Author: Chaltikian Arsine

FM EDWARD NALBANDIAN TO VISIT BERLIN AND HELSINKI

Armradio.am
27.06.2008 18:02

Upon the invitation of the Deputy Chancellor of Germany, Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on June 30 RA Foreign Minster Edward
Nalbandian will leave for Berlin on a two-day official visit.

In Belin the Foreign Minister is expected to have meetings with the
Foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Adviser to the
Chancellor of Germany on Foreign Policy and Security Issues Christoph
Hosgen. Minister Nalbandian will have meetings in the Bundestag.

On July 2 Edward Nalbandian will leave Berlin for Helsinki for a
two-day visit upon the invitation of Finland’s Foreign Minister
Alexander Stubb.

In the capital of Finland the Armenian Foreign Minister will meet
with his counterpart Alexander Stubb, the Parliamentary Commission on
Foreign Relations Pertti Salolaynen and OSCE Special Representative
for the South Caucasus Heiki Talvitie.

GALUST SAHAKIAN CONVINCED THAT LEVON TER-PETROSIAN WILL LEAVE POLITICS

NOYAN TAPAN

JU NE 26

By permitting to hold the June 20 rally near Matenadaran, the Police
failed opposition’s intention to instigate collisions in the center of
the city. Galust Sahakian, the Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party
of Armenia (RPA), a member of the RA National Assembly RPA faction,
expressed such an opinion during the June 26 press conference.

"Levon Ter-Petrosian will leave in the future keeping his respect and
will yield to more constructive opposition. Certainly, I am for it,
but we will see whether society will accept it or not," G. Sahakian
said. Touching upon the first President’s June 20 statement that he
will be the last person to leave big politics and leave Armenia,
G. Sahakian mentioned: "As the Council of Europe recorded during
its June 25 discussions that the opposition does not take part in
the reforms carried out in the country, it means that the Council
of Europe does not perceive L. Ter-Petrosian as a person having
opposition views."

He also touched upon the information in press that the Co-reporters
of PACE Monitoring Commission have estimated Armenian authorities’
work in the direction of fulfilment of Resolution N 1609 as
unsatisfactory. Indeed, according to G. Sahakian, "it is more than
clear that the word "unsatisfactory" is not used in the practice of
the whole international community, therefore, as regards Resolution
N 1609, they estimated its fulfilment as not satisfactory."

As for Zharangutiun (Heritage) party leader, member of the Armenian
delegation in PACE Raffi Hovannisian’s coming out of the delegation,
according to the RPA figure, "that was one more attempt aimed at
keeping oppositionist’s image."

EU-RUSSIA RELATIONS ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE EU-RUSSIA SUMMIT IN KHANTY-MANSIYSK
Vladimir Chizhov

Eurasian Home Analytical Resource
June 25 2008
Russia

Permanent representative of Russia in the European Union, Moscow –
Brussels

The summit in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk is the twenty first
EU-Russia summit. The EU-Russia summits are held twice a year in turn –
in Russia and in the EU member-state which holds the EU presidency.

The opening of negotiations on a new base agreement between Russia
and the EU will be one of the main issues at the Khanty-Mansiysk
summit. Russia has carried out all the necessary preparations for
the discussion of a new agreement with the EU. My mandate of the head
of the Russian delegation was approved by the government in November
2006. But the mandate of my European Commission negotiations partners
was approved by the EU Council on May 26, 2008.

The problems, which did not make it possible to start the negotiations
on a new agreement between Russia and the EU, are well-known. Those
are Poland and Lithuania’s vetoes.

The opening of the negotiations in Khanty-Mansiysk is the first
step. And the first round of the negotiations will take place in
Brussels on July 4. The process will be rather long-term. It is clear
that the process will entail some difficulties due to comprehensive
nature of the future agreement and the issues that may arise.

For the time being the future agreement has no name. It cannot
be called in the same way as the previous one – the Agreement on
Partnership and Cooperation. The preliminary name is the Treaty on
Strategic Partnership.

I have never predicted how long negotiations will be held since this
is the most harmful thing to negotiations processes.

As regards the potential problems, I would not anticipate them. It
comes natural that they will happen. The EU and Russia differ with
each other on many issues.

Some problems in our relations are quite objective. In a globalized
economy, Russia and the EU, as two important players, are partners and,
at the same time, competitors.

Apart from that, there are serious problems within the EU. I am
referring to both its enlargement and the future of the European
integration process. We know what happened to the Lisbon Treaty on the
EU Reform and what the outcome of the referendum in Ireland was. Of
course, this will influence the EU dealing with the third countries
including Russia.

One of the results of our cooperation is that recently we have started
carrying on a dialogue on abolition of visas. It is expected to lead
to visa-free travel.

The problems arose in the course of the implementation of the
Agreement on Visa Simplifications. The both parties have the problems
in processing of visa applications, and the Russian citizens have as
many of them as our European partners.

Those difficulties occur because the Agreement on Visa Simplifications
is a new document; Russia is the first country with which the EU
reached such an agreement.

Besides the agreement on partnership and visa policy, the Kosovo issue
will be discussed at the summit. If we are talking about recognition or
non-recognition of unilateral proclamation of Kosovo’s independence,
here the EU has no position. About a third of the EU member states
did not recognize Kosovo’s independence. Some of them stated openly
that they did not intend to do that at all.

Russia and the EU are at variance about the mission to assure the
supremacy of law. We are not against the EU sharing responsibility
for the Kosovo events. We would not oppose to the civil mission of the
EU in Kosovo provided that this mission was established according to
the international legal standards. Its mandate should be endorsed by
the government of the country where the mission is located, namely,
Serbia, and this should be approved by the resolution of the UN
Security Council.

Today the only legal groundwork for the international presence in
Kosovo is Resolution No.1244 in accordance with which two international
missions have been sent to Kosovo – the military and civil ones
(the latter is the UN mission). The UN mission has an indefinite
mandate and can be shut down or reformatted only by the UN Security
Council. Those are our differences.

At the summit the issue of the so-called "frozen conflicts"
will be examined. The EU would like to take more active part in
their settlement. Russia does not ignore this fact and is ready to
discuss it but if this is not done to the detriment of the existing
negotiations formats.

As for Nagorno-Karabakh, there is the OSCE Minsk group. It has the
triple co-presidency. One of its co-presidents is the EU member state,
France. In this context, the EU participates in this process.

I do not think that the energy issue in the EU-Russia relations
is a disputed one. Undoubtedly, this subject is of current
importance. This is because the energy issue is often on agenda of
the global discussions. It is natural that Russia and the EU, where
25 of 27 countries are net consumers and net importers of the energy
resources, are concerned about that (only Denmark and Great Britain
have a positive energy balance). In addition, more and more energy is
being consumed in the EU, that’s why our partners focus on supplying
extra energy resources to the EU in proper time. This is one of the
topics of our dialogue.

The material is based on Vladimir CHIZHOV’s address to the TV press
conference Moscow-Brussels "Important Issues of the EU-Russia Relations
on the Threshold of the EU-Russia Summit in Khanty-Mansiysk on June
26-27" organized by the Russian Agency of International Information
RIA Novosti on June 23, 2008.

PACE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES REPORT TAKING INTO ACCOUNT SPECIFICATIONS OF ARMENIAN DELEGATION TO PACE

ArmInfo
2008-06-26 14:16:00

PACE has unanimously passed the report taking into account
the specifications of the Armenian delegation to PACE. ArmInfo
correspondent to Strasbourg reports the amendments to the resolution
were mostly of technical nature and were connected to specification
of legal wordings. The most significant specifications referred to
the points regarding the people detained after the unrest in March in
Yerevan as well as the demands of the co-rapporteurs to provide A1+
TV with a broadcasting license.

Thus, the point on inadmissibility of filing accusation only on the
basis of police testimonies was amended. In particular the proposal
of the Monitoring Committee to attract independent witnesses was
omitted. The new edition of the text says that rendering of judicial
decision on the basis of only police testimonies is inadmissible. To
render such decisions, additional witnessing is necessary, the
document says. In addition, the new edition of the text says that
the criminal cases under investigation must be stopped without delay
or considered by the court to guarantee the exercise of the right to
fair verdict in conformity with the case-law of the European Court
for Human Rights. Accusations on the proceedings on articles 300
and 225 of the Criminal Code must be cancelled if there are no hard
evidences that a person made violent actions or ordered, provoked
or contributed to commitment of such actions, the document says. As
regards the regulations of the interim commission to investigate the
incidents of March 1-2 in Yerevan, the resolution proposes adopting
decisions on the basis of a consensus. It recommends resorting to
exercising the right to vote only in case of extreme necessity.

PACE recommends seeking methods including amnesty, pardon or stoppage
of persecution of the people detained after the incident on 1 March,
except those who committed violent actions or ordered, provoked or
contributed to commitment of such actions. The report, in particular,
says that PACE in particular admitted that the time provided to the
Armenian authorities to fulfill the demands of PACE resolution was
limited. For lack of time, it was impossible to assess how fully the
initiatives of the authorities to fulfill the demands of the Assembly
met the report. Nevertheless, the Commission proposes the Assembly
to consider the progress Armenia will show in fulfillment of the
Resolution during the Winter Session of PACE in January 2009. If
Armenia fails to fulfill the Resolution, the Monitoring Committee
proposes PACE to study the possibility of suspending the mandate of
the Armenian delegations and depriving it of the right to vote at
the January Session.

"FREEDOM HOUSE" ASSESSMENT

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
June 25, 2008
Armenia

"Freedom House" authoritative international law organization yesterday
published its report on "Transitional Countries", by which they give
9 digit score to each state’s "electoral process", "civil society",
"independent press", "governing", "state democratic governance",
"local democratic governance", "independence of the legal field",
"corruption" and "democratic units".

"Freedom House" gives scores by 1-7 scale, "1" is the highest
positive score and "7" is the lowest negative score. In case of
Armenia the highest score was given to the "civil society" – 3.50,
"the interdependence of the legal field" – 0.25 units’ retreat, and
"electoral processes" – 0.25 units’ progress.

OPPOSITION RALLY GOING ON IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.06.2008 19:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Several thousand of Armenian opposition supporters
took the streets Friday to join the rally at Matenadaran, the
depositary of ancient manuscripts, scheduled for 6 p.m.

The adjacent territory is controlled by the police.

Law enforcers call on the demonstrators not to block the traffic in
the center of Yerevan, IA Regnum reports.

On June 12 the opposition leaders informed the Mayor’s office of their
intention to hold a rally in Liberty Square but the latter rejected
authorization over a children’s’ event scheduled in the Square on
that day and offered to gather near Hrazdan stadium.

However, the oppositionists decided to gather at Matenadaran.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES RUSSIAN HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER

ARMENPRESS
June 20, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS: Armenian President Serzh Sargsian
received today Russian Home Affairs Minister Rashid Nurghaliyev who
has arrived in Armenia to participate in the session of the Board of
the law enforcement bodies of the two countries.

Presidential press service told Armenpress that during the meeting
the president referred to the high-level relations between Armenia
and Russia and their stable development.

The leader of the country greeted the close cooperation between the
law enforcers of the two countries considering it one of the most
important elements of bilateral relations. Serzh Sargsian expressed
conviction that through joint efforts the fight against crime will
be much more effective.

The Russian minister gave a short outline of the topics discussed in
the session pointing out that they are very urgent.

Serzh Sargsian particularly pointed out the importance of exchange
of operative information and experience.

TENTH BYRON FESTIVAL READY TO ROLL
By Denis Robinson

Hucknall Today
enth-Byron-Festival-ready-to.4189314.jp
June 16 2008
UK

THE sport-packed International Byron Festival is set to be Hucknall’s
version of this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

The tenth festival, which gets under way on Tuesday June 17 and runs
for three weeks until Saturday July 5, boasts a rich sporting theme.

It will even incorporate the Hucknall-based Festival Of Sport gala
day at Titchfield Park.

Cricket features strongly in the festival programme, including a
Twenty20 cricket match at Papplewick Hall in memory of Hucknall
tram-accident victim Matthew Dear.

There will also be an encounter between Hucknall’s Holgate and National
Comprehensive Schools for the Byron Cup.

And the two schools will take each other on again for a corresponding
trophy in athletics.

Byron himself was justifiably proud of his sporting accomplishment
in swimming the Hellespont, the strait between Europe and Asia.

So it is fitting that a primary schools’ swimming final at Hucknall
Leisure Centre is another of the festival items.

Boxing, another sport which Byron enjoyed, will be demonstrated at
a bumper family fun day on Hucknall Market Place.

And other sports covered in the festival include bowls and golf. There
will be a sports quiz and the Canon Fred Green Memorial Lecture
will be given by Dudley Savill, who has written a book called ‘Byron
The Sportsman’.

Byron’s boxing gloves, given on loan from Newstead Abbey, will form
part of an exhibition in Hucknall Parish Church, together with a copy
of a letter by the poet in which he somewhat exaggerated a batting
performance for Harrow School against arch-rivals Eton on August
2 1805.

However the festival is by no means confined to sport and provides
a host of other attractions, including drama, music, dancing, arts
and crafts.

Main organiser Maureen Crisp, secretary of Newstead Abbey Byron
Society, said: "In many ways, the 2008 festival is the most ambitious
yet.

"It will run for three weeks and it comprises more than 50 separate
events..

"I think the programme we have lined up is really wonderful and I am
confident that the festival will reach double figures in style.

"With the Hucknall community’s widespread interest in sport, I am
hoping that any image of the festival being elitist will be well and
truly laid to rest."

Maureen pointed out that Byronists all over the world had been made
aware of the festival via the Internet.

An international highlight will be an Armenian garden party at the
parish church, which will include consecration of a new plant-container
at the front of the Armenian cross known as a khatchkar.

ARMENIA DEFENCE MINISTER TO ARRIVE IN RF FOR VISIT

ITAR-TASS
June 16 2008
Russia

YEREVAN, June 16 (Itar-Tass) — Armenian Defence Minister
Seiran Oganyan will discuss in Moscow issues of military and
military-technical cooperation with Russia. He is leaving for a
three-day visit to Russia on Monday evening, the minister’s press
secretary Seiran Shakhsuvaryan told ITAR-TASS. According to him, the
trip is being made in accordance with the plan of military cooperation
between Russia and Armenia for the current year.

The Armenian defence minister will meet with his Russian counterpart
Anatoly Serdyukov and chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed
Forces Colonel-General Nikolai Makarov.

During a meeting with General Secretary of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha and the leadership of the
CSTO Joint Headquarters, the sides will consider issues of reforming
the organization.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization includes Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Seiran Oganyan plans to meet with servicemen from Armenia studying
at military educational institutions of Russia and representatives
of the Armenian diaspora in Russia.

SITTING OF GOVERNMEMT HELD IN GYUMRI ON JUNE 12

GYU MRI, JUNE 13, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA government members headed by the
prime minister on June 12 went to Yerevan’s Komitas Pantheon on the
occasion of the birthday anniversary of the late prime minister
Andranik Margarian, after which they left for the city of Gyumri in
Shirak marz where a sitting of the government was held.

Prior to the sitting, the prime minister Tigran Sargsian went to Surb
Astvatsatsin Church. Before starting the sitting in the building of V.
Achemian State Dramatic Theatre, the prime minister congratulated once
again the Gyumri weight-lifters – winners of the European
Weight-Lifting Championship. The mayor of Gyumri on behalf of the city
municipality presented GAZ-031 cars to each of the champions: Tigran
Vardan Martirosian, Tigran Gevorg Martirosian, Meline Daluzian, Nazik
Avdalian and Ara Khachatrian.

Before discussing the issues on the agenda, T. Sargsian spoke about the
purpose of organizing an away-sitting and the issues to be discussed.
He in particular said: "Today is a historical day for us because the
whole Armenian government is holding an away-sitting for the first
time. Henceforth such sittings will be held in various marzes every
quarter… It provides branch departments with an exceptional
opportunity to prepare their agenda in such a way that problems,
further work and long-term programs in marzes will be identified".

During discussion of the agenda issues, the government approved the
concept on solution of apartment problems of the families left homeless
by the earthquake and the program of measures to ensure the use of the
concept’s provisions. The decision was made in accordance with the
program of events dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the 1988
earthquake and the 2008-2012 program of the Armenian government. The
concept aims to form principles of a state policy through analysis of
the restoration work under the housing programs implemented based on
the previous decisions. The purpose of the concept is to solve housing
problems of persons left homeless by the earthquake by 2013.

The minister of uran development and the governors of Shirak, Lori and
Tavush marzes were instructed to present – during development of a
state medium-term expenditure program – a program on solution of
housing problems of the families left homeless by the earthquake.

The government approved the program of events dedicated to the 20th
anniversary of the 1988 earthquake.

By another decision, the government allocated 500 million drams from
its reseve fund to the ministry of urban development for the purpose of
solving housing problems by providing apartment purchase certificates
to 47 persons in Gyumri, 30 persons in the city of Vanadzor, 11 persons
in the city of Stepanavan and 12 persons in the city of Dilijan.

The government approved the 2008-2012 concept of development of the
healthcare system in Shirak marz. The main purpose of the document is
to decide priorities of the healthcare system’s development in the
marz, as well as strategical directions which will allow to increase
the quality and access of medical services to the population of the
marz, especially vulnerable groups, to a maximum.

The executive body also took a decision to allocate 13 mln 200 thousand
drams from its reserve fund to the Shirak regional administration for
construction of a heating system for 6 subsidiary buildings of Gyumri’s
Family Heath Center CJSC. 19 mln drams was allocated to the Shirak
regional administration for improvement, building and repair work in
the area of Gyumri’s Mental Health Center CJSC.

According to the RA Government Information and PR Department, the
government approved the program "Gyumri as a Republican Regional
Center".

Based on the necessity of solving the problems of preservation of
architectural, historical and cultural environment and urban
development in the city of Gyumri, the government approved the priority
directions of the 2008-2012 program on restoration and development of
the historical-cultural and urban development environment in Gyumri.

The executive body also approved the concept of reconstructing the
Gyumri technopark. The concept is aimed at reducing the disproportion
between Yerevan and marzes and the differences in incomes of their
residents, improving the business environment and solving socioeconomic
problems of Gyumri.

The 2008 program of state assistance to the activities of Gyumri
Technopark was approved at the sitting. The program aims to promote
creation and development of IT companies in Gyumri, encourage students’
interest in IT specialities, increase the level of entrepreneurship,
and assist with creation of research laboratories and new enterprises
in the city.