Author: Hambardsumian Paul

JAVAKHETI ROADS TO BE REPAIRED WITHIN MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2006 00:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The first consultation meeting with a number of NGOs
was held at the office of the Millennium Challenge Georgia (MCG). Its
major goal was to inform the public on the course of implementation
of the project of rehabilitation of roads in Samtskhe-Javakheti
region. The project is being implemented with the financial assistance
of the Millennium Challenge Corporation in compliance with Millennium
Challenge Account of the US Government.
During the meeting nature conservation principles and approaches of
the Millennium Challenge Corporation and MCG were considered, as well
as information on consulting company of the project of rehabilitation
of Samtskhe-Javakheti roads – German Kox Consult Gmbh.
According to a contract, signed between the Millennium Challenge –
Georgia and Kox Consult Gmbh February 10, 2006, the company, which has
55 years of experience, should compose the project of rehabilitation of
the major highway, connecting Tbilisi with Samtskhe-Javakheti region,
estimate the project impact on the environment. The construction
works are scheduled to begin in spring 2007. The overall length of the
roads planned to repair makes 245km, which include the major highway,
as well as the road to the Turkish border, reports Novosti-Gruzia.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
16-03-2006
Minister Vartan Oskanian interviewed by Second Armenian TV Channel
Question: Mr. Oskanian, what issues did you discuss with the high-level
representatives of the State Department?
Oskanian: Today, in our meeting with the high-level representatives
of the US State Dept, we focused on three areas: bilateral issues,
energy-related issues and of course the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
resolution process.
Regarding the first, the upcoming Millennium Challenge Compact signing
ceremony is of course uppermost in everyone’s mind. The Minister
of Finance will sign the compact in Washington on March 27. I’ll be
present during the ceremony. We are truly fortunate to have these kinds
of significant resources made available to us. This is a very serious
program that offers us the opportunity to make huge infrastructure
improvements, and it’s related directly to our democratization
process. This program will put Armenia-US relations at a new level.
Energy issues, too, are obviously, very important today. It was
interesting to hear the US thinking on this subject. For Armenia, the
diversification of energy sources is a matter of utmost priority. Our
energy security depends on our being able to maintain the nuclear
resource, and we discussed all of these topics.
Finally, the Nagorno Karabakh issue: Here the fundamental issue is that
negotiations continue. After Rambouillet and the backtracking that we
sensed there, the challenge is to preserve the positive achievements
and build on those. The co-chairs will meet soon and then it will be
clearer what might happen next. Our discussions today revolved around
how we might do that in a way that tries to find solutions for the
deadlocked situation in which we find ourselves today.
Question: What do you make of Aliev’s statements, including those
today, extolling their increasing military capability?
Oskanian: It must be exactly because of their huge military budget
that they have been working overtime at the border and repeatedly
violating the ceasefire. They must have extra bullets to spare.
But let’s look at this from a global context. Today, in the
civilized world, peoples and states don’t compete over the size
of their military budget. That’s not what they take pride in when
they compare themselves with their neighbors. Today, the spheres
of competition are elsewhere. And in all those spheres, Armenia is
ahead of Azerbaijan. So far ahead that there is really no room to
compare. Beginning with the UN’s human development index, Armenia is
ahead of Azerbaijan. The international index that gauges Armenia’s
investment climate puts Armenia way ahead of Azerbaijan. They’re not
even a member of the WTO. There is no comparison in level of democratic
development, human rights protections or press freedoms. In indexes
that measure economic freedoms and development, and transparency and
gains in the battle against corruption, Armenia is disproportionately
better than Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that it’s how many years
now that Azerbaijan produces 400,000 barrels of oil, the per capita
income in Azerbaijan still hasn’t reached Armenia’s. It is better that
Azerbaijan tries to reach Armenia’s levels in these fields, than try
to compete and take pride in being ahead with its military capacity.

TWO ARMENIAN BROTHERS IN CENTER OF POLITICAL SCANDAL IN KENYA
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 15 2006
NAIROBI, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Artur Sargsian
and Artur Margarian, whom the international media and the Kenyan
press present as brothers, found themselves in the center of a
political scandal that broke in Kenya this week. According to Radio
Liberty, Reyla Odinga – one of the leaders of the Kenyan opposition –
accused the Armenian brothers of acting as hirelings of the Kenyan
authorities for attacking the media. Both Sargsian and Margarian
denied the accusations.
They convened a press conference early this week at the airport of the
Kenyan capital of Nairobi and stated: “We are not hirelings, but even
if we were, your government would not have enough money to hire us.”
The brothers also claimed that they are relatives of the Armenian
President Robert Kocharian.
Artur Sargsian said that he is a candidate for the post of the RA
president, and that he runs a gold and precios stone business in Asia
and Africa.
According to the German DPA agency, Artur Sargsian also claimed
that the opposition leader Odinga has borrowed one and a half
million dollars from him, so that the opposition can pass a vote of
nonconfidence to the government of the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki
in the parliament.
The mysterious story of the two Armenian brothers received extensive
coverage in the Kenyan press.

TURKEY SHOULD HURRY WITH ARMENIAN ISSUE
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.03.2006 19:03 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey should maximally speed up the measures
undertaken within the Armenian issue.
Historians should deal with historical issues and Turks should think in
this direction, staunch defender of official Turkey’s position on the
Armenian Genocide Justin McCarty stated during the “New rapprochement
in the Turkish-Armenian relations” symposium held in Istanbul. McCarty
also touched upon the protest of the Armenian lobby against the TV
debates to take place after the show of Andrew Goldberg’s film titled
Armenian Genocide. “The resolution of the issue is unclear yet. But if
Armenians had anything to say they wouldn’t have minded the program,”
the American historian said, reported Marmara Istanbul-based newspaper.

TWO FOLD INCREASE IN GAS PRICE TO MAKE CEMENT EXPORT FROM ARMENIA IMPOSSIBLE
Noyan Tapan
Mar 07 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN. In case of a twofold increase in the
gas price, the cement production cost will increase by 15% in Armenia,
which will make it impossible to export this building material from
the country – under conditions of a high transportation cost. Artur
Ashughian, Head of the Nature Use and Mining Industry Department of
the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, stated this at
the March 7 press conference.
According to him, in case of the current gas price of 54 USD for 1,000,
gas accounts for 30-42% of the cost of cement produced in Armenia,
but it will account for 52-60% as a result of the gas price increase
to 110 USD.
Naira Martirosian, Director General of Mika Cement company, stated
previously that the company operated with a 5% profitability in
late 2005.

TREATIES OF MOSCOW AND KARS
Yerkir
14.03.2006 16:48
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – A conference organized by the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation’s (ARF) Nikol Aghbalian Student (NASU) Union on Tuesday,
adopted a resolution calling for the denunciation of the Moscow and
Kars Treaties of 1921.
In his opening remarks, Ishkhan Zakarian, NASU president, said the
Moscow Treaty signed between the Soviet Union and Turkey goes against
the international law and was signed without the participation of
the Armenian people whose fate it was to decide.
He reminded that the Union staged a rally in 1991 outside the Armenian
Supreme Council with a demand to denounce the 1921 Moscow Treaty but
because of the consequent developments no decision was made.
“We the student unions should study the issue and establish that
the treaty is not fair and state that it is not acceptable to us,
especially now that Azerbaijan is talking about territorial integrity
seeing Nakhijevan as its part,” Zakarian said. “We should remind our
neighbor that Nakhijevan was never a part of Azerbaijan and was put
under its control only due to the Moscow and Kars Treaties.”
Speaking at the conference, historian Ghazakhetsian said that the
minutes of the talks preceding the signing of the treaties indicate
there actually were no negotiations. It was a political bazaar, he
said, everything was already decided by the Politburo led by Lenin
and Stalin.
Lawyer Aslanian, in turn, said that under the international law the
treaties had no legal force from the very first day of its signing
and go against the fundamental norms of the international law.
At the end of the conference the participants adopted a resolution
calling on the Armenian Foreign Ministry to make a statement that
those treaties are unacceptable to Armenia. A copy of the resolution
was also sent to the National Assembly. The conference participants
expressed hope that the issue will be included in the NA agenda and
the treaties will be denounced soon.

EUROVISION MANAGEMENT CORRECTED THE MISTAKE ON THEIR WEBSITE, CULTURE MINISTER
Author: S. Agayeva
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
March 14 2006
Website of the song contest Eurovision has taken off all the materials
on the birth place of Armenian singer Andre, who has mentioned it as
the Nagorno-Karabakh republic, Azerbaijani minister of Culture and
Tourism Abulfaz Garayev told Trend.
According to Garayev, after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
of Azerbaijan has addressed the contest organizers demanding to
correct the mistakes on their website, the latter have considered
demands of Azeri side as legitimate and have taken the decision to
take the article off. Andre will represent Armenia in this contest,
the minister said. And the name of Nagorno-Karabakh was completely
deleted from the website.
Autobiographical material of one of the contest participators-
Armenian singer Andre was recently published at the Eurovision
website. According to that material the singer was born in the
so-called ‘Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’.
Regarding this fact, Azerbaijani side demanded contest organizers
to put an end to injustice and respect the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan, as Nagorno-Karabakh is an inseparable part of Azerbaijan.

MFAs OF RA AND SINGAPORE DISCUSS POSSIBILITY OF DEVELOPMENT OF BILATERAL RELATIONS
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 14 2005
YEREVAN, October 14. /ARKA/. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of
the RA and Singapore Vardan Oskanian and George Yeo discussed the
possibility of development of bilateral relations, beginning from
exchange of consulting between the Ministries and formation of the
contractual -legal field. According to the RA Ministry’s Press Service
Department, the sides discussed the possibility of sharing Singapore’s
experience of development. Positively evaluating the experience of
interaction between the countries in international organizations,
especially in the UN, the Ministers expressed their readiness to
enlarge their cooperation field in the future.
In the course of the meeting Oskanian told about the position of
Armenia in the modern geopolitical environment, regional possibilities
and trends of development. The sides discussed issues referring
to conflicts in various parts of the world. Oskanian introduced to
his colleague the current stage and prospects of the negotiations
on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Oskanian visited the Armenian Church in Singapore and met the local
Armenians. The same day in the evening Oskanian met the State Secretary
of Singapore Zainul Abidin Rasheed.
According to the press release, Oskanian left Singapore for Yerevan
last night.

IRAQ WAR CRITIC WINS NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE
By Ramsay Short
The Daily Star, Lebanon
Oct 14 2005
BEIRUT: In the end the winner surprised everyone. Harold Pinter,
the British playwright and fierce critic of the Iraq War, of Israel
and that nation’s treatment of Palestinians, took the 2005 Nobel Prize
for Literature ahead of the bookmaker’s favorites – Syrian poet Adonis
and Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk.
The Swedish Academy, which has awarded the prize since 1901, said
Pinter, whose plays include “The Birthday Party,” “The Dumb Waiter,”
and his breakthrough “The Caretaker,” was a writer who “uncovers the
precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s
closed rooms” and is the foremost representative of drama in post-war
Britain.
Pinter, who has just turned 75, was born in the London borough
of Hackney, the son of a Jewish dressmaker. During his youth he
experienced anti-Semitism, which had been important in his decision
to become a dramatist.
Very much a liberal, in recent years he has been a virulent detractor
of the British and American-led war on Iraq, and a consistent literary
thorn in the side of Premier Tony Blair.
The Nobel jury added Pinter – who even has his own adjective,
Pinteresque, which is used to describe a particular atmosphere and
environment in drama – had “restored theater to its basic elements:
an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the
mercy of each other and pretense crumbles.”
Adonis (real name Ali Ahmad Said), who fled Lebanon in the 1980s and
now lives in Paris, had been the best guess to win the prize among
Nobel watchers with the online betting Web site Ladbrokes giving him
odds of 7-4.
The fiction writer, Pamuk, whose last novel “Snow” received huge
acclaim worldwide, followed close behind Adonis. Pamuk is facing
prison in Turkey after he was charged with insulting Turkish identity
for supporting Armenian claims that they were the victims of genocide
under the Ottomans in 1915.
Earlier this year Pinter famously called the war in Iraq, “a bandit
act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute
contempt for the concept of international law [and] an arbitrary
military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross
manipulation of the media and therefore of the public.” He also said
it was “an act intended to consolidate American military and economic
control of the Middle East masquerading – as a last resort (all other
justifications having failed to justify themselves) – as liberation.”
The Academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to advance the
Swedish language and its literature, is made up of several writers
as well as linguists, literary scholars, historians and a lawyer,
all of whom serve for life.
Pinter and other Nobel prize winners will receive their awards,
on December 10 at a ceremony in Stockholm. The playwright will take
home $1.3 million.

“IT WON’T BE LONG”
A1+
| 17:54:57 | 12-10-2005 | Politics |
Today the RA Prime Minister avoided any estimation of the elections
of mayor in Nor Hachin as a result of which a person charged with
murder has been elected mayor. “I cannot make any estimation”, said
the Prime Minister.
Nevertheless, Andranik Margaryan is sure of one thing: the candidate
re-elected as a result of the elections will not remain in his
post long.