Author: Boshkezenian Garik

SABINA FREISER: THERE COMES THE TIME FOR DECISIVE STAGE OF KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

ArmInfo
2008-10-28 15:34:00

ArmInfo-TURAN. There comes the time for a decisive stage of the
talks on the Karabakh conflict settlement. Russia tries to encourage
Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents to the peaceful agreement to
restore its authority in the region, Sabina Freiser, program director
of International Crisis Group, said in an interview with Voice of
America (VOA) radio.

Asked which side Russia will take, if military activities are resumed,
Freiser said that Russia acts as a guarantor of Armenia’s security.

"In case of new confrontation, Russia will appear to be in a
complicated situation. Azerbaijan has its own allies, but I think that
emergence of the second seat of conflict on the Caucasus is bad. If the
current favorable situation is not used, the Prague process could be
stopped and it will be hard to resume it. Therefore, we need efforts
of all parties to the conflict," said Freiser.

She added that Azerbaijan should not "boast of" its military budget,
because Armenia is also increasing its military expenses. But
Armenia also should not think that time works for it and that Nagorno
Karabakh’s de-facto independence will naturally turn into reality.

The expert has positively assessed the visit of Turkish President to
Yerevan. "Improvement of relationships between Armenia and Turkey
is useful not only for these countries, but also for the whole
region. This rapprochement should be assessed from the viewpoint of
solution to the Karabakh conflict. I hope that Turkey could act as
a useful mediator," Freiser said.

She said that now world community pays a special attention to the
Karabakh conflict. This is a rare chance, which must be used, because
such an opportunity may never occur.

TAVUSH REGION’S VILLAGE OF DITAVAN TO HAVE NATURAL GAS AND RECONSTRUCTED COMMUNAL ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDING THANKS TO ARGENTINEAN ARMENIAN BENEFACTORS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 22, 2008

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 22, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. The Hayastan All
Armenian Fund continues its work in Armenia’s border communities and
villages that today face a whole host of infrastructure and economic
challenges. Focusing on six border communities in Armenia’s Tavush
region, the Fund is working on effectively tackling these challenges
and ensuring the people living in these villages a better life. As
part of this on going initiative, the Fund signaled the launch of two
projects in the community of Ditavan. Thanks to Argentinean Armenian
benefactors Armen and Nadya Ekserciyan, the village will soon have
access to natural gas and a reconstructed community administration
building.

In his sense, the gasification was the first on the priority list for
the community where people depended almost solely on the neighboring
woods for a source of heat in the long winter months. This has brought
to a serious damage to the environment of the region. The lack of
access to natural gas has also become a catalyst of emigration from
this tiny border village with people escaping the dread of yet another
cold winter.

The community administration building restoration project is
designed to incorporate the features of the village mayor’s office,
the community center as well as the health care point, becoming a
social and administrative hub of the village. The renovated building
will also be fully refurbished and reequipped.

BILATERAL ECONOMIC COOPERATION IS MAIN SUBJECT OF ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN ENLARGED DISCUSSIONS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 21, 2008

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 21, NOYAN TAPAN. During his official visit to
Yerevan, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Armenian
Genocide Memorial Complex early October 21. He laid a wreath at
Monument to the Victims of the 1915 Genocide, went to the Armenian
Genocide Museum, and planted a tree in the Memorial Park.

Then presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Dmitry Medvedev took part in the
opening ceremony of Square of Russia and made speeches.

The presidents went from the square to the RA president’s residence
where a tete-a-tete talk took place between S. Sargsyan and
D. Medvedev. They discussed a whole range of Armenian-Russian
relations, the Karabakh problem’s settlement process, the recent
developments in the region and some urgent international problems.

According to a press release of the RA presidential press service, the
tete-a-tete talk was followed by enlarged discussions that focused on
Armenian-Russian economic cooperation which is consistently developing.

The co-chairs of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission on
economic cooperation – Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian and
Russian Minister of Transport Igor Levitin presented the problems
discussed at the 10th jubilee sitting of the commission, as well as
the results achieved.

After the negotiations, the ceremony of signing joint documents
took place.

The following documents were signed: the 2009-2010 program of
interdepartmental consultations between the foreign ministries
of Armenia and Russia, the agreement on trade, economic,
scientific-technical and cultural cooperation between Armenian
government and the government of Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, and
the agreement on trade, economic, scientific-technical and cultural
cooperation between the regional administration of Armavir marz
(Armenia) and the government of Yaroslavl region (Russia).

Then the ceremony of giving awards to Arthur Chilingarov, famous
Russian polar explorer, scientist and pulic-political figure of
Armenian origin, and Igor Levitin, Russian minister of transport,
co-chair of Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission on economic
cooperation, was held. By the Armenian president’s September 17 decree,
A. Chilingarov was awarded a Saint Mesrop Mashtots Order, and by the
Armenian president’s October 17 decree, I.

Levitin was awarded an Order of Honor for his significant contribution
to the development of friendly relations between the peoples of Armenia
and Russia and the promotion of economic links between two countries.

CONFERENCE IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT "A JOURNEY OF CULTURAL REDISCOVERY: ARMENIAN HERITAGE IN TURKEY", 13/11

23/10/08

AGBU Europe Conference Announcement, Brussels, October 23 2008 –
AGBU Europe will host a conference in the European Parliament on the
rediscovery of Armenians and of Armenian cultural heritage in Turkey.

The conference is open to all and is part of the official European
Year for Intercultural Dialogue. It will review the recent public
debate in Turkey on the country’s forgotten Armenian heritage in the
light of recent groundbreaking artistic and intellectual contributions
in Turkey itself. It will also examine the significance of Armenian
cultural heritage in Turkey from a European perspective.

Speakers at the conference will include Fethiye Cetin, author of the
book "My Grandmother", Osman Köker, creator of the groundbreaking
exhibition "My Dear Brother", art historian Professor Patrick
Donabedian as well as historian Vahe Tachjian and historian and
publisher Ara Sarafian. The conference will be opened by Michael
Leigh, Director General at the European Commission in charge of
enlargement. It will conclude with a panel debate. A reception
will follow.

This events is organized under the Aegis of Bernard Lehideux MEP,
with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Brussels office.

It is open to all but prior registration is indispensable to access
the European Parliament’s building.

Registration deadline: 4 November 2008.

For registration and further information, please contact AGBU at:
Email: [email protected]. Tel +331 45 20 03 18.

Conference time and location: Thursday 13 November, 9.30 am – 1 pm.

European Parliament, Room ASP 3G3 Rue Wiertz/Wiertzstraat 60 B-1047
Brussels

–Boundary_(ID_oxMHz3RDEJ+Fq2aJAk WMqw)–

ZATULIN: KARABAKH RESOLUTION PACKAGE ENVISAGING NKR RECOGNITION AND RETURN OF 7 REGIONS DEVELOPED LONG AGO

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.10.2008 19:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The situation in the Caucasus has considerably
changed. Russia has broken relations with Georgia, one of the five
states of the region, Konstantin Zatulin, Russian Duma member and
director of Institute of CIS Studies said during Yerevan-Moscow TV
space bridge.

"We understand that with the hope to resolve the Karabakh problem in
favor of Yerevan, the Armenian authorities used to strain Karabakh’s
aspiration to develop relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia,"
he said, adding that Russia wants to see both Armenia and Azerbaijan
mitigate positions on the issue in order to avoid the Georgian
scenario," he said.

"The situation at the contact line between the Karabakh and Azeri
armed forces tensed during the war in South Ossetia," he said.

"At that I should mention that a resolution package envisaging NKR
recognition and return of 7 regions was developed long ago. The most
important thing to do now is to prevent any kind of violence in the
region and interference of third states, which want to re-open the
wounds," the Russian politician said.

GAS HALF WAY TO ARMENIA

Panorama.am
17:02 22/10/2008

In the evening of October 21 the reconstruction of gas pipe line
crossing Georgian territory has been finished. "Armrusgasprom"
CSJC announced that at 23:00 natural gas entered Armenia through
the pipe line. Currently gas is being imported in all the regions of
the country.

Remind that on October 19 at 01:00 gas importing into Armenia has
been stopped, which was conditioned by prophylactic and repairing
activities in Georgia.

ARMENIA PRAISES U.S. EFFORTS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF BILATERAL COOPERATION IN DEFENSE SECTOR

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.10.2008 15:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan met
Tuesday with delegation of Business Executives for National Security
(BENS), the Minister’s spokesman, col. Seyran Shahsuvaryan told
PanARMENIAN.Net.

"In the context of Armenia’s complementary policy, our republic’s
cooperation with the U.S., NATO, EU and Russia is of key
importance. The Defense Ministry praises U.S. efforts for development
of bilateral cooperation in defense sector," Minister Ohanyan said.

"Besides, cooperation with the U.S. European Command will help Armenia
fulfill its obligations within the IPAP," he added.

BY-ELECTION IN ODZUN

A1+
[08:15 pm] 20 October, 2008

Taking into account the results of vote counting and the number
of naccuracies a by-election will be held in the village of Odzun,
Lori Marz, in 21 days.

Yesterday an election to the village head took place in Odzun. The
incumbent village head Republican Melik Ayvazyan was reelected to the
post leaving behind his non-party rival Arsen Titanyan with four votes.

Arsen Titanyan denounced the vote with his team. They spent the whole
night near precinct 33 and demanded vote recounting. Lori’s marzpet
arrived at the precinct late at night with a police escort to ease
the tense atmosphere.

To note, 69 cases of inaccuracies have been revealed during today’s
vote counting. Actually, Melik Ayvazyan has got 1078 while his
contender Arsen Titanyan 1123 votes.

ENVISAGED AMENDMENTS IN RA LAW O DEFENCE AIM TO MAKE ARMY CONTROLLABE
BY SOCIETY

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The aim of the amendments to be made
in the RA Law on Defence is to make the army controllable by civil
society, the chairman of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee on
Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs Arthur Aghabekian
stated at the October 14 press conference. According to him, the
amendments envisage that a civilian shall hold the post of the minister
of defence, while the highest military post will be that of the head of
the General Staff of the Armed Forces. On the whole, the law envisages
increasing the number of civilian positions in the army. A. Aghabekian
said that in the defence sphere, the number of those saying "Yes!"
should decline, whereas the number of those who have their own opinion
should grow.

The former deputy minister of defence Vahan Shirkhanian expressed an
opinion that by this amendment in the law, an attempt is made to
replace the Russian model of controlling the army with the Western one.
In his words, Armenia is facing serious challenges, and a change in the
army control system may cause considerable problems.

Speaking about the envisaged amendments in the RA Law on Military
Service, A. Aghabekian opposed the idea that all young men who reached
18 must be conscripted into the military service. He said that at the
time he was also against the idea of breaking up the military
sub-faculties at higher educational institutions. In his opinion, the
problems of the army (due to the declining population) can be solved in
another way.

In the words of V. Shirkhanian, out of 11 thousand young men who
entered the Armenian higher educational institutions this year, 5,400
ones receive paid education, and only 2 thousand of them may join the
ranks of servicemen for a fixed period, which cannot be a solution to
the problem.

NKR DELEGATION’S VISIT TO BELGIUM

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2008-10-18 10:03
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

On October 15-16, the NKR delegation visited Belgium. The delegation
included NKR Deputy Foreign Minister Eduard Atanesyan and Head of
Informational Department of the NKR president’s staff David Babayan.

The main goal of the visit was to discuss the situation in and around
Karabakh with EU experts and the EU role in it.

Within the framework of the visit the NKR delegation, together
with representatives of research centers, organizations and the EU
structures, participated in a round table on "Nagorno Karabakh, its
neighbourhood and expanded Europe", organized by the European branch
of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU).

Members of the NKR delegation had speeches at a forum, organized
at Antwerp’s "Lesius" university. Besides local students, students
from Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Germany and Great Britain
participated in the forum. NKR officials also had meetings at EU
structures, European Parliament, as well as at European Policy Center
(EPC).

The NKR delegation had discussions with the Armenian organizations
in Brussels, concerning the Diaspora’s role in solving the problems
the NKR faces.