Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ANKARA HOPES FOR “DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS” IN KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS

news.am
June 24 2011
Armenia

Ankara hopes diplomatic activity in the South Caucasus will lead to
concrete progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, said Ibrahim
Kalin, aide to Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to him, progress will enable Turkey to move ahead in ongoing
efforts to normalize relations with Armenia, APA agency reports.

In his turn U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow
said Washington is supportive of Armenia-Turkey reconciliation and
other efforts that will bring peace to the region.

BARACK OBAMA CALLED SERZH SARGSYAN YESTERDAY

AZG DAILY
25-06-2011

President Serzh Sargsyan held a telephone conversation with the
President of the United States Barack Obama. The conversation was
initiated by the American side.

The President of US stressed the importance of the trilateral meeting
in Kazan with the participation of the Presidents of Armenia, Russia
and Azerbaijan. President Obama expressed gratitude to Serzh Sargsyan
for his leadership in the resolution of the NK conflict and in the
context of the Deauville statement stressed the importance of attaining
progress in Kazan.

President Sargsyan thanked the President of the United States for
his consistent support of the NK conflict resolution process in the
framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. Serzh Sargsyan noted that the
peoples of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have always been striving for
a peaceful and just resolution of the conflict. He said that positive
results could be expected, if in Kazan the Azerbaijani side displays
constructive approach. The Presidents of Armenia and the United States
discussed also issues pertaining to bilateral cooperation.

SHOOTINGS ON KIEVYAN STREET

ARMENPRESS
JUNE 24, 2011
YEREVAN

A man was taken to hospital after being wounded as a result of shooting
on Kievyan street yesterday late at night. The police press service
reported that an unknown person shot at Artur Gh. during the fight
and fled. The circumstances of the case are being clarified.

Investigation is underway.

ARMENIA AMONG NATIONS JOINING EU NUCLEAR STRESS TEST PROGRAM

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 24, 2011 – 10:36 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The European Union said that Russia and Ukraine
are among seven nations to join their nuclear stress test program
to examine whether atomic power plants can withstand accidents and
disasters.

The 27 EU nations agreed on such a program last month and had called
on other countries to join the plan. The June 23 announcement was
a first big breakthrough to expand the program. Under the tests,
“experts from other countries will evaluate the assessment carried out
by their national experts,” the EU said in a statement, AP reported.

Armenia, Croatia, Switzerland, Turkey and Belarus were the other
nations joining the program.

“This is a huge joint step forward, for us, and for the neighbors on
the European continent,” EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger
said.

Russia also applauded the move and wanted more countries to join.

“We urge them to conduct the tests and … exchange results,”
Sergey Kirienko, the head of Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom said in
a statement.

The EU test should last through much of the rest of the year and the
final results will be announced publicly by April.

The idea of performing “stress tests” on nuclear plants arose because
of the accidents at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan following
the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

European nuclear plants are being regularly checked as it is, but
under the system, the checks will be toughened up and coordinated
across the EU and face peer review by multinational teams of experts,
who could decide at short notice on checks on location.

The EU itself has 143 nuclear reactors. Russia has 32, and another
11 under construction. Ukraine, site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear
disaster, has 15 with two under construction.

TANGIBLE RESULTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOLAR ENERGY
Artak Barseghyan

“Radiolur”
24.06.2011 18:01

The scientific direction of use of solar energy started developing in
Armenia as early as 1950-1960s, and out country has a great potential
to develop the sphere, solar energy specialist and innovator, Professor
Ruben Vardanyan told a press conference today.

Very often the results of scientific work are not put into practice
because of financial and other difficulties. However, there are
pleasant exceptions, as well. Thus, the Industrial Technologies Company
has worked out a solar concentration system, which accumulates solar
energy and develops it into electric energy through a semiconductor
converter.

General Manager of the Industrial Technologies Company Artin Melikian
noted that it was their first experience of application of results of
scientific activity of Armenian scholars. The necessary equipments have
already been purchased and installed in the village of Geghadir near
Garni. In the near future this settlement will get energy exceptionally
from sunrays

This technology is applicable to multi-storey buildings, as well. The
solar batteries are ecologically clean and economically profitable,
since they can be used for 30 years without additional maintenance
expenses.

ARTHUR BAGHDASARYAN OFF TO IRAN

ARMENPRESS
JUNE 24, 2011
YEREVAN

A delegation led by the Secretary of the National Security Council
of Armenia, Arthur Baghdasaryan has left today for a two-day working
visit to Iran.

During his visit, Arthur Baghdasaryan will attend an International
Conference on Global Fight against Terrorism where he will deliver
a speech titled “The Challenges of Global Fight against Terrorism.”

The NSC Secretary is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security
Council Saeed Jalili, NSC press office reported.

SIT-IN FOR ‘LIBERATED LANDS’: YEREVAN YOUTH GROUP ON 24-HR STRIKE AGAINST CONCESSIONS OVER KARABAKH
By Gayane Abrahamyan

ArmeniaNow

24.06.11 | 13:32

A small group of Armenian youths held a “precautionary procession”
on Friday morning and began what it announced as a 24-hour sit-in
action in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in
Yerevan’s central square ahead of crucial talks on the future of
Nagorno-Karabakh hosted by Russia.

About 10 young people representing the Hayazn Youth Union, holding
banners with images of Karabakh war veterans and singing patriotic
songs, were making calls addressed to the foreign minister and the
president not to agree to concessions at internationally mediated
talks with Azerbaijan, the latest round of which is due in Kazan,
Russia, on June 24-25.

“By agreeing to any concession we will show disrespect to the memory
of our heroes,” said several of the Union’s members.

Representatives of the youth organization that was set up in 2009
and has about 500 members will take shifts until Saturday morning
to stage the sit-in action near Republic Square – “in defense of
liberated territories that are now on the negotiating table”.

“Ceding liberated territories can only be the decision of a defeated
nation, but we had a crushing victory; as the winning state we have
no right to sign such a document. If we give up even one village,
we’ll, first of all, break the Armenian spirit, secondly will agitate
the enemy’s enormous appetite and eventually will thus disrespect the
memory of our heroic men,” Hayazn Youth Union member Armen Lazarian
told ArmeniaNow.

Hayazn members urge other youth organizations to raise their voice
of protest, too.

“We all must show to the international community that we are not
asleep, we are seriously concerned about this issue and are resolute
in pursuing these demands,” Hayazn member, Yerevan State University
law student Lilit Petrosyan told ArmeniaNow.

Representatives of the Hayazn Youth Union submitted to the Presidential
Administration and the Foreign Ministry a statement signed by the
organization’s members in which they, in particular, said:

“We, members of the Hayazn Youth Union, are deeply concerned
and angered by the statements that have been made by high-ranking
officials, politicians, experts and consider all these points of the
expected document as unacceptable.”

“The signing of these points will ruin Artsakh, will ruin entire
Armenia, will ruin the Armenian people. We are resolute and confident
that our generation will not allow that.”

COURT DISMISSED OLIGARCH’S SUIT AGAINST NEWSPAPER

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 15:42:46 – 24/06/2011

On June 24, in the judgment in the case Tigran Arzakantsyan v Iravunk
Media LLC, the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Center
and Nork Marash Districts held that the complain had been groundless,
the Iravunk Newspaper informs.

The court dismissed Member of Parliament Tigran Arzakantsyan’s claim
to have the newspaper publish the response of the applicant to the
article headlined “Gambled a Round Sum” dated 22/02/2011 and pay
3,000,000 drams in satisfaction of insult and libel, as well as
586,000 drams for judicial expenses and 68,000 drams state levy.

The court held to confiscate the unpaid state levy of 10,000 drams
from the Member of Parliament.

By the way, in Armenia this is the first oligarch v media case
dismissed by the court.

PRESS RELEASE
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20500
Tel: 202-456-1111

President Obama Speaks with Leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan

Posted by Liz Sherwood-Randall on June 24, 2011 at 05:47 PM EDT

Yesterday, President Obama placed calls to Armenian President Serzh
Sargsian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. In each
conversation, he encouraged his counterparts to take concrete steps
toward a final settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that has
undermined peace and development in the South Caucasus for over 20
years.

Reaffirming the statement he issued with French President Sarkozy and
Russian President Medvedev in Deauville last month, the President
called upon both sides to engage constructively at the summit that
President Medvedev convened today at Kazan, Russia.

While the two leaders made progress today, they have more work to do
to reach agreement on the Basic Principles that would form the basis
of a final peace agreement. Armenia and Azerbaijan announced that
“mutual understanding [was] achieved on a number of issues whose
resolution contributes to the creation of the conditions for the
approval of the Basic Principles.”

The President told both leaders yesterday that if Armenia and
Azerbaijan demonstrate the leadership and courage to seize the
opportunity created by the recent momentum in the talks, the United
States will stand by them. Now is the time, he said, to offer the
people of the region a better future for themselves and for their
children.

Liz Sherwood-Randall is Special Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs and Senior Director for European Affairs.

EXPERT: NO CONCESSIONS TO BE COMPELLED FROM ARMENIA IN KAZAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 23, 2011
YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net – The main goal of Kazan-hosted meeting between the
Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia is to prevent resumption
of hostilities and curb threats and warlike statements by Baku,
according to David Jamalyan.

“I do not think that any scenario of the conflict settlement supposing
groundless concessions will be imposed on the Armenian side in Kazan.

Armenia’s position is not so weak to be forced to make concessions,”
the military psychologist told a press conference in Yerevan.

Jamalyan believes that currently the time runs in the favor of
Armenia, and both Armenian states must use it properly. Particularly,
the expert proposed to speed up the process of settlement in some
regions of Artsakh.

As regards Artsakh’s stand, the military psychologist noted that the
leadership has presented its clear-cut approach saying that return
to 1988 is excluded.