Author: Emil Lazarian

Vardan Oskanyan: The mediators can suggest new wording of the principles
ArmRadio.am
20.04.2006 15:31
“If Azerbaijan accepts the right of self-determination of the people
of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia is ready to seriously discuss the issues
of elimination of war results,” RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
declared today. According to the Minister, “it is our position in
the negotiations process.”
Commenting upon the latest statements on the mediators’ “new
suggestions,” Vadan Oskanyan said that this characteristic is both
“correct and incorrect.”
A one-page document on the principles of regulation is put on
the negotiations table. Agreement has been reached only on some
principles. I think when the mediators speak about “new suggestions,”
they mean new wording of the principles, which have not been agreed
upon. The principles have not changed,” the Foreign Minister clarified.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Final Planning Conference on Rescuer-2006 Exercise Started in Yerevan
20.04.2006 12:13
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The final conference on Rescuer-2006 exercise
started in Yerevan in April 19. During the conference David J. Wheeler,
the Kansas Army National Guard Commander said military cooperation
between Armenia and the U.S. is very important.
In his words, teamwork experience is significant for regional emergency
situations. At that he gave a high estimate to the organization works
carried out by the Armenian party.
250 participants from 12 countries will take part in the
exercises. Rescuer-2006 exercises are of command and staff nature
and are aimed at organizing and comparing the work of the military
and medical department of the Armenian MOD with the Rescue Service
of Armenia, as well as expansion of cooperation opportunities with
NATO partner states.

Baku Can Resort to Hostilities at Pinch
20.04.2006 12:12
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Today Azerbaijan cannot alone take a decision to
resume hostilities, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated
in an interview with Haykakan Jamanak newspaper.
“Azerbaijan and President Ilham Aliyev’s capabilities in this issue are
rather restricted. They can take such step at a pinch only,” Oskanian
said. In his words, Azerbaijan realizes that it’s pregnant with a great
number of negative consequences and “it will be the last attempt to
resume hostilities, since it will legalize Karabakh’s status.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MEMBERS OF PACE COMMITTEE ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN AND MEN IN PARLIAMENT
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
April 19 2006
On April 17 Tigran Torosyan, Head of NA delegation in PACE, NA Vice
President, received Vera Oskina, Rapporteur of the Committee on Equal
Opportunities for Women and Men and Jannick Devaux, PACE Secretariat
officer, who were on an official visit in Yerevan.
Mrs. Oskina noted that she is preparing a report on the women’s
state in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. She was interested in the
women’s role in the political life of Armenia, involvement in the
local self-governance, the issues of trafficking and family violence
and demography in these spheres.
Mr. Torosyan noted that the trafficking and family violence are
extraordinary phenomena contradicting Armenian traditions and are
of little percentage. Touching upon the women’s involvement in the
political processes, the NA Vice President noted that the women
of Armenia prefer to be more involved in public than in political
activity: about 99% of women are heads of public organizations.
Regarding the allocation of 25% to the women in the electoral lists,
in Mr. Torosyan’s opinion, “the positive” discrimination is also
unacceptable, and we should not promote the women’s political
involvement with unnatural steps.
During the meeting other issues of bilateral interest were discussed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RA PRESIDENT ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO APPROVAL OF EU-ARMENIA INDIVIDUAL PARTNERSHIP ACTIONS PLAN AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 19 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 19, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. RA President
Robert Kocharian attached importance to approval of the EU-Armenia
Individual Partnership Actions Plan within the framework of the EU New
Neighborhood policy as quickly as possible at the April 19 meeting with
the delegation of participants of EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation
Committee’s 8th sitting. The President mentioned that it will enable
to have more systematized relations with EU and to move forward
more purposefully. “We see the future of Armenia that has chosen
the European way of development in efficient management, efficient
political system and economy and this can be achieved only through
deep and large-scale reforms,” the President emphasized. The President
presented the last developments of the negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh
settlement and Armenia’s approaches. As Noyan Tapan was informed from
President’s Press Service, issues regarding the events around Iran,
Armenian-Turkish relations were also touched upon. In connection with
Turkey RA President said that Armenia’s approach is unequivocal: the
country is ready to build practical relations with Turkey without any
preconditions. The interlocutors also attached importance to deepening
democratic processes in Armenia, to organization and holding of the
upcoming elections in correspondence with the European standards.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

QUALITY CONTROL OF GOODS IMPORTED FROM TURKEY TIGHTENED UP IN ARMENIA
Noyan Tapan
Apr 19 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 19, NOYAN TAPAN. The State Customs Committee (SCC)
adjunct to the Armenian government is cooperating with various Armenian
quality certification bodies with the aim of tightening up the control
over quality of goods imported from Turkey, especially foodstuffs. NT
correspondent was also informed from the SCC press service that the
rumors that a ban was imposed on the import of goods from Turkey do
not correspont to reality.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN DM PRAISES LEVEL OF COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA
ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 18, 2006 Tuesday 09:21 PM EST
Armenia and Russia maintain a high level of cooperation in defense
and related technologies and their cooperative interests embrace a
broad spectrum of problems, Armenian Defense Minister Serge Sarkissian
says in an interview the Russian Army daily Krasnaya Zvezda published
Wednesday.
“We must by no means stop at what we’ve achieved to date,” he says.
“On the contrary, we must develop this relationship, all the more so
that we have a legal and historical basis for it as well as willing
to do it.”
Sarkissian mentions Armenia’s cooperation with NATO, saying: “We
don’t develop it at the expense of relations with Russia, since the
latter must expand in all areas but we realize it’s important to be
familiar with the experience gained in other Armed Forces.”
“Today’s Armenian Army includes mechanized infantry and Air Force
units,” Sarkissian says. “We don’t have separate branches and services
of the Army or separate staffs for them. We have a single Joint Staff
that guides the operation of all the units – five separate corps,
an artillery detachment, and antiaircraft defense brigades.”
“The total manpower [of all of those units] is 45,000 men and
officers,” he says. “Naturally, that’s too much for a country with a
population of just 3 million people, but we must keep it up because
of instability in Southern Caucasus and absence of solutions to the
Karabakh problem.”
The latter centers around the mostly Armenian-populated Azerbaijani
enclave of Karabakh that has been seeking independence, or some form
of association with Armenia since late 1980’s.
“Unfortunately, any of the smoldering conflicts in Southern Caucasus
may play the role of a detonator,” Sarkissian said. “The regions is too
small and all the countries there are interdependent on one another,
and that’s why a resumption of combat operations may have very bad
consequences, including for ourselves.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TAJIKS COMMITTED MORE CRIMES IN RUSSIA THAN OTHER CIS CITIZENS IN 2005
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
Tajik citizens committed 7,717 crimes in Russia in 2005, which is
9.7% more than in 2004 and more than the number of crimes committed
by citizens of any other CIS country last year, according to the
Interior Ministry’s Main Information and Analysis Center, a police
source told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
Ukrainians committed the second largest number of crimes in Russia
among CIS citizens in 2005, the source said. “They committed 6,680
crimes, down 1,500 from 2004 when the citizens of that country led
the pack,” he said.
The number of registered crimes committed by Uzbek citizens in 2005 was
6,679; Azeri citizens, 4,893; Moldovans, 3,334; and Armenians, 2,564.
The number of crimes committed by Kyrgyz citizens increased by more
than 50 percent as compared to 2004, namely from 1,699 to 2,539. The
number of crimes committed by Georgian citizens remained nearly the
same as compared to 2004 and amounted to 2,047. As many as 1,789
crimes were committed by citizens of Belarus and 1,537 by citizens
of Kazakhstan.
Citizens of Turkmenistan turned out the most law-abiding ones, as
they only committed 185 crimes in Russia, the source said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PEACEKEEPING OPERATION IN NAGORNO KARABAKH PREMATURE – ARMENIAN MINISTER
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian believes that it is premature
to consider a peacekeeping operation in Nagorno Karabakh and considers
Azerbaijan’s decision to increase the military budget as blackmail.
“Unfortunately there is no agreement between us and Azerbaijan
so far. That is why it is too early to speak about peacekeepers,”
Sarkisian said in an interview with Russia’s Krasnaya Zvezda daily,
published on Wednesday.
A peacekeeping operation requires the consent of all parties to the
conflict, he said. “This matter can only be discuss when the parties
come to an agreement,” he noted.
Speaking about the increase of Azerbaijan’s military budget and Baku’s
promises to bring it up to $1 dillion, the minister said that this
“looks like blackmail.”
“Billions of dollars will not help in this case. If large military
budgets had determined combat capabilities and combat readiness
of troops, all oil-exporting countries would have had the most
combat-ready armies long ago. But this is not the case,” Sarkisian
said.
According to him, “any unresolved conflict in the Caucasus may work
as a detonator.”
“The South Caucasus is a very small region, and all countries depend
on each other here. Thus, resumption of hostilities may have extremely
negative consequences,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RA DEFENSE MINISTER: ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN MILITARY RELATIONS SHOULD CONSTANTLY DEVELOP
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.04.2006 00:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The level of the Armenian-Russian military
cooperation is very high and covers a wide scope of issues, Armenian
Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan stated in an interview with “Krasnaya
Zvezda” Russian newspaper. “We should not stop at the achievement
we have made. On the contrary, we should constantly develop these
relations. We possess the appropriate legal and historical base and
wish. I hosted my Russian counterpart Sergey Ivanov in January and
we discussed the prospects of the Armenian-Russian relations,” he
remarked. “I would like to say that Armenia by no means develops the
relations with NATO at the expense of the Armenian-Russian cooperation
that expands in all directions. But we understand we should be
familiarized with the experience of other states,” the RA Defense
Minister stated. In his words, special place in the Armenian-Russian
relations is given to 102nd Russian military base that was located by
proposal of the Armenian party. “Do you remember early 1990-ies when
military units were seized in the post soviet republics or Russia
itself conveyed the property of the bases to them. At that time by
our suggestion half of the property was conveyed the Armenian party,
on the rest 50% a military base was formed. If Armenia took the
decision it was important for it,” Serge Sargsyan said.