTEN THE WEST WITH A MILITARY ALLIANCE WHERE MEMBERSHIP IS SELF-IMPOSED AND COMPULSORY ALL AT ONCE
by Pavel Felgengauer

WPS Agency
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
February 11, 2009 Wednesday
Russia

MOSCOW SEEMS CONFIDENT THAT THE UNITED STATES CANNOT SUCCEED IN
AFGHANISTAN WITHOUT MANAS AND RUSSIAN SUPPORT; Russia is trying to
tighten its grip on the post-Soviet zone.

Granted that the Americans were admonished for their invasion into
Iraq and Afghanistan, practically all their allies did send their
contingents to at least one of these two countries. When the Russian
army entered Georgia and seized part of its territory in August, not
one of its allies in the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
sent contingents to help Russia in the hostilities or recognized
Abkhazia and South Ossetia afterwards. Military-diplomatic circles in
Moscow maintain that it is this embarrassing situation that compelled
the Kremlin to force military integration within the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization and try to evolve this amorphous structure
into a military alliance with its own armed forces.

Transformation of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
into an adequate military bloc with a permanent armed forces under the
Russian command is a serious step toward development of the "region of
privileged interests" into an actual sphere of influence. As things
stand, however, other members of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization do not really think that they need it.

The CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization is
essentially an alliance of dictatorships with varying degrees of
authoritarianism. Presidents of the countries comprising it desperately
need elite battalions as guarantees of their own power, always on
alert and handy. That every president will be happy to accept aid
from Russia goes without saying, but that is all. This is the only
value that all dictators share: every man for himself.

Alexander Lukashenko verified documents of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization session in return for Russian credits, but his
signature accounts for nothing at all. The Belarussian Constitution
expressly forbids the deployment of the military abroad, and the
thought of amending it has never even crossed Minsk’s mind.

Sandwiched between Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia, Armenia couldn’t
send its troops anywhere even if it were of the mind to do so.

Central Asian regimes are prepared to fight Islamic radicals in their
own region with Russia’s help, but not one of them will ever send a
single soldier to the Caucasus or elsewhere. Uzbekistan did sign the
documents and, unlike others, plainly stated that it was not going
to participate in the collective forces on the permanent basis.

Promised an economic aid package worth $2 billion, President of
Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev, said before the forum in Moscow that
the American AF base in Manas would be closed. Consolidation of
the post-Soviet zone and its transformation into a zone of Russian
influence is impossible without neutralization of Washington’s
destructive clout, of course. President Barack Obama meanwhile
proclaimed the war on Islamists in Afghanistan number one priority of
his foreign policy and promised to double numerical strength of the
US Army contingent in this country before the year was out. It will
take additional supplies and the support of troops in Afghanistan,
but Talib gunmen regularly attack NATO convoys driving northward
across Pakistan from Karachi.

Manas US AF Base "processes" 15,000 soldiers and 500,000 tons of cargo
every month. American flying tankers operating out of Manas refuel
aviation of the Alliance flying combat missions in Afghanistan. Russia
offers its own territory for non-military transit to Afghanistan,
but not even this transit will recompense for the loss of the AF base
in Kyrgyzstan.

Moscow seems arrogantly confident that Obama cannot succeed in
Afghanistan without Manas and Russian support and that the West
will be forced to cry uncle: leave the regimes in Kiev and Tbilisi
without its support and abandon the missile shield plans for East
Europe. Russia suggested a new European security framework, one that
would take into account Moscow’s legitimate interests and spheres of
control and influence. If Washington disagreed this time, the odds
are it would never agree.

REPORT ON 2008 ACTIVITIES OF ARMENIA RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY FUND APPROVED

Noyan Tapan

Feb 11, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. During the February 11 sitting of
the Board of Trustees of the Armenia Renewable Resources and Energy
Efficiency Fund conducted by the Board’s chairman, Armenian prime
minister Tigran Sargsyan, the report on the 2008 activities of the
Fund was approved.

Presenting the results of last year’s activities, the director of the
Fund Tamara Babayan said that in 2008 the Fund continued implementing a
number of programs launched in 2006, including the World Bank-financed
City Heating credit project, the Global Environmental Protection
Measures trust fund-financed Renewable Energy grant program, as well
as the World Bank and Global Partnership for Output-Based Aid-financed
Heating and Gas project.

These projects will be implemented until the end of this year.

As regards the implementation of the decisions taken at the
previous sitting of the Board of Trustees, T. Babayan said
that all the instructions were carried out completely and in
time. In particular, preparatory work on the necessary measures for
approval of the Geothermal Program and its rapid launching has been
completed. Negotiations took place between the Armenian delegation
and the World Bank on January 29, 2009, as a result of which the WB
will provide 1.5 million dollars as a grant, and 300 thousand drams
(17% of the expenses) will be allocated from the state budget of
Armenia. It is envisaged finishing the program in 2010.