Author: Jagharian Tania

EDWARD NALBANDIAN: ARMENIA WAITING FOR PRACTICAL STEPS FROM TURKEY

armradio.am
03.07.2009 14:41

"We will only welcome if Turkey fulfils the agreements reached. We
are waiting for practical steps," Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian said, commenting on Trkish FM Ahmet Davudoglu’s statement
that "Turkey is committed to the agreements reached with Armenia."

"This statement of the Turkish Foreign Minister can only be welcomed,
since the agreement between Armenia and Turkey envisages establishment
of relations and opening of the border without preconditions," the
Armenian Foreign Minister said at the joint press conference with
the OSCE Chair-in-Office, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis.

According to the Minister, serious negotiations are under way, and the
parties came to a certain agreement this spring. In the past Turkey
was setting preconditions connected with the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict and the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

"When starting the talks, we agreed to move towards normalization
of relations and opening of the border on the basis of mutual
understanding," Minister Nalbandian stated.

MOSCOW TRIES TO ACT GODFATHER FOR YEREVAN AND BAKU

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.07.2009 16:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The predominant opinion in Baku is that
Armenians held victory in Karabakh war thanks to Russia. That’s why,
following the August war in Transcaucasus, Azerbaijan was seeking
Moscow’s support," expert Armen Aghayan told a news conference in
Yerevan. However, the speaker was strongly convinced that "Russia
will never coerce Armenia into making any concessions with regard to
Karabakh issue."

According to him Moscow is now trying "to strengthen and re-build
bridges" with CIS states, and Armenia and Azerbaijan do not have
equal importance for it in that sense. "After signing the Minedorf
Declaration, Russia is trying to act as godfather for Yerevan and
Baku," the expert stressed.

ARMENIAN AND GEORGIAN EXPERTS MADE ASSESSMENTS ON SAAKASHVILI’S VISIT TO YEREVAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.07.2009 18:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian and Georgian societies and top class
politicians estimated Georgian President’s visit as positive,
Sergey Minasyan, Deputy Director of Caucasus Institute, announced
during Yerevan-Tbilisi TV bridge. "Discussions during Saakashvili’s
visit to Armenia mostly focused on two countries’ cooperation in
spheres of communication, regional policy and problems of Armenians
in Samtskhe-Javakheti. No concrete agreements were reached, at least
none announced to public," the expert stressed.

Georgian political scientist Gia Nodia noted in his turn that
Saakashvili’s visit was additional proof of Armenian-Georgian friendly
relations. "Clearly, both states have various interests and approaches,
but they both confirm that nothing can spoil bilateral relations no
matter who the President will be," Georgian political scientist noted.

RUSSIA AND CENTRAL ASIA Q1 2009 REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Cellular-News
1st July 2009

The last twelve months has seen a total of 41.8m new customers in
the Russia and Central Asia region. Of these, 6.86m came in the final
period, the first three months of 2009. This was a marked reduction on
earlier growth rates, with almost every market seeing a lower level
of new customers than in the prior quarter. Russia was particularly
badly affected and unusually, the majority of net adds came from the
other countries

This is only the second time this has happened, the first being in
Q1 07. However, the two quarters are not directly comparable – in the
first, when Russia added just 1.76m customers, the overall total was
materially depressed by Vimpelcom’s decision to switch from reporting
registered customers to active. This time, there was no such effect
and the numbers are a straightforward reflection of demand in the
region’s largest market. With penetration at over 135% (and overall
teledensity some 30ppts above that) it would seem that in future, a
majority of the region’s growth will come from the smaller countries –
at least until such time as the market for 3G datacards develops

As noted above, Russia is not the only market to experience a slower
rate of growth. Kazakhstan, the region’s second largest market (with
15.4m connections) added 414k new customers, but this was nearly 0.75m
fewer than in Q4. Uzbekistan, the third largest market, was similar:
it added an impressive 869k new connections, but that falls well short
of the 1.79m seen in Q4. The same pattern was repeated, to a greater
or lesser extent, in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia and
the two fragmentary markets of Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Only
three markets produced greater gains in Q1 than in Q4 – Azerbaijan,
Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

The first two saw net gains of 505k and 207k respectively, decent
improvements on Q4’s numbers, but it is Afghanistan that impresses
most. It added 1.33m new customers in Q1, a new record and the second
million-plus quarter in succession. It seems that demand for mobile
services can flourish irrespective of circumstance.

EXHIBITION AND SALE OF PRISONERS’ WORKS TO OPEN IN YEREVAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.07.2009 14:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Erebuni community culture center will host an
exhibition and sale of prisoners’ works from July 5 to 12. The event
is initiated by criminal executive service and "Support to Prisoners"
foundation.

Justice Minister Gevorg Danielyan and other high ranking officials
will attend the opening ceremony.

The money raised will be given to prisoners.

YEREVAN METRO TO GET $10 MLN CREDIT FROM THE EBRD UNDER THE LIBOR + 1 FOR 15 YEARS AND $5 MLN GRANT FOR ENERGY SAVING PROGRAMME

ArmInfo
2009-07-01 12:54:00

ArmInfo. The Yerevan subway after Karen Demirchyan will get $10
mln credit from the EBRD under the Libor + 1 for 15 years and $5
mln grant for the energy saving programme, director of the subway,
Paylak Yaloyan, told journalists today.

He also added the funds will be directed to construction of the
drainage tunnel from the metro station ‘Zoravar Andranik’ to the gorge
of the Razdan river for diverting of ground water. Because of shortage
of funds this programme was delayed more than 10 years ago. The
leadership of the subway is going to lead the water diverting tunnel to
the ‘Repiblic Square’ metro station and make it gravity flowing. This
will make it possible to reduce electric power consumption by the
subway. The programme of work will be ready at the beginning of autumn.

Yaloyan also recalled that Yerevan mayor’s office, Economy Ministry of
Armenia and Asian Development Bank signed a memorandum on development
of the transport infrastructures, within the frames of which 2 new
metro stations will be built in Achapnyak district of Yerevan and a
new exit for ‘Yeritasardakan’ metro station. ‘We are going to determine
the cost of the work, but one can be said for sure that expenses will
be very big and we cannot still allow ourselves construction of metro
stations using the funds from the state budget’, – Yaloyan said.

ERASMUS MUNDUS ESTABLISHES EDUCATIONAL BRIDGE FROM ARMENIA

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
30.06.2009 18:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The purpose of the Erasmus Mundus program is to
exchange graduate students, program coordinator Tanya Papiki told
reporters. Saying that the program started in 2007, Tanya Papiki
stressed, that the program can become an ‘educational bridge’ for
Armenia which recently introduced credit system in education. According
to Tanya Papiki, this program allows to bring the best students into
Europe’ s industry and vice versa. Papiki noted that Erasmus Mundus is
an alternative way of obtaining education abroad. A regular meeting of
partner universities under the EU Erasmus Mundus program took place
in Yerevan. Two best student, studied abroad, have been awarded in
the meeting. Meetings will be also held in Gyumri and Gavar. On June
3 a presentation of a new phase of the program will be organized. The
purpose of the meeting is to strengthen and deepen cooperation between
the Caucasus countries and EU in the field of higher education,
promote exchange of students and teaching staff between partner
universities, promote research. This program is coordinated by the
Technological Institute of Education in Thessaloniki and includes 11
higher educational institutions from Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Italy, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Latvia, and Bulgaria.

Yerevan State University, Yerevan State Economic University, Armenian
State Agrarian University are involved in the program.

SPEAKER: AZERBAIJAN WILL EXPRESS ITS POSITION ON US AID TO NAGORNO KARABAKH

APA
30 Jun 2009 14:35

Baku. Elbrus Seyfullayev – APA. Parliamentarians made a number of
proposals during the next sitting of the extraordinary session of
Azerbaijani parliament, APA reports. MP Nasib Nasibli offered to adopt
a national program on the Karabakh problem, increase the role of the
parliament in the settlement of the problem. He said the parliament
should discuss the issue and pass a decision.

"I have worked out a project and will present it to the parliament,"
he said.

MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev touched on the reports in Iranian mass media
about Israeli President Shimon Peres’ visit to Azerbaijan.

"They write that Azerbaijanis protested against this visit, Iran
recalled its ambassador to Azerbaijan. Iran’s approach is a hostile
approach. The whole country wants Azerbaijani embassy to be opened
in Israel. Reports spread that official Tehran wants to send back
Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Iran. We should react to these issues,"
he said.

Siyavush Novruzov said 20,000 pupils failed to get certificate of
secondary education in Azerbaijan.

"We understand the Ministry of Education, this is a right attitude. But
this step can not be taken all of a sudden. The process should be
realized in stages. Secondary schools are not ready for this process
yet. The failed pupils should be reexamined. We can appeal to president
if necessary," he said.

Igbal Agazadeh underlined the importance of solving the problem of
certificate of secondary education.

HARIRI SAYS MPS SHOWED OPENNESS, LEBANON’S 2 VOICES SHOULD BE UNITED

Naharnet
Beirut, 29 Jun 09, 21:38

Premier-designate Saad Hariri said after day-long consultations with
parliamentary blocs on the future cabinet that MPs showed openness
and stressed the "two voices" of Lebanese should be united in the
country’s interest.

"Consultations were good. There was openness by MPs. Tomorrow I will
inform the president about my meetings with the blocs," Hariri said
after his last meeting with MP Nayla Tueni Monday evening.

He said that he will start discussion on the cabinet following his
meeting with President Michel Suleiman.

"We hope to open a new page in order to form a cabinet of national
unity … in which everyone is represented," Hariri told reporters
in parliament. "We hope division would come to an end."

"We should build trust through dialogue," the PM-designate stressed.

He also hoped to reach the expected cabinet formula.

"We heard all citizens who cast their ballots on June 7. We should
unite the two voices in the interest of the country," said Hariri in
the aftermath of the parliamentary elections, adding that the country
can no longer tolerate crises.

Tueni, who was the last to meet Hariri, hoped there would be a bigger
representation of women and young people in cabinet. "The government
should preserve the majority and there should be no veto power,"
she said.

Samir Jisr, who spoke on behalf of the Mustaqbal bloc, hoped the bloc
would get the right representation.

MP Michel Pharaon, in his turn, told reporters after he met with Hariri
that everyone should be given the opportunity to be represented in
cabinet. "We also hope there would be no hindrance."

MP Anwar al-Khalil said at the start of consultations that the
Development and Liberation bloc demanded to strengthen the army and
protect the resistance. The bloc also adopted Speaker Nabih Berri’s
speech during his reelection.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said the current situation
requires a national unity government, adding that all parliamentary
blocs should be represented in cabinet and the majority should
understand this situation if it wants to benefit the country.

Loyalty to the Resistance head Mohammed Raad told reporters after
the bloc’s meeting with Hariri that the country is in need of a true
national unity government capable of lifting Lebanon. "We presented
Hariri with the full details of what we seek."

As for MP Michel Murr, he called for a government of national
unity that includes everybody. "We made no demands regarding cabinet
shares. This issue is up to the president and the premier to decide,"
he said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat told reporters
that shares must not be allocated only to parties. "There should be
diversity in our bloc."

MP Nicola Fattoush said his Zahle in the Heart bloc has the right to
be represented in cabinet .

The LF bloc’s statement was made by MP Elie Kayrouz, who said:
"We presented our blueprint to Hariri and left the matter to him. We
support a government that does not cripple official institutions."

MP Sami Gemayel called for the separation of powers. He said cabinet
must not become a miniature replica of parliament and rejected any
move to legalize the resistance’s weapons arsenal.

As for Talal Arslan, he said his bloc’s position is clear. "We
demanded a government of national unity and real partnership,
especially considering the significance of Hariri’s designation for
the premiership."

Speaking on behalf of the Zgharta bloc, MP Suleiman Franjieh said: "We
call for a factual partnership with veto powers for the opposition."

MP Hagop Pakradounian said the Armenian bloc will participate in a
government of national unity and requested two ministers. His rival,
MP Jean Oghassabian said the Armenian Consensus bloc presented its
demands for approval by the premier.

Imad al-Hout hoped his Jamaa Islamiya would have one minister in
the cabinet.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY: MEETING OF ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTERS IN PARIS WAS EFFECTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE

ArmInfo
2009-06-27 11:49:00

ArmInfo. Meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers Edward
Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov in Paris on June 26 was effective
and constructive, the press-service of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia
told ArmInfo.

In addition, Minister Nalbandian met with OSCE MG Co-chairs as well as
OSCE CIO Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk. The negotiations
of the parties lasted over 6 hours. Charged by their presidents,
the two ministers continued the negotiations to make the stands of
the two countries closer on the basis of Madrid principles.

E. Nalbandian and E. Mammadyarov discussed the possibility of the next
meeting of the two countries’ presidents. During the negotiations
the next visit of the OSCE MG co-chairs to the region was scheduled
for the first half of July. On June 27 the Armenian foreign minister
left Paris for Greece to participate in the OSCE Ministerial Meeting.