Author: Emil Lazarian

ARMENIA WISHES TO MAINTAIN EQUAL RELATIONS WITH ALL STATES
PanARMENIAN.Net
01.11.2006 17:13 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia wishes to build relations with all states on
the equal terms, RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan told reporters
on Wednesday. In his words, with establishing the principal policy of
European integration Armenia wishes to maintain equal relations with
the other states. “The commodity turnover and the level of investments
from the EU members states exceeds that from the other countries.
I think this is a natural process and do not want to change anything
either artificially or administratively,” the Prime Minister said. In
this context he remarked that Russia rates three among Armenia’s
trade partners, reports newsarmenia.ru.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WILL THE MONEY BE ENOUGH FOR SUBSIDIZING?
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 1 2006
ARG is likely to bid for increasing the tariff of natural gas. The
chief executive officer of the company Karen Karapetyan stated October
31 that he is not satisfied with the present tariff. But Karapetyan
reassured that the tariff for industries will increase.
Karen Karapetyan declined to say how much they are likely to increase
the tariff saying that they will tell when they offer the bid to the
Public Services Regulatory Commission.
The news reporters asked why, in that case, the Armenian government
assured that the tariff of gas would not grow for at least three
years. Karen Karapetyan said these statements were on the price of
gas on the border, in other words, the 110 dollars. It means that the
industries of Armenia will have to pay more. It is possible that the
government will lend a hand, which relieved the consequences of the
increase in the price of gas by using the money from the sale of the
fifth generating unit to subsidize gas. But it is foreseen for three
years, whereas when ARG increases the price of gas in the country,
it is natural that the estimations for subsidy are disrupted, and the
money may not be enough. Therefore, first the government had better
inform the enterprises whether it has more property to sell or they
have to think for themselves.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA IS UNIQUE BY ACCIDENT
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 1 2006
No small country had ever been reported to build a gas pipeline for its
market, stated Karen Karapetyan, CEO of ARG (Armrusgasard) October 31,
who told news reporters what will the fate of the Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline be. “The Republic of Armenia, its market, its volumes are,
unfortunately, so small that there is not a precedent when a small
country builds its own gas pipeline. The Republic of Armenia is unique
in this sense because it has assumed the whole burden, return of the
investments, and so on and so forth,” stated Karen Karapetyan.
But his following words make it clear that the Republic of Armenia is
unique by accident. Karen Karapetyan says a transit gas pipeline would
be possible to consider in case there was a buyer. Karen Karapetyan
does not deny, of course, that Armenia can become a country of transit
of gas, but he does not know when it will happen.
“When the gas seller and the gas buyer arrange that the first sells
and the second buys, and in deciding the transit route via Armenia is
beneficial. It is not clear when this will happen. A transit pipeline
is three times more expensive. When the market, the buyer and the
seller, does not work, one has to compensate fot this money. In this
case, only our consumer compensates. If we built a transit pipeline,
and the tariffs were set to compensate, each of you would ask why do
you build the pipeline on my expense, if there is not a market for
it?” says the chief executive officer of ARG.
In this case, of course, Armenia remains unique because when the
possibility of transit occurs, we will have to build a new pipeline
because the one under construction, which will be operated in December
cannot supply the volume required for transit. Meanwhile, this shows
that the government does not have wish rather than market for transit,
or more exactly, courage. The point is that the Georgian prime minister
had proposed to Armenia to turn the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline into a
transit pipeline, but the Armenian government did not respond. And
now the Georgians are considering the possibility of transporting
gas via the territory of Azerbaijan.
On the other hand, it may be good that it is not a transit pipeline,
because Armenia is even unable to deal with the existing small one
independently. No Armenian official has stated so far what they are
negotiating with the Russians in connection with the Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline. Karen Karapetyan is not an exception. It only became clear
from his words that Gazprom is likely to buy it but Karapetyan does
not know whether the government will agree to sell it or not. The
chief executive officer of ARG only knows that the right thing to do
is to have ARG take up the management of the pipeline. “There are two
ways of giving the pipeline to ARG: combining the share capital, and
management. It depends on the decision of the Armenian government,”
says Karen Karapetyan.
He says even if a separate company is set up to manage the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, the engagement of ARG is inevitable in
supplying the demand in Armenia. The point is that the 40 km section
under construction can transport an annual 400 million cu m of gas,
whereas Armenia is likely to get about 2 billion cu m gas from Iran
annually. Therefore it is necessary that ARG expands its network and
boosts the capacity of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline. “Independent
from who the investor is, it needs to reach agreement with ARG to
make investments in our gas transportation system,” states Karen
Karapetyan. According to Karapetyan, it is preferable that the owner
of the company attends to this expansion rather than the new investor
because it will cost the consumer cheaper. The CEO of ARG states that
there is already agreement with Gazprom, the owner of ARG.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH EDUCATION MINISTER HUSSAIN CHELIK: WE ARE GRATEFUL TO AZERBAIJAN’S REACTION TO FRENCH BILL
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 1 2006
The students studying at higher educational institutions in Turkey
have opportunity to collect important information on all genocide
facts against the Turkish and Azerbaijanis, APA reports.
Turkish Education Minister Hussain Chelik said that in order
to propagandize the genocide against the Turkish people widely,
special books were distributed among the universities. There are
books about the Khojali tragedy among them. The Minister is pleased
with the Azerbaijan’s position on the French Parliament’s bill making
Armenian genocide denial punishable. Chelik noted that Azerbaijan
supported Turkey on this problem and Turkish government is grateful
to Azerbaijan for this.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EUROPE: BLACKMAILING TURKEY
Karamatullah K. Ghori
Turkish Daily News
Nov 1 2006
PART I
Two events taking place simultaneously and seemingly carefully
calibrated don’t, necessarily, point to a conspiracy. However,
columnists are like sleuths who can always smell the rat in places
where regular people wouldn’t bother to look or stick their nose.
One can’t help getting a fishy feeling when these two events happened
in two European capitals boasting the heaviest concentration
of Armenian emigres; and especially when the target of these
extra-ordinary events happened to be none other than Turkey, loathed
and despised by the Armenian diaspora the world over as their bete
noir.
The first cut was made by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm charged
with awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature. In what smelled
shamefacedly like a political award rather than one conferred on
pure merit, the academy awarded this year’s prize to Orhan Pamuk,
the most controversial of Turkish writers and novelists. Pamuk was
adopted by the European conservatives and leftists alike as their new
“Salman Rushdie” the day he scorned his country and its history,
for its amnesia on the alleged “massacre,” nay “genocide,” of the
Turkish Armenian minority during World War I.
The second, much worse, and much more cruel, thrust came the same day
from the French parliament in Paris, when it adopted, with much elan
and bravado, a resolution calling it a crime to deny the Armenian
“genocide” at the hands of the Turks. Wonder of wonders, France,
the celebrated land of Liberte having such a massive hiccup over its
Fraternite with the Armenians as to be ready to discard one of the
cardinal pillars of the French Revolution.
This is the same French parliament that banned the innocuous Muslim
hijab from French government schools because that little piece
of cloth bruised the French national sensitivity on its treasured
trophy of Liberte. But sacrificing that icon for the Armenians is
apparently worth the price to the deputies in charge of the French
national conscience.
The mass-circulating Turkish national daily Hurriyet pithily
encapsulated the essence of French national somersaults when it intoned
in banner headlines on its front page that the national slogan of
France should henceforth be Liberte, Egalite, Stupidete.
But was it really a sudden groundswell of concern and camaraderie for
the Armenians, who have been around in Europe for almost a hundred
years, that moved the French parliament to legislate something not
only against the basic grain of French civil society but that may
sound to Turkish ears as a virtual declaration of war?
The Armenians have been flaunting their presence in Europe and
also abusing it with impunity, largely because of its governments
playing the Good Samaritan to them out of Christian fraternity against
Muslim Turks. Armenian thugs and hired assassins have stretched this
hospitality beyond the limits by targeting and assassinating Turkish
diplomats in Europe and around the world. No other diplomatic corps
in modern times has been made to pay a price like the Turkish Foreign
Service, which has lost dozens of its bright and intelligent people
to the bullets of Armenian goons and assassins.
And yet the molly-coddling of the Armenians never translated itself
into such a brazen act of re-writing history as the move last week
by the French parliament to denunciate Turkey for its perceived
“genocide” of the Armenians mandatory. Why?
It all fits into an emerging pattern of zeroing in on Turkey and
barricading it from all around now that it has entered the sensitive
zone of negotiations on the terms of its candidacy for the European
Union. Turkey is vulnerable and on the defensive. So the gloves are
coming off, one by one, and more than the gloves, it’s the knives
that are being sharpened to gore it, of which the French initiative
is the initial salvo, or only the tip of the iceberg.
The bottom line for Christian Europe is that it doesn’t want Muslim
Turkey to become part of Europe, which is at the heart of an ongoing
campaign to keep Turkey out of this exclusively Christian club,
notwithstanding Turkey’s nearly half-century-old craving to be accepted
as part of Europe. Ankara was the first to stand in the queue as an
applicant (or supplicant?) for European membership, as soon as the
Treaty of Rome was signed in 1960 to launch the European Community,
the harbinger of today’s European Union.
Europe’s allergy to Turkey isn’t of recent origin; it goes back
centuries, especially those centuries of Ottoman domination of the
European landscape, when half the continent owed allegiance to the
Porte in Istanbul. Europe has never forgiven Turkey for those Ottoman
centuries, no matter how modern Turkey may pretend to distance
itself from its Ottoman past. Seared into the European psyche are
those centuries when the Ottoman Turks laid siege to Vienna, not
once but twice, and lost their bid on both occasions, not because
of the bravery or tenacity of its European defenders but because of
the tactical blunders of the Turkish commanders and leaders, and the
treachery of fifth-columnists in their ranks.
*Karamatullah K. Ghori was Pakistan’s ambassador to Turkey until
2000. He can be contacted at [email protected].
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WITHOUT NAMING RUSSIA, ROMANIAN LEADER ASSAILS ITS POLICY IN COUNTRIES SUCH AS GEORGIA AND MOLDOVA
Kyiv Post, Ukraine
Oct 31 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) – Romanian President Traian Basescu took aim Tuesday
at Russia, indirectly accusing the country of benefiting from the
continuing “frozen conflicts” in countries such as Georgia and Moldova.
“The single winner of the extended period of having frozen conflicts
is the country which doesn’t like to have democratic development,”
Basescu said.
“It is the country which still continues to believe that different
countries can be controlled for next decade or for the next century,”
he said.
Basescu’s comments were delivered via an international video hookup
in Bucharest to a gathering of experts at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies in Washington.
He was a participant in a conference on economic and security
development in southeastern Europe.
Basescu, whose country was part of the old Soviet bloc, warned that
the status quo in countries where there are frozen conflicts could
become permanent if they are allowed to fester.
“It is our obligation to find a solution as soon as possible,” he said,
adding that no solution should be accepted that does not respect the
territorial integrity of each country.
It was not clear whether Basescu was holding Russia responsible for
all frozen conflicts of the Black Sea region. Russia has troops in
the disputed South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of Georgia and in
the Trans-Dniester area of Moldova.
Other frozen conflict regions that he mentioned during his presentation
were Nagorno-Karabakh and Kosovo.
Basescu also urged the United States to do what it can to prevent
a recurrence of authoritarian rule in Eastern Europe. He said this
should be one of the highest priorities for the region.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARAM G.SARGSIAN POINTS TO NECESSITY TO MAKE SYSTEM CHANGES IN ARMENIA
Noyan Tapan
Nov 01 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. “System changes should be made
in Armenia, as current Armenia is not able to become a regional
factor.” Declaring this at the November 1 press conference, Aram
G.Sargsian, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Armenia, at the
same time mentioned that in order to make these changes we should
ged rid of the current authorities, as the country does not need
cosmetic changes. In connection with the forthcoming parliamentary
elections of 2007 A.Sargsian said that a third force should be formed
in consideration of the circumstance that there are already two main
political forces, the Republican Party of Armenia and the Bargavach
Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia). In the opinion of DPA leader, the
opposition can pretend to formation of the third force. Touching upon
passing the prevailing majority of enterprises of Armenian energy
sphere to Russia, A.Sargsian declared that the authorities had no
right to alienate these enterprises. “They should even if have
turned them into joint ventures.” Not excluding the possibility
of returning the entities passed to Russia, he at the same time
said that this will be impossible in case of further growth of the
national debt. “The entities, at the expense of which the country could
develop have been given to others today, no matter to whom exactly,”
A.Sargsian declared. He said that the personal interests of the current
authorities are the basis of these bargains. Characterizing the conduct
of the Armenian President during his last visit to Moscow as conduct
“of not partner, but person accountable to Russia,” A.Sargsian at
the same time did not agree to the opinion that RF is not interested
in Armenia’s development. “Russia does not need weak partners,”
DPA leader declared. He pointed to the necessity to preserve good
relations with Russia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MILAN STATE COUNCIL CALLS FOR MAKING RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE PRECONDITION OF TURKEY’S MEMBERSHIP TO EU
Noyan Tapan
Nov 01 2006
MILAN, NOVEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. On October 26, Italian Regional
Council of Milan approved the proposal on recognition of the
Armenian Genocide. This was informed by RA FM official web-site,
which reminds that the Council of the city of Milan had recognized
the Armenian Genocide as early as in 1997. The document calls on
the Italian government, Prime Minister, all political forces, public
and especially youth to make recognition of the Armenian Genocide by
Turkey as a precondition for the latter’s joining EU.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MOSCOW PRESSES FOR CFE TREATY RATIFICATION IN RUN-UP TO NATO AND OSCE SUMMITS
by Vladimir Socor
Eurasia Daily Monitor — The Jamestown Foundation
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 — Volume 3, Issue 201
On his October 25-26 official visit to Moscow, NATO Secretary-General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer successfully resisted demands by Russian
officials for prompt ratification of the adapted Treaty on Conventional
Forces in Europe (CFE) by NATO countries. Russia hopes to induce
some governments in the alliance to proceed with ratification of the
1999-adapted treaty despite Moscow’s ongoing breaches of certain treaty
provisions and of the 1999 Istanbul Commitments, which together with
the CFE Treaty form a package approved at that year’s OSCE summit.
By calling for ratification during de Hoop Scheffer’s visit,
Moscow is signaling that it plans to raise this issue at the OSCE’s
upcoming year-end ministerial conference in Brussels on December
3-4, hoping to break the linkage between ratification of the CFE
Treaty and fulfillment of Russia’s Istanbul Commitments regarding
the South Caucasus and Moldova. The Kremlin apparently even hopes
to talk the alliance into loosening that linkage in the communique
of NATO’s upcoming summit in Riga at the end of November. Russia is
eager for ratification of the adapted treaty in order to extend its
applicability to the territories of the three Baltic states, which
are not covered by the existing treaty’s ceilings on force deployments.
Moscow’s main argument — as presented during de Hoop Scheffer’s visit
— claims that Russia has fulfilled all of its 1999 obligations by
signing the agreements with Georgia to close the Batumi and Akhalkalaki
bases and withdraw the Russian troops stationed there by the end
of 2008. During de Hoop Scheffer’s visit, President Vladimir Putin
signed into law on October 26 the Russian parliament’s ratification
of the March 31 agreement with Georgia on closure and withdrawal from
those two Russian bases (Itar-Tass, October 26).
However, de Hoop Scheffer raised the issue of Russia’s noncompliance
with its 1999 commitment to withdraw its forces from Moldova. Russian
media purported to quote him as urging Moscow to withdraw just the
arsenals from Moldova in order to clear the way for ratification of
the CFE Treaty (Interfax, October 26, 27). Such Russian media reports
would seem to be misquoting de Hoop Scheffer. In fact, NATO’s official
collective position calls for withdrawal of Russian troops, as well
as the arsenals, from Moldova. This position, with emphasis on troop
withdrawal, is enshrined in NATO’s communique at its latest summit
in Istanbul in 2004 and subsequent communiques, as well as documents
endorsed by NATO countries collectively at the OSCE.
During the NATO leader’s visit, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
hinted that Moscow might initiate procedures for abandoning the
existing CFE Treaty, which was signed in 1990 and is currently in
force. Notably dropping the standard reference to the treaty as a
“cornerstone of security in Europe,” Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr
Grushko described that treaty as “out of touch with reality” and
warranting either revision or an exit from it (Russian MFA press
release, October 25).
For their part, a group of Duma leaders meeting with de Hoop Scheffer
warned that they might delay the ratification of the Status-of-Forces
Agreement — the legal basis for a host of NATO-Russia common
activities, intended to be held on Russian territory — if NATO
countries delay ratification of the adapted CFE Treaty. Such insolvent
warnings are political in nature, targeting a few governments in
NATO that might for reasons of their own accommodate Russia in
Europe’s East.
Russia takes the position that it has completed the fulfillment of
the 1999 agreements regarding the South Caucasus and Moldova and that
those agreements did not constitute obligations in the first place.
Thus, Moscow describes its agreement with Georgia on troop withdrawal
until 2008 as a purely bilateral matter, the resolution of which
should precipitate the ratification of the CFE Treaty by NATO
countries. Irrespective of such phrasing and despite the delay
during all these years, the agreement with Georgia does constitute
long-awaited progress toward fulfillment of one aspect of the 1999
Istanbul Commitments.
However, Russia remains in breach of the original and adapted treaty
and the Istanbul Commitments on the following counts:
*Retention of the Gudauta base in Georgia, which was to have been
closed down in 2001 under the Istanbul Commitments;
*Troops unlawfully stationed in Moldova despite those same Commitments;
*Treaty-banned weaponry (“unaccounted-for treaty-limited equipment”)
handed over by the Russian military to their local allies in
Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Karabakh (including
Armenian-held territory in Azerbaijan beyond Karabakh); and
*Stationing Russian troops including so-called peacekeepers in
conflict areas without the “host-country consent,” such consent being
fundamental to both the existing and the adapted CFE Treaty.
Thus, there is no case for NATO countries to take any steps toward
ratifying the adapted CFE Treaty at the NATO summit or the OSCE’s
year-end conference, in view of Russia’s ongoing breaches on multiple
counts.
(See EDM, May 17, 22, June 12)
–Vladimir Socor
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia Fund, Inc.
111 North Jackson St. Ste. 205
Glendale, CA 91206
Tel: 818-243-6222
Fax: 818-243-7222
Url:
PRESS RELEASE
Contact ~ Sarkis Kotanjian
[email protected]
Andre Set to Perform Live During Armenia Fund’s Telethon 2006
Los Angeles, CA – Armenia Fund is proud to announce that one of the most
popular Armenian singers, Andre, will be performing at its 9th Annual
International Telethon to be aired worldwide on Thanksgiving Day, November
23, 8:00AM-8:00PM PST.
In May of this year Andre won 8th place in Greece for representing Armenia
at Eurovision song contest competing against contenders from 23 other
nations. Armenia was competing at the Eurovision song content for the first
time in 2006.
As part of the Rebirth of Artsakh project, proceeds from the live 12 hour
program will benefit the regional development of Hadrut, Nagorno Karabakh.
The funds will go towards building new drinking water pipelines as well as
reconstructing healthcare facilities and schools that fell victim to the
devastating war. In an effort to eradicate poverty in this war ravaged
border region, Armenia Fund will also implement a comprehensive agricultural
development project to impact 1,000 farmers in 8 Hadrut villages. A similar
regional development program is currently underway in the northern Martakert
region using the funds raised during last year’s Telethon 2005.
A graduate of Armenian State Music Theater, Andre was born in Stepanakert,
Nagorno Karabakh. His music career started early, when, as a member of a
music band “Children of Artsakh” he performed for the NKR Defense Army
soldiers. After winning the “Road to Renaissance” music competition he
formed his own pop-jazz band “Karabakh” touring regions of Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh. A winner of many international music contests as a solo
artist, Andre has performed in the United States, Russia, China, Europe,
Lebanon, Iran, United Arab Emirates and countries of the former Soviet
Union.
A winner in the Best Singer category of Armenian National Music Awards,
Andre has been topping the charts for several years in a row.
Stay tuned for more Telethon 2006 entertainment news.
Armenia Fund, Inc., is a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation
established in 1994 to facilitate large-scale humanitarian and
infrastructure development assistance to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Since
1991, Armenia Fund has rendered more than $160 million in development aid to
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia Fund, Inc. is the U.S. Western Region
affiliate of “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund. Tax ID# 95-4485698
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress