Author: Chmshkian Vicken

ARMENIA MAY RECOGNIZE INDEPENDENT KARABAKH IF TENSIONS GROW

Interfax
Nov 23 2009
Russia

Armenia may recognize independent Karabakh or sign an agreement on
mutual assistance if tensions around the unrecognized republic grow,
Armenian presidential press secretary Samvel Farmanian said.

"There are universal methods. If such developments occur, Armenia may
recognize independent Karabakh with all the consequences. Besides,
it is possible to sign an agreement on mutual assistance," he said.

"There are some options, and I am sure that Armenia will use some of
them or all. The sole reason why Armenia has not recognized independent
Karabakh is that it does not want to hamper the peace process. Once
the peace process stops and military actions begin, nothing will
prevent Armenia from recognizing independent Karabakh," he said.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Director
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

THE HONORARY AMBASSADOR OF ARMENIA TO SYRIA VISITS HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

On Sunday 22 November in the evening H.E. Souren Varatanian, the recently
appointed honorary Ambassador of Armenia to Syria visited His Holiness Aram
I.

During their conversation Catholicos Aram I stressed on the urgency of
strengthening relations between Armenia-Diaspora.

##
View the photo here:
tos/Photos418.htm
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

ARMENIA WILL RECOGNIZE NAGORNY KARABAKH IF MILITARY ACTIONS RESUMED

ArmInfo
2009-11-23 16:23:00

ArmInfo. "The statements by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were
another evidence of Azerbaijan’s destructive stance," says Samvel
Farmanyan, President Serzh Sargsyan’s Spokesman, in an interview
with Armenpress.

He said such statements are for Azerbaijani public. Nevertheless such
statements do not create favorable atmosphere for the negotiation
process. Farmanyan believes that aggravating tension around settlement
of the Karabakh conflict is not desirable of course. "This will be
an undesirable fact for Nagorny Karabakh, Armenia and the region,"
he says. S. Farmanyan says that Armenia cannot stay indifferent to
the fate of the Karabakh people. Therefore, the president of Armenia
and other Armenian officials have repeatedly declared that Armenia
is responsible for security of the NKR.

The presidential spokesman highlights that there are quite practicable
measures in the world in case of such developments: supposing, Armenia
may recognize independence of the NKR with all the consequences
stemming from that. Second, the Republic of Armenia may sign an
agreement of mutual aid with the NKR.

"There are many ways and I am sure that Armenia will get advantage of
these ways at once or gradually," Samvel Farmanyan said. He believes
that Armenia has not yet recognized the NKR just not to prevent
peaceful settlement of the conflict. "If the peaceful talks are broken,
and military actions are resumed, nothing will hold Armenia from
recognizing independence of the NKR," the presidential spokesman says.

Azeri president threatens Armenia

Story from BBC NEWS:
europe/8372747.stm

Published: 2009/11/22 05:47:26 GMT

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has warned he is ready to use force to
wrest control of a disputed enclave from Armenia if last-ditch peace
talks fail.

He said talks starting on Sunday in Munich were the final hope of
settling the Nagorno Karabakh issue peacefully.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since it was the
scene of a brutal war between the two countries in the 1990s.

Both nations lay claim to the enclave, currently under Armenian control.

In comments broadcast on Azeri TV on Saturday, President Aliyev said
that if the Munich talks failed to reach agreement he would be "left
with no other option".

"We have the full right to liberate our land by military means," he said.

Western diplomats attending the talks, the latest in a round of
internationally mediated meetings on the dispute, have said they hope
the situation will not reach that point.

Some 30,000 people died in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, which
erupted after the mountainous region declared independence in 1991.

The region and seven surrounding Azeri district have been under
Armenian control since the Russian-brokered ceasefire in 1994.

Azerbaijan has never ruled out military action to take back the land
and has spent billions on dollars on building up its military.

The BBC’s Tom Esslemont, in the South Caucuses region, says Mr Aliyev
is using stronger language than ever before because the talks come at
a critical time.

The meeting will be the first since Armenia and Turkey – an ally of
Azerbaijan – normalised diplomatic relations after a century of
hostility.

That move has left Azerbaijan feeling isolated, says our correspondent.

Russia Today
Nov 22 2009

Azerbaijan-Armenia territory talks: force may be used if no results

22 November, 2009, 16:43

Azerbaijan’s President has warned neighboring Armenia that his country
is ready to resort to military force to resolve their territorial
dispute if talks over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh fail.

The two countries’ leaders, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, are meeting on Sunday in Munich.

"If no results are achieved at this meeting, the hopes we pin on the
talks will be exhausted, and no other way will remain for us. We must
be prepared for this," Aliyev said while visiting Azerbaijanâ??s
Geranboi district on Friday, Interfax news agency reports.

He noted that the recent talks did not produce any results because the
Armenian side demonstrated an unconstructive position, and said the
current meeting in Munich is likely to be conclusive.

The region has a largely Armenian population and has been a source of
conflict between the former Soviet republics since the late 1980s.

A war between Armenia and Azerbaijan for the area began in 1991, when
Nagorno-Karabakh unilaterally declared independence. Around 30,000
people were killed.

Most of Nagorno-Karabakh has remained under joint Armenian and
Nagorno-Karabakh military control, since the ceasefire in 1994.

Up to now the Nagorno-Karabakh republic has not been recognized by the
international community.

Today, Azerbaijan
Nov 21 2009

There is a need to set up European integration institution:
Azerbaijani parliamentary official

21 November 2009 [09:57] – Today.Az

Azerbaijani parliament’s chief of staff Safa Mirzayev has made
statement on state of fulfillment of Azerbaijan’s commitments to the
Council of Europe.

He said it was not difficult for Azerbaijan to cope with Council of
Europe monitoring and even some countries that joined the Council of
Europe before Azerbaijan are still under the monitoring.

`Monitoring will be conducted until Azerbaijan completely fulfills
commitments to the Council of Europe. There are two main laws among
the commitments that remains to be fulfilled` draft law on alternative
service and convention on languages of ethnic minorities,’ he said.

`Regarding the first draft law, it can not be adopted while the state
of war continues. There were some financial problems with the second
issue. After ratification of this convention, the government should
assign huge funds to open schools, TV channels and publish books for
ethnic minorities. The situation was normal until the last year and we
thought that the problems would be solved soon. But financial crisis
delayed the issue. There are still some commitments in the field of
court system. It will be solved gradually. This is not a contest that
to think who will finish first. Everything should be carried out in
time.’

Speaking about the Council of Europe Secretary General’s statement
about the arrest of bloggers, Mirzayev said such questions are
periodically raised by international organizations.

`Once you get familiar with details of the case, you make sure that
the question is only of criminal nature. The criminals should be
punished anywhere. We are aware of that statement and now are working
on that. We will inform the Council of Europe co-rapporteurs about the
essence of the incident’.

Speaking about the proposals to establish parliamentary committees on
Karabakh and European integration, Mirzayev said one of them could be
established as a commission.

`We need to establish an institution on European integration. It is
not necessary to establish it in the form of committee. According to
regulations, MP can be member of one committee only. We need to
withdraw MPs from other committees to form it which may affect work of
other committees. I think we don’t need a committee on Karabakh. We
are not working on legislation about Karabakh yet while the main duty
of the committee is lawmaking. Karabakh problem is discussed in all
committees,’ he said.

/APA/

URL:

news.am, Armenia
Nov 21 2009

Arman Melikyan: Aliyev’s bellicose statements attempt to pressure Armenia

15:07 / 11/21/2009`Ilham Aliyev’s bellicose statements on the
threshold of his meeting with Serzh Sargsyan are a mere attempt to
exert pressure on Armenia. This means that Azerbaijan is concerned
over something. It may be the Armenia-Turkey normalization process,’
Armn Melikyan, the ex-foreign minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR) told NEWS.am.

On the other hand, he believes that the meeting is a necessity, and
the Armenian side must plainly state its hard line. `I have repeatedly
stated that the negotiation process took an illogical course, which
has never contributed to the settlement of the conflict. The parties’
positions remain incompatible. Any appreciable results are difficult
to achieve unless the logic of the process changes,’ Melikyan said.

He also pointed out that the Madrid principles are complicating the
process, as they contain `unfeasible provisions and lack the potential
for settling the conflict.’ `A realistic view of the issue should be
taken: the problem to be discussed must cover the period from the
February 1988 ethnic cleansing, rather than from the military
operations, up to now,’ Melikyan said.

`Since Soviet times Azerbaijan has not changed its policy. Both then
and now that country tries to resolve its problems with Armenia by
force,’ he said.

Aysor, Armenia
Nov 21 2009

The international community must respond to the statements of Aliev

The statemnt of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev is a threat to
the regional stability, `Interfax’ was told by Armen Minasyan the
chairman of Yerevan `Democracy and Peace Center’ and political
scientist.

`If we approach the statement of Aliev seriously then we can think
that first of all there should be the reaction of the international
community. Actually besides Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh the president
of Azerbaijan threatens also the whole world promising to destabilize
the situation in the region. The countries and the organizations
pursuing interests in our region shouldn’t ignore this statement’, –
Minasyan said.

Last Friday Ilham Aliev stated, if the meeting of the Azerbaijani and
Armenian presidents in Munich on November 22 was fruitless the war in
the region would be resumed.

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN EXPLAINS HIS CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT REGARDING ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS AND KARABAKH PROCESS

ArmInfo
2009-11-20 14:17:00

ArmInfo. Andrey Nesterenko, the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, has
commented on his contradictory statement made earlier on November 17.

To recall, Nesterenko declared the following then: "As far as we know,
the issues of Nagorno Karabakh were also raised during the negotiation
process between Yerevan and Ankara." This statement aroused, to put
it softly, controversial response by Armenian Mass Media considering
the quite contrary statements repeatedly made by the Russian party
before, including by OSCE MG Russian Co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov. Foreign
Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian also commented on the statement
by A. Nesterenko.

The new statement placed on the official website of the Russian Foreign
Ministry says: "Moscow has responded to the mess in the Armenian Mass
Media around the statement voiced by the official representative of
the Russian Foreign Ministry on November 17 2009.

The Armenian media report that Moscow has allegedly changed its
stance and began linking the Karabakh process and the Armenian-
Turkish rapprochement. This is misunderstanding. Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly voiced Russia’s viewpoint. It has been
left unchanged. These are two different processes.

We take a positive view of the bilateral documents signed by Armenia
and Turkey, which define the further actions by the parties on
comprehensive normalization of state relations. We are convinced
that establishment of good-neighbored ties between Armenia and Turkey
will promote further steps bolstering peace and security in the South
Caucasus region.

As regards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the parties have managed
to achieve certain progress in coordination of the basic principles
of settlement despite the existing discrepancies. We see our role in
contributing to this process and helping the parties find mutually
acceptable decisions on the key problems, but never enforcing any
recipes on the parties to the conflict. We proceed from the fact that
the final choice much be made by Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Russia
will be ready to support any settlement scheme meeting the interests
of the parties involved and will become the guarantor of settlement
in case the parties come to a concession. Actually, a viable decision
will allow bringing stability and peace to the South Caucasus and help
maintaining the historical geopolitical balance of forces there in
the post- conflict period and will not turn the region into a stage
of international political and military rivalry."

CBA CHAIRMAN CONSIDERS 2010 DRAFT STATE BUDGET REALISTIC

NOYAN TAPAN
NOVEMBER 20, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. "I consider the 2010 draft state
budget of Armenia as realistic. I think this is the best document that
the government could submit under conditions of the gloal financial and
economic crisis," Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Arthur
Javadian said at the November 19 sitting of the National Assembly,
when presenting the CBA’s conclusion about the 2010 draft state budget.

The official conclusion of CBA notes that the draft presents in
detail the vision of improving the investment environment and the
tax and customs administration and assisting the development of
infrastructures, and it also indicates the necessity to continue
the anticrisis measures. It was mentioned that in case of efficient
coordination of the monetary and fiscal policies, it will become
possible to ensure macroeconomic stability and keep inflation within
the target interval of 4+-1.5%.

A. Javadian said that in the opinion of international experts, the
share of the shadow sector in the Armenian economy makes up 30-40%,
whereas in the CBA’s opinion, its share is 25-30%. In his words, the
draft budget "fully reflects the fight against the shadow sector". It
was stated that the government plans to collect 13 billion drams
through administrative measures, but there are also other measures
to be used by tax bodies and other state departments to fight the
shadow sector. "I believe that the actions the government is currently
taking in this direction are satisfactory," the CBA chairman said,
adding that "it is not an easy job".