Author: Chatinian Lara

AHMEDOGLU: "KASPRZYK HAS NEVER GIVEN OBJECTIVE INFORMATION CONCERNING AZERBAIJAN"

Today, Azerbaijan
Aug. 30, 2006

Fires in territories, bordering to Nagorno Karabakh, have been lasting
for about two months.

Recently, the personal envoy of the OSCE chairman-in-office Andrzej
Kasprzyk monitored the territory in order to clarify causes of the
fires. According to the diplomat, "hot weather, which has early set in,
and strong winds are reason, which caused fact that area in contact
line’s zone, enveloped in fires, turned out to be considerably bigger,
comparing with ones in previous years."

Political Innovations and Technologies Center Chairman Mubariz
Ahmedoglu commented on arisen situation.

Mr. Ahmedoglu, personal envoy of the OSCE chairman-in-office Andrzej
Kasprzyk stated that fires in territories, bordering to Nagorno
Karabakh, were not caused by Armenians, as the Azerbaijani side
maintains, but they were caused by heat, wind, and other natural
phenomena. To what extent, in your opinion, his words correspond
with reality?

When the fires began, the weather was not hot. If they had been
lasting for 15 last days, i.e. when the weather was really hot,
his words could be considered seriously. The matter concerns other
thing here. Armenians realizes very good; they should return Agdam,
Fizuli, and other occupied areas to Azerbaijan; that is why, they
committed arsons. As for Kasprzyk…It is worth mentioning, he has
never given objective information concerning Azerbaijan. Even during
his stay at the fire line, he succeeded in not making notes of shots
from the Armenian side.

Let’s ignore Kasprzyk’s words. Finally, Armenian officials and mass
media went much further, maintaining that the fires were made by
Azeri soldiers, who shot fire-bullets at territories, controlled by
Armenian servicemen…

No Azeri would set fire to native land under any circumstances. It is
enough to remind old parable in order to prove absurdity of Armenian
statements. Two women came to King Solomon, each of them maintaining,
she was mother of baby. The King ordered to bring the baby and
pronounced sentence. The child should be cut up in two parts in
order to give each woman one part, because none of them could prove
its right on the child. One of the women stayed absolutely calm,
while the other one fell to the king’s foots, crying and refusing
her claims on the child. The wise king ordered to hand over the baby
to the woman, who immediately refused her mother right in order to
rescue the child. Probably, no further commentaries are necessary.

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GARNIK ISAGULYAN IS LOOKING FOR ALLIES

Lragir.am
29 Aug 06

Garnik Isagulyan, adviser to the president of Armenia, is looking for a
political ally. The source informs that Isagulyan has actively started
the search for supporters. We have learned that he has already come
to a preliminary agreement with a figure, who is Isagulyan’s colleague
without political partnership, namely another adviser to the president
Seiran Avagyan. By the way, Avagyan remembered on these days that he
is a political figure and held a meeting of the Democratic Liberal
Union he leads on August 26.

For the time being he is the only visible and definite candidate of
ally for Garnik Isagulyan. We have learned, however, that Avagyan
is not enough for Isagulyan, and he is likely to continue the search
for a political companion. It should be noted that Isagulyan started
the search long ago. Simply so far he was looking for a presidential
candidate, not a political ally, and announced that Serge Sargsyan
is the best and the best prepared candidate. Meanwhile, Isagulyan’s
search for a political ally means that his search for a presidential
candidate was not successful. Otherwise, if the courtesy to Serge
Sargsyan were successful, Isagulyan would not need a political ally,
because the Republican Party would become his "natural" ally.

And since Robert Kocharyan did not like Isagulyan’s courtesy to Serge
either, there is nothing the adviser can do but to find some way of
staying in the political sphere.

OSKANIAN MEETS U.S. COCHAIRMAN BRYZA
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug. 28, 2006

Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian held a meeting with OSCE
Minsk Group cochairman from the United States Matthew Bryza on
Monday on the sidelines of the two-day international forum "Caspian
Prospects 2008" in the Slovenian town of Bled, Armenian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Vladimir Karapetian told RFE/RL.

Karapetian did not report the details of the meeting. He said that
Oskanian did not meet his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov.

Karapetian also said that Oskanian’s speech at the forum dealt with
the Armenia-EU relations as part of the New Neighborhood Policy.

More than 180 representatives of a number of countries, including
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev, are attending the forum.

NATO INFORMATION CENTER TO OPEN IN ARMENIA IN SEPTEMBER

ArmRadio.am
24.08.2006 17:57

RA Government took the decision today, according to which t will
provide means from its reserve funds for renting the area for the
NATO Information Center in Yerevan, MEDIAMAX Agency informs.

In 2007 the rent will be paid from the state budget.

The NATO information center will be established and managed by the
"Armenian Center for Trans-Atlantic Initiative" NGO.

‘ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE IS DISTRUSTFUL OF THEIR COMPATRIOTS IN ARMENIA’
By Hakob Chakrian

AZG Armenian Daily
24/08/2006

Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople States in a Turkish Paper

It seems that Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Mesrop II Mutafian,
is getting into the habit of ascribing his own opinion to the Armenian
community and making grim conclusions and prognosis in Turkish printed
media. Still in mid-June when Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II
was getting ready for Istanbul visit, he suggested Turkish papers that
"the Armenian community of Constantinople thinks that the Supreme
Patriarch does not know the proper place for his statements," thus
trying to forecast "possible unrest during his visit" and to let the
world know about the Armenian community’s "concern."

Patriarch Mutafian’s gloomy forecast did not though hit the
target. According to Armenian press of Istanbul, the community not
only warmly welcomed His Holiness and enjoyed his presence but also
was surprised at Mesrop Mutafian’s conclusion that "some fears in
the community came true." The Armenian community strongly criticized
Patriarch Mutafian "for casting shadow on the Catholicos’s visit"
and emphasized: "When His Holiness was still in Istanbul, in his
interview with Hurriyet Patriarch Mutafian showed that he can hardly
follow a logic worthy a religious leader."

It was the interview with Sefa Kaplan published on June 28 in Hurriyet
that Patriarch Mutafian provided "clarification" to the Catholicos’s
press conference.

In August 6 issue of Hurriyet answering the question of the same
correspondent, the Patriarch made public his attitude to his
compatriots in Armenia not forgetting to speak for the whole community.

Asked by Kaplan "what kind of relations do you have with your
compatriots in Armenia? Do they turn to you with requests?", Patriarch
Mutafian answers: "Two-three years ago they used to turn to us for
money. Seeing that they were in desperate need we would help them
paying for their ticket to Armenia.

Then we saw that they return to Istanbul from Samsun or Trapizon but do
not return to Armenia. That’s why we decided not to fund anymore. But
the church still remains a meeting place for the latter. On Sundays
Surp Astvatsatsin church is full of Armenians speaking Eastern
Armenian. The Ethiopians and Africa-born Armenians also come. So when
preaching you may think that people do not understand you."

Asked "what’s the education level of those people", the Patriarch says:
"Almost all of them are university graduates but they found no jobs
at home. There are even doctors among them who attend patients at
home but earn more than in Armenia."

Answering a question about the relations between the Turks and
the Armenians of Armenia, Patriarch Mutafian says: "Relations are
rather good. I think if there were exchange programs of students,
intellectuals, artists and media representatives, Turkey-Armenia
relations would improve."

The most exciting in the interview were perhaps the last two
questions. The correspondent asked: "Are there cases when the Armenian
residents turn to you complaining of bad treatment?", to which the
Patriarch answers: "As far as I know, they get along very well,
and there were even marriages with the Turks."

Asked "if the local Armenian community is worried because of the
Armenian residents", the Patriarch says: "Unfortunately, there is
more distrust than worry towards them. The local community is slow
to trust those people for unknown reasons. There is a firm opinion
in the community that they are ‘untrustworthy and do not keep their
word’. This is an inglorious phenomenon."

Firstly, it should be said that not all job seekers in Turkey are
university graduates. The Patriarch simply lies fanning the fires of
those who want to see Armenia ruined. As to the community, if they
really consider their compatriots in Armenia untrustworthy, then it
goes against the Patriarch’s words that the Armenians get along with
the Turks and even marry them.

If Patriarch Mutafian ascribes distrust to the Armenian community,
then he carelessly sticks a label of untrustworthy on the Turks who
trust the Armenian residents to the extent of marrying them. In this
case the Armenian community of Constantinople takes the stance of
distrust to Turks because of its Patriarch’s wishful thinking.

It’s obvious that in order to "get well along with the Armenians"
the Turks have to be at least equally bad, therefore the Patriarch’s
suspicion towards his countryman should refer to Turks as well. We
can only remind him the inscription that Lraber, the patriarchy’s
newspaper, carries: "The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked
and those who love violence his soul hates."

DAY OF MOURNING DECLARED IN RUSSIA

ArmRadio.am
24.08.2006 12:20

According to RF President Vladimir Putin’s decree, August 24 has been
declared a day of mourning in Russia.

State flags will be lowered all over the country. All TV and radio
companies, cultural establishments have been instructed to cancel
the entertainment events and broadcasts.

"Armenpress" was told at the Russian Embassy in Armenia that between
14:30 – 17.30 a condolence book will be opened in the Embassy.

To remind, August 22 Russian Tu-154 plane crashed in Donetsk region
of Ukraine killing all 170 people on board including 45 children.

MOSCOW PROSECUTOR SUSPEND ARMENIAN STUDENT MURDER PROBE

RIA Novosti, Moscow
22 Aug 06

Moscow, 22 August: The Moscow metro prosecutor has suspended the
investigation into the murder of Armenian student Vagan Abramyants
in the Pushkinskaya underground station, his [family] lawyer Simon
Tsaturyan told RIA Novosti.

"The case has been suspended as it has been impossible to establish
who committed the crime," Tsaturyan said.

Abramyants was killed on 22 April 2006 by unknown criminals.

Panorama.am

17:36 18/08/06

GOVERNMENT DECREASES RADIATION NORM

The government approved today new norms for population and nuclear
power plant staff reducing it from 0.5 to 0.2 ber (measurement unit
for radiation) for population and from 5 to 2 ber for the staff of the
nuclear power plant. The decision will be effective starting July 1,
next year.

Ashot Martirosyan, nature protection ministry state nuclear supervision
department head, told reporters today that at the moment "the annual
indicator of the radiation for nuclear power plant staff does not
exceed 2 ber". Martirosyan, however, failed to say what is the level of
public radiation, saying no measurements have been taken. /Panorama.am/

CONFORMATION OF AZERBAIJAN’S ROADS TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS REQUIRES $5 BN AND 15 YEARS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug. 17, 2006

Azerbaijan is behind Armenia of the length of primary roads,
Transportation Ministry Traffic Service Department chief Javid Gurbanov
told a media briefing, APA reports.

Of 18 799-km-long roads, 1% are primary roads, 5% is secondary roads,
29% are third-category and 55% are four-category roads.

"Conformation of Azerbaijan’s roads to international standards requires
at least $5 bn and 15 years".

Totally, the automobile roads of Azerbaijan is some 30 000 km in
length of which 18 799 km are priority roads.

NEW CHIEF COACH OF ARMENIAN FOOTBALL TEAM GETS ACQUAINTED WITH INFRASTRUCTURES OF ARMENIAN LEADING CLUBS

Armenpress
Aug 17 2006

YEREVAN, AUGUST 17, ARMENPRESS: The newly appointed chief coach of
the Armenian national football team Yan Porterfield got acquainted
today with the infrastructures of the Armenian leading clubs.

He also visited the sport base of "Pyunik", got acquainted with the
training opportunities of the football players and followed the pace
of the training. Afterwards the new coach discussed with the staff
the issue of the preparedness of the football players.

Armenian Football Federation press service informed Armenpress that Yan
Porterfield also got acquainted with the infrastructures of "Banants"
and "Mika" clubs as well.

The coach underscored the conduction of trainings in different stadiums
and on different grass-covers because it will help the football
players to display their technical abilities in all kinds of stadiums.

Yan Porterfield also visited Vazgen Sargsian stadium and got acquainted
with its infrastructure as well.