Author: Chakrian Hovsep

DM MICHAEL HARUTYUNYAN MET WITH THE NEW AMBASSADOR OF IRAN

armradio.am
05.02.2008 18:07

On January 5 RA Defense Minister Michael Harutyunyan received the
newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
Islamic Republic of Iran to Armenia Seid Ali Saghaian and Military
Attaché, Colonel Bizhan Hamzeil Hashame.

At the beginning of the meeting Minister Harutyunyan congratulated
the Ambassador, expressing hope that the bilateral cooperation will
further expand during the latter’s tenure in office and wished him
success in carrying out his diplomatic mission in Armenia.

The Ambassador conveyed to Michael Harutyunyan the congratulating
message of the Iranian Minister of Defense.

Turning to the current state of military cooperation within the
framework of bilateral cooperation, the parties stressed the necessity
to deepen the existing ties.

The parties expressed hope that the atmosphere of trust formed in
the course of years will continue serving as a basis for further
cooperation for the sake of peaceful co-existence of the two friendly
peoples.

At the end of the meeting the parties exchanged views on regional
security and stability. The interlocutors emphasized the importance
of peaceful; resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

–Boundary_(ID_8KM/nTRS3HKnBxbopDXIDw)- –

BENITA FERRERO-WALDNER: MILITARY OPTION IS NEVER AN OPTION
Tatul Hakobyan

"Radiolur"
06.02.2008 17:23

February 4-6 the EU Troika visited the countries of the South
Caucasus. The delegation comprised EU Commissioner for External
Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the
Foreign Minister of Slovenia Dmitri Rupel and EU Special Representative
for the South Caucasus Peter Semenby.

During today’s press conference Rupel said: "EU is visiting Armenia
as a very important place in South Caucasus to find out about
developments, to offer assistance, but also to listen to the views of
our Armenian friends. The EU has a policy for the whole South Caucasus,
it is part of our European Neighborhood Policy and the main massage
that we are trying to send is that our friends should also be friends
with each other. We are trying to do our best to contribute as much
as we can that our friends also become friends with each other. We
have discussed some technical matters regarding the Action Plan, we
have discussed political issues, certainly here the top priorities
for the EU are human rights, strengthening the democratic structures
and of course attention to the media."

Turning to the forthcoming presidential elections in Armenia,
Dmitri Rupel said: "Wd think the presidential elections will be a
proper opportunity for progress, although the past parliamentary
elections were not bad, either. The Slovenian Foreign Minister noted
that the issues related to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
and Armenian-Turkish relations were discussed during the meetings
in Armenia. Noting that there are no diplomatic relations and the
border remains closed, Rupel assured the EU will try to assist in
the improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations.

EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood
Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner had declared prior to her visit:
"Over a year after we embarked into our joint Action Plans, the
relations between the EU and the countries of the Southern Caucasus
are growing ever closer." She said during the press conference that
the Neighborhood Policy is a real policy to bring all the countries
that are around the enlarged EU much closer to the Union, and of course
it depends very much on the chances also that the country takes and I
think Armenia takes its chances and wants to take. We are in the midst
of the pass, a lot of progress has been made but there is still some
more progress that has to be made both on the economic development and
business investment issues, human rights, rule of law and issues which
regard to democracy. But we do hope that the presidential elections
will indeed be free and fare, I think the last elections already have
shown good result. We are confident that the elections will be

Turning to the militant statements of Azerbaijan, Rupel said the
EU certainly stands against the military solution to the conflict,
be it Karabakh or any other conflict. For her part, Benita Ferrero
Waldner stated that military option is never an option.

First Armenian president criticizes present authorities for having
closed market in Bagratashen

2008-02-02 11:16:00

ArmInfo. First Armenian president, contender to the presidential post
of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, when making a speech at the election
meeting in town of Noyemberyian, Tavush region, February 1, criticized
the present authorities for having closed the Bagratashen wholesale
commodity market on the Armenian-Georgian border.

According to the presidential candidate, the authorities closed the
market in Bagratashen because they couldn’t stand the existence of any
loophole in the economic life, which wasn’t completely controlled by
them. At the same time, according to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the market’s
existence would make it possible to meet minimal financial demands of
the majority of families in the region at least, even if not live
properly. "Presently, many of them have to leave the country", Levon
Ter-Petrosyan said.

Another target of his criticism became the situation in the public
sector, which, according to the candidate, doesn’t exist as such. In
particular, Levon Ter- Petrosyan said the situation is inadmissible
when the principle of contractual work is applied for all the public
sector employees. This makes it possible to fire people from work at
any moment. "In this way, the present authorities bind the people
working in the public sector with slavish ties, compelling them to
serve", Levon Ter-Petrosyan emphasized.

ASSIGNMENTS OF 13.1 BILLION WILL GROW DURING THE YEAR

KarabakhOpen
31-01-2008 11:55:22

13.15 billion drams has been assigned for construction by the state
budget 2008. According to the program, 330 million drams will be
allocated for the construction and repair of houses for the families
of killed azatamartiks. About 10.6 billion drams will be allocated
for urban planning, 500 thousand for the repair and maintenance of
roads. 180 million drams will be allocated for settlers and refugees.

During the meeting of government the governors said assignments for
construction have been cut. Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan said in the
course of the year expenditure on construction will be boosted. He
said this year the entire village of Mets Tagher and the town of
Hadrut will have gas supply.

OFFICE OF PROSECUTOR GENERAL INVESTIGATES DEBTS OF ARTSAKH FOREST

KarabakhOpen
30-01-2008 13:37:45

Last autumn the government reorganized Artsakh Forest into a state
non-commerce organization, which cannot license logging. Artsakh
Forest’s duties are preservation and forest engineering. On January 29
the government decided to entitle the State Committee for Environment
to licensing logging.

The government discussed the debts of Artsakh Forest which owes
109 million drams of tax liabilities, according to the ministry of
agriculture. The deputy prime minister Armo Tsatryan requested the
Office of Prosecutor General for investigation and action. Prosecutor
General Arshavir Gharamyan said during the meeting of government that
currently audit is being conducted in the company to find out who is
to blame for the debts.

ARMENIAN MP: "DECLARATIONS OF AZERBAIJANI SIDE ABOUT A FIERCE FIGHT WITH ARMENIAN REPRESENTATIVES IN PACE ARE POPULIST"

Today
itics/42768.html
Jan 30 2008
Azerbaijan

"Declarations of Azerbaijani side on a fierce fight with Armenian
representatives in PACE are populist, targeting the Azerbaijani
community".

The due announcement was made by David Arutyunan, head of Armenian
delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
introducing results of the PACE January session.

"The Azerbaijani delegation spreads information about its fierce fight
with the Armenian delegation in PACE and winning over Armenia in this
fight. Of course, this is a populist step, targeting the Azerbaijani
community", Arutyunan noted,

He said PACE should not be regarded as a ring, on which two delegations
are fighting against each other, while the remaining ones undertook
the role of judges.

"We have common problems, facing the Council of Europe and fixed
by three major principles, including human rights, democracy and
supremacy of law. PACE’s activity aims to settle these three tasks
and we see our participation in the activity of the Assembly in this
very aspect", Arutyunan said.

ARMENIAN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES SHOULD FIND COMMON ASPECTS OF COOPERATION WITH BIG FOREIGN COMPANIES, ADA OFFICIAL SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Jan 28, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The international market of
pharmaceutical production is divided among several powerful companies,
and in order to enter this market, Armenian companies should find
some common aspects of cooperation with these companies, the director
for investment attraction of the Armenian Development Agency (ADA)
Natalia Artsruni said during a talk with NT correspondent.

According to her, the establishment of cooperation may start with
the Armenian pharmaceutical companies’ proposal on a number of
long-term scientific developments. The obtaining of their patents
by foreign companies or the financing of laboratories engaged in
scientific developments will contribute to their integaration into
the international pharmaceutical research market, later – also to the
introduction of some pharmaceutical production cycles in Armenia by
foreign companies.

"Unfortunaltely, big companies make investments in countries with
a large market. The Armenian market is small, which is the greatest
obstacle to attraction of invetsments to the country’s pharmaceutical
sector," the ADA’s official underlined.

It was mentioned that liquid medicines that are easy to synthesize,
as well as ointments and pills are mainly produced in Armenia. All
the four institutes of fine organic chemistry conduct pharmaceutical
studies.

In the words of N. Artsruni, with the aim of bringing the
production quality and conditions into line with European
standards, three Armenian pharmaceutical companies have introduced
certificates of correspondence with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
standards. "However, new standards are used in Europe now. Certificates
of correspondence to Drug Master File standards are required for the
import of new medicines, even food supplements for animals, which in
its turn requires considerable investments," she said.

In her opinion, from the viewpoint of satisfying the requirements
on European standards, Armenian pharmaceutical companies may enter
the market by exporting medicines, whose production patents have
expired in some or other European country. She added that markets of
"third world countries" may be considered as perspective for Armenian
pharmaceutical companies.

Natalia Artsruni links the hopes of using the potential of
Armenia’s pharmaceutical companies and research institutions with the
USIAD-financed Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) project. In
November 2007, the pharmaceutical sector was included in the list of
sectors receiving the project’s assistance – in addition to information
technologies and tourism sectors.

According to ADA’s information, there are 11 pharmaceutical companies
with a total of 500 employees in Armenia. The production of these
companies is sold in the domestic market and exported to Russia,
Georgia and Turkmenistan.

US Fed News
January 25, 2008 Friday 4:24 AM EST

DELEGATION OF ARMENIA PARTICIPATED TO ‘NATO’S PARTNERSHIPS – THE
OBERAMMERGAU SYMPOSIUM’

OBERAMMERGAU, Germany

The Republic of Armenia’s mission to NATO issued the following mews
release:

Delegation of Armenia headed by Ambassador S. Mkrtchian participated
to "NATO"s Partnerships – The Oberammergau Symposium." At the two
Plenary sessions titled "Partnerships after Riga – Are We Making
Progress" and "The Bucharest Summit and Beyond – Visions for the
Future" and at several working groups intensive discussions helped to
ascertain the positions of Allies and Partners on achievements and
problems of NATO"s different partnerships.

CEREMONY OF ARARAT PROVINCE’S WATER DEPARTMENT OPENING TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA

Arka News Agency
Jan 25 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, January 25. /ARKA/. The ceremony of Ararat (Armenia)
province’s water department opening is to be held on Friday, the
USAID office of the program focused on institutional and legislative
administration of water economy reports.

Armenian Deputy Nature Protection Minister Hakob Matilyan, Chief of
Water Agency Alfred Nersisyan, USAID Economic Development Office
Director Rolf Anderson and USAID Water Program Director Robert
Cardinalli will be present at the ceremony.

"SPORT IS A PLACE FOR EVERYONE"

A1+
24 January, 2008

"The freedom of press, as the freedom of speech and expression are
in the basis of a democratic society.

Defending press we defend democracy, our right for truth. Free press
today is a guarantee for the future of democracy", said member of
the RA NA Delegation to PACE in Strasbourg Vahe Hovhannisyan.

The PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education discussed cases of
violations against journalists (including in Belarus, Russia, Turkey).

During the discussion the Armenian representative noted that
violence against journalists, physical abuses are acts of violence
against the freedom of thought. They cannot have any justification
or explanation. "Not depreciating the importance of journalistic and
media ethics, still the persecution of journalists and acts of violence
may have no justification and must be considered as unnatural in any
country of the world".

Vahe Hovhannisyan reminded that a year had passed since the famous
journalist, editor of "Agos" Armenian newspaper Hrant Dink was
killed in Istanbul. "We have to state that nationalistic spirits in
any country have a negative influence on the freedom of thought and
expression. This means that authorities in these countries must work
harder to ensure increase of tolerance inside their societies",
he said. The members of Turkish delegation responded to him,
strictly condemning the assassination. In the second part of the
day they discussed the resolution on European Sport Model. The Head
of the Armenian Delegation David Harutyunyan nad the member of the
Delegation Vahe Hovhannisyan protecting adotpiotn of the resolution
in their speeches.

"One of important characteristics of sport is its being away from
politics. Amongst its social, cultural and educational features sport
has to preserve this one, too, and remain above politics. It will
allow strengthening its role of uniting people all over the world
based on their interests and common features, and not – on their
ethnic or political belonging.

I want to mention here the forthcoming match between Armenian and
Turkish National Football Teams during World Cup qualification matches.

This match should become an evidence of the non-politicized nature of
sport. It must also show the real capacities of contemporary sport
to overcome the long-lasting tension between Armenian and Turkish
publics. I want to remind that there are still no diplomatic relations
between our states. It makes everything harder.

Armenian sport officials have already declared their readiness to
ensure security and welcome for Turkish players and fans. Turkish
side has also stated similar willingness. This must be a multi-sided
work, and I hope it will result in a good football, uniting instead
of dividing us", said Vahe Hovhannisyan in his speech.

"Sport is a place for everyone, and the dearest value of the European
Model is its principle of democracy.

It’s something that lets people stay in touch with each other and
be more humane. Everybody truly dedicated to sporting values should
invest his effort to protect its democratic and open future" concluded
Vahe Hovhannisyan.

The Armenian Delegation voted for the adoption of the resolution.