Author: Felekian Ara

YURI MERZLYAKOV: SOONER OR LATER KARABAKHI POPULATION WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE NEGOTIATION PROCESS

armradio.am
30.06.2008 15:40

"Participation of the Nagorno-Karabakh population in the negotiation
process may be realized after coordinating separate items in the
negotiations," the Russian Co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri
Merzlyakov told TrendNews.

"Sooner or later the Nagorno-Karabakh population will attend the
negotiation process, but it will take place after the Presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan agree upon the base principles of agreement
within Madrid talks," Merzlyakov said.

DNA RESEARCH; STUDIES FROM YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF BIOPHYSICS HAVE PROVIDED NEW DATA ON DNA RESEARCH

Proteomics Weekly
June 30, 2008

Researchers detail in ‘Influence of ionic strength on Hoechst 33258
binding with DNA,’ new data in dna research. "The binding of Hoechst
33258 with DNA at various ionic strengths of solution and different
ligand concentrations has been investigated. Existence of more than
one type of interactions of Hoechst 33258 with DNA has been revealed,
which were very sensitive to the ionic strength," researchers in
Yerevan, Armenia report (see also DNA Research).

"Hoechst 33258 doesn’t show specificity to AT sequences of DNA at
low ionic strength. High affinity binding mode becomes obvious at
high ionic strength," wrote P.O. Vardevanyan and colleagues, Yerevan
State University, Department of Biophysics.

The researchers concluded: "The values of binding constants and
binding site sizes for revealed strong and weak interactions have
been determined."

Vardevanyan and colleagues published their study in the Journal of
Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics (Influence of ionic strength on
Hoechst 33258 binding with DNA. Journal of Biomolecular Structure
and Dynamics, 2008;25(6):641-6).

For additional information, contact P.O. Vardevanyan, Yerevan State
University, Dept. of Biophysics, Yerevan, 375025, Armenia.

Publisher contact information for the Journal of Biomolecular Structure
and Dynamics is: Adenine Press, 2066 Central Avenue, Schenectady,
NY 12304, USA.

IRAN STRIVES TO BECOME THE REGIONAL POWER-HOLDER COMPETING AGAINST TURKEY.

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.06.2008 GMT+04:00

Iran’s intention, or to be more exact, her wish to participate in
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict regulation must be viewed from the point
of view of its striving to become the regional power-holder.

Lately Iran has started to attract the attention of the world community
more and more often. And the thing is not only in the permanent
threats of the USA and Israel, but also of the fact that Tehran is
trying to become the power-holder of the region. Iran’s real rival
in this issue is Turkey, who does not have the support of the Arab
countries. However, it is quite possible that the Islamic course of
the Justice and Development Party (AKR) may help Turkey to overcome
the difficulties with the Arab world.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ But Iran does not have these difficulties and she
is more independent, than the very Turkey, who always turns back to
the USA and in some cases to Israel. Israel’s announcement about her
readiness to open fire on the nuclear powers of Iran in Tehran has
definitely been taken as a bad joke. According to the representative
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran Muhammad Ali Hussein,
Israel is not strong enough to threaten Tehran, but she wanted to
overcome certain home political crises and distract the attention
of the society. "Tel-Aviv needs such events to rehabilitate the low
spirits of the Israeli authorities after they lost to "Hezbollah" in
Lebanon in 2006," he said. In his turn President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
announced that the President of the USA George Bush will not attack
Iran in the neat future. "The time of George Bush in the head of the
United States is coming to its end, and the President of the USA will
not do any harm to Iran, even regardless of the US troops’ invasion
of the bordering Afghanistan and Iraq," emphasized Ahmadinejad.

Iran’s intention, or to be more exact, her wish to participate in
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict regulation must be viewed from the point
of view of its striving to become the regional power-holder. "Iran
was a mediator in the regulation of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but
unfortunately under the outer pressure our country was debarred from
mediation," announced the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Islamic Republic of Iran in the month of June in Baku. According to
him, if there is a suggestion from both parties, his country is ready
to take the responsibility of the mediator in the regulation process of
the conflict. "Although, I do not consider the work of the OSCE Minsk
Group satisfactory, Iran supports the negotiations in these frames,"
said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran.

The official Baku reacted very quickly. "Baku is not against mediation
of Iran in the regulation of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Taking into
consideration the recourses that Iran possesses, the official Tehran
may assist the regulation process, if the right messages are sent to
Armenia," said the press-secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Azerbaijan Khazar Ibrahim. Let us leave it to Ibrahim to decide what
is meant by this "right messages", which Tehran is going to send to
Armenia. However, there is one truth to be reminded, and we must say
that a diplomat of his rank cannot be ignorant of such a truth. The
Islamic Republic of Iran cannot be a mediator in the regulation of
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "Iran simply cannot join the negotiation
process. Iran is not included in the OSCE Minsk Group. Moreover,
she is in very complicated relations with the USA, an OSCE Minsk
Group co-chair. The announcement of the Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Iran in this case must be taken with one correction, in
which country he said this, and why," says the political scientist
Alexander Iskandaryan.

Azerbaijan’s vain attempts of bringing the work of the OSCE Minsk Group
to zero will hardly bring to the desired results. And Iran definitely
will not play all these games at least for one simple reason; it
has enough problems of its own to solve. Baku perhaps thinks that
the regulation of the conflict failed to reach to the UNO, so we
must try on the regional level. Moreover, when there are all Islamic
countries all around us, most of which are members of the Organization
of Islamic Conference (OIC). However, Azerbaijan forgets that there
is also the League of Arab States, where Armenia has the status of an
observer. After all, if Azerbaijan turns to OIC, what will keep away
Armenia from turning to the League of Arab States and show the Arab
states its real position in Karabakh conflict regulation? It’s as
simple as that, the closer the presidential elections of Azerbaijan
are, the more aggressive the comments of the official Baku regarding
the conflict and Armenia itself becomes.

ACCORDING TO RA PRIME MINISTER, IT IS BRIBERY THAT MAINLY HINDERS ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN ARMENIA

NOYAN TAPAN

JU NE 26

It is bribery that mainly hinders establishment of democracy in
Armenia. RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian expressed such an opinion
on June 26 at the RA government’s sitting.

According to him, there is no confidence to business environment, as we
"have thousands of briber-takers, and there is no guarantee that after
they are dismissed the new ones will not do the same." According to
the Prime Minister, structural reforms are needed for that problem’s
solution.

T. Sargsian said that the main dicontent of people regards the bad
quality of rendered services. In particular, in tax and customs
spheres, where citizens most of all deal with various officials. The
Prime Minister said that a higher council of introduction of a new
culture of incomes’ administration has been created. It will exercise
control and will inform society about sanctions.

The Prime Minister touched upon provision of passports and visas saying
that there is a serious problem, bribery in that sphere. Besides, there
is a similar problem connected with land allocations in cemeteries. In
particular, T. Sargsian said that for land allocation in connection
with grand master Karen Asrian’s death a bribe of 2 thousand USD has
been taken from his relatives lately.

HOT LINE OPERATES AT MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE FOR SOLUTION OF PROBLEMS RELATED TO PURCHASE OF APRICOT CROPS, SALE AND EXPORT OF APRICOTS

NOYAN TAPAN

JU NE 25

With the aim of solving the problems that arise during the export of
agricultural products from Armenia, by instruction of the Armenian
prime minister, an operative group was set up that functions at the RA
ministry of agriculture. The head of the ministry’s plant growing,
forestry and plant protection department Gagik Manucharian told
NT correspondent that the group consists of representatives of the
ministry of agriculture, the ministry of territorial administration,
the ministry of economy, the ministry of transport and communication,
the State Tax Service, the State Customs Committee, the regional
adminsitrations of Armavir and Ararat marzes, and the RA Chamber of
Commerce and Industry.

Besides, a hot line (54-05-25) operates at the ministry. According
to G.

Manucharian, at all hours citizens may call and tell the person on duty
about their problems related to the purchase of apricot crops, as well
as sale and export of apricots. 4-5 phone calls are received a day,
which means that people can purchase or sell crops without problems.

G. Manucharian said that in case of necessity, the hot line will
operate until September – the purchase of grape crops.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT INVITES DMITRY MEDVEDEV TO VISIT YEREVAN.

ITAR-TASS
June 24 2008
Russia

Armenian President Serge Sargsyan has invited Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev to visit Yerevan.

On Tuesday, the Armenian president reiterated his invitation to
President Medvedev, asking him to visit Yerevan at any convenient time,
he said during talks with his Russian counterpart.

RUSSIAN, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS HOLD TALKS

Itar-Tass
June 24 2008
Russia

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has positively appraised Tuesday’s
talks with Armenian President Serzh Sargsian.

"We have discussed prospects of bilateral business and humanitarian
relations, and exchanged opinions on key issues of the regional and
international life," Medvedev told a news conference.

The two countries’ cooperation is actively developing.

Bilateral trade is approaching one billion dollars.

Medvedev said Russia is a main investor in the Armenian economy. Its
investment has been 1.2 billion dollars.

AZERBAIJANI PARTY’S PROVOCATIONS ENDANGER KARABAKH TALKS

DeFacto Agency
June 23 2008
Armenia

The RA FM Edvard Nalbandian strongly condemned incidents that had
occurred in Armenian-Azerbaijani border on June 18. As a result of
firing commenced by the Azerbaijani party two peaceful residents of
the village of Chinari, RA Tavoush region, were killed. The RA FM
expressed his most sincere condolences to the families of the victims.

"Attacks against the civilian population, killings of innocent
people and the recent steps of Azerbaijani side, in general, are
directed towards the deterioration of the situation. I believe that
all these attempts must be strongly condemned", Edvard Nalbandian
stated commenting the incident upon a request of Armenpress Agency. He
reminded of incident in the Martakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh in
the first days of March; refusal, since April, to return four Armenian
citizens; killing of an Armenian serviceman in Tavoush region and
now the killing of two civilian residents of Chinari village.

The RA FM underscored that such steps of Azerbaijani party endangered
the peace process. "One wonders whether the real goal of the
Azerbaijani side is to create additional obstacles to the continuation
of the peace talks. The demands of a number of Azerbaijani NGOs to
stop the negotiations can only be seen as an evidence of this. It is
obvious from where those NGOs are directed. These steps raise serious
concern and have to be denounced", Edvard Nalbandian noted.

Touching on the Armenian party’s stand in the Karabakh settlement, the
Armenian FM stated, "just and peaceful resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict remains a priority of Armenia’s foreign policy". "The
recognition and exercise of the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh
for self-determination is in the core of the conflict. Armenia
believes that the resolution of Nagorno-Karabagh conflict should be
based on the following principles: Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be under
the authority of Azerbaijan; Nagorno-Karabakh must have a permanent
land link to Armenia, which should be under the jurisdiction of
Armenian side; Security of the Nagorno-Karabakh population must be
guaranteed. Acceptance of these principles and their assertion in an
agreement will allow surmounting the consequences of the conflict. The
agreement in this regard should, naturally, be approved by the Karabakh
side", the RA FM stated.

Edvard Nalbandian noted Armenia remained committed to the resolution
of the conflict only through peaceful means and believed that the
creation of a confidence environment was essential for the continuation
of negotiations in a constructive manner. " The sides should refrain
from steps, which might generate additional tension and create
obstacles on the way of the peace process", the RA FM said noting
that the militaristic propaganda and threats of a possible military
solution voiced at the highest level in Azerbaijan contradicted the UN
Charter and the OSCE Founding Document, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act,
as well as the main principles of international law.

"Being engaged in the negotiations process within the OSCE Minsk Group,
Azerbaijan, at the same time, is making attempts to transfer the
resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to other international fora,
continues to distort the essence of the conflict, and carries on the
anti-Armenian propaganda at various international organizations. This
has seriously impeded the resolution of the conflict and continues to
impede", Edvard Nalbandian said, again reaffirming that Armenia was
determined to continue negotiations in the framework of OSCE Minsk
Group in order to achieve a final resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

OSCE SLAMS TURKEY FOR ZARAKOLU CONVICTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.06.2008 14:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on
Freedom of the Media, today condemned the five-month prison sentence
handed down to Turkish publisher Ragip Zarakolu for "insulting the
institutions of the Turkish Republic" despite the fact that Article
301 of Turkey’s Penal Code was recently reformed.

"It is disappointing that despite recent changes in the law, serious
obstacles to free speech in Turkey remain. People are still jailed
for publishing peaceful ideas," said Haraszti. "Freedom of debate in
Turkey will increase only if the government stops trying to control
the debate in the first place.

Article 301 must be abolished altogether."

Following a reform of Article 301 in April, the maximum prison
sentence was reduced from three years to two, and the crime of
"insulting Turkishness" was changed to "insulting the Turkish nation".

On 17 June, an Istanbul court found Zarakolu guilty of "insulting
the institutions of the Turkish Republic" for publishing a Turkish
translation of "The Truth Will Set Us Free" by British author George
Jerjian.

The book covers the killings of Armenians in 1915.

"Publishing a book critical about a country’s history should not be
criminalized in a democracy. The Helsinki principles, to which OSCE
participating States including Turkey have committed, provide for
the free flow of information and ideas," said Haraszti, the OSCE
Communication unit reports.

In May 2008, Zarakolu was the recipient of the International Publishers
Association’s Freedom to Publish Prize.

IMPLEMENTATION OF PACE RESOLUTION 1609 DISCUSSED AT THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE

armradio.am
18.06.2008 12:42

President Serzh Sargsyan conducted a working meeting on the process
of implementation of the recommendations contained in the PACE
resolution n.

1609 "Activities of the democratic institutions in Armenia,"
President’s Press Office reported.

The President of Armenia said that similar meeting was conducted a
month ago during which the main steps related to the recommendations
contained in the PACE resolutions were decided. Noting that a
considerable amount of work has been done ever since, Serzh Sargsyan
said that the main objective of the today’s meeting was to summarize
the works as well as to decide on future steps. "My approach remains
the same – regardless of the developments which took place in Armenia
after the elections – we had to and have to now to carry on with our
pre-election programs. We believe in these programs and we will fully
realize them," the President of Armenia said and added "we don’t need
short-term solutions, we don’t need formal approaches. The foundations
we lay today are very important and it is also important that the
adopted decisions are aimed into future."

The President proposed to take up paragraphs of the resolution one
by one and afterwards talk about the future steps.

Speaker of National Assembly, Tigran Torosyan spoke about the
activities conducted at the NA towards the expansion of the rights
of the opposition.

He said that a draft of the corresponding law was prepared and sent
to the experts of the Venice Commission for opinion. The draft will
be discussed at the fall session of the National Assembly. According
to Tigran Torosyan, twenty seven points of the resolution pertaining
to the opposition have been mostly addressed, except the two which
contradict the provisions of the Constitution.

Noting that changes in the law on the "National Assembly procedures"
were based on the European well-known and accepted principles, the
President of Armenia said at the same time that the parliamentary
opposition has been offered also one leading post even though the
number of opposition members at the NA is rather small. This should be
viewed as a gesture of good will on behalf of the political coalition.

Chairman of the NA commission on state and legal issues, David
Haroutunian presented activities of the commission aimed at the
improvement of the Electoral Code. In his opinion, works of the group
are successfully moving forward.

Chairperson of NA commission on science, education, culture, youth
and sport issues, Hranush Hakobyan spoke about works directed at the
improvement of TV area. She said that the commission initiated hearings
at the National Assembly which resulted in four draft laws. According
to her, this is one of those exceptional cases when the package was
signed by all parliamentary fractions, including the representative
of the Heritage opposition party and was sent to the Venice Commission
for expert opinion.

It was also noted that recently the TV companies have made some
structural changes in their programming: different opinions are being
aired, and different approaches are displayed, sometimes even rather
extreme ones.

In the President’s opinion, the public TV should be able to satisfy
the needs of all social groups, different parts of society. Thus it
will become a truly open media outlet, which is the only way to oppose
"yellow press". "We should be able to form credible mass media, we
must ensure that a TV company which exists thanks to tax payers’ money
satisfies the needs of those tax payers," Serzh Sargsyan stressed.

With regard to other recommendations contained in the resolution it was
noted that the law on meetings, demonstrations, gatherings, marches
and rallies has already been amended, and by the Presidential decree
the Public Council has been created. The Procurator General informed
that out of 115 individuals in custody, 46 have been released. They
were given conditional sentences, and criminal charges against some
of them were dropped.

Encouraging this kind of approach, the President of Armenia said, "if
guilt or committed crime is a petty one, the individuals, undoubtedly,
should be treated not harshly. However, all those who committed vicious
crimes must be punished and realize the severity of their crimes."

It was also noted that in compliance with the demand to investigate
the events of March 1-2, the ad hoc parliamentary commission has
been created.

It will conduct an independent inquiry into the events and their
causes. In Serzh Sargsyan’s conviction, the commission should involve
in its works international and national experts, representatives of
the public and do its best to come out with credible conclusions and
acceptable recommendations.

"I am sure that the parliamentary commission has all the opportunities
to be just such a body," the President of Armenia stressed.

The participants to the meeting noted that during the two months after
the adoption of the resolution a great amount of work has been done,
concrete measures have been taken, serious legal and institutional
changes have been made to meet the requirements of the resolution
and works in that direction will be continued with determination.