Author: Chakrian Hovsep

Armenia star Pachajyan off to Sweden
Monday 21 January 2008-

GAIS Göteborg have signed Armenian Player of the Year
Levon Pachajyan from FC Pyunik on a four-year
contract. The 24-year-old midfielder scored ten times
in 23 appearances as Pyunik secured a seventh straight
league title in November and was ever-present for
Armenia in 2007.

Pyunik departures
He becomes the fourth key player to leave Pyunik
during the transfer window following the departures of
Agvan Lazarian, Aleksandr Tadevosyan and Robert
Arzumanyan, joining a GAIS side sitting fourth from
bottom in the Swedish Allsvenskan. Pachajyan arrived
at Pyunik in 2003 and won the Armenian championship in
each of his five seasons with the club. He admitted in
December, however, that it was time to test himself
abroad and after impressing on trial with GAIS he took
the plunge.

Overseas dream
"Every Armenian player dreams of playing for a top
European club and playing in a major league," said
Pachajyan, who has been capped 18 times. "It is
exactly the same for me. It is a massive honour to
play for a big European club, but it is hard to earn a
move to one. First you have to establish yourself in
one of the more modest leagues."

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Russia & CIS General Newswire
January 17, 2008 Thursday 11:09 AM MSK

Nagorno-Karabakh will never be independent – Azeri president

AGDAM Jan 17

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said the strengthening of Azerbaijan’s
economic potential, the increase in military spending and the boost
in his country’s regional standing have a positive effect on the
talks with Armenia on Nagorno-Karabakh.

"In the past the Armenians demanded independence for Nagorno-
Karabakh. Now they realize that Nagorno-Karabakh will never be
independent or part of Armenia. This is the opinion of the
international community, OSCE Minsk group co-chairmen, and Armenia
has to take this into account," Aliyev said at the opening of an
Olympic center in the village of Guzanly in the Agdam district of
Azerbaijan.

If Azerbaijan before demanded that Armenia pull out of four Azeri
districts abutting Nagorno-Karabakh, now Azerbaijan demands that
Armenia pull out of seven districts, Aliyev said.

"This is a very big success. I cannot say that we completely agree
with the last proposed version of a settlement. Yet, in general the
process is positive. How have we achieved this? By strengthening our
potential, and Armenia realizes it. Time is working for us," he said.

Azerbaijan has been leading in economic growth for three years, and
Azeri military spending has been growing steadily.

Meeting at the Ministry of Defense

armradio.am
19.01.2008 15:35

On January 19 RA Minister of Defense Michael Harutyunyan received the
First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Republic of Slovakia Peter
Kazimir and the President of the Academy of Justice of Slovakia Martin
Lauko.

During the meeting the parties discussed issues of bilateral
cooperation. The interlocutors stated that despite membership to
different security systems, the bilateral mutually beneficial
cooperation is steadily developing.

Armen Rustamyan: ARF Dashnakstyun’s creed is to guide others in
civilized fight by its behavior

2008-01-17 15:38:00

ArmInfo. The main creed of the ARF Dashnaksutyun Party is to guide
others in the civilized fight by its behavior, Armen Rustamyan, an MP
from the ARFD faction, a member of the ARFD Supreme Body, the head of
Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Vahan Hovhannisyan’s campaign
headquarters, told journalists, Thursday.

According to him, ARF Dashnaktsutyun doesn’t intend to offend this or
that candidate and is ready to cooperate with each of them. Rustamyan
also said that the party suggested that all the candidates to set
election control headquarters. This suggestion was accepted, however,
when it comes to specification of the issue, for some reason, the
contenders to the presidential post try not to interfere. As the head
of the headquarters said, ARFD will set 500-600 campaign headquarters
of V. Hovhannisyan. "10 mln AMD have already been transferred to V.
Hovhannisyan’s election campaign fund account, however the size of the
fund continues to increase".

Rustamyan noted that ARFD has its representatives at all 1923 polling
stations where Hovhannisyan’s election agents will also be present. To
note, Vahan Hovhannisyan is running under the slogan "Our old
friend is the new president of the country".

ARMENIA – SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC 13:1

A1+
[12:34 pm] 17 January, 2008

The Armenian national hockey team defeated the national team of the
South African Republic 13:1 during the first game of the World Hockey
Championship.

The national team of Serbia, where the Championship is taking place,
has defeated the national team of Bulgaria. The national team of
Australia has defeated the national team of Turkey.

The national teams of Armenia, Serbia and Australia top the match list
currently. Turkey will be the next opponent of the Armenian national.

OSCE MG EXPECTS APPROVAL OF BASE PRINCIPLES ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT BY PRESIDENTS OF AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA

TREND News Agency, Azerbaijan
Jan 17 2008

The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group expect the base principles of
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement to be approved by the Presidents
of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President, Robert Kocharyan,
Novosti Armenia reports.

"We expect possible approval of the base principles by the heads of
the two countries, which will contain orders to the Foreign Ministers
of Azerbaijan and Armenia to begin work on the text of the future
agreement, obviously with our participation," said Yuri Merzlyakov,
the Russian Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, on 17 January in Yerevan.

He stated that at present, no official act is expected to be signed
at this stage. "When the base principles will be coordinated finally,
work will be initiated to devise the text of intermediate or temporary,
but a peaceful closing agreement," he said.

In addition, the Russian mediator said that devising the closing
document will take quite a long time because it will contain more
details than the base principles.

OSCE MONITORING REVEALED NO CEASE-FIRE VIOLATIONS

armradio.am
16.01.2008 17:17

Today the OSCE mission carried out monitoring of the contact line
between the Armed Forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the
direction of Aghdam, near Yusifjanlu settlement.

>From the positions of the NKR Defense Army the monitoring was conducted
by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej
Kasprzyk.

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Yuri Merzlyakov, Bernard Fassier and
Matthew Bryza participated in the monitoring.

No breaches of the cease-fire regime were registered during the
monitoring.

An agreement on the conduct of the monitoring was reached during
yesterday’s official meeting between the President of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

The OSCE mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR
Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense.

COMMISSION MEMBER TO LEARN FORMING PROTOCOLS

Panorama.am
18:17 16/01/2008

"From January 30 to February 14, trainings for all the members of
the electoral commissions will be organized. Preparation works are
under way," CEC Secretary Abram Bakhchagulyan told a news conference
today. In his words, this year special attention will be paid to
forming the protocols since during the presidential elections most of
the shortcoming pinpointed by international observers related to that.

"We will try to accomplish that each member of the commission knows
what protocol is and how they are formed," the commission secretary
said.

In compliance with the requirements and the timeline of the Electoral
Code, the electoral commissions will be formed from January 24 to
27. The first sessions will be held at 12:00 of January 28. The
sessions will elect chairmen, deputies and secretaries of the
commissions.

RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN ECONOMIC FORUM TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN ON JANUARY 20-21

YEREVAN, JANUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. A Russian-Armenian economic forum
will be held in Yerevan on January 20-21. The Union of Armenians of
Russia (UAR) and the RA ministry of trade and economic development are
the event’s organizers. NT correspondent was informed by the UAR that
it is envisaged that at the January 21 plenary sitting of the forum,
the Armenian prime minister Serge Sargsian will address forum
participants with an opening speech, while the chairman of the UAR Ara
Abrahamian will make a speech of welcome.

During the plenary sitting, the RA minister of trade and economic
development Nerses Yeritsian will give the report "The Development
Prospects and Priority Investment Directions of Armenia’s Economy". The
director of the Armenian Development Agency (ADA) Tigran Davtian will
make the report "The Current Investment Environment in Armenia".

On the same day A. Abrahamian and N. Yeritsian will hold a joint press
conference. Individual meetings of businessmen – forum participants
will take place. 60-70 businessmen are expected to arrive from Russia
to participate in the forum.

LEVON ARONIAN GAINS VICTORIES IN FIRST TWO TOURS OF WIJK AAN ZEE
TOURNAMENT

WIJK AAN ZEE, JANUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. An International Chess Festival
under the title Korus started for the 70th time on January 12 in the
city of Wijk aan Zee, Holland. Almost all strongest chess players of
the world perform in the 20-category tournament.

Levon Aronian, the festival’s last year winner, is among 14 grand
masters taking part in the main tournament. In the first two tours he
defeated first Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), then Boris Gelfand (Israel).
L. Aronian and Magnus Karlsen (Norway) gained two out of two possible
points each and are at the top of the tournament table.

In tournament B being held parallel with the main tournament, Gabriel
Sargsian and Sergei Movsisian (Slovakia) ended their two games in a
draw and share the 7-10th places with one point each.