ARMENIAN PRESIDENT LEAVES FOR PARIS TO UNDERGO MEDICAL EXAMINATION
Noyan Tapan
Jan 10, 2008
YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian president Robert
Kocharian on January 10 went on a day-day private visit to France
in order to undergo an examination at one of the ophthalmological
centers in Paris, NT was informed by the RA president’s press service.
ARMENIA’S COOPERATION WITH EUROPEAN STRUCTURES SUCCESSFUL IN 2007
PanARMENIAN.Net
09.01.2008 18:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Cooperation between Armenia and the European
structure was successful in 2007, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian told a news conference in Yerevan.
Implementation of the Armenia-EU Action Plan was launched in 2007,
he said.
"Relations with the EU are of strategic nature and offer a possibility
for economic cooperation. Besides, the EU undertakes to provide a
share for Armenia at the internal market," the Minister said.
THEY PURSUE THEIR OWN INTERESTS
Lragir
Jan 7 2008
Armenia
The conclusion of the international observers opposed to the
opposition’s protest against the outcome of the Georgian presidential
election and statements on election fraud. The observers said the
election was legitimate, and only pointed to some drawbacks which
should be eliminated. The same picture was in Armenia during the
parliamentary election and will probably repeat in the presidential
election after February 19 when the outcome of the voting is
released. As to whose interests the international observers will
pursue in the presidential election, we tried to find out the opinion
of our readers who were offered three options of answer over the
past three weeks: government’s interests, society’s interests and
their own interests. The majority of our readers, 85 percent, voted
their own interests. 6.4 percent think the observers will pursue the
government’s interests, and 8.6 think the observers will uphold the
society’s interests.
BUSH SUPPORTS TURKEY BID TO JOIN EU
By William C. Mann
AP
8 Jan 08
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush gave Turkey’s bid to join the
European Union a glowing endorsement on Tuesday and called the Islamic
nation a "constructive bridge" between the West and the Muslim world,
offering a much-needed boost to U.S.-Turkish relations.
"I think Turkey sets a fantastic example for nations around the world
to see where it’s possible to have a democracy coexist with a great
religion like Islam and that’s important," he said.
Bush spoke to reporters following a meeting with Turkish President
Abdullah Gul. The two appeared together on the South Lawn, where Bush
said he supported Turkey’s efforts to fight the Kurdistan Workers’
Party, or PKK rebels, in northern Iraq.
Bush called the PKK an enemy to Turkey, Iraq and "to people who want
to live in peace."
At a news conference, Gul dismissed any easing of Turkey’s military
strikes against the PKK. He said the Iraqi government is not able
to constrain the group as it targets civilians and security forces
in Turkey.
Asked if he and Bush had discussed finding a political solution to
the conflict with the PKK, the Turkish president said, "We did not
discuss this issue in that context and neither would we discuss this
issue in that context."
Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,
Gul rejected any suggestion that Muslim fundamentalism was on the
rise in Turkey.
"It is not in the mainstream in Turkey," he said. "The young people
are more interested in modernity."
He said Turkey and the United States are partners in Iraq. Asked
about Iran, he said Turkey seeks good relations with countries on
its borders.
Gul’s visit to the White House is seen as a major sign of improved
relations between the two NATO allies after five years of acrimony over
the Iraq war and U.S. policy on Turkey’s fight against Kurdish rebels.
It follows a visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan two
months ago that resulted in a commitment by Bush to share intelligence
on PKK and not to object to Turkish airstrikes against the Kurdish
guerrillas’ installations in northern Iraq.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that a key item on Bush’s
agenda was encouraging Turkish leaders to pursue a "long-term political
solution" to the PKK problem, cooperating with Iraqi leaders who
also are concerned about the group’s activities. She said that the
U.S. doesn’t have any particular solution or process in mind, but
wants to play a constructive role in ending a long-standing dispute.
"We are just going to encourage an open dialogue, which they have
had over the past couple of months. And it’s sometimes been in fits
and starts, but overall, a good cooperation," Perino said. "This has
been going on for so long that it’s time to try to put a stop to it."
The PKK has been fighting for two decades to win a Kurdish homeland
in Eastern Turkey.
The meeting with the Turkish leader comes as Bush prepared to leave
later in the day on his first major trip to the Mideast to try to
build momentum for peace in that troubled region.
Gul told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that Turkey would
continue to work alongside the United States toward peace, stability
and prosperity.
"We share a common vision," he said.
In the months leading to Erdogan’s Nov. 5 White House appearance,
however, U.S.-Turkish relations were at their lowest point in many
years.
In 2003, during the buildup to the Iraq war, the Turkish parliament
rejected U.S. requests to send troops into Iraq through Turkish
territory. And a poll last summer showed just 9 percent of Turks saw
the U.S. favorably.
Despite pleas from the Bush administration and personal appeals from
Gul, then foreign minister, and other prominent Turks, the House
Foreign Affairs Committee passed a nonbinding resolution last year
that described as genocide the World War I-era deaths of Armenians
during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey reacted by
withdrawing its ambassador from Washington.
Despite the improved situation since the Erdogan-Bush meeting, the
situation remains touchy.
Gul also met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. His schedule,
released in Ankara, said he also would meet with Defense Secretary
Robert Gates on Wednesday before flying to New York to meet at the
United Nations with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
For his part, Bush left later Tuesday on his first major trip to
the Mideast. He was to stop in Israel, the Palestinian-governed West
Bank, which he toured in 1998, and make his first visits to Kuwait,
Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. He also planned
a brief stop at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, which
he visited in 2003.
ARMENIAN CHURCH OF PARIS: BOMB SCARE
armradio.am
07.01.2008 11:56
Sunday morning, January 6, 2008, Armenian Christmas Day, a false bomb
scare disturbed the religious service of the Armenian Church in Paris,
independent correspondent Jean Eckian informs from Paris.
It’s an anonymous call coming from a phone box located close to the
Avenue des Champs-Elysees which started a vast police operation.
Arrived towards 11:35 AM, the police force carried out the evacuation
of the church during the mass of Christmas, celebrated for the first
time by Archbishop Norvan Zakarian, new Primate of the France’s
Apostolic Church, who refused to stop the mass. After a meticulous
research of the police force in the crowned enclosure, without result,
the faithful ones could attend the end of the Christmas mass.
On October 24, 2007 in Brussels, the coffee exploited by a Belgian
of Armenian origin had been entirely ransacked by a pack of Turkish
ultra nationalists. They had also torn off the American flag of the
United States’s embassy.
These facts occur at the time when the French Senate must examine
the penalization’s bill of the Armenian Genocide negation and that
of Res.H.106 in the USA.
Glendale News Press, CA
Jan 2 2008
ON THE TOWN:
Celebrating beginnings and anniversaries
By RUTH SOWBY
The Armenian National Treasures Foundation did itself proud on
Thursday with its debut `Armenian Holiday Concert’ at Glendale
Presbyterian Church.
It was standing room only as more than 1,000 music lovers overflowed
the poinsettia-filled sanctuary to listen to the Cilcia Symphonic
Orchestra, conducted by Mikael Avetisyan. The orchestra played
traditional holiday scores that have been part of Armenian heritage
for more than 100 years. Contemporary works by Armenian composers
were also featured.
Concert soloist Anahit Nercesyan sung `Yerevan,’ by Artemi Aivezian,
founder of the first Armenian jazz orchestra in the 1930s, according
to Bianca Manoukian, co-founder/chairperson of the foundation.
Glendale residents who were part of the sold-out crown included:
Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian, Chairwoman of the Armenian Fund Maria
Mehranian, Onnik and Kristine Keshian, Atineh Haroutunian, Romina
Derbedrossian, and Ani Hovagimian with her mother Mary Demirjian,
visiting for the holidays from Las Vegas.
Religious leaders present included: Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian,
Father Muron Aznikian and the Rev. Barthev Gulumian. All represent
the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America.
The Armenian National Treasures Foundation was established in the
summer of 2007, `to help ensure that future generations will have
[the] opportunity to experience our past and understand our identity
as a community and as a nation ‘
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
December 28, 2007 Friday
FREIZER: ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN PREPARE FOR A WAR
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP PREDICTS A WAR BETWEEN ARMENIA AND
AZERBAIJAN; Will it be a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan again?
Sabina Freizer, Directress of European Programs of the International
Crisis Group, told The Boston Globe that full fledged
Azerbaijani-Armenian hostilities were in the near future now.
"The international community is always late to respond to
hostilities," Freizer said. "Is it possible to stop a war before it
begins? We can try it in Nagorno-Karabakh over which Armenia and
Azerbaijan are about to start fighting." Freizer is convinced that it
is really possible to prevent this outbreak of hostilities.
As far as Freizer is concerned, Armenia and Azerbaijan delay crisis
resolution because "Armenia views every day of occupation as an
opportunity to solidify its position" while Azerbaijan needs time to
strengthen its army by investing oil revenues into armaments and
seize Nagorno-Karabakh by sheer strength of arms. Armenia Today
quotes Freizer as saying that the solution to the problem requires
the withdrawal of Karabakh troops from the occupied territories and
definition of its status by a referendum.
Armenian Foreign Minister, Vardan Oskanjan, in the meantime does not
rule out the possibility that the conflict will be settled before the
presidential election in Armenia. "Being an optimist, I think it a
wish of the people to see the involved parties reach an understanding
on the principles of settlement at least," he said on December 18.
"Once that is done, it will be up to us to squeeze them all into a
peace treaty 30 or 50 pages long."
Sahim Babayev, human rights activist and Chairman of the Gyandzh
Division of the Helsinki Civil Assembly of Azerbaijan, claims that
80% of the Azerbaijanis reject the idea of a war.
"Ordinary people want peace, but that requires that we change our
views on who the enemy is," he said at a press conference in Yerevan,
Armenia, on December 17. "It’s time we remembered that we are
neighbors."
Source: Kavkazsky Uzel, December 25, 2007, EV
Translated by A. Ignatkin
HASMIK POGHOSIAN: NO NOTICEABLE PROGRESS WAS REGISTERED ONLY IN
THEATRICAL LIFE IN 2007
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, NOYAN TAPAN. 7bn drams has been allocated to the
RA Ministry of Culture in 2008 by the RA state budget. However, the
expenditures of cultural centers’ repairs are not included in it, as
they are to be implemented by the RA Ministry of Urban Development. The
amount of sum allocated to the sphere of culture has not been changed
considerably, compared with 2007 (6bn 793m 641.3 thousand drams).
Hasmik Poghosian, the RA Minister of Culture, said this at the December
28 final brief press conference. She said that the salaries of cultural
sphere employees will be raised from July 1, 2008.
According to the Minister, some of many foreign and local events held
in 2007, including the exhibitions and concerts dedicated to the Year
of Armenia in France, became the greatest success of the year. In her
words, these events with their high quality became a start for further
cooperation and programs.
H. Poghosian also said that in the cultural life no noticeable success
has been registered perhaps only in the theatrical life: "no work has
been created, which could become a subject of year’s conversation in
the sphere." "For me, the only work was producer Vahan Badalian’s
performance "Ofelia’s Shadow Theater," he said. The Minister mentioned
that the way of assistance provided to theaters will be changed in that
respect in 2008: "assistance will be provided to authors and theater
collectives of worthy programs."
Hasmik Poghosian also touched upon the legislative work in the cultural
sphere in 2007, in particular, mentioning two important legislative
initiatives, bills On Making Amendments and Addenda to the RA Laws On
Principles of Cultural Legislation and On Documents’ Compulsory Model,
which have been submitted to the government. The RA bill On
Non-material Cultural Heritage has been already submitted to the
government.
WILLIAM SAROYAN’S MONUMENT TO BE PLACED IN YEREVAN
armradio.am
25.12.2007 14:45
In 2008 renowned American-Armenian writer William Saroyan’s monument
will be erected in the square in front of the Yervand Kochar Museum.
Chief architect of Yerevan Samvel Danielyan told Armenpress that
the author of the monument is famous sculptor Davit Yerevantsi who
resides in France.
The installation works will be financed by the "All-Armenian
Geographical Association" non-governmental organization.
Russia secures Caspian gas pipeline deal
By Isabel Gorst in Baku
Published: December 21 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 21 2007 02:00
Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan finalised a landmark agreement yesterday
to build a pipeline to transport gas to Russia, tightening Moscow’s control
over Central Asian gas exports.
The deal comes at a time of intense competition for the region’s rich energy
resources. Dubbed Pricaspiysky, the new pipeline will skirt the east coast of
the Caspian Sea carrying 20bn cubic metres a year of Turkmen and Kazakh gas
north to Russia’s Saratov region.
The accord, signed in the presence of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president,
and Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s leader, is a setback for Europe, which
is courting Caspian producers for gas supplies to reduce its dependence on
Russian imports.
Julia Nanay, of PFC Energy, said, "The agreement on this pipeline marks a
strengthening of energy relations between Central Asia and Russia and fulfils
one of Putin’s key policy goals of tying large supplies of gas from Central
Asia into the Russian system."
Gazprom, the state-controlled Russian gas company, needs Central Asian gas to
compensate for a fall in production from its Siberian fields, a decline that
threatens to undermine its $37bn (=82¬25.5bn, £18.4bn) a year European gas
export business.
Mr Putin said the Pricaspiysky pipeline would be "a serious investment by our
countries in strengthening energy security, not just in Eurasia but more
widely, bearing in mind our main consumers in west Europe".
Separately, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan plan to modernise
and expand a Soviet-era pipeline, currently the only large gas export route
out of landlocked Central Asia.
Viktor Khristenko, the Russian energy minister, said the Pricaspiysky
pipeline would be built by late 2010. Each republic would take responsibility
for financing construction of the pipeline on their territory, he said.
Mr Putin and Mr Nazarbayev earlier spoke by telephone with Gurbanguly
Berdymukhammedov, the Turkmen president, who came into office a year ago after
the death of Sapurmurat Niyazov.
Mr Berdymukhammedov has begun construction of a gas export pipeline to China
that will end Russia’s stranglehold on Turkmenistan’s gas export routes by
the end of 2009.
He has also held frequent talks with western governments about a project to
build a gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan to link up with the
planned Nabucco system supplying Caspian gas to Europe. Nabucco is central to
the EU’s strategy to diversify gas imports away from Russia.
Finalisation of the Pricaspiysky project, first announced in May, has been
postponed several times despite intense lobbying by Russian diplomats.
Meanwhile, Turkmenistan has persuaded Gazprom to accept a 30 per cent
increase in gas prices, despite an earlier contract fixing the price at $100
per thousand cubic metres until 2009. The price will rise again to $150 per
thousand cubic metres in the second half of next year.
Analysts said it would be difficult for prospective investors in the
trans-Caspian pipeline to compete with the higher price Gazprom has agreed to
pay Turkmenistan.
The Financial Times Limited 2007