Author: Hovhannisian John

TURKEY DOESN’T SEEK AFTER EU MEMBERSHIP ANY LONGER?

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.11.2007 13:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Turkey has restrained its diplomatic stride toward
the European Union recently," Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the
Institute of the Oriental Studies, told a news conference in Yerevan.

Turkey longs for domination in the Middle East but not in Europe,
according to him.

"Position of leading European states, including France which doesn’t
want to see it in the EU, is an important factor here. Furthermore,
support for the European way of development wanes in Turkey," he said.

The EU-Turkey entry talks opened in October 2005, although the bid
was submitted in 1965.

The Cypriot issue remains the major stumbling block for Turkish
membership.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has numerously stated that ‘Turkey
has no place in Europe’. Manuel Barroso, the President of the European
Commission, shares this opinion.

TER-PETROSYAN PSYCHOLOGICALLY NOT READY TO RETURN
Harutyun Gevorgyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
Oct 30 2007
Armenia

Interview with MP, deputy-Chair of the Republican Party Razmik
Zohrabyan

"Mr. Zohrabyan how would you evaluate Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
"demonstration-speech". With what play-cards does he intend to start
his political game?"

"October 26 speech was the extended version of September 21 speech,
with certain specific emphasis. All the accusations included in
this public speech can be addressed to them. Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
political, economic, ideological, and moral accusations once used to
be addressed to his administration. Today the leader of the former
administration blames the government in power for the same things,
trying to change the addressee or pointing at a new target.

Going ahead of the term of official nomination, he already announced
about his nomination for presidency. This rush, in my view, has
nothing to do with the main election process. We came to know that
the members of his team were quite unaware of his self-nomination
and it was a surprise for those who were with him on the platform.

This circumstance, in its turn, testifies to the fact that Levon
Ter-Petrosyan usually comes to personal decisions. This means there
is a lack of team in the newly formed opposition camp as well. They
can’t speak about common programs or goals. Even on Friday I noticed
essential contradictions in that pole."

" Do you agree to the assessments, that the former President made
impermissible announcements, from which our enemies can easily
benefit?"

"There were various emphases in the speech regarding the vulnerable
aspects of our state. To reveal the weak points of your country to
the foreign world is not proper to the person who used to head the
country. The attempts to speculate similar phenomenon are also not
justified, because our state has only 16 years’ history. By the way
the reforms of the second generation are aimed at fillings those gaps.

I wouldn’t say that they have disclosed a state secret, but the first
public speech causes concerns, because it included such tendencies. And
we all know that Levon Ter-Petrosyan knows important state secrets.

In internal political campaign, to address similar announcements
and speculations to the foreign audience cannot be justified. In
general the political opposition that desires to see the country’s
progress and development must elaborate its tactics and strategy from
constructive positions."

" The honor of the first President presumes weighty responsibility. Can
you justify his calling the government in power "chieftains", when both
the state and the government system have been formed under his rule?"

" Such characteristic given to the government proves that Levon
Ter-Petrosyan is psychologically not ready to return to the political
domain and take the power. Instead he gives a scream of a weak and
causes offense to the authorities. There were scoundrels in his
administration, but I would abstain from remembering the years when
he was in power.

I accept that a big part of economy is in shadow at present, but
the state and the authorities never hinder the activity of any
entrepreneur. On the contrary they persuade them to transfer their
activity into the legal field. But during his power they used to
threaten by gun all those who were not with them.

If this new movement really desires to come to power through
democratic methods, through elections, then why didn’t they run
for the parliamentary elections with this team? Why did Levon
Ter-Petrosyan make his mind to start his political game on the
threshold of the presidential elections? In what way is he going to
change the government that has gained the majority of the votes, some
months back, when the political developments are still in process,
when no turning point has occurred and people can’t abruptly change
their position? Public opinion is usually formed during years and it
changes only and only in case of the existence of weighty factors.

They ignored the people and they didn’t event try to clarify
the attitude of the voters towards them during the parliamentary
elections. Why should they vote for them now?"

UNPRECEDENTED SEARCH AT VARDASHEN PRISON

Lragir
Oct 31 2007
Armenia

On October 29 Monday an unprecedented search took place at the prison
of Vardashen. The security of the department of penitentiaries of
the Ministry of Justice led by the head of the same department,
Lieutenant Colonel Varujan Yeghiazaryan searched the cells of the
prison. 7 officers took part in the search, including three colonels,
8 incognito representatives of security agencies in plain clothes,
15 masked special operation troops of the Police, the committee for
support of Jirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan informs. Inmates
serving a long sentence at Vardashen say they have never seen such
a demonstrative search.

"The search was serious only in the room where Jirair Sefilyan and
Vardan Malkhasyan are. However, nothing illegal was found there.

Afterwards V. Yeghiazaryan provoked an argument with Vardan Malkhasyan,
stating that he uses inappropriate wording, there are illegal things
in the room, and all the five inmates in the room must receive a
warning. If the warning is set down in the record of the convicts,
they will have no chance for conditional sentence as long as the
warning is lifted," runs the release of the Committee.

The authors of the news release say there is every reason to think
it was a show with mask to warn Vardan Malkhasyan and to warn Jirair
Sefilyan for the second time not to have the "independent commission"
discuss a conditional sentence. Meanwhile, a few days are left until
the deadline of making its agenda for November.

"It is not clear whether this "mask show" is effective because nothing
was found on Sefilyan and Malkhasyan. At the moment, there is no
reliable information whether the warnings were included in their
personal records or not. However, due to the group warning during
the search another inmate in the same room may be denied conditional
sentence. There is information that one of the inmates was warned
who kept an illegal item. Apparently, the purpose is to spoil the
relations of Jirair Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan with the other
inmates," the Committee of Support thinks.

KOCHARIAN SAYS MALICE SHOULD NOT BE USED IN POLITICS

ARMENPRESS
Oct 31, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS: Presidnet Robert Kocharian said today
it was regretful that ex-presidnet Levon Ter-Petrosian is seeking
a political comeback being filled with malice. He said it was that
malice that destroyed his Armenian National Movement (ANM).

Kocharian made his remarks after a journalist asked him to comment
on accusations which the ex-presidnet leveled on the incumbent
administration in a 90-minute speech at the October 26 rally.

Kocharian said the main ‘idea’ in his predecessor’s speech is that
‘everything was good when he ruled Armenia and when he resigned
everything turned bad.’ "I think our people remember well what quality
of life they had during Ter-Petrosian’s years in office and now. At
any rate, there is one and simple option to assess how the presidents
perform after taking up their offices. From this perspective we should
look at what each of them inherited and what each achieved by the
time they resign,’ Kocharian said.

He said this approach is equally applicable to a farmer, a businessman
and the country’s presidnet.

"Levon Ter-Petrosian became presidnet of Armenian in 1990 August,
when it was still part of the Soviet Union and one of the most
industrialized republics and had a developed agriculture. Three-four
years later Armenia transformed into one of the poorest world
nations. Certainly, the disintegration of the former Soviet Union had
resulted in certain losses, but in my assessment they should not have
gone beyond 15-20 percent. These losses should have been recovered
through investments and development projects, which was the case in
the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine, while in Armenia the economy
was destroyed completely in few years.

Today we can say the following-Ter-Petrosian and his allies inherited
a country in a normal state and handed it down to me as a country
with a collapsed economy, rated by international organizations as
one of the world’s poorest nations," Kocharian said.

RF DEFENSE MINISTRY TO CONTINUE EQUIPPING RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.10.2007 15:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Russian Ministry of Defense will continue
equipping the 102nd military base in Gyumri, Defense Minister Anatoly
Serdyukov told reporters.

"Extra measures will be taken," he said. "I wanted to learn about
the problems our servicemen and their families face."

He also informed that the Ministry intends to find sponsors for
reconstruction of a 19-century Orthodox Church situated on the base’s
territory, Novosti Armenia reports.

COMMISSION ALLOWS TO EXTEND PREPAID CARDS REGISTRATION DEADLINE

ARMENPRESS
Oct 30 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS: The Public Services Regulatory
Commission (PSRC) has ruled today to allow ArmenTel and VivaCell,
two mobile phone operators, to extend the delaine for mandatory
registration of all prepaid telephone cards until March 1, 2008.

The previous delaine was November 1, but it appeared that only 25
percent of almost 600,000 subscribers of ArmenTel and 17 percent of
about 1 million of VivaCell subscribers pf prepaid cards managed to
register their cards.

ARMENIA’S OVERALL DEBT TO JUMP TO $1.7 BILLION IN LATE 2008

ARMENPRESS
Oct 29 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS: Armenia’s overall debt by the end
of 2008 is expected to jump to $1.7 billion and to constitute 16.6
percent of its overall GDP.

That ratio will be down from 17.5 percent expected to be at the end
of this year.

These figures were unveiled today by economy and finance minister
Vartan Khachatrian when he presented next year’s draft budget to a
parliament committee on economic issues.

He said foreign debt will make 84.3 percent of the total debt. In terms
of money that will amount to $1.459 billion to make 13.9 percent of
the GDP, down from 15.4 percent projected for the end of this year.

INSTABILITY IN THE REGION WILL HAMPER SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH ISSUE

KarabakhOpen
30-10-2007 12:37:58

"As a country which has strategic importance in the region, Armenia has
appeared in the zone of influence of the great powers dominating there.

Escalation of the situation in the region will be harmful for
us. Pressure on Iran will affect the internal and external policies of
Armenia, because Iran is our almost only stable and friendly country,"
said Jirair Shahijanyan, representative of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
Central Committee of Artsakh, in an interview with Karabakh-Open.com.

Jirair Shahijanyan thinks a peace settlement of the Karabakh issue
is not likely in case the different interests of the world powers in
the region cause instability.

RA PRESIDENT RECEIVES RF DEFENCE MINISTER

Noyan Tapan
Oct 30 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. On October 30, RA President Robert
Kocharian received Anatoly Serdyukov, the RF Defence Minister, who
is in Armenia on an official visit. According to the report provided
to Noyan Tapan by the RA President’s Press Office, issues related to
military-technical cooperation between the two countries were discussed
during the meeting. The parties expressed satisfaction with the level
and quality of cooperation in that sphere.

A NUMBER OF OPPOSITIONISTS ARE CONVINCED THAT POWER SHIFT IS INEVITABLE IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Oct 30 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The first RA President’s speech at
the October 26 rally considerably changed the hardened situation in
the country, and today the people already has a possibility to make
a real choice.

Lyudmila Sargsian, the Chairwoman of the Social-Democratic Hnchakian
Party, stated this at the October 30 round table dedicated to
discussion of Armenia’s home political processes. According to her,
"a process of serious analysis and discussion of the current situation
has unequivocally started in society, which will be completed with
Levon Ter-Petrosian’s election," L. Sargsian assured.

Hovhannes Hovhannisian, the Chairman of the Liberal-Progressive Party,
said that after 10 years’ silence the first President spoke only twice,
which already caused collapse of the power pyramid. According to him,
L. Ter-Petrosian’s running for the elections is a serious phenomenon
not only for Armenia, but also for the international community,
which, by the way, shows positive attitude to the fact of the first
President’s coming back to politics.

H. Hovhannisian did not exclude that pre-term presidential elections
may be held in case of such quick home political processes. The
Chairman of the Hnchakian party added that the current authorities are
not able to leave voluntarily and did not exclude that a situation will
be formed, as a result of which the authorities will have to leave.