Author: Chmshkian Vicken

RUSSIA, GEORGIA "IN SECRET TALKS" ON BORDER REOPENING – REPORT

Russia Today
06/russia-georgia-border-reopening.html?fullstory
Nov 6 2009

Russia and Georgia are in secret negotiations to reopen the only
checkpoint on their land border, according to Kommersant newspaper.

The Upper Lars checkpoint was closed by Russia back in 2006. While
officially it was explained by a need for reconstruction, the move
came soon after a spy scandal between Moscow and Tbilisi.

Several Russian officers were arrested in Georgia in late September of
that year and accused of espionage. The Russian military and diplomats
said that the charges were ungrounded, but in just a few days Russia
stopped issuing visas to Georgians and started evacuating its citizens
from Georgian territory. Also, the Russian consumer watchdog banned
the imports of some Georgian goods, including wine and mineral water.

The closure of Upper Lars – the only legal crossing of the land border
– was viewed by many as another episode in the confrontation.

In late 2008, Moscow reported that the construction work at the
checkpoint was over, but it was not re-opened due to Tbilisi’s
reluctance. In addition, the two countries have completely severed
diplomatic relations after the war in South Ossetia. Now the issue
is close to a resolution, the Kommersant daily reports.

The newspaper writes that Russia and Georgia have been negotiating
the opening of Upper Lars with Armenia as an intermediary. Yerevan is
another party interested in the border re-opening as it needs a land
route for exporting goods to Russia. Before the checkpoint was closed,
almost one third of Armenia’s exports traveled this way.

Apparently Armenia managed to rally Washington’s support on the
issue, convincing the US Administration to put pressure on Tbilisi,
Kommersant writes. The United States sponsored the construction of the
$2.5 million Kazbegi checkpoint on the Georgian side of the border,
and convinced the Georgian government to hold negotiations in Yerevan,
the newspaper writes.

Reports of the talks surfaced when former Georgian Prime Minister Zurab
Nogaideli mentioned that the government was "in secret negotiations
with Russia." The remark was a response to criticism over his resent
visit to Moscow, where he met a senior official in the Russian
Foreign Ministry.

The exact date for reopening of Russian-Georgian border has not been
set yet, but diplomatic sources in both countries confirm good progress
in the talks.

"Almost all questions concerning reopening of the checkpoint have
been settled. Now a decision to do it must follow. We are waiting
for a signal from Tbilisi," a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry
told Kommersant.

Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze confirmed on Thursday
that Georgia in principle is prepared for a reopening of the border,
"taking into consideration the interests of friendly Armenia."

The only obstacle may be Georgia’s demand to lift the ban on its
goods. A source in the Georgian Foreign Ministry said this was a
condition for the checkpoint to be opened. Russian sources however
haven’t confirmed this information.

YEREVAN TO HOST "ARMENIAN GUITAR 2009" MUSICAL FESTIVAL BEGINNING NOV. 9

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.11.2009 15:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On November 9, Armenia will host "Armenian Guitar
2009" musical festival which will become the first large-scale guitar
festival ever held in Yerevan.

Festival will take place in Gabriel Sundukyan Academic Theatre
with participation of virtuous guitar players from Canada, Russia
and Armenia.

It will feature music of various genres including rock, jazz-rock,
blues, fusion and meta. Musicians will also play progressive music.

GRIGORIY KARASIN: "RUSSIA WILLING TO SUPPORT ANY SOLUTION TO THE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT ACCEPTABLE FOR BOTH SIDES"

APA
Nov 4 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. "Our role in the process of settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict is to assist the conflicted parts to find ways of
solution on the basic principles acceptable for both sides.

But it doesn’t aim to dictate any option to the sides", Russian
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin said in his interview to
"Armenian Republic" newspaper, APA reports. Karasin said main
responsibility falls on Azerbaijani and Armenian sides in the
settlement of the conflict. "Russia has been an active mediator in the
settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict since the beginning of
the conflict. Moscow is carrying out this duty together with France
and the United States as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. At the
same time, our mediation efforts are realized through the relations
with our partners from Yerevan and Baku. It is notable that during
the meeting with Armenian president in Moscow on October 12, Russian
president Dmitriy Medvedev called the participation of Russia in
the settlement of the Nagoro Karabakh conflict as a denomination of
relations between our countries".

Grigoriy Karasin said Russia willing to support any solution acceptable
for both sides. "Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents met for seven
times in 2009 and four tripartite meetings were held between the
Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian presidents. Despite the existent
differences, the sides reached significant progress toward agreement
on the basic principles. Moscow is ready to take all possible steps
to move this process forward".

PR ASSOCIATION OF ARMENIA AND USAID LAUNCH ‘LET’S GET CORRUPTION OUT OF OUR LIFE’ PROGRAM IN ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2009-11-03 17:43:00

ArmInfo. PR Association of Armenia and USAID Mobilizing Action Against
Corruption (MAAC) program have launched a project "Let’s Get Corruption
Out of Our Life", Vice President of PR Association Arman Saghatelyan
told journalists, Tuesday. According to him, it is envisaged to draw
the public attention to the problems of mutual relations between
the state machinery and representatives of small and medium business
which is more vulnerable to corruption than big companies. "No matter
what they say about regional or international integration of Armenia,
a question arises: is our country ready to it at the level of people’s
thinking? Most of our specialists give a negative answer. For instance,
applying to court today is perceived as "burning of bridges", and not
a common method of protecting one’s own rights. When our understanding
of both this and many other issues is changed, it will be much easier
to protect the interests of both citizens and key social institutes,
including small and medium business",- Saghatelyan said.

In this context, the experience of those Diaspora Armenians who
come to Armenia to take up entrepreneurship may be quite valuable,
Saghatelyan said. Being carriers of other culture, these people have
no idea of the ways of settling problems that have been accepted in
Armenia where much depends on the search of an influential relative,
he said. "We want to tell about people that are ready to live and
work in their own country, but want their rights to be protected the
state machinery which is financed by their taxes",- Saghatelyan said.

Executive Director of PR Association of Armenia Tatevik Panosyan said
that under the program, which will last 6 months, media representatives
will visit lawsuits with participation of economic entities, as well
as take part in hearings together with economic experts from Armenia
and international organizations working in the country.

IN KARABAKH EVERYTHING STARTED IN ’88
Gegam Bagdasaryan

Osservatorio Balcani
/articleview/12042/1/407/
Nov 2 2009

Difficulties and small advantages in creating democratic institutions
in a country not recognised on an international level. Twenty years of
changes in Stepanakert 1988 represents a turning point in the recent
history of Nagorno-Karabakh: history is divided between "before" and
"after" that year. The citizens of Karabakh remember the "before"
with reluctance.

The Armenians living in the region, who represented the clear majority
of the population of the Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh in
the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, felt oppressed by the
Azeri minority.

According to the stories circulating at the time, it was forbidden
to sleep with your face facing Armenia and those who had studied in
Armenia had no chance of pursuing a career. Despite the fact that
the administrators of the Autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh were
"Armenian". Yet, they were "Armenian" between inverted commas, since
they were emissaries of Baku, educated or re-educated in that city,
meticulously forged at the school of the local party. And obviously
with a surname ending in "-ov", instead of the traditionally Armenian
"-yan". It is said that at that time the famous marshal Bagramyan
arrived to Stepanakert from Moscow. The local elite welcomed him and
started introducing themselves: Kevorov, Aslanov, Samvelov… "What’s
going on? Are we still not in Karabakh?" asked the distinguished
Armenian commander, with indignation.

In those years I was studying in Stepanakert at the Institute of
Pedagogy, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the creation of Soviet
Azerbaijan; I studied Armenian language and literature, but it was
forbidden to teach Armenian history. It would be like training Italian
Literature teachers without allowing them to study Italian history.

But this is the way things were before Gorbachev’s perestroika. And
then all of a sudden the words perestrojka, uskorenie, glasnost’
started to appear… the citizens of Karabakh had waited a long time
for this, and they were the first ones to believe in it, open-heartedly
showing their aspirations and tribulations. Miatsum was the motto
in response to this, which means reunification with the motherland
Armenia. But the Kremlin reacted harshly, making it clear that it was
not only made up of progressive leaders following the motto "Lenin,
party, Grobachev", but also of conservative ones following the one
"Stalin, Beria, Ligachev", instead.

Perestrojka, uskorenie, glasnost’ were very popular slogans when the
movement for the liberation of Karabakh started to emerge, but soon
the feeling that they were nothing more than words began to spread. It
was an attempt at giving a face-lift to the empire. But the rotten
system couldn’t sustain it and rejected it.

The USSR collapsed, and in the chaos that followed Azerbaijan decided
to crush the aspirations of the Armenian population of Karabakh with
violence. After a difficult war the Karabakhi Armenians proclaimed
their independence and started to build their own state.

The first impression for the Armenian population of Karabakh was simply
amazing: we had our own army, police, symbols – Armenian ones -, our
own officials instead of emissaries, our own flag, national anthem
and official crest. The enthusiasm didn’t fade even when civil rights
started to be ignored by our newly appointed officials, when it was
"our own" police that was beating us up, when during trials it was
"our own" courts that didn’t do us justice, when the first villas
belonging to "our own" businessmen started to appear.

An acquaintance of mine used to joke about this by saying: "The
people obtained the symbols of independence: the flag, the crest,
the national anthem, while the bureaucrats obtained all the benefits".

Nonetheless, by slowly leaving the war behind, Karabakhi Armenians
started to worry not only about basic commodities, but also about their
own freedom, and hence started to fight to obtain it. Having fought for
years against an external enemy, they had to overcome a "psychological"
barrier and start "fighting" against their own authorities. It wasn’t
easy, but the struggle began. With alternate fortune. In 2004 the
opposition won the local elections, and its leader became the mayor
of Stepanakert. But that was followed by two significant failures in
2005 and 2007. Now the situation is at a stand by, while we wait for
the next elections.

Nowadays, Karabakhi Armenians are trying to build their democracy in a
very difficult situation: they are not recognised on an international
level, and the threat of a military action from Azerbaijan hangs
over them.

The situation is certainly not easy, but, for as strange as it may
sound, there are also some advantages to it. On the one hand there
is a clear lack of new upper level professionals due to isolation and
scarce resources, and at a first glance the pre-requisites to create
political parties, independent media and NGOs are still not in place.

But on the other hand the society in Karabakh is more compact and
flexible than elsewhere, due to the scarcely populated nature of the
region and, in a way, to the war. It can also count on its previous
experience of collective survival, it is less fractured and more
traditional, thus having better self-management skills. It has not been
spoiled by funding and subsidies, a fact that has positive aspects.

A further benefit of not being recognised on an international level
is the fact that the process of democratic transformation is not
being forcedly accelerated, since such an artificial acceleration
could paradoxically produce the opposite effect of impoverishing the
democratic principles. Karabakh is not a member of the European Council
or any other international institution, hence it is not expected to
force events and it is not subject to binding obligations.

Therefore, it seems like everything follows a more natural development
in this country.

Obviously, the population realises that solving the matter of the
official recognition of Karabakh would mean having more development
opportunities. Nonetheless, as a friend of mine often says, there are
worse tragedies in the world than not being officially recognised:
AIDS, earthquakes, the ozone hole and so on. Karabakh Armenians
value the opportunity to preserve their national identity as the
most important result. It is certainly not easy, but at least we can
breath freely.

ARMECONOMBANK ENCOURAGES FAIR BORROWERS WITH $500 CREDIT LINE

ArmInfo
2009-11-02 12:03:00

ArmInfo. Armeconombank is launching a project on encouragement of fair
borrowers with MasterCard credit cards, opening a credit line of $500,
Head of Plastic Cards Department of Armeconombank Vardan Yeghiazaryan
told ArmInfo.

He said the bank schedules to provide new credit cards to the borrowers
having a multi- year positive credit history in Armeconombank. "I am
sure that our clients will be pleased to receive a new unsecured loan",
he emphasized and added that the annual interest rate on credits within
the frames of the action will be lower than the average market one.

According to Armeconombank’s data, the number of the bank’s plastic
cards as of October 1 made up 72056 pieces, 6818 of which are
MasterCard and 72056 – ArCa. The balance on the bank’s card accounts
as of this date made up 2.824 bln drams, and the size of credits on
cards – 1.571 bln drams. In general, Armeconombank had 51 ATM as of
October 1, 2009, 35 of which – in Yerevan and 16 – in the country’s
regions. The bank’s POS-terminals as of October 1 made up 210, 34 of
which – cashed (17 – in Yerevan, 17 – in the regions).

ITALIAN COMPANIES TAKE INTEREST IN PROJECTS IMPLEMENTED IN ARMENIAN RAILWAY SYSTEM

NOYAN TAPAN
NOVEMBER 2, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. During the November 2 meeting
with the Italian Ambassador to Armenia Bruno Scapini, RA Minister of
Transport and Communication Gurgen Sargsyan presented the projects
being implemented in the sector. He said that the preliminary
feasibility study on construction of the Iran-Armenia railway has
already been completed: it was done by ILF company (Austria) with money
of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. Negotiations for a final feasibility
study are now being conducted witn the Asian Development Bank.

B. Scapini in his turn said Italferr company takes interest in the
projects being implemented in the raiway system of Armenia. In his
words, a number of other Italian companies are also interested in
various projects of the Armenian transport sector.

According to Susanna Tonoyan, spokeswoman for the RA minister of
transport and communication, an Italian road construction company
is already operating in Armenia. A joint venture of two consulting
companies – IRD (Italy) and Safege (Belgium) ensure quality control
of the road construction work within the World Bank’s Lifeline Roads
Improvement Project.

AZERBAIJAN AND TURKISH LEADERS HELD PHONE CONVERSATION SECOND TIME FOR LAST 10 DAYS

Azerbaijan Business Center
Oct 30 2009

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called
yesterday to his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.

The Azerbaijani Presidential Administration’s press service informs
that President Aliyev wished the Turkish leader many happy returns
of the day and congratulated him on the occasion of Turkey’s national
holiday – the Day of Republic.

The Turkish President voiced his gratitude for congratulations and
displayed attention and gave his wishes to the Azerbaijani people. In
the course of the conversation the parties exchanged views on a range
of issues of mutual interest.

On 21 October, the Turkish leader himself phoned President Aliyev. The
two leaders covered then bipartite relationships, ways of settlement
of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno Garabagh conflict, and Turkish-Armenian
links.

Mr. Gul reiterated that without solution of the matter of Garabagh
conflict Turkish-Armenian ties could not be normalized. President
Aliyev, in his turn, thanked him.

After signing of the protocols between the Ministries of Foreign
Affairs of Turkey and Armenia and the insulting of Azerbaijani state
flag before Turkish-Armenian soccer match (unfurling of Azerbaijani
flags at the stadium was banned and the Turkish police simply threw out
Azeri flags into garbage cans) the Azerbaijani-Turkish relationships
incandesced. Azerbaijan is also displeased with Turkey’s position on
the occasion of Azeri gas transit through Turkish territory and made
statements about possible refusal from gas transit through Turkey.

MOLDOVAN REGION’S FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS KARABAKH

Pridnestrovye (in Russian)
Oct 29 2009
Dniester

A delegation of the foreign ministry of Moldova’s breakaway
Dniester region, headed by foreign minister Vladimir Yastrebchak,
has paid a three-day official visit to Stepanakert, the capital
of Azerbaijan’s breakaway region Nagornyy Karabakh, the Dniester
newspaper Pridnestrovye reported on 29 October.

The delegation met representatives of the Nagornyy Karabakh parliament
and discussed cooperation between the Dniester region and Nagornyy
Karabakh, the newspaper said.

The Dniester delegation, jointly with Nagornyy Karabakh foreign
minister Georgiy Petrosyan, also visited a memorial complex dedicated
to those who died during World War II and the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict, the newspaper added.

PACE REPORT: HARASSMENT OF JOURNALISTS AND DIRECT CONTROLS ON THE MEDIA INTENSIFIED AROUND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2009-10-29 16:45:00

ArmInfo. Harassment of journalists and direct controls on the media
intensified around the time of the February 2009 presidential election,
PACE report says.

Four states, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Russia, were classified
as "Not Free", as was Belarus, the only European state not yet
accepted as a member of the Council of Europe because of fundamental
failings in its record for democratic governance and the protection
of human rights.

Several journalists including photographer Gagik Shamshyan were injured
in assaults by police during protests after the election. CPJ reported
that a reporter, Lusine Barseghan, was assaulted while attempting
to document abuses at a Yerevan polling station. During a three-week
long State of Emergency all independent reporting was banned. In March
2007 similar government controls on the media were imposed during a
temporary State of Emergency under the previous administration. Several
other journalists suffered assaults in 2008, including Hrach Melkumyan,
Yerevan bureau chief of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Edik
Baghdasaryan, editor of the online news magazine Hetq and chair of
Armenian Association of Investigative Journalists. 54. On 30 April 2009
Argishti Kivirian, editor of the online news website Armenia Today,
was attacked by three unknown assailants outside his home in Yerevan,
leaving him with severe injuries. He was reportedly beaten on his
head and body with clubs or wooden poles and one of the attackers
also fired gunshots which caused no injuries. Colleagues said they
believed the attack was related to his work.