Author: Basmajian Ani

NowLebanon, Lebanon
June 21 2008

Minister Ogassapian refuses Lebanon’s return to `open arena’
June 21, 2008

Minister of State for Administrative Development Jean Ogassapian said
he feared the Doha agreement was `being subjected to dangerous
setback.’

`There is a genuine fear that Lebanon will be again turned into an
arena for the settlement of regional accounts,’ Ogassapian told New TV
on Saturday, `particularly in light of the phase of Syrian-Israeli
negotiations, the European openness to Syria, the developments in the
Iranian nuclear file, and anticipation the outcome of the US
presidential elections.’

The minister refused to `freeze the interests of Lebanon while waiting
for the regional development’ as the situation of the Lebanese citizen
only grew worse with every passing day.

`The opposition wants to show that disagreement on the government
technical and procedural, but the process of gradually imposing
[their] conditions¦ reveals that the opposition has unclear aims
that obstruct the formation of the government, and which will only
reflect negatively on Lebanon and its future,’ he added.

On Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s responsibility in forming the
government, Ogassapian said the premier would persist as long as he
had the confidence of the majority.

And finally, on whether the claim that Israel’s possible withdrawal
from the Shebaa Farms ultimately aimed at disarming Hezbollah,
Ogassapian said the two issues were not related.

`The matter of the Farms is separate from that of Hezbollah’s weapons,
which is the subject for an internal Lebanese national dialogue led by
President Michel Sleiman,’ he concluded.

-NOW Staff

World renowned Armenian duduk player Jivan Gasparyan to perform at a
concert in London

2008-06-21 14:18:00

ArmInfo. The world renown Armenian duduk player Jivan Gasparyan will
perform at the June 21 Hyde Park concert to mark the 90th birthday of
Nelson Mandela.

Gasparyan will open the show and will play national melodies.

HAIG ASHDJIAN RECOGNIZED AS WINNER OF GREEK TENNIS +55 INTERNATIONAL SENIORS EVENT

Noyan Tapan

Ju ne 20, 2008

NICOSIA, JUNE 20, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. Former Cyprus Davis
Cup star Haig Ashdjian of Larnaca won the +55 International seniors
event at Omilos Athinon in Greece. In the Finals he overcame Greek
champion Demetris Yanakopoulos with the following score: 0-6, 6-1,6-1,
the Gyrahayer reports.

MUSIC CROSSROAD IN ARMENIA

Panorama.am
20:40 20/06/2008

On June 21 "Music Holiday" will be celebrated in Armenia like other
110 countries in the world, said the Minister of Culture of Armenia
Hasmik Poghosyan, in a meeting with the journalists today. She said
that tomorrow Yerevan will become a crossroad of music.

Different pieces of music will be heard in different streets of
Yerevan – French music will be heard at "Parisian Coffee" cafe,
jazz, classical, band music, national music at Saryan’s and Komitas’
monuments.

The Minister mentioned that next year the project should be well
spread in Armenian regions too.

The Holiday deprived from France 26 years ago. It is the second year
Armenia celebrates the Day of Music.

VICE PRIME MINISTER LEAVES FOR MOSCOW FOR CIS ECONOMIC COUNCIL MEETING

ARMENPRESS
June 18

Vice prime minister and territorial administration minister Armen
Gevorkian left today for Moscow to attend the meeting of the CIS
Economic Council slated for June 20. Armen Gevorkian is a member of
this Council.

Before flying to Moscow he said that Armenia emphasizes the CIS
economic development strategy designed up to 2020. He said the strategy
will be presented to CIS leaders~R approval when they meet for their
next summit.

He said the Council will also present to CIS leaders transport
development priorities until 2020 and some other issues.

IT’S NEVER LATE TO HEAR THE VOICE OF MIND

Azat Artsakh Daily,
18 June 08
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

Last political week was signified by carrying out of Moscow-Erevan-Baku
satellite TV link-up taken place on June 11th, in which politicians
of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan participated. Of course the fact
of carrying out of such debate, in the circles of which the theme of
Karabakh conflict settlement was also discussed, is positive in itself,
as any trial of finding out the ways of solution of "our" conflict
can be only greeted. But let’s say beforehand, that discussions of
politicians of the three countries didn’t justify the expectations
connected with it: by estimation of experts, they were futile. But
why? The reason is undoubtedly more serious, and more exactly is
extreme polarity of positions of Armenia and Azerbaijan sides round
conflict settlement. We are compelled to repeat again the expression,
that Azerbaijan has been cut off from the reality and doesn’t want to
take into consideration the facts created in conflict years. Let’s
return to the expression of the head of the department of foreign
relations of the President’s Stuff of Azerbaijan Navruz Mamedov,
who regards the participation of Nagorno-Karabakh in negotiating
process is absurdity. For the purpose of giving reasons for his
viewpoint, he tries to let down the status of Nagorno-Karabakh to
the level of "armenian community", equalizing it to the status of
azerbaijanian community. Despite, of course, the head of department
of the President’s Stuff of Azerbaijan knows, that in Soviet years
indigenous Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh was considered
people creating statehood. He also knows, that during war years,
when the front works were passing not so well for Azerbaijan, father
of today’s President repeatedly made a request in written form to
the NKR management for beginning negotiations, from which today
Azerbaijan refuses stubbornly. In this period, we don’t know why,
in Azerbaijan they didn’t think about "absurdity" of dialogue with
Nagorno-Karabakh. There is no need to remind, that the position
of Azeri participants of Moscow-Erevan-Baku satellite TV link-up,
practically, doesn’t differ from the official. But for the political
cream of society of Azerbaijan it’s high time not live on illusions
and at last to understand, that times have been changed and without
direct negotiations with Nagorno-Karabakh they won’t achieve stable
and long-lasting peace. And if Baku doesn’t wish to hear the advice
of Nagorno-Karabakh or the voice of mind, so we suggest to hear the
advices of the third side. In the present case the suggestion of the
head of the department of Russian Institution of strategic researches
of CIS Alexandre Skakov: "It’s necessary to return Nagorno-Karabakh
to negotiating process. The fact lays obstacles in the path of its
progress: Nagorno-Karabakh management is not a side of negotiations".

TER-PETROSYAN – REJECTED

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on June 18, 2008
Armenia

After considering the case in an open-door court session, the
Administrative Court yesterday rejected L Ter-Petrosyan’s claim
against the Mayor’s Office of Yerevan.

The decision entered into force from the moment of its publication
and is subject to appeal in the Cassation Court. Under the claim,
the plaintiff demanded that decision No. 80 of the Mayor’s Office on
"Disallowing the Organization of the Event" be declared unlawful and
null and void.

Let’s remind you that the Mayor’s Office had not authorized the
demonstration which L. Ter-Petrosyan wanted to hold on the Freedom
Square.

HAYPOST TO LAUNCH "BLIZKO" MONEY TRANSFER SYSTEM

armradio.am
17.06.2008 18:03

Since June 2, 2008 Haypost has joined the international BLIZKO money
transfer system.

BLIZKO allows receiving transferred amounts within just a minute
after sending them, whereas each transaction is protected by an 8-
digit code.

BLIZKO has over 3200 service points across the world, including 800
in Russia, from which 100 in Moscow city.

HayPost’s BLIZKO works in compliance with the policy of the RA Central
Bank, making all payments in Armenian Drams, therefore amounts to be
received by beneficiaries are clear for senders.

As an inception, HayPost begins providing BLIZKO services through
the following Post Offices: 0001, 0002, 0010, 0012, 0019, and 0068.

In September, 2008 BLIZKO will be rolled out across the country,
bringing high quality fast money transfers closer to the rural
population.

"BLIZKO implementation will allow expanding the share of HayPost in the
remittance market of Armenia as well as provision of the population
with reliable and fast money transfer services" states Hans Boon,
Director General of HayPost.

On its way of becoming the last-mile supermarket for remittances
HayPost will be soon introducing more user-friendly international
money transfer systems.

CZECH FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT ARMENIA IN JULY

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.06.2008 14:17 GMT+04:00

Czechia’s newly appointed Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Jestrab (residence
in Tbilisi) handed the copy of his credentials to Armenian Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian, the RA MFA press office reported.

Expressing content with the current level of the Armenian-Czech
relations, the Minister stressed the importance of strengthening
cooperation in various fields and noted that the forthcoming visit of
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg to Armenia is the evidence
of progress.

For his part, the Czech diplomat assessed highly the process of the ENP
Action Plan in Armenia and voiced hope that the Armenia-EU cooperation
will strengthen in 2009, when Czechia will preside in the Union.

Minister Nalbandian and Ambassador Jestrab also referred to the
Armenian-Czech cooperation within international structures and the
ways to strengthen economic, educational and cultural ties.

IN ASSESSING POLICE WORK, PRESIDENT TO TAKE SOCIETY’S RESPONSE INTO ACCOUNT

Noyan Tapan

Ju ne 16, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, NOYAN TAPAN. In assessing the work of the police,
the Armenian president Serge Sargsian will take into account the
response of the society rather than the summary reports of the police,
the president warned during the June 13 meeting with the heads of
the RA police. Each policeman has to solve three main problems:
crime prevention, public order protection and fight against crimes,
and these problems, as the president pointed out, should be solved
by the police based on the trust and support of the society. "For
many years those leaving abroad were told to apply first of all to
the police when facing a problem, but, unfortunately, this is not
the case in our country," the president said, adding "the citizens
of our country expect results from you". At the same time he stated:
"You will be respected if people see that the policeman respects
the honor of his uniform, people will respect and trust you if they
make sure that he is unbribable and honest and no illegal deal may
be concluded with him".

S. Sargsian noted that the postelection developments showed that there
is much work to be done in public order protection. According to him,
since the March 1 events, the society has become much more sensitive
to the actions of policemen, which should be a signal for policemen to
display vigilance. "I have said repeatedly that both the organizers of
rallies and the state have their share of guilt in the March 1 events,
and if the state has its share of guilt, then, if course, the police
has its portion of guilt too," the president said. In his words,
it was for the first time in the recent history of Armenia that the
police encountered a special, organized program of mass disorder. "It
is clear that a situation which has no precedent is fraught with
danger, but I am sure that if the actions of our policemen had been
more professional, if their training and equipment had been better,
perhaps it would have been possible to avoid this great tragedy which
claimed the lives of 2 policemen and 8 citizens," he said, at the same
time pointing out the self-denial of many members of the police and
police troops. He indicated "the heroic deed of Major Tadevosian",
noting that "we must always remember him and take care of his family".

The Armenian president underlined that "there have been rallies in
our country, and I am sure they will be. You must act in such a way
that everything will be done within the law, but it does not mean
that you should not take any actions when people break the law: if a
mass event starts to exceed the bounds of the law, you bear a definite
responsibility: no one must conceal his offences and criminal actions
under the name of democracy".

The president spoke about the work of traffic police: "Literally,
a column of expensive cars with the so-called good number plates
passes before the eyes of a traffic policeman, whereas he just turns
his back and does not notice them. Moreover, at that time he finds
a pitiable driver and tries to fine him, that is, he creates an
illusion of work – it is inadmissible". S. Sargsian said that a few
months ago he was the prime minister and never broke traffic rules,
in particular, never drove through a red light: "if the prime minister
does not permit himself to drive through a red light, it ill becomes
you to do so," the president told the policemen. According to him,
a traffic policemen’s action not in line with the law and traffic
rules, his disrespectful attitude to drivers, even a small case of
bribe taking will not be tolerated.

The president assured those present that the employess of the police
system will have good remuneration but the authorities will be more
demanding to the quality of their work. "Army officers, policemen,
employees of the security system have the right to receive apartments
on better conditions, the government is already taking steps in this
direction". He added that his meetings with policemen will continue,
and new tasks will be given each time: "If we do not see any real
improvement in the work of traffic police next time, we will ask
Mr. Ohanian (NT: Margar Ohanian is the newly-appointed head of traffic
police) to tell us about the reasons, and the questions will be harsh".