Interfax, Russia
March 26 2007
Armenian government steps down
YEREVAN. March 26 (Interfax) – Armenia’s government has resigned
after Prime Minister Andronik Margarian’s death, in line with the
constitution.
Final formalities related to the Cabinet’s resignation were settled
at an emergency Cabinet meeting chaired by President Robert Kocharian
on Monday, sources in the Republican Party told Interfax.
The Republican Party controls the post of prime minister and six
ministerial portfolios.
Senate panel to vote on resolution condemning Dink killing tomorrow
ArmRadio.am
27.03.2007 17:17
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote on resolution
condemning the killing of the editor-in-chief of the Agos weekly Hrant
Dink.
The resolution also calls on Turkey to repeal the penal code’s
controversial Article 301 and to establish diplomatic, political and
trade relations with Armenia.
`VympelCom’ to Fully Control Armenian `Daughter’
Arminfo
2007-03-23 15:52:00
The "VympelCom" is still interested in buying of the rest package of
shares of "ArmenTel" Company, the PR Manager of "VympelCom" Yelena
Osadchaya said, commenting on the decision of RA Government about
purchase of the remaining 10% of shares of "ArmenTel" to "VympelCom"
at 50 mln Euro.
As the RBC daily reports, the Russian Company will pay for each share
as much as it was received by the Hellenic Telecommunications
Organization (OTE) Greek Company that had sold 90% of shares to
"VympelCom" at 341,9 mln Euro. "We have received an official proposal
and now we are waiting for the deal to be shortly completed. The
"VympelCom" is still interested in buying of the rest package",
Y. Osadchaya said. According to her, every new subscriber will cost
the Company $100. This amount includes both the technical expenses for
the network development and the marketing expenses. Later on, the
Company intends to carry out a re-branding of ArmenTel’s mobile
section. The cell communication market in Armenia is yet far from
satiety. The Lebanese VivaCell with a subscriber base over 650,000
people is working in the country besides "ArmenTel". The indicator of
the Armenian "daughter" of "VympelCom" is more frugal as yet. Its
subscriber base numbers over 450,000 people. The cell communication
penetration indicator in the country makes up about 30%.
The "VympelCom" does not yet inform how it intends to handle the
assets of the fixed communication. The analyst of the "Veles Capital"
IC Ilya Fedotov does not the necessity in selling this section. "The
Company my obtain an experience in the new area and diversify it
business. The operator will develop convergent services on the asset
basis", the analyst said.
Turkish Press
March 23 2007
Rice Defends Turkey Against Armenian Lobby
Published: 3/22/2007
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on
Wednesday that Turkey experiences democratization regarding debates
over Armenian issue in history.
Rice spoke at a committee meeting in the U.S. House of
Representatives under insistent questions by a Democratic Rep. Adam
Schiff who prepared a bill on so-called Armenian genocide.
"What we`ve encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have
joint historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts
to examine their past, and in examining their past to get over it,"
Rice said.
"I do not think it helps that process of reconciliation for the
United States to enter this debate at that level," she added.
Rice supported Turkey`s arguments saying history should be examined
by historians.
Schiff reminded that Hrant Dink (Turkish-Armenian editor of a
bilingual weekly) was killed, Nobel-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk was
tried in Turkey and claimed that Turkey does not have any efforts for
reconciliation.
Rice responded to Schiff saying that Turkish people staged
demonstrations and embraced Armenians after killing of Dink. Rice
also stated that there is an ongoing evolution in Turkey which she
called a good ally.
FDA issues a recall on "Jermuk" brand water products
AP Worldstream
Published: Mar 24, 2007
The Food and Drug Administration re-issued a warning Saturday to
consumers not to drink several brands of Jermuk mineral water the
agency says may expose humans to arsenic, a toxic substance known to
cause cancer.
According to agency officials, there is little chance that someone
would become seriously ill after drinking the water over a short
period of time.
"However, it is likely that the person would experience nausea,
abdominal pain and possibly vomiting, which are indicators of arsenic
toxicity," the agency said in a statement.
Jermuk water is imported from Armenia and distributed under different
brand labels in California. Five brands have been recalled since March
7. No illnesses have been reported.
The latest recall, which was initiated on March 16 by the product’s
distributor, Andreas Andreasyan DBA Arnaz & Nelli Co. of North
Hollywood, is for Jermuk Natural Mineral Water Fortified with Gas from
the Spring.
The following brands of the water were recalled on March 7, according
to the FDA:
_ Jermuk Original Sparkling Natural Mineral Water Fortified With
Natural Gas From The Spring. It is contained in glass bottles.
_ Jermuk, 1951, Natural Mineral Water, contained in plastic bottles.
_ Jermuk Sodium Calcium Bicarbonate and Sulphate Mineral Water.
_ Jermuk Natural Mineral Water Sparkling.
The US Embassy understands the concern of the Armenian side, but¦
Armradio.am
23.03.2007 12:48
The US Embassy in Armenia gave clarifications to Armenpress on the
formulations about Armenian in the Human Rights Report of the US
Department of State. `
RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian spoke to us and Washington,
clearly expressing his disappointment with the Report. We understand
the concerns connected with the terms used in the document, but we
cannot change the 2006 report any more. The position of the US on the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict remains unchanged. The United States
continues to support the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and
considers that the status of Nagorno Karabakh should be determined as
a result of peace talks. The central topic of the report is the
activity in the sphere of human rights defense,’ the statement of the
US Embassy states.
AZERI FOREIGN MINISTER: RUSSIA PLAYS A CONSTRUCTIVE ROLE IN NEGOTIATIONS ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
March 22 2007
During his speech on 21 March at Middle Asia and Caucasus Institute
of Jon Hopkins in Washington, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan,
Elmar Mammadyarov stated that Russia plays a constructive role in
the negotiations regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement.
"Based on talks with the Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, I can
say that the Russian representative plays a very constructive role,"
Mammadyarov said. "Prior to the recent meeting of the Foreign Ministers
of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Geneva, a meeting took place in Moscow. My
talks with the Foreign Minister of Russia, Lavrov, concurred with
Azerbaijan in that we need to move forward. I positively assess the
role of Russia," Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister said.
According to Mammadyarov, within its foreign policy role,
Azerbaijan’s top priority is the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. "Nagorno-Karabakh is a very sensitive issue for the
people of the two countries," he said. "Over the past 15 years of
negotiations, we were close to reaching an agreement several times,
but at the final moment, certain events occurred which prevented this
from taking place. I feel that now is the appropriate time to regulate
the conflict. We should take each step at a time so as to achieve
great confidence between the two nations," Mammadyarov stressed.
According to the Azerbaijani Minister, we believe that the prompt
settlement of the conflict is in the interest of Armenia and its
national security. "It is obvious that a political decision should
be taken step by step in order to strengthen the confidence between
the countries and to establish economic co-operation, resulting in
the withdrawal of troops and involvement of the peacemakers. This is
reality. The sooner the Head of Armenia understands this, the better
it will be for Armenia and the region in general. "We are continuing
negotiations regarding the principles of the settlement. We have
succeeded to a certain extent, but there is still more to do,"
Mammadyarov said.
US AND EU UNLIKELY TO OSTRACIZE YEREVAN, DESPITE ELECTION WARNINGS
Emil Danielyan
EurasiaNet, NY
March 20 2007
The United States and the European Union are stepping up pressure on
the Armenian government to hold free-and-fair parliamentary elections
on May 12. They have warned that if the upcoming vote is deemed
fraudulent, Yerevan could forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars
in additional development assistance, and undermine its efforts to
forge closer links with the West.
However, analysts are skeptical that the warnings will have
much influence on the behavior of President Robert Kocharian’s
administration. The outcome of the parliamentary balloting will go a
long way toward determining the political futures of both Kocharian
and his most powerful associate, Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian,
many Armenian political observers believe. Some say that neither the
United States nor EU is prepared to take the kind of action that would
seriously challenge the president’s nearly decade-long grip on power.
None of the presidential and parliamentary elections held under
the Kocharian administration until now were judged democratic by
Western monitors. The most recent of those polls, held in early 2003,
were marred by reports of widespread ballot box stuffing, voter
intimidation, vote buying, and other irregularities. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive].
US and EU officials say the upcoming elections offer a unique
opportunity for the South Caucasus state to end its post-Soviet history
of electoral fraud. "People [in the West] feel that there can be no
more excuses," said one Western diplomat in Yerevan. "The Armenian
economy is growing, and there is no active war in Nagorno-Karabakh. So
it’s time for Armenia to graduate into a normal political life."
Cory Welt, a senior Russia and Eurasia analyst at the Washington-based
Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed, saying that
a clean election would give a "huge boost" to Armenia’s international
reputation. "As time goes on, there are [fewer] reasons, not more, for
Western states to promote engagement with an Armenian government that
seeks to rule through anti-democratic methods," he told EurasiaNet.
The issue was reportedly high on the agenda of Armenian Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian’s March 5 talks in Washington with US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Top State Department officials,
including Rice, have repeatedly warned that if the forthcoming
elections again fall short of democratic standards, Yerevan will
risk losing $235 million in US economic assistance promised under
the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), a program designed to spur
political and economic reforms in developing nations. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Armenia was deemed eligible for the
scheme, unveiled by President George W. Bush in 2004, despite being
one of the world’s leading per-capita recipients of American aid.
Testifying before a foreign aid subcommittee of the US House of
Representatives on March 15, the head of a US government agency
administering the MCA, John Danilovich, said he "communicated" with
Kocharian earlier this year to reiterate Washington’s "concerns that
elections be held in a correct manner." One of Danilovich’s deputies,
John Hewko, visited Yerevan for the same purpose earlier in March.
"We expect to see significant improvement over past elections,"
Hewko told reporters there.
For its part, the EU is tying the proper election conduct to Armenia’s
participation in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) framework that
entitles the country, along with neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan, to
a privileged relationship with the bloc, better access to its market,
and greater EU aid. Each of the three regional states signed with
the EU last November its own ENP action plan, each of which includes
provisions designed to promote democratization.
The EU’s Brussels-based special representative to the South Caucasus,
Peter Semneby, discussed preparations for the May polls with senior
Armenian officials during an early March visit to Yerevan. "It is
the first major election taking place in the South Caucasus after
we finalized the action plans," Semneby told RFE/RL. "And for that
reason it has an importance that goes beyond the borders of Armenia."
Failure to ensure its freedom and fairness would mean that Armenia
has lost an opportunity to build a "firm relationship" with the EU,
he warned.
Yet neither loss of the MCA funds, nor exclusion from the ENP would
threaten the political survival of Armenia’s two most powerful leaders
accustomed to Western criticism. Kocharian is believed to be planning
to hand over power to Sarkisian and remain in government in some
capacity after completing his second and final term in office in less
than a year from now. [For additional information see the Eurasia
Insight archive]. Continued control of the Armenian parliament is
seen as critical for the success of this putative scenario.
The US and the EU have so far left no indications that, in the event
of another deeply flawed election, they would openly challenge the
legitimacy of the authorities in Yerevan. "I don’t think the West will
take any sharp steps against Kocharian’s regime," Aleksandr Arzumanian,
a former foreign minister opposed to the current Armenian government,
told EurasiaNet. Arzumanian dismissed the Western incentives for
Armenia’s democratization, saying that they alone will not prevent
fresh vote rigging.
According to analyst Welt, Washington’s "only really significant
lever" is MCA aid and a "US stamp of approval" which it would give
to Yerevan. "Whether such US approval really matters to Armenia’s
authorities is another question," he said. "If they believe they
have sufficient support from countries like Russia and Iran, then
termination of MCA aid will mean little."
Another factor that may prompt the Bush administration to tread lightly
is connected with the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh peace process,
some observers believe. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. American, French and Russian diplomats who are trying to
broker a solution hope that Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev will meet shortly after the Armenian elections and finally
cut a peace deal. Diplomats privy to the peace process say Aliyev and
Kocharian have already essentially agreed on the basic principles of
a peaceful settlement proposed by the mediators.
Washington, which has long held a Karabakh settlement to be a top
policy priority for the region, seems unlikely to undercut either
leader under the current circumstances.
Editor’s Note: Emil Danielyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and
political analyst.
FM: US DEPARTMENT OF STATE ADMITTED FALLACY OF ITS FORMULATIONS
Arminfo
2007-03-21 22:40:00 RA
US Department of State has Admitted the fallacy of its formulations,
RA FM Vardan Oskanyan said at today’s press-conference in the Regnum
IA’s Yerevan Office, commenting on the US State Department’s report
on Human Rights in Armenia. To remind, the authors of the report had
mentioned Nagorno Karabakh as territories occupied by Armenia.
According to him, the Armenian side has already addressed the
American one and the Department of State admitted the incorrectness
of the report formulations. "It is an apparent mistake and the
Department of State admits that this was an incorrect formulation",
RA FM said. According to the Minister, it is difficult to correct the
report after its publishing for purely bureaucratic reasons, however,
the American side has promised to introduce some clarities.
It is yet unclear how it will be done. Along with it, the Minister
reminded that the report has no legal effect. In V. Oskanyan’s
opinion, the attitude of the report authors and not that of the State
Department is reflected in the report. "The report does not reflect the
US policy in this issue.", having added that there are no reasons to
operate this subject. "If Azerbaijan decides to operate this subject,
it will demonstrate its weakness and absence of other reasons". RA
FM said. He reminded that the report concerned the human rights in
Armenia and not in Karabakh.
YERVAND ZAKHARYAN TO VISIT MOSCOW AND SAINT PETERSBURG
ArmRadio.am
20.03.2007 17:47
On March 24 the delegation headed by the Mayor of Yerevan Yervand
Zakharyan will leave for Moscow, Information and Public Relations
Department of Yerevan City Hall informs. The same day the two Mayors
will attend the opening ceremony of the "Yerevan" trade centre
in Moscow.
At the invitation of the Governor of Saint Petersburg Valentina
Matvienko, on March 25 the delegation headed by the Mayor of Yerevan
will leave for Saint Petersburg on an official visit. Bilateral
meetings, discussion of a number of issues of cooperation between
Yerevan and Saint Petersburg are expected in the framework of the
visit.
During the visit it is expected to sign a 2007-2007 cooperation plan
between Yerevan and Saint Petersburg, a preliminary agreement on
which was reached during Yervand Zakharyan’s meeting with Valentina
Matvienko in September 2005.