Author: Kajoyan Gevork

New Times party leader calls Sargsyan, Kocharian `Siamese twins’

November 11, 2011 – 15:30 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – New Times party leader believes current leader Serzh
Sargsyan and ex-president Robert Kocharian to have no serious
disagreements.

`To me, there were always close, like Siamese twins. As soon as the
change of current political system is on agenda, they’ll be back
together to counteract the attempt,’ Aram Karapetyan told a news
conference in Yerevan.

As Karapetyan noted, recent resignations were aimed to neutralize
politicians which could gain power even without Kocharian.

`Unwilling to become `the youngest pensioner,’ Kocharian makes every
effort to change that status,’ the party leader said.

Karapetyan advised Kocharian to set his sights on NKR president’s
post. `Kocharian’s accession to Karabakh presidency might positively
affect the Republic’s international ties, considering his connections
with Russia’s power-holding structures,’ the politician concluded.

The Economist: ice on `frozen’ Karabakh conflict can melt quickly

November 12, 2011 – 15:37 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Nagorno-Karabakh is often described as one of
several post-Soviet `frozen conflicts’. However, as the war in 2008
between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South
Ossetia showed, ice can melt quickly, an article `Conflict on Ice’
published in The Economist British weekly said.

`In Soviet times Nagorno-Karabakh was a mostly Armenian-populated
autonomous territory inside Azerbaijan, some 4,000 square kilometres
(1,540 square miles) big. Conflict erupted in 1988 as the territory’s
Armenians sought to secede from Azerbaijan. By the time the war ended
in 1994, the victorious Armenians had doubled the territory’s size and
carved out a land corridor to Armenia proper. Between 1988 and 1994
more than 1m Armenians and Azeris fled from both countries and
Nagorno-Karabakh. Azeri-populated towns in the region were left
devastated.

Outsiders have worked on peace plans since 1995 but none has stuck.
Yet the outline of a deal seems clear. Nagorno-Karabakh, which
declared independence in 1991, will return to Azerbaijan much of the
land it won in the war. Then, after an `interim’ period, the people of
the territory, including Azeri refugees living outside, will vote on
its final status.

Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh say there can be no deal without their
agreement. This is not bravado. The president of Armenia and his
predecessor are from the region. Ara Haratyunyan, Nagorno-Karabakh’s
prime minister, says he doubts Azerbaijan will ever accept his
territory’s independence. Still, he cheerfully points out, GDP has
doubled in the past four years (largely thanks to transfers from
Armenia and the diaspora).

In contrast to the war years, Azerbaijan is flush with cash from oil
and gas. This year 16.5% of its budget has been set aside for military
spending: this is roughly equivalent to the entire budgets of Armenia
and Nagorno-Karabakh combined. Yet officials in Stepanakert,
Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, seem relaxed. Russia is committed to
Armenia’s defence. And a strategic pipeline pumping oil to the West
from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan passes just 12 miles from
Nagorno-Karabakh-controlled territory. Shelling could quickly cripple
it,’ the article concludes.

BAYRAM SAFAROV: “THE AVOIDANCE OF ARMENIANS OF PEACEFUL NEGOTIATIONS ON SETTLEMENT OF NAGORNO KARABAKH PROBLEM MUST BE ACCEPTED NATURALLY”

APA
Nov 10 2011
Azerbaijan

Baku. Ramil Mammadli – APA. “Armenians always avoid the negotiations
at the level of international organizations towards peaceful settlement
of Karabakh problem.

The world community knows it. In reality their avoidance must be
accepted naturally. We said before, and announce once again that the
Armenian leadership is a murderer of Azerbaijan’s innocent citizens,
our sisters and brothers. They avoid the conflict’s settlement because
they are afraid of acts committed by them. That’s why they prolong the
peaceful negotiations”, chairman of the Public Union of Azerbaijani
Community of Nagorno Karabakh Bayram Safarov said, APA reports.

Safarov said that the Armenians, who lived in Nagorno Karabakh before,
must not forget that they are Azerbaijani citizens: “If they have
a mind and are thinking about the future of their children, they
must live by observing the clauses of Azerbaijani Constitution to
derive benefit from high-level mode of life of Azerbaijani people,
to take the development of Azerbaijan’s economy and social life into
consideration to share opportunities of Azerbaijani economy. If they
don’t want it, they just pass Hakari river and go to the other side,
and let us return to our motherland”.

SACHIN PILOT INAUGURATES IT CENTRE IN ARMENIA

The Statesman
November 9, 2011 Wednesday
India

Statesman news service NEW DELHI, 8 NOV: Indo-Armenian cooperation
in the field of information technology got a boost today with the
inauguration of the India-Armenia Centre for Excellence in Information
and Communication Technology by the Armenian Prime Minister, Mr
TigranSargsyanand the minister of state for communications and
information technology, Mr SachinPilot, in Yerevan,the capital of
Armenia. The centre set up under a bilateral MoUsigned on 26 June 2009
has been completed with an assistance of Rs7.56 crore from India. The
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing was engaged to execute the
project in collaboration with an Armenian counterpart. Speaking on the
occasion, Mr Pilot said: The centre should be viewed as re-affirmation
of Indias commitment to stand and act as a reliable partner of Armenia
in its developmental efforts. During his meeting with the Prime
Minister of Armenia, Mr Pilot reiterated that India attaches great
importance to its relations with Armenia. The two leaders noted with
satisfaction the complete understanding on issues of mutual concern
and convergence of views on important regional and international
issues. During the visit, Mr Pilot also met Mr TigranDavtyan,Armenian
minister of economy, and discussed the possibility for further
strengthening bilateral cooperation in the ICTsector.

EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: SERGEI MOVSISYAN SAVED THE TEAM

Panorama
Nov 10 2011
Armenia

In the 7th round of European team championships Armenian men team
defeated his French rival due to Sergei Movsisyan’s victory over
Lagrave. Levon Aronian ended in draw with Bacro, Vladimir Akopian
with Fresineti and Gabriel Sargsyan with Boeri.

Armenia’s team scored 11 and occupies the second horizontal. Armenia
lacks only one point to reach the leader of the championship –
Azerbaijan.

In the eighth round Armenia will meet with the Netherlands.

ARMENIAN CULTURE MINISTER: US FUNDING WITHDRAWAL WILL NOT HINDER UNESCO WORK

Al-Masry Al-Youm

Nov 10 2011
Egypt

Armenian Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs Hasmik Poghosyan said
Thursday that the United States’ decision to stop contributing to the
UNESCO budget following the organization’s recognition of Palestine,
will not affect its work negatively.

Poghosyan said her country was among those who overwhelmingly voted
in October in support of making Palestine a UNESCO member.

The US contributes 22 percent of UNESCO’s budget and said after the
vote that it was bound by law not to fund any United Nations body
that accepts Palestine as a member.

On the sidelines of signing a cultural cooperation protocol among Egypt
and Armenia, Poghosyan said “UNESCO had earlier witnessed a harder
situation when Washington withdrew from the organization rejecting
withdrawal of Israeli membership. However, it continued its work to
boost cultural relationships and preserving international heritage.”

UNESCO will not be affected by the halt of US, Canadian and Israeli
funding, she added, saying work will resume. Russia increased its
support for the organization following Washington’s decision.

UNESCO selected the Armenian capital Yerevan as the 2012 world’s
capital for books on the 500th anniversary of Armenia’s first
publication. Poghosyan invited her Egyptian counterpart to attend
the celebration that will be held in Venice, Italy in December.

Translated from the Arabic Edition

ARMENIA’S MELINE DALUZYAN LIKEWISE UNSUCCESSFUL AT WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS

news.am
Nov 10 2011
Armenia

PARIS. – At the 2011 World Weightlifting Championships being held in
Paris, Armenia’s Meline Daluzyan (69 kg) likewise became unsuccessful,
as she could not snatch 116 kilograms in all her three attempts.

To note, Vanik Avetisyan (69 kg) also had a no-lift, in men’s category,
whereas Izabella Yalyan became 25th while Samvel Grigoryan, 11th,
in their respective weight categories.

On Thursday, Arakel Mirzoyan and Tigran Martirosyan will compete in
the 77-kg category.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH: CONFLICT ON ICE

The Economist

Nov 10 2011

A sore in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan still festers

“I AM almost full for next summer”, boasts Mike Aghjayan, an Armenian
from Lebanon who is managing a new hotel in the town Azeris call Shusha
and Armenians Shushi. Visitors, mostly diaspora Armenians, will come
from the United States, Canada, France, Russia, Lebanon and Iran.

In 1988 this was a pleasant hilltop town, home to 15,000. Today barely
4,000 live on amid the ruins of war. His guests, Mr Aghjayan explains,
“want to see the land people gave their blood for.”

Nagorno-Karabakh is often described as one of several post-Soviet
“frozen conflicts”. However, as the war in 2008 between Russia
and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia showed,
ice can melt quickly. In Soviet times Nagorno-Karabakh was a mostly
Armenian-populated autonomous enclave inside Azerbaijan, some 4,000
square kilometres (1,540 square miles) big. Conflict erupted in 1988
as the territory’s Armenians sought to secede from Azerbaijan. By the
time the war ended in 1994, the victorious Armenians had doubled the
enclave’s size and carved out a land corridor to Armenia proper.

Between 1988 and 1994 more than 1m Armenians and Azeris fled from
both countries and Nagorno-Karabakh. Azeri-populated towns in the
region were left devastated.

Outsiders have worked on peace plans since 1995 but none has stuck.

Yet the outline of a deal seems clear. Nagorno-Karabakh, which declared
independence in 1991, will return to Azerbaijan much of the land it
won in the war. Then, after an “interim” period, the people of the
territory, including Azeri refugees living outside, will vote on its
final status.

Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh say there can be no deal without their
agreement. This is not bravado. The president of Armenia and his
predecessor are from the region. Ara Haratyunyan, Nagorno-Karabakh’s
prime minister, says he doubts Azerbaijan will ever accept his
territory’s independence. Still, he cheerfully points out, GDP has
doubled in the past four years (largely thanks to transfers from
Armenia and the diaspora).

In contrast to the war years, Azerbaijan is flush with cash from
oil and gas. This year 16.5% of its budget has been set aside
for military spending: this is roughly equivalent to the entire
budgets of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh combined. Yet officials in
Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, seem relaxed. Russia is
committed to Armenia’s defence. And a strategic pipeline pumping
oil to the West from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan passes just 12 miles
from Nagorno-Karabakh-controlled territory. Shelling could quickly
cripple it.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT TO ASK PARLIAMENT TO ADOPT A PACKAGE OF AMENDMENTS TO TAX LEGISLATION IN ACCELERATED MANNER

/ARKA/
November 10, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, 10 November. /ARKA/. Armenian Finance Minister Vache
Gabrielian told a Cabinet session today that the government will
submit a package of amendments to tax legislation to the National
Assembly and ask it to consider and pass them in an accelerated
manner. The amendments, approved by the government two weeks ago,
have been primarily designed to secure a substantial rise in tax
revenue (some 101 billion drams) next year.

Mr. Gabrielian said the government will ask the parliament to adopt
the proposed changes in December. He said the adoption of the proposed
changes would secure a normal procedure for approving the state budget
of Armenia for 2012.

The new tax legislation calls, in particular, for shifting to
progressive taxation scale with respect to individuals with annual
income of 2 million drams and more. These citizens will have to pay
25% of their income as taxes.

Besides, the government plans to increase taxes on elite beverages
by 50% and raise customs due for import of expensive cars costing
$90,000 and more by 20 percent. The proposed changes apply to to long
string of laws on various taxes, obligatory social security payments,
environment, banks and banking activity, protection of the domestic
market, bankruptcy, customs service, criminal code, labor code,
administrative code and some others. ($1 – 383.91 AMD).

ARMENIA-TURKEY PROCESS YIELDED NO OUTCOME; NOR RESULTED IN LOSSES – EXPERT

Tert.am
10.11.11

The signing of the Armenia-Turkey protocols yielded no result for
Armenia, but the country did not suffer losses either, Turkish studies
expert Ruben Safrastyan has said.

“We are now facing the same situation that we did before starting the
process. We did not have gains, but neither did we suffer losses,”
he told the Armenian daily Aravot.

The expert noted Turkey did not manage to win over Armenia in
an attempt to extort concessions on the Karabakh issue, Genocide
recognition or the Kars treaty.

“There has been no concession,” he said.