Author: Basmajian Ani

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
March 11 2009

Belarus president goes to Armenia on working visit
11.03.09 14:38

On March 11 President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko went to the
Republic of Armenia on a working visit. The agreement on the visit was
reached during a recent telephone talk between the presidents of the
two countries, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian
President.

During the visit, the President of Belarus is set to meet with the
Armenia President, representatives of the business community. The
talks will focus on the important issues of bilateral relations, above
all, trade and economic cooperation amid the global financial and
economic crisis and the interaction in the integration organisations
set up by former Soviet Union republics.

Special attention will be given to the strengthening of interregional
links, energy cooperation, participation of Belarus in Armenia’s
governmental economy promotion programmes, facilitating industrial
cooperation, development of tourism and cultural links between the two
nations.

Last year Belarus-Armenia trade was up 18.9% from 2007 to $28.2
million, which is below the economic potential of the two countries.

Trend, Azerbaijan
March 10 2009

Belarus President to visit Armenia
10.03.09 17:34

A phone talk between President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan took place on March 9, BelTA
learnt from the press service of the President of Belarus.

The heads of state discussed matters relating to the expansion of the
trade and economic cooperation, interaction within integration
associations in the post-Soviet space, in particular, the CSTO and the
CIS, urgent matters on the international agenda and issues concerning
the operation of the economies of the countries during the global
financial and economic crisis.

During the conversation the sides arranged a working visit of the
President of Belarus to Armenia. The time will be negotiated via
diplomatic channels.

AZG DAILY #42, 11-03-2009

Armenia `Turkey Update: 2009-03-11 00:45:26 (GMT +04:00)

ALI BABACAN ACCEPTS HIS ARMENIAN COUNTERPART’S INVITATION

By Hakob Chaqrian, translated by L.H.

According to Turkish internet press, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali
Babacan accepted Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s
invitation to participate in the meeting of the council of the foreign
ministers of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation on April 16-17 in
Yerevan.

A1+

Berezovski may stop playing in Armenia
[06:55 pm] 10 March, 2009

Key goalkeeper of the Armenian national soccer team Roman Berezovski
doesn’t know whether he will continue to play in the Armenian team or
not. In an interview with the Russian `Sport Daily’ magazine, the
player of the `Khimki’ team of Moscow didn’t exclude that he may not
play in the Armenian team anymore.

`I was simply playing because it was tied to the decision of the
Russian Football Association to grant me a status of legion. If they
let me play in the Armenian team without losing my status at `Khimki’,
I will continue,’ said Roman Berzovski.

Until 2008 the Russian Football Association did not consider players
of former Soviet republics as legions. Many of them played in Russian
teams without having Russian citizenship. Before the launch of a
series of competition the Russian Football Association grants the
status of legion to all players that are playing in other teams.

Berezovski also said how he set the 11 meter throwback record in
Russia. `I used to throw back better when I was younger. They used to
attack from the sides, but now they attack from the center as well and
very strongly¦’

As to what awaits `Khimki’ in 2009, Berezovski said:

`A lot depends on the first two rounds of the championship. It would
be great if we could reach the maximum. Last year we started off
poorly, but this year we have a number of professional players. I hope
that they will help us reach success.’

PanARMENIAN.Net

Alvin Atkinson and The Sound Merchants quartet to perform in Yerevan
09.03.2009 21:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Jazz drummer Alvin Atkinson and The Sound Merchants
quartet will perform in Yerevan on March 14. The concert will be
conducted within the framework of annual Jazz Days organized by US
Embassy in Armenia.

Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants define their music as a mixture
of hard jazz an blues with inflections of world music and gospel. In
2007, the group toured the Middle East through the Rhythm Road Jazz
Ambassadors Tour.

Alvin has been featured in concerts with various jazz masters.

Commission for Protection of Economic Competition initiates proceedings
in vegetable oil, butter, medicine and domestic appliance markets

1

YEREVAN, MARCH 6, NOYAN TAPAN. At the March 6 sitting, the RA State
Commission for Protection of Economic Competition decided to initiate
proceedings in 4 markets on suspicion of groundlessly raising prices,
creating artificial deficits and reaching anticompetition agreements by
economic entities. Proceedings were initiated in the markets of
vegetable oil, butter, medicines and domestic appliances.

The Commission’s Chairman Ashot Shahnazarian said at a briefing
following the sitting that alarm calls about high fluctiations of
prices had been received from Yerevan and various marzes. According to
him, in particular, inflation tendencies were quite high in the
medicine market, which is not substantiated by any economic factors.

In his words, it became known that the importers of medicines had
agreed to raise the prices of all kinds of medicines by 25%. He assured
those present that from March 7 – after the stabilization of
dram-dollar ratio, prices will fall in all shops. In particular, the
price of gasoline will fall by 10 drams, while the wholesale supply
price of granulated sugar will fall to 250 drams.

A. Shahnazarian said that the situation is still somewhat worrying in
the marzes (provinces) where the level of prices is a bit higher than
in the capital city. He announced that the Commission cooperates with
the State Revenue Committee to deal with this problem: the list of
shops with inappropriately high prices is given to the State Revenue
Committee that will check the filfilment of tax liabilities by these
shops.

As regards the growth in prices of domestic products, the Commission’s
chairman explained that it is conditioned by imported raw materials.
"The problem is by how much their prices have grown. Today we control
mechanical aspirations of economic entities in terms of abusing a
dominating position and reaching an anticompetition agreement," he said.

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
March 7 2009

Neither U.S. nor Russia can resolve conflicts in Caucasus without
willingness of involved sides: U.S. political expert Zbigniew
Brzezinski 06.03.09 14:27

Azerbaijan, Baku, March 6 /Trend News, E. Ostapenko/

Senior American expert Zbigniew Brzezinski says the resolution of the
territorial conflicts in the South Caucasus depends on preparedness of
the conflicting sides to make compromise rather than willingness of
superpowers such as the U.S. and Russia.

"I do not believe that the U.S. or Russia can resolve these problems
on their own," former adviser on national security to the Jimmy Carter
Administration and well-known U.S. political expert and professor at
the John Hopkins University Zbigniew Brzezinski told Trend News in a
an exclusive interview via telephone from Washington.

There are two unresolved conflicts in the South Caucasus. One is
between Armenia and Azerbaijan due to Armenia’s territorial claims to
Nagorno-Karabakh and the conflict that recently erupted in Georgia
after Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia. Moreover,
the Armenia-Turkey diplomatic relations have been severed due to
Armenia’s anti-Turkey ‘Armenian genocide’ campaign and occupation of
20 percent of Azerbaijani lands.

Brzezinski believes that the countries directly involved in the
conflicts have the capacity to either move towards a compromise or
insist on the status quo for one reason or another. He said it does
not mean that they can resolve conflicts themselves, but attitude of
the involved countries to the process of the conflict resolution is
important.

"Their attitude and willingness to reach a compromise is ultimately a
very important element in this very complicated process," he said. "So
one should not overestimate the degree to which a constructive
resolution of the so-called frozen conflicts depends on the U.S. or
Russia."

Moscow is directly involved in the conflict in Georgia, but that does
not necessarily give it the capacity to resolve so-called frozen
conflicts, Brzezinski said. Moscow contributed to resolving these
conflicts through diplomatic initiatives and by emphasizing
established international principles regarding territorial integrity
and national sovereignty, he said.

"The U.S. can also be helpful," Brzezinski said.

Increase of Prices will be Controlled by Government

NKR Government Information and
Public Relations Department

March 04, 2009

Today, the NKR Prime Minister Ara Haroutyunyan has called a press
conference with the aim of clarifying the current financial and
economic processes. Briefly presenting the prehistory of the RA Central
Bank’s passing to the "floating rate" of the USA dollar, the head of
the Government noted with regret that the increase of the cost of this
currency caused a chaotic situation in a number of trading points of
the Republic. Some of the managers artificially raised the prices of
some products or withdrew them from circulation. The Government will
not endure such kind of steps, this issue has already been discussed
with the Executives and appropriate tasks have been assigned to them,-
the Prime Minister announced.

Answering the questions of the journalists, A.Haroutyunyan assured that
the unsubstantiated increase of prices will be prevented and called the
population not to submit to the influence of the conspiratorial
statements of separate persons. It was assured that the trading chaos
will be settled in 1-2 days and everything will continue to develop
regularly in accord with market mentality, under the state control.
According to the Prime Minister separate products imported will rise in
price by 15-20 percent, greater rises in price will not occur
especially in the list of everyday consumer goods which are produced in
the NKR or in Armenia. There is still a great supply of products in
Artsakh, this, in its turn, will have a positive influence on the
substantiated price formation,- reported the head of the Government.

He noted as well that appropriate penalties will be applied towards the
trading points, where inadmissible market actions will occur.

ARMENIAN DIASPORA IN U.S. MOST EFFICIENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.03.2009 13:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Hranush
Hakobyan, was an honored guest at the 2009 National Advocacy Conference
Banquet in Washington, DC, organized by the Armenian Assembly of
America (Assembly) on March 3.

The Conference brought together outstanding Armenian and American
public figures, scientists and philanthropists.

"The Armenian community of the U.S. is the most efficient. It greatly
contributes to U.S. public and political life and promotes development
of Armenia-U.S. relations," Minister Hakobyan said in her address.

Appreciating highly the Assembly’s activities, she handed a letter
of commendation to its Chairman Hirair Hovnanian, reported the press
office of the RA Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

ICG TO MAKE A REPORT ON ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2009 19:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The International Crisis Group (ICG) intends to
make a report on Armenian-Turkish Relations, said Richard Giragosyan,
head of Armenian Institute on National and Strategic Research, ICG
coordinator on Armenia. According to him, the idea of such a report
occurred after it had became clear that Armenian-Turkish relations
tend to normalize. The visit of the Turkish president Abdullah Gyull
toYerevan, the already frequent contacts between the two Foreign
Ministries, the Babajan-Nalbandian meetings, and last but not least
the arrival of the head of Turkish MFA at the summit of Black Sea
Economic Cooperatipn Organization (BSEC)-all this is an evidence for
the dialogue start. Another motive for the research were the events
of August 2008 and the Stability Platform in the Caucasus proposed by
Turkey. It will be possible to speak about the report -making process
more specifically this summer," Giragosyan said.

He also emphasized, should the Armenian-Turkish relations get to
normal, the geopolitical map of the region might change.