Author: Jidarian Alex

ONI: Iran to shut down the oil route
05.12.2009 17:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence has confirmed
that Iran can shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz through which
40 percent of the world’s oil supplies pass.

The report confirms a September G2B assessment that Iran’s naval
forces will shut down the oil route should either the United States or
Israel decide to bomb the country’s nuclear facilities.

"Given the importance of the Strait, disrupting traffic flow or even
threatening to do so may be an effective tool for Iran," ONI warned.

The G2B report also pointed out that while Iran’s ability to shut down
the Strait of Hormuz may be short-lived, the impact would be highly
detrimental to the world economy.

APA, Azerbaijan
Dec 5 2009

US administration and Azeri and Turkish lobbyists have high hopes
Erdogan’s visit to Washington

[ 05 Dec 2009 15:37 ]
Washinton. Isabel Levine – APA. The US administration and Azeri and
Turkish lobbyists in Washington DC are looking forward to Turkish
Prime-Minister’s negotiations with US President.

US Congress Turkish Caucus believes that Turkish `Armenia
normalization will positively influence on Nagorno-Karabakh peace
process and peace in the region on the whole, APA’s Washington
correspondent was told at the US Congress Turkish Caucus.

On December 4th, members of Caucus, including head of the group
Congressman Robert Wexler, republicans Congressmen Kay Granger and Ed
Whitfield released a statement determent to the upcoming visit of
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to Washington DC.

Congressmen expressed that they are looking forward to US-Turkish top
level negotiations’ next round. Congress’s Turkish Caucus especially
stressed Ankara’s leading role in the regions of Middle East and
Caucasus.

`We are supporting Ankara’s historic efforts in the normalization with
Armenia and also in the negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia’ –
APA’s Washington correspondent was told at the Caucus.

Congressmen also believe that Erdogan’s visit will improve US-Turkish
strategic relations: `Currently there is a big opportunity for
strengthening mutual economy, politics and security relations’.

`During the recent years Turkey’s role for US has increased and one of
the great examples of it is that the number of US Congress Turkish
Caucus reached one hundred’ ` says the statement.
Today US Secretary of State Clinton said that Washington DC is `very
much looking forward to Prime Minister Erdogan’s visit on Monday’.
Clinton noted that US is `grateful for the cooperation and their
partnership on many important matters’.
In their turn, representatives of Azerbaijani Diaspora in US say they
are waiting with impenitence for Prime-Minister Erdogan’s visit to US:
`We have a lot of thoughts, ideas and concerns which we would like to
forward straight to top US administration, and we hope it will be
possible with Mr. Erdogan’s help’, – says Farrukh Guliyev, member of
Azerbaijani Diaspora.

president.am, Armenia
Dec 5 2009

President Sarsgyan received the Deputy Head of the Border Guard
Service of the Russian Federal Security Service

Today, President Serzh Sarsgyan received the Deputy Head of the Border
Guard Service of the Russian Federal Security Service, Lieutenant
General Vladimir Streltsov. He introduced to the President of Armenia
the new Head of the Border Control Unit of the RF FSS in Armenia,
Lieutenant General Victor Vlasov.

President Sargsyan praised the strengthening strategic partnership
between Armenia and Russia and stressed the importance of continued
efforts in that area. The President of Armenia viewed border control,
guarding of the Armenian state border as an important component of
Armenia’s security system and one of the significant elements of the
Armenian-Russian relations.

`We are satisfied with the work of the border troops, with our joint
activities and their professional level,’ the President of Armenia
stressed and added that the relations with the border troops are
traditionally good and effective which allows to provide swift and
accurate solutions to all arising problems.

Expressing gratitude for the words of appreciation, Lieutenant General
Vladimir Streltsov said that they were striving to properly accomplish
tasks assigned to them.

UAE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO VISIT ARMENIA

armradio.am
04.12.2009 15:49

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Mohammed Gargash will
visit Armenia December 5-7.

Within the framework of the visit the Minister is expected to meet the
Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan,
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Territorial Administration
Armen Gevorgyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

The delegation headed by Anwar Gargash will visit Tsitsernakaberd to
lay a wreath at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims.

The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and the United Arab Emirates will
sign a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in fighting human
trafficking. The signing ceremony will be followed by a joint press
conference.

CONCERTS IN YEREVAN:THE SOLOIST OF DEEP PURPLE KEPT HIS PROMISE

Aysor
Dec 3 2009
Armenia

Ian Gillan will give charity concerts in Yerevan which will be held
under the high patronage of the RA President.

As "Mediamax" informs the money gathered as a result of the two
concerts will be used for repairing the music school number 6 of
Gyumri region.

On October Ian Gillan and other rock-stars had visited the school
and had promised to support the repairing of the school.

On October 2 by the decree of the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan the
rock legends Ian Gillan, Tonny Iommi, Geoff Downes and the author of
the project "Rock Aid Armenia" Jon Dee received the "Medal of Honor"
of Armenia.

THE 3RD VENTURE CONFERENCE STEP UNDERWAY IN YEREVAN

ArmInfo
2009-12-02 13:06:00

ArmInfo. The U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF),
Ministry of Economy of RA and The Enterprise Incubator Foundation
(EIF), have organized the 3rd Venture Conference "Science and
Technology Entrepreneurship Program" (STEP) in Yerevan. The conference
got underway today on December 2.

Issues related to commercialization of high-tech solutions will be
discussed at the conference with participation of scientists and
businessmen. The conference will sum up the results of the last
competition of high-tech solutions STEP prepared by the group of
scientists and companies registered in Armenia. The 5 winners will
receive by 15,000 USD grants. Fourteen projects have been submitted
to the competition, including the technology of producing bioactive
substances from milk whey, the project of exploration of a new
deposits of phosphorus bearing rocks and the prospects of production
of fertilizers, the project of Anti- Candida Vaccine for agricultural
sector, new type of solar energy accumulator and others.

The U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) is a
nonprofit organization authorized by the U.S. Congress and established
in 1995 by the National Science Foundation. This unique organization
promotes international scientific and technical collaboration through
grants, technical resources, and training. CRDF is based in Arlington,
Virginia with offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia; Kyiv,
Ukraine; Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan and Amman, Jordan.

GPM GOLD TO RAISE ORE RECOVERY AND CONCENTRATING THRICE OVER COMING YEARS

ArmInfo
2009-12-01 21:33:00

ArmInfo. GeoProMining Group is going to ore recovery and concentrating
thrice over the coming years i.e. from the present 45,000 tins to
150,000 tons monthly, GeoProMining President Roman Khudoliy told
ArmInfo after signing a strategic cooperation and partnership agreement
with South Caucasus Railway (SCR).

"We are not going to reconstruct the existing concentrating plant,
we will build a new plant in Ararat. The agreement with the SCR is
the first foundation stone in the strategy of the company," he said. R.

Khudoliy said that earlier in 2008 to transport some 25,000 tons of
ore the company often faced problems, whereas transportation scales
have been considerably increased now thanks to the agreement with the
SCR. The company recovered and concentrated 21473 tons of ore in the
first month of reactivation of the plant in Ararat (Nov 2008), later
in December the recovery and concentrating grew to 30410 tons and to
31285 tons already in January 2009 and 38000 tons in February 2009. At
present the company produces 30000-40000 ounces of gold annually.

R. Khudoliy said GeoProMining is negotiating with the design institutes
for construction and reconstruction of the concentrating plant in
Ararat. "A new system and the best technologies of gold-bearing ore
concentration will be introduced at the plant. We suppose that we
will boost our production in a few years," he said

GeoProMining is an international privately-owned diversified metals
resource holding company with a portfolio of quality exploration and
mining projects. The company was founded in 2001 and is focusing on
gold, silver, copper, silver, molybdenum, antimony and other metals.

GeoProMining Ltd owns two world class gold companies: Quartzite in
Georgia and GeoProMining Gold Ltd in Armenia. Company’s production is
gold in the form of "Dore", as well as copper, molybdenum and antimony
concentrates. The group of companies are engaged in metal mining in
Russia, Armenia and Georgia. Company’s main assets in Armenia are:
GPM GOLD and Agarak Copper-Molybdenum Combine.

ARMENIANS OF NOR NAKHICHEVAN TO COMMEMORATE EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.12.2009 18:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On Monday, December 7, Surb Karapet Armenian Church
of Rostov will hold public liturgy to commemorate the victims of
1988 Spitak earthquake, miasin.ru quotes Nor Nakhichevan’s Armenian
community representative as saying.

Spitak earthquake (magnitude: 7.2pt.) took place on December 7,
1998 in the north-west of Soviet Armenia. As a result, Spitak and
58 villages were leveled to the ground and the towns of Leninakan
(current name: Gymri), Stepanavan, Kirovakan (current name: Vanadzor)
as well as over 300 settlements were partially destroyed. Covering 40%
of Armenia’s territory, the great disaster left 25 thousand people
dead and 514 thousand homeless.

EURONEWS: NAGORNO KARABAKH IS A REGION OF REAL ARMENIAN CULTURE, WITH A CHRISTIAN BACKGROUND

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.12.2009 19:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ This week, Euronews broadcast a report on
Nagorno-Karabakh including an interview with Professor Bernard Coulie,
honorary rector of the Catholic University of Leuven and member of
the Europe-Armenia Advisory Council.

"What is really fascinating about Nagorno-Karabakh is that it’s a
region which gathers the very traits of the Armenian culture. We are
in a region of real Armenian culture, with a Christian background,
which is very important We are in the heart of Armenia, even if not
in a political sense – but this is also what is very fascinating",
Coulie commented being interviewed in front of one of the many Armenian
churches in Karabakh during a study trip organized by European Friends
of Armenia (EuFoA).

NA VICE SPEAKER SAMVEL NIKOYAN MEETS DIRECTOR OF CAUCASUS AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT OF STATE ETHAN GOLDRICH

National Assembly of RA
Dec 1 2009
Armenia

On November 30, NA Vice Speaker Mr. Samvel Nikoyan received the
Director of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts Mr. Ethan Goldrich
and the First Secretary of the Political-Economic Section of the
U.S. Embassy to Armenia Mr. Daniel Hastings.

At the guests’ request the NA Vice Speaker Mr. Samvel Nikoyan presented
the structure of the National Assembly, introduced the legislative
and oversight functions, the order of the parliament’s formation and
the involvement of the political forces in the National Assembly.

During the meeting the partners also discussed the normalization
of the Armenian-Turkish relations, the process of ratification of
protocols without preconditions, as well as issues pertaining to the
legislation on NGOs.

During the meeting the partners also discussed the normalization
of the Armenian-Turkish relations, the process of ratification of
protocols without preconditions, as well as issues pertaining to the
legislation on NGOs.