Author: Jagharian Tania

Today, Azerbaijan
Feb 18 2008

Khazar Ibragim: "There can not be any borders between Nagorno
Karabakh and Azerbaijan"

18 February 2008 [14:35] – Today.Az

There can not be any borders between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan
and Serj Sarkisyan does not have a right to demand anything from
Azerbaijan.

The due announcement was made by Khazar Ibragim, spokesman for
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, commenting on the announcement of
Armenian Prime Minister Serj Sarkisyan, made in the Armenian
parliament, regarding the necessity to draw borders between the
separatist Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia.

"There is no such concept as the people of Karabagh. There is a
territory of Karabakh and communities, residing there. We have
announced repeatedly that self-determination is possible only in the
framework of the territorial integrity and only then can the issue be
settled", he said.

At the same time, the spokesman noted that the borders exist between
the countries, while Nagorno Karabakh is an integral part of
Azerbaijan.

He noted that there are borders between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"However, the parameters of borders are not correct right now. But
this is an issue of time. Sarkisyan should think over the destinu of
his people, its economic and social state and pay attention to
Armenia’s position on the international arena instead of making such
pre-election proposals", Kh.Ibragim noted.

/Day.Az/

URL:

PORTRAITS OF LEADING CANDIDATES IN ARMENIA PRESIDENTIAL POLL

Agence France Presse — English
February 17, 2008 Sunday 1:53 AM GMT

Nine candidates are running Tuesday in a presidential election in
ex-Soviet Armenia. The four leading candidates are:

Serzh Sarkisian

Sarkisian, 53, is Armenia’s prime minister and close ally of President
Robert Kocharian.

Kocharian tapped Sarkisian as his successor after the prime minister’s
Republican Party swept parliamentary elections in May.

Sarkisian is widely seen as a hawk in Armenia’s fraught relations
with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Sarkisian is from the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, an ethnic
Armenian enclave that broke away from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in
the early 1990s. A former head of the separatist army, Sarkisian has
held key posts in the Armenian government, including as head of the
interior and defence minister.

A January poll of 1,500 Armenian voters by British pollster Populus
gave Sarkisian 50.7 percent support. He is married and has two
children.

Artur Baghdasarian

Baghdasarian, 39, is a former speaker of parliament who fell out with
the government and joined the opposition.

His Rule of Law party won nine seats in the 131-seat National Assembly
in May’s parliamentary elections, the most of any opposition party.

A former chairman of the French University in Armenia, Baghdasarian
is seen as more pro-Western than the current government, which has
fostered strong ties with Moscow.

Born in the capital Yerevan and a lawyer by training, Baghdasarian
was first elected to parliament 1995. Re-elected in 1999 and 2003,
he was the influential speaker from 2003 to 2006, when he was ousted
after for criticising the authorities.

The Populus poll gave him 13.4 percent of the vote. He is married
and has two children.

Levon Ter-Petrosian

Ter-Petrosian, 63, was Armenia’s president from 1991 until his
resignation in 1998. He broke 10 years of silence last year to announce
his comeback bid for the presidency.

Opponents blame Ter-Petrosian for economic chaos that engulfed the
country in the 1990s and accuse him of fixing his election wins.

Supporters say he is an experienced statesman who could help end
Armenia’s international isolation. Ter-Petrosian has called for a more
conciliatory approach with neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey, both of
which have cut diplomatic ties and sealed their borders with Armenia.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, Ter-Petrosian’s family moved to Soviet Armenia
shortly after his birth. A political scientist, Ter-Petrosian
was elected leader of Soviet Armenia in 1990, shortly before its
independence. He was elected the country’s first post-Soviet president
in 1991 and re-elected in 1996, before he was forced to step down in
1998 for advocating concessions with Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh.

The Populus poll gave Ter-Petrosian 12.6 percent of the vote. He is
married and has one son and three grandchildren.

Vahan Hovannisian

Hovannisian, 41, is the deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament
and the candidate of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF),
one of Armenia’s oldest political parties.

Born in Yerevan, Hovannisian is a historian and archaeologist who
was first elected to parliament in 1999. The ARF, or Dashnaktsutiun
as the party is widely known, is a socialist and nationalist party
with strong links to the Armenian diaspora. The party was banned in
the early 1990s for an alleged plot to overthrow the government, but
was a member of Kocharian’s governing coalition from 1998 until last
year. It won 16 seats in May’s parliamentary elections and while not
a member of the current coalition, continues to support the government.

Hovannisian was chosen as the party’s presidential candidate in
November in an Armenia-wide vote of party members — reportedly the
first primary-style selection of a candidate in the country’s history.

The Populus poll gave him 7.6 percent of the vote. He is married and
has two children.

LEVON ARONIAN TO TAKE PART IN MORELIA-LINARES CHESS SUPERTOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
Feb 14, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Drawing of lots of the highest,
21-class chess supertournament took place on February 13 in the
city of Morelia, Mexico. The tournament’s first part will be held on
February 15-23 in Morelia and the second from February 28 to March
7 in the city of Linares, Spain. Eight strongest chess players,
Vishvantan Anand (India), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Alexei Shirov
(Spain), Peter Leko (Hungary), Vasili Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Levon Aronian
(Armenia), Teymur Rajabov (Azerbaijan), and Magnus Karlsen (Norway)
will take part in the tournament. It should be mentioned that Levon
Aronian is the 2006 winner of Morelia-Linares tournament.

OSCE NOTES USE OF GOVERNMENT LEVERS BY SARKISIAN
By Emil Danielyan and Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 14 2008

Echoing reports by opposition candidates and local media, the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe detailed on
Thursday the widespread use of government resources in Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian’s election campaign.

In its second pre-election interim report, the main international
vote-monitoring mission deployed in Armenia by the OSCE said its
observers have "difficulties in distinguishing accurately between
Serzh Sarkisian’s campaign and the work of local self-government" not
least because some town and village mayors are "actively campaigning"
for the prime minister.

"In addition, the Republican Party has a number of offices in local
self- government buildings at various levels," said the report. It
quoted Sarkisian’s campaign manager, Deputy Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamian, as saying that all of them have been "converted" into
Sarkisian campaign offices.

Armenia’s Electoral Code prohibits the use of state property and
other assets for the promotion of any election candidate.

The observers working under aegis of the OSCE’s Warsaw-based Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) also touched upon the
use of government resources for ensuring high turnout at Sarkisian’s
campaign rallies. "An employee of a State institution reported to
OSCE/ODIHR EOM observers that they were directed by their superior
to attend one of Serzh Sarkisian’s campaign events," read their report.

The report noted the fact that in the northern city of Vanadzor
public transport was free and government offices "mostly deserted" on
February 6, the day when Sarkisian campaigned in the area. "Observers
were informed by employees that they had been told they could leave
work to participate in the rally," it said.

Sarkisian insisted, however, that nobody has been forced to attend
his rallies as he campaigned in the southern Ararat region on
Thursday. Addressing thousands of people in the regional capital
Artashat, he said anyone in the crowd who came to the rally against
their will is free to go home.

School teachers and their students have been a fixture at the prime
minister’s nationwide gatherings, and Ararat was no exception. As
he visited a local ancient monastery Sarkisian was greeted by scores
of students and teachers from two nearby schools. They admitted that
afternoon classes in their schools were cancelled as a result.

"The entire school staff is here," said a schoolteacher from the
village of Yeghegnavan.

"We are here to support the prime minister," explained one or her
colleagues. "There definitely need to be sacrifices. And this is
our sacrifice."

The OSCE/ODIHR mission also mentioned Sarkisian’s controversial
decision last December to set up an ad hoc government body tasked
with dealing with citizen complaints and requests. The government
and the ruling Republican Party (HHK) say that the move had nothing
to with the upcoming presidential election.

However, opposition candidates and former President Levon Ter-Petrosian
in particular insist that the body’s activities amount to vote
buying. They say that citizens needing assistance from the working
group have to fill out special forms distributed to voters by the MIAK,
a small pro-government party actively campaigning for Sarkisian.

The OSCE/ODIHR mission said the MIAK confirmed the information, adding
in that regard that Armenian law "prohibits the use of administrative
resources for campaign purposes."

Its report covering the period between January 27 and February 9
further noted that Armenia’s leading TV stations, the most accessible
source of election-related information, remain highly supportive of
Sarkisian and biased against Ter-Petrosian. "On most of the media,
the candidates’ total coverage time was more equitable than in
the previous reporting period," it said. "However, the coverage
of Levon Ter-Petrosian in various broadcast media contained many
critical remarks, while the other eight candidates were presented in
a generally positive or neutral manner."

"The news programs of almost all broadcast media except RFE/RL have
almost entirely omitted to air Levon Ter- Petrosian’s critical
remarks regarding Serzh Sarkisian and the incumbent president,"
added the report.

SIX CITIZENS OF GEORGIA WERE ON BOARD OF AIRPLANE CRASHED IN YEREVAN

Prime News Agency
Feb 14 2008
Georgia

Tbilisi. February 14 (Prime-News) – Six citizens of Georgia were on
a board of the airplane crashed in Yerevan.

Agency "News Armenia" informed that Canadian-built CRJ-100, operated
by the Belarusian airline the Belavia, with 21 people on a board has
crashed in flames, shortly after taking off from Yerevan airport in
Armenia, and crashed at the airport.

As reported, "it had just left en route for Minsk when it caught fire".

According to the Georgian consul in Armenia Givi Sharangia, the
Georgians who were on the board, have not received any serious injures.

PRESIDENT OF WORLD ARMENIAN CONGRESS: "WE MUST USE ALL MECHANISMS TO PROVE THAT KARABAKH BELONGS TO US"

Today
43106.html
Feb 14 2008
Azerbaijan

A presentation of a collection of documents "Nagorno Karabakh in the
international law and world policy" was held in Armenia’s National
Academy of Science yesterday.

"Many books have been written on Karabakh, but this edition is special,
as it comprises a number of valuable documents", Ara Abramyan,
chairman of the Union of Armenians of Russia and President of the
World Armenian Congress, said during the ceremony. He considers that
the collection of documents may become one of the mechanisms of the
Karabakh conflict resolution.

"We must use all mechanisms and prove that Karabakh belongs to us. It
is impossible to imagine Armenia without Karabakh", he added. At the
same time, the chairman of the Union of Armenians of Russia, added
that the second edition of such documents is prepared for publication.

"We also intend to publish the second edition of the collection to
comprise comments of international specialists on the issue", Ara
Abramyan noted.

It should be noted that the collection of documents "Nagorno Karabakh
in the international law and world politics", has been issued by the
Armenian Institute of International Law and Politics under the Union
of Armenians of Russia and edited by Yuri Barsegov, professor and
doctor of law.

Angus Reid Global Monitor, Canada
Feb 15 2008

Sarkisian Could Become President in Armenia

February 15, 2008

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Serge Sarkisian heads to this month’s
presidential election in Armenia as the favourite, according to a
poll by Populus released by Armenia TV. 50.7 per cent of respondents
would vote for the current prime minister in the ballot.

National Assembly chairman Artur Baghdasaryan of the Rule of Law (OY)
party is second with 13.4 per cent, followed by former president
Levon Ter Petrossian with 12.6 per cent, Vahan Hovhannisyan of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation with 7.6 per cent, Artashes
Geghamyan of National Unity (AM) with 6.4 per cent, Tigran Karapetian
of the People’s Party (ZhK) with 4.5 per cent, and former prime
minister Vazgen Manukyan with 3.2 per cent.

Armenian president Robert Kocharyan was re-elected to a new four-year
term in March 2003 in an election marred by fraud allegations. The
next presidential election is scheduled for Feb. 19.

In April 2007, Sarkisian became Armenia’s new prime minister
following the death of Andranik Markarian. The Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK) was headed by Markarian until his death, and is now
primarily led by Sarkisian. In May, Armenian voters renewed the
131-member National Assembly. Final results gave the HHK 32.82 per
cent of the vote and 64 seats, making it the strongest party in the
legislature. On that same month, Sarkisian said he would seek the
presidency.

On Feb. 12, Heritage Party member Vardan Khachatrian announced the
endorsement of Ter Petrossian, saying, "We couldn’t simply hold a
passive stance at the election. Our decision is well-grounded. Levon
Ter Petrossian is the only candidate enjoying public feedback. The
recent large-scale rallies testify to this belief and had a direct
influence on our decision. We haven’t agreed on some major points,
for example the Karabakh conflict resolution. Besides, we have
ideological differences."

Polling Data

Which candidate would you vote for in the presidential election?

Serge Sarkisian
50.7%

Artur Baghdasaryan
13.4%

Levon Ter Petrosyan
12.6%

Vahan Hovhannisyan
7.6%

Artashes Geghamyan
6.4%

Tigran Karapetian
4.5%

Vazgen Manukyan
3.2%

Source: Populus / Armenia TV
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 1,500 Armenian adults,
conducted from Jan. 21 to Jan. 29, 2008. Margin of error is 2.2 per
cent.

sian_could_become_president_in_armenia

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Feb 15 2008

About 40 companies participating in third INTERPRINT EXPO 2008
exhibition

YEREVAN, February 15. /ARKA/. About 40 companies from Armenia, Iran,
Germany and other countries are participating in the third
international specialized exhibition INTERPRINT EXPO 2008 on
printing, advertisement, design and packing.

`We start 2008 with this exhibition, because the publishing was
vigorously developed in Armenia throughout the previous year’, Ara
Stepanyan, executive director of LOGOS EXPO exhibition company, said
Friday in Yerevan at the exhibition opening ceremony.

He said this is one of those areas whose development is very
important to Armenia.

`This area is necessary to us. Everybody wants to know how to start
his business and how to boost it, which printing mechanisms to choose
and how to present own business’, Stepanyan said and wished the
exhibition participants effective work.

Levon Ananyan, chairman of the Union of Armenian Writers, said that
Armenian companies’ latest achievements are displayed at the
exhibition.

`I’m proud of the fact that our country has managed to reach such a
level in developing printing, advertisement and publishing areas’, he
said.

At the same time, Ananyan pointed out some underdeveloped aspects and
singled out marketing and management in book market as examples of
these aspects.

The exhibition will wrap up on February 17.
The purpose of the expo is to develop this business in Armenia,
according to the source. The expo also aims at attracting top
specialists in the field, putting fresh idea into practice and using
information technologies for printing art, advertisement and design.
The initiators of the expo believe this will help improve design
quality and will allow establish business ties between manufacturers
and design studios.

The sponsors of the event are the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Union of Manufacturers and
Employers (Businessmen), the National Union of Book Publishers and
the Writers’ Union of Armenia.

LOGOS EXPO Center is the first private exposition company in Armenia
and is a leader in organizing branch-wise, industrial, national and
international expositions and congresses both in Armenia and abroad.
The company has organized about 80 expos for the past 7 years.

LOGOS EXPO Center has been operating since 1999. Over 1,000 local and
foreign organizations have participated in its expositions, the
number of customers making 60,000. M.V.-0—

BIRD FLUE: FRONTIER SOLDIERS HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY TO FIRE ON BIRDS

Panorama.am
19:30 12/02/2008

"No one has the right to assign the frontier soldiers on the Turkish
border to shoot on birds crossing the border," National Security
Service told Panorama.am.

Panorama.am again talked to Grisha Baghyan, food safety and veterinary
state inspection head at the ministry of agriculture. The latter
further explained that an arrangement is made with Andranik Asatryan,
veterinary service head of the frontier forces, to "make control
stricter by the veterinary service."

"By saying stricter control we mean that the veterinary service of the
frontier forces will help us, in particular, by providing information
on dead birds or sending them to laboratory for studies," Baghyan said.

Speaking about shootings on the birds, the inspection head said that
they will shoot not to kill birds but to frighten them. Moreover,
during bird migration a monitoring will be conducted, bird blood will
be tested to identify those that carry infection.

TOM LANTOS, KEY CONGRESS VOICE ON US FOREIGN AFFAIRS DIES

Agence France Presse
Feb 11 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Tom Lantos, a Hungarian born-Holocaust survivor,
outspoken global human rights advocate and veteran Democratic foreign
affairs expert, died Monday, a month after announcing he had cancer.

California representative Lantos, who had just turned 80, was
surrounded by his family when he died Monday morning in Bethesda
naval hospital north of Washington, his spokeswoman Lynne Weil said.

He died from complications of cancer of the esophagus, which
he said last month would force his retirement from the House of
Representatives, where he had served since being elected in 1980 and
latterly chaired the chamber’s Foreign Affairs committee.

When he announced his diagnosis, Lantos, expressed his "profoundly
felt gratitude to this great country."

"It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the
Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have
received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of
serving the last three decades of his life as a member of Congress,"
he said.

Tributes quickly poured in for Lantos, from across the political aisle.

President George W. Bush hailed him as a "champion" of human rights.

"As the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, Tom was a living
reminder that we must never turn a blind eye to the suffering of the
innocent at the hands of evil men," Bush said in a statement issued
from the White House, where flags were lowered to half-staff.

Hillary and Bill Clinton remembered the "courageous and improbable
journey" of Lantos’s life.

"Tom bore witness to the worst of human cruelty and devoted his life
to stopping it," the Clintons said in a statement.

Clinton’s Democratic White House rival Barack Obama honored Lantos’s
"truly extraordinary life" in which he "never wavered in his defense
of freedom and opposition to tyranny."

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the veteran congressman’s passing was
a "terrible loss" while the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs
committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen described Lantos as an "unfailingly
gracious and courageous man."

Born in Budapest to a Jewish family in February 1928, Lantos was 16
when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. As a teenager, he was a member
of the anti-Nazi resistance, and later of the anti-Communist student
movement.

After the Soviets invaded Hungary, he discovered that most of his
family had died in the Holocaust. By 1947, he was in the United
States on an academic scholarship and became an economics professor
in San Francisco.

Since the Democrats regained control of Congress in 2006 elections,
Lantos has used his committee to launch strident appeals for greater
US action on human rights in China, Darfur, Myanmar and Russia.

Under his stewardship, the committee voted in October to describe the
mass slaughter of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as "genocide"
— plunging US relations with Turkey into crisis.

Lantos had also emerged as a fierce critic of Russian President
Vladimir Putin, and warned last June "Russia’s tactics under the KGB
colonel now in charge of the Kremlin threaten to send the country
back to its authoritarian past."