Author: Badalian Vardan

LATVIA HAS NOT RESPONDED TO AZERBAIJAN ABOUT ARMS SALE TO ARMENIA

news.az, Azerbaijan
Oct 13 2011

Azerbaijan has not yet received a response from Latvia concerning
sale of arms to Armenia.

It was stated by spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan
Elman Abdullayev.

Second secretary at the Security Affairs Department of the
Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan Elchin Huseynli said earlier that
Latspeceksports from Latvia is also involved in arms sale to Armenia.

In his address to the conference “Building cross-border ties”
co-organized by the GUAM Parliament Assembly and Baltic Assembly in
Baku recently Elchin Huseynli called on parliamentarians from the
Baltic Assembly to study this issue.

Vice President of Baltic Assembly, head of the visiting Latvian
delegation Janis Reirs claimed no company has been issued a license
by the Latvian Defense Ministry to sell weapons to Armenia.

AZERBAIJANI DEPUTY MINISTER MEETS AHMET DAVUTOGLU

news.az, Azerbaijan
Oct 13 2011

Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov met Wednesday with
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara.

During the meeting, they discussed development of relations between
the two friendly and fraternal countries even more, settlement of
the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and situation in
the South Caucasus.

ALI HASANOV: “IF PACE VOTES FOR RECOGNIZING NAGORNO KARABAKH, AZERBAIJAN WILL WIN 100-132 VOTES AGAINST 32”

APA, Azerbaijan
Oct 13 2011

Baku. Ramil Mammadli – APA. “It should be taken as normal that 32
deputies signed a document for recognizing Nagorno Karabakh within the
PACE session. There are such cases. Armenian lobby is working there.

There are countries and parliamentary groups, which support Armenians.

It should be taken as normal. This is a political struggle in the
international framework. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia gain supporters
within the framework of the political struggle”, head of the public
policy department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan
Ali Hasanov told journalists.

Reminding about the Azerbaijani parliamentary group’s activity
in the PACE session, Hasanov noted that this issue is frequently
repeated in PACE experience. “If you remember, after joining the
Council of Europe, Azerbaijani parliamentary group issued a series of
documents about the Armenian aggressive policy against Azerbaijan,
Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs, illegal Armenian settlements in the
occupied Azerbaijani territories, use of occupied territories for
drug trafficking, turning Nagorno Karabakh into uncontrolled region
and other illegal cases. I assure you if PACE votes for that issue,
Azerbaijan will win 100-132 votes against 32”.

Hasanov also expressed opinion on the law on ex-presidents. “This
draft law was discussed in the society. I am not aware of the law’s
clauses and principles. I think Azerbaijan will solve this issue in
accordance with the world’s experience”.

AZERBAIJANI AND TURKISH DEFENSE MINISTERS ISSUE STATEMENT: “THE TIME HAS COME TO WITHDRAW ARMENIAN OCCUPATION ARMY FROM THE AZERBAIJANI LANDS”

APA, Azerbaijan
Oct 13 2011

Baku – APA. On October 13, the delegation led by Turkish National
Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz, who is on an official visit to
Azerbaijan, met with Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel General
Safar Abiyev.

Press service of the Defense Ministry told APA that the solemn
welcoming ceremony of the Turkish Minister was held in the Azerbaijani
Defense Ministry, the national anthems of both countries were sounded.

At the large meeting Abiyev congratulated Yilmaz on his appointment and
wished successes in his activity. The ministers exchanged view on the
development of military cooperation between the two countries. The
ministers discussed the settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno
Karabakh conflict and noted that the time has come to restore the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and to withdraw Armenian occupation
army from the Azerbaijani lands.

Abiyev said that though the negotiations were held for peaceful
settlement of the conflict, there was no concrete result yet and
Armenia continued its aggression. He said, in such situation, there
is no other way for Azerbaijan to prepare its armed forces seriously.

Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Hulusi Kilic also participated in
the meeting.

DEPUTY MINISTER: AZERBAIJAN READY TO CONTINUE EFFORTS TO RESOLVE CONFLICT

Trend, Azerbaijan
Oct 13 2011

The primary goal in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is to
normalize ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on principles of
international law, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov
said today.

He added that Azerbaijan is ready to continue its political efforts
to resolve the conflict.

“The question of the lack of results from the negotiation process
is valid, as it has been carried out and is being carried out within
the Minsk Group with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,” Azimov said.

Asimov stressed with regret that the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian
presidents’ Kazan meeting yielded no results, and afterward there
was a sense of a pause. However, he added, Sochi hosted Aliyev and
Medvedev in August, and “we hope that following this meeting Russia
will modify its actions and together with two other co-chairs of the
Minsk Group will try to intensify the process.”

“Unfortunately, we hear more and more statements of an offensive
nature by the Armenian president, which seem to be speculative. It
refers to his recent statement in New York about the need to recognize
independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. We also face Armenia’s
intensified efforts to procure weapons of an offensive nature,”
Azimov said.

“I think they deliberately try to provoke a crisis, relying on Russian
peacekeepers, such as what happened in August 2008 in Georgia. The
development of such a crisis is easy to predict and this can lead to
extremely negative consequences,” Azimov said.

He said Azerbaijan is not interested in any crisis.

“We are interested in quiet, normal arrangements that would ensure
the integrity and inviolability of our territory, and the return of
IDPs,” he said.

Commenting on the change in the format of negotiations on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azimov said if the question was about some
other conflict, it would be possible to discuss such a possibility.

“In this case we have the OSCE Minsk Group, working based on 1975
Helsinki Act. The U.S., France and Russia are members of the Minsk
Group, and they have duties of co-chairs. On the other hand, these
countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council. If not
the Minsk Group, there is the Security Council, I do not see much
difference,” Azimov 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 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 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 the 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.

AZERBAIJAN BUILDS A GREAT WALL OF KARABAKH
by Giorgi Lomsadze

EurasiaNet.org, NY
Oct 13 2011

The notion of a breakthrough in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict soon
could have quite a literal meaning. Azerbaijan is now busy walling
itself off from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

The three-meter-tall wall will stretch three kilometers across the
conflict line to shield nearby Azerbaijani-controlled villages from
sniper bullets. The wall starts in Ortagervend, a village where an
eight-year-old boy was shot to death six months ago.

The chronic sniper exchange between the Azerbaijani army and separatist
Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian forces has often turned deadly and
threatened the return of all-out hostilities in the area.

Azerbaijani authorities said that the sniper fire is driving the
civilian population away from the villages.

In a rare sign of approval of an Azerbaijani initiative, separatist
officials welcomed construction of the wall as a way to solidify the
border of the disputed enclave.

ARMENIAN SECRETARY OF NATIONAL SECURITY MEETS DEPUTY HEAD OF CSTO

Vestnik Kavkaza
Oct 13 2011

The Armenian National Security Council has held talks on realization
of deals reached at an informal meeting of presidents of CSTO states
in Astana, Armenia Today reports.

Secretary of the Armenian Council for National Security Artur
Bagdasaryan has met Deputy Secretary General of the CSTO Valery
Semerikov.

The agreed to meet in Yerevan in November to develop Russian-Armenian
military-technical cooperation.The sides discussed training of CSTO
Rapid Reaction Forces in Armenia in 2012.

Semerikov noted that the CSTO will support Armenia in the training
process and send specialists if necessary.

Training will be held in 2012 and will be organized within the
framework of marking the 20th anniversary of the Collective Security
Treaty.

.

EBRD FINANCING TO EXPAND BROADBAND INTERNET SERVICES IN ARMENIA

The Financial, Georgia
Oct 13 2011

The FINANCIAL — The EBRD is supporting the development of the
telecoms, information and media sector in Armenia with a US$ 2.2
million quasi-equity investment in Interactive TV LLC, a digital cable
TV service provider, and one of the capital Yerevan~Rs largest media
delivery companies.

Interactive TV was founded in 2006 and was Yerevan~Rs first cable
television supplier with a substantial share of the capital~Rs digital
cable television market.

EBRD financing will enable the company to build on its existing
footprint and diversify its products by expanding into more districts
of the city and by offering broadband internet services.

~SWe are delighted to have a reputable organisation such as the EBRD
supporting us in our future development plans. We hope to grow into
one of the leading multi-service telecoms, informatics and media
companies in Armenia, while continuing to serve our clients,~T said
Avetik Kalantaryan, the CEO of Interactive TV.

The EBRD is one of the largest investors in Armenia. Since the start
of its operations in the country in 1992, the EBRD has invested more
than US$ 600 million in 101 projects in the financial, corporate,
energy and infrastructure sectors, with 92 per cent of projects
representing investment in the private sector.

PM: ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT TO DO WHATEVER NECESSARY TO IMPROVE COMPETITION ENVIRONMENT IN COUNTRY

ARKA
Oct 13, 2011

YEREVAN, October 13. /ARKA/. Armenian government will make every
effort to improve competition environment in the country, Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan said Thursday at a regular Cabinet meeting.

“Economic competition is very important to us for handling the 2012
government budget,” he said. “If we manage to ensure just competition,
we’ll have higher economic growth.”

The government, he said, worked out legislative changes in 2010 and
2011 under international organizations’ support. These changes allowed
the government to provide the State Commission for Protection of
Economic Competition with additional powers for improving market. As
a result, the commission tripled fines. At the same time, the
premier noted that fines can be considered effective if they lessen
irregularities.

“Are fines really improving competitive environment, or they only
displeased fine payers?” he said. “It is very important to us to
spur competition. We gave additional levers to the commission and
are ready to give also other powers, if we see that these instruments
serve its direct goal – improvement of competitive environment.”

The antitrust commission has made 86 decisions over nine months
of 2011 and levied fines totaling AMD 230 million. Of this amount,
AMD 150 million has already transferred to the government budget.

Amendments to the law on protection of economic competition took
force in May 2011. The amended law allows the government to give some
additional powers to the antitrust commission. The amendments also
tightened sanctions against wrongdoers.

ARMENIA TO STRENGTHEN TIES WITH INTERPOL

PanARMENIAN.Net
October 13, 2011 – 20:41 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On October 13, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met
the Secretary General of International Criminal Police Organization
(INTERPOL) Ronald Kenneth Noble.

At the meeting, President Sargsyan stressed the importance of INTERPOL
involvement in prevention of crimes, expressing wish to further ties
with the Organization.

As the President noted, Armenia-INTERPOL cooperation will help increase
Armenian experts’ professionalism.

In conclusion, the President noted the importance of cooperation in
joint struggle against crime, presidential press service reported.