Author: Boshkezenian Garik

DEPORTATION OF ZHIRAYR SEFILIAN TO MEAN THAT ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES ARE GOING TO MAKE TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS AND REMOVE ALL POSSIBLE OBSTACLES

Noyan Tapan
Jun 08 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 8, NOYAN TAPAN. Members of a number of Armenian
organizations on June 7 organized a procession of protest and
demonstrations at the buildings of the OSCE Armenia Office, the
RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Armenian government. The
demonstrators – "Alliance" civil initiative (union of NGOs), members
of "Defence of Liberated Territories" NGO and a group of Internet
resourcse forum participants – submitted memoranda to the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs, the Armenian foreign minister and the Armenan prime
minister.

In their protest-memorandum the demonstrators stated that if the
package on the Karabakh problem solution to be presented at the
upcoming meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Saint
Petersburg "contains some unacceptable concessions to be made by
the Armenian side, and if the officials, including the president,
who negotiate on behalf of Armenia, agree to such a proposal of the
OSCE Minsk Group, then any attempt to put it into practice will meet
with counteraction of the Armenian people."

The protesters demanded "to stop the attempts to force unacceptable
concessions on the Armenian people." "At the same time, we demand
that the Karabakh conflict should not be used as an occasion for
increasing foreign military presence or violating the balance in the
region. There has been peace on the Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line
for 13 years. The deployment of peace keepers in the region and the
consequent actions would violate the statis quo. All this has nothing
to do with security, on the contrary, it poses a great danger to the
Armenian people and the whole region," the document reads.

In an application sent to the prime minister on the same day, the
demonstrators demanded that the coordinator of "Defence of Liberated
Territories" NGO Zhirayr Sefilian and his comrade Vardan Malkhasian
be released.

"The investigation is over and it is obvious to everybody that they
are innocent," is said in the application. According to the application
authors, "if this case goes to court, it will be the most shameful and
the first purely political trial (without any criminal components)
in the history of the Third Republic of Armenia." "All this causes
concern in the context of frequent talks about return of liberated
territories, recent statements of the OSCE Minsk Group, absence of
the adequate response from Armenian officials, and shameful attempts
to influence public opinion in the country.

If the talks about the possible deportation of Zhirayr Sefilain
realize, it will mean that the Armenian authorities are preparing
to make territorial concessions and before this they are trying to
remove all possible obstacles," is said in the application submitted
to the Armenian prime minister by the demonstators who gathered on
June 7 at the governmental buiding.

ROBERT KOCHARYAN TO VISIT SAINT PETERSBURG

ArmRadio.am
08.06.2007 13:42

June 9 RA President Robert Kocharyan will leave for Saint Petersburg
to participate in the non-official summit of Presidents of the
Commonwealth of Independent States. The issue of economic cooperation
will be the pivotal topic of the summit, President’s Press Office
informs.

The Armenian President will also participate in the 11th International
Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg.

The meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents is due in
Saint Petersburg.

TURKEY IN FRONT OF A CHOICE: TO FULFILL EU STANDARDS OR TO BECOME A "THIRD WORLD COUNTRY"

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.06.2007 15:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey will be relegated to a "Third World country"
status unless it applies European Union standards of democracy and
the rule of law, its chief EU negotiator, Minister of Economy Ali
Babacan stated.

Babacan made what sounded like a veiled warning to the EU candidate
country’s powerful military and secular judicial establishment after 6
weeks of political turmoil over the election of a new president. "The
events of the last month-and-a-half show how important Turkey and
the European Union are for each other," Babacan said.

"If there is no benchmark and if we think that each country has its own
peculiar conditions and our democracy is specific to us, if we say we
have the rule of law but sometimes we can do things outside of that,
such approaches will condemn Turkey to be a "Third World country"
for decades and decades," Babacan told a conference on EU-Turkey
energy cooperation, Reuters reports.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT RESIGNS

Mediamax news agency
7 Jun 07

Yerevan, 7 June: In line with the Constitution and taking into
consideration the fact that the first session of the newly-elected
parliament was called today, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
signed a decree on accepting the resignation of the government.

As Mediamax was told in the presidential press service, the Armenian
president tasked the members of the government with continuing
fulfilling their responsibilities until the formation of the new
Cabinet.

On 6 June, the Armenian president signed a decree on relieving Minister
of Trade and Economic Development Karen Chshmarityan, Minister of
Justice David Harutyunyan, Minister of Ecology Vardan Ayvazyan of
their positions.

All the three are elected MPs under the party list of the Republican
Party of Armenia.

ARMENIA: QUESTIONS CONTINUE ABOUT ELECTIONS
Marianna Grigoryan

EurasiaNet, NY
June 4 2007

Nearly a month after Armenia’s May 12 parliamentary elections,
dissatisfaction with the vote among opposition parties and local
election monitors shows no sign of abating. Four opposition groups
have called for fresh elections, while a prominent non-governmental
organization has questioned the campaign finance practices of two
major pro-government parties.

On June 1, Armenia’s Constitutional Court began to consider petitions
from the opposition Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) Party, the New
Times Party, the Republic Party and the Impeachment bloc to throw
out the party-list results from the country’s May 12 parliamentary
vote and hold new elections. [For details see the EurasiaNet special
feature Armenia: Vote 2007].

"There were large-scale falsifications and serious cases of abuse,"
New Times Party leader Aram Karapetian told a press conference on
May 31. "If the Constitutional Court is unbiased, the results of
the elections will be considered invalid." The official results gave
the ruling Republican Party of Armenia a clean sweep of the polls;
only two opposition parties — one of them, Orinats Yerkir — managed
to win seats in parliament. [For details see the EurasiaNet special
feature Armenia: Vote 2007].

So far, little public information has been released about the Court’s
deliberations. On June 2, the Court’s nine judges gave the government
three days to provide information about Armenians who were outside of
the country on election day. The opposition petitioners have submitted
that these citizens’ names were used in an alleged attempt to rig
the election results. (Voting outside of Armenia is not permitted).

Popular expectations, however, are low that the Constitutional Court
will agree with the arguments made in the petitioners’ 230-page
report. Since the country gained independence in 1991, the Court has
rarely ruled against the government.

Meanwhile, one local non-government organization is taking
issue with another aspect of the parliamentary vote — campaign
finance. The pro-government Republican Party of Armenia and Prosperous
Armenia Party spent far in excess of the 60 million drams (about
$167,131) allowed for election campaigns, the Center for Regional
Development/Transparency International Armenia charged at a May
31 press conference. Under the law, parties which do not adhere to
campaign finance regulations can have their registrations suspended.

Based on monitoring done in three cities (Yerevan, Gyumri and
Vanadzor) between November 2006 and May 2007, the center found that
the Republican Party spent an estimated 79.1 million drams (about
$226,810) on its campaign, while the Prosperous Armenia Party, headed
by oligarch Gagik Tsarukian, spent an estimated 129.6 million drams
(about $371,613). [The monitoring was supported by the Open Society
Institute Assistance Foundation — Armenia, which, like EurasiaNet.org,
is part of the Soros Foundations Network].

The three other parties that won seats in parliament complied
with limits on campaign spending, according to the findings. The
pro-government Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun)
spent 50.7 million drams (about $145,376), while the opposition
Orinats Yerkir and Heritage parties spent 33.1 million (about $94,910),
and 24 million drams (about $68,817), respectively.

Amalia Kostanian, chairwoman of the CRD/Transparency International
Armenia, called the calculations "very delicate," with "only official
tariffs" or "minimal prices" used to total likely expenditures. Some
expenses were ignored, Kostanian said. Armenian singers who said they
had performed for free at lavish campaign concerts staged by both
the Republican and Prosperous Armenia Parties were taken at their
word, as were party statements about donations of transportation and
various forms of logistical support. [For details, see the Armenia:
Vote 2007 Photo Digest archive].

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has denied that the Republican
Party of Armenia or Prosperous Armenia Party overspent on their
campaigns. "The CEC has a surveillance service that controls the
process and we haven’t registered any deviation," said spokeswoman
Tsovinar Khachatrian. "Different organizations can state what they
want."

The Republican Party of Armenia officially states that it spent
about 58.9 million drams (roughly $168,888) on its campaign, while
Prosperous Armenia has reported a little over 40 million drams (about
$114,695) spent.

Considerable controversy has also surrounded the use of so-called
"hidden" advertising. Kostanian charged that ads touting the 15th
anniversary of the formation of the Armenian army were used to
encourage support for Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, head of the
Republican Party, who served as defense minister until late March.

Potato seeds, free medical care and ambulances given away by the Gagik
Tsarukian Benevolent Foundation, an organization run by Prosperous
Armenia Party head Gagik Tsarukian, also attracted criticism.

But Prosperous Armenia spokesperson Baghdasar Mherian dismissed the
contention that the donations had a political aim. "An ambulance
cannot be considered part of the election campaign," Mherian said.

"Let’s say it could be considered an election bribe, but it is not
that, either." The donation of an ambulance "just coincided with the
election campaign" and was made in response to a request to Tsarukian
in 2006, he added.

A representative from the Republican Party’s office in Yerevan also
stressed that its campaign spending had occurred "within the limits
of the law."

The Center for Regional Development/Transparency International Armenia
charges that the election code’s failure to regulate third-party
expenditures has allowed political parties to bypass campaign finance
restrictions. Kostanian has called on Armenians "for our own sake"
to use the run-up to next year’s presidential elections to press for
greater vigilance in detecting possible election code violations.

The Central Election Commission, however, is not convinced. "These
are independent observations," commented Ara Harutiunian, head of the
CEC’s campaign monitoring unit. "We have checked everything we could
within the limits of our control. Maybe they have other sources that
we don’t."

Editor’s Note: Marianna Grigoryan is a reporter for the online
independent ArmeniaNow weekly in Yerevan.

ARMENIAN AND SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSSED BILATERAL ISSUES

ArmRadio.am
05.06.2007 17:43

On May 5 RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Welcoming the visit of the OSCE Spanish Chairmanship to Armenia,
Minister Oskanian noted that it will enhance the development of
Armenia-OSCE cooperation and will become an important impetus for
expansion of cooperation.

The parties turned to the latest developments of Karabakh negotiation
process. The Spanish Foreign Minister presented his impressions
from the meetings in Baku and reconfirmed the willingness of the
organization to support the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Later the OSCE agenda for 2007 was presented. Minister Oskanian
noted the Armenian side is interested in the further institutional
reinforcement and development of the OSCE. Reference was made to
the issue of OSCE reformation, the process of democratic reforms in
Armenia, in particular, to the defense of human rights and the results
of the May 12 parliamentary elections. The Spanish Foreign Minister
congratulated the Armenian counterpart for holding the elections on
a proper level.

The parties also dwelt on bilateral issues. The interlocutors
emphasized the necessity of establishing Embassies in the capitals
of the two countries, which will promote the deepening of bilateral
cooperation.

The Ministers arranged to pay special attention to the bilateral
cooperation in the political, economic and cultural spheres.

At the end of the meeting Minister Moratinos invited Vartan Oskanian
to pay an official visit to Spain.

87.5% OF ARMENIA’S URBAN COMMUNITIES AND 44.7% OF RURAL COMMUNITIES PROVIDED WITH GAS-SUPPLYING INFRASTRUCTURES

Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 5 2007

YEREVAN, June 5. /ARKA/. National Statistical Service of Armenia
reports referring to ArmRosgasprom’s figures that 87.5% of the
country’s urban communities and 44.7% of rural communities are provided
with gas-supplying infrastructures.

According to the report, 438 879 apartments and houses are provided
with gas facilities. Of them, 325 127 are in urban and 113 752 in
rural communities.

According to statistical data, 1.564bln cubic meters of natural gas
conveyed to the country’s consumers in 2006. Of them, 1.385bln were
conveyed to urban and 178.9bln to rural residents. Yerevan’s residents
received 32.8% or 512.4mln.

The report says that 69.5% were sent to industrial enterprises, 25.7%
to population and 4.8% to centers providing services to the population.

ArmRosgasprom CJSC enjoys the sole right to distribute Russian natural
gas in Armenia.

The company was established in 1997. Its capital totals $398.7mln.

57.59% of the company’s stocks belong to Gasprom, 34.7% to Armenian
Energy Ministry and 7.71% to Itera oil and gas company.

RUSSIA, CIS HIGHEST NUMBER OF AIR FATALITIES IN 2006 – REPORT

RIA Novosti, Russia
June 5 2007

MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) – Passenger plane accidents in Russia
and other CIS countries last year resulted in 412 deaths or 56%
of the total number of people killed in air crashes globally, an
aviation expert said Tuesday.

A report from the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), a civil
aviation body of the group of 11 former Soviet republics, states
that Russia’s air safety record in 2006 dramatically declined. In
May through August 2006, 409 people were killed in IAC countries,
which is about 45% of all the aviation deaths for 2000-2006.

"This is worse than Africa or the rest of the world," said Vladimir
Kofman, a leading specialist on the investigation of air accidents
at the IAC.

In 2006, nine aviation catastrophes and incidents occurred in IAC
countries, compared with 23 accidents and incidents worldwide with
a total death toll of 783, according to the report.

Kofman said human error was a leading factor in the worsening air
safety record, followed by an aging fleet, poor personnel training
standards, insufficient maintenance and servicing, the use of
substandard parts and components, the poor condition of runways,
and inadequate meteorological support.

On May 3, 2006, an Armenian Airbus crashed into the Black Sea during
a storm killing 113 people.

On July 9, an A-310 plane, owned by Siberia-based S-7 Airlines,
crashed after landing in Irkutsk leaving 124 people dead, while on
a flight from Moscow to Irkutsk, a popular tourist destination close
to Lake Baikal.

A total of 170 people died when a Tu-154, operated by Pulkovo Airlines,
crashed during poor weather August 22, near the eastern Ukrainian city
of Donetsk on a flight from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to
St. Petersburg.

Panorama.am

15:39 02/06/2007

GAME OVER: SERZH SARGSYAN WILL BE THE PRESIDENT,
POLITICAL SCIENTIST SAYS

`After long discussions, the Armenian Republican Party
(HHK) and Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaksutiun) decided that Dashnaksutiun will not be
part of the coalition but will have the role of a
cooperator,’ Hmaiak Hovanisyan, political scientists,
said speaking about the negotiations between the two
political forces. In the forecasts of Hovanisyan,
Dashnaksutiun will take hold of its authority powers
to get ready for the presidential elections but will
act as an opposition during budget discussions because
it has made a promise to set 50,000 Armenian drams as
the minimum consumer basket and raise the old age
pensions up to 50,000 Armenian drams. Hovanisyan does
not exclude that Dashanaksutiun will bang the door
during budget discussions and get ready for elections
with its own candidate.

Asked if everything is predetermined for the
presidential elections, Hovanisyan said, `The game is
over. Serzh Sargsyan will become the president in 2008
because after the constitutional changes the
presidential elections were deprived of content.
Everything is decided during the parliamentary
elections.’

Source: Panorama.am

VATICAN WILL SUPPORT TURKEY FOR EU MEMBERSHIP UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.06.2007 18:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Vatican’s Secretary of State has signaled
that the Holy See will support Turkey’s bid for membership in the
European Union.

Speaking to the Italian daily La Stampa, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
said that "Turkey has come a long way" toward democracy and respect
for human rights.

The European community can accept the membership of an overwhelming
Islamic society, he said, as long as "fundamental rules of
cohabitation" are firmly in place.

Cardinal Bertone made his comments as the world’s leading Orthodox
prelate, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople,
pressed the Turkish government to recognize the autonomy of the
Orthodox Church.

Patriarch Bartholomew told a group of visiting German lawmakers that
he had asked the Turkish government to overturn an existing rule that
bars a non-Turk from being elected Patriarch of Constantinople. The
Orthodox prelate suggested that Turkey adopt the policies of Egypt
and Syria, which grant automatic citizenship to the patriarchs of
Alexandria and Antioch. The Turkish government has not yet replied
to his request, Bartholomew said.

Patriarch Bartholomew has been demanding greater respect for religious
freedom in Turkey, and critics of the Turkish bid for EU membership
have pointed to the Patriarch’s complaints that Christians do not
receive equal treatment under Turkish law.

Cardinal Bertone acknowledged that the Turkish government resists
recognition of Christianity and Judaism. Turkey, he pointed out,
is an officially secular country, in which "secularism is exalted
not as mere secularity but as a system of belief." This ideology
of militant secularism, he added, would clash with the Christian
heritage that dominates European culture. Nonetheless, the cardinal
said that honest dialogue could allow for Turkish participation in
the European community.

Prior to his election as Pope Benedict XVI, then-Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger expressed serious concerns about the prospect that an
Islamic nation would join the European Union. But during his trip to
Turkey last November the Pontiff eased his stance, and Turkish Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that during a private meeting,
the Pontiff had said that he would support Turkey’s application for
EU membership.

Vatican officials did not confirm that report, but said that the Holy
See would "look favorably" on Turkey’s membership drive as long as
the Ankara government respected the principles of religious freedom
and equal justice under law, Catholic World News reports.