Author: Kalantarian Kevo

TURKEY’S POLICY OF ISOLATION AND BLACKMAIL AGAINST ARMENIA AN OBSTACLE FOR PEACE IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS

14:39 05.04.2013

Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia Dr. Hayk
Kotanjyan presented a report on “Regional Security Dynamics in the
South Caucasus” within the framework of the Harvard Black Sea Security
Program Workshop held in Bucharest on March, 2013. The full text of
the report is provided below:

“Dear Chairman, Dear Colleagues,

I would like to express my gratitude for organizing this 11th Harvard
Black Sea Security Program Regional Workshop in the format of Alumni
Reunion which brings together distinguished experts on regional
security dynamics to share ideas and discuss possible developments in
the Greater Black Sea Area. In my presentation of personal capacity,
I’m going mainly to deal with some aspects of regional security
dynamics in the South Caucasus; such as perspectives of the Karabakh
conflict resolution and current situation in the Armenian – Turkish
relations.

First of all, it should be mentioned that the large-scale changes
gaining an intense circulation in the geopolitical system of the
Greater Middle East provide new problems for the security of the South
Caucasus fraught with dangerous aggravation of existing intra-regional
threats.

The unfolding “Arab Spring” with unpredictable developments in Syria
and the neighboring countries, the growing role of Turkey in the
Middle East with shift in its foreign policy from the traditional
Western-oriented approach to the “Neo Ottomanism” vision with a broader
emphasis on Turkey’s relations with the Muslim world, the complexity
of development prospects of the security dynamics in Central Asia in
connection with the scheduled withdrawal of the Coalition troops from
Afghanistan at the end of 2014, as well as the ongoing system crisis
in the geostrategic space of the European Union – all these are the
factors affecting the dynamics of security environment’s changes in
the South Caucasus.

The dynamics of Armenia’s, Georgia’s and Azerbaijan’s involvement in
the international security system in both bilateral and multilateral
dimensions plays a unique role in maintaining the security in the
South Caucasus. Here as a positive factor it should be mentioned
that in comparison with its neighbors Armenia is more effective
in maintaining the balanced diversity of its security orientations
and the development of security cooperation with NATO and the CSTO,
Russia and the US, as well as with other world power centers like
the EU actively influencing the region.

Armenia’s partnership with NATO within the framework of cooperative
security goes back to 2002, when the country joined the PfP Planning
and Review Process (PARP) and then the Individual Partnership
Action Plan (IPAP), thereby getting the opportunity to make its own
contribution to multinational training, exercises and operations, as
well as to international security in general – under the auspices of
the Alliance. Since 2004 Armenia has been engaged in the NATO-led
peacekeeping Kosovo Force (KFOR) that furthered the relations
between the parties. Armenia’s peacekeepers participated in the
US-led Coalition in Iraq in 2005 – 2008. Since 2009 Armenia has been
contributing peacekeeping contingent to the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

Armenia appears to be in a unique position combining the knowledge
and experience gained both from the NATO-led peacekeeping operations
and the CSTO drills within the framework of the Collective Rapid
Reaction Forces and has a solid willingness to become a bridge for
sharing experience with the members of the two respected partner
organizations. For instance, the developments in Afghanistan and
particularly NATO’s decision to terminate its combat operations in
that country by 2014 emphasize the importance of consultations on the
NATO-CSTO cooperation in post-2014 Afghanistan – after the withdrawal
of the NATO Coalition Forces. Both NATO and the CSTO are interested
in neutralizing the possible threats coming from Afghanistan and in
this context the Armenian experience can serve as a good basis for
fertilizing the ground to launch the NATO-CSTO cooperation mechanisms.

It should be emphasized that the main threat to the peace and security
in the South Caucasus has been and remains the possible resumption
of the war by Azerbaijan against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Thus,
the peaceful and just resolution of the Karabakh armed conflict is of
crucial importance for the security and stability of our vulnerable
region. The peaceful civil movement for the protection of the
Artsakh Armenians’ rights in the process of Perestroika and Glasnost
became a challenge to the inertia of the Stalinist value system not
recognizing the priority of individual and collective human rights,
ignoring the aspirations of ethnic minorities which were arbitrarily
driven by the will of the “father of peoples” to the mini-empires of
the Soviet Azerbaijan type.

The Armenians responded to the pogroms organized by the Azerbaijani
authorities in Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku with a law-governed
referendum in Artsakh that recorded the adamant will of its people to
freedom. In the political-legal sense, the Nagorno-KarabakhRepublic
is established as a result of the referendum on the basis of the USSR
Law of the Perestroika period “On Procedures for Regulation of Issues
Related to Separation from USSRRepublics” during its effectiveness –
before signing the Alma-Ata Declaration on the official dissolution
of the Soviet Union.

Another distinctive feature of the Karabakh referendum is that the
Azeri minority in compliance with the aforementioned USSR Law was
involved in the preparation of the referendum, although consequently
boycotted it on the orders of the Baku authorities. This is evidenced
by the saved documents of the Referendum Commission. World practice
shows that in this way – without intervention of the metropolis –
the right of peoples to self-determination of Bangladesh, Eritrea,
East Timor, Montenegro, and just two years ago in the South Sudan
were implemented through the expression of free will at referendums
exactly among the self-determining peoples, and not the population
in their former metropolises represented by Pakistan, Ethiopia,
Indonesia or Yugoslavia – Serbia and Sudan.

Since the armistice was signed in 1994 by the Azerbaijani, Armenian
and Nagorno Karabakh parties to the armed conflict, both Armenia and
the NagornoKarabakhRepublic have supported the peace process under the
auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group. Armenia’s and the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic’s efforts aimed to foster confidence building, as mutual
trust is the key for long term peace and stability among Armenia,
NKR and Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani leadership actions are
destroying any base of confidence building. As a symptomatic example
of such activities we can mention a case of rude falsification of the
history of the Eastern Transcaucasia with the efforts of political
“balancing” the genocidal crimes against the Armenian population in
the early 20th century with the non-existent “genocide against the
Azerbaijanis”. In 1998 the Decree of the President of the Republic
of Azerbaijan “On the genocide against the Azerbaijanis” was issued
on the basis of these falsifications.

The Azerbaijani authorities are implementing generously financed
campaign of falsifying authorship of mockery of the corpses of victims
of the Khojaly tragedy. The details of this provocation as a tool of
political struggle for power in Baku were freshly stated in the famous
interview of the then Azerbaijani President Ayaz Mutalibov to the Czech
journalist Dana Mazalova. The Armenian side has all the evidence that
the corpses were in the vicinity of the city of Agdam, which then
was in the area of responsibility of the Azerbaijani authorities,
under the control of their military forces, and the physical contact
of the Armenians with the dead bodies in order to mutilate them was
not possible.

The policy of fomenting the anti-Armenian sentiment currently is not
limited only to fooling the Azerbaijani people, but also is exported to
the international community. The denunciation of the “Ghuba” impulse of
xenophobia against the Armenians – with the attempts of manipulatively
involving the Jewish Diaspora in negative anti-Armenian sentiments,
nurtured by the Head of the neighboring state – is symptomatic. It
is his decree on the establishment of the genocide memorial complex
that actually canonized the untested version of the perpetrators
of the mass death of people buried in the excavated graves in North
Azerbaijan and their national and religious affiliation. The colleagues
from Israel and the Jewish Diaspora are resentful that the Head of
Azerbaijan includes in the state protocol the visits of the Jewish
organizations leaders to the memorial built allegedly on the remains
of the Jews killed by the Armenians, but in fact – on the graves of
the Armenians killed in expeditionary raid into the North Azerbaijan
in 1918 by the Caucasian Islamic army led by Turkish General Khalil
Pasha and Caucasian Tartar gangs.

Another vivid example of Azerbaijani leadership deliberate policy
toward preventing any possibility of confidence building process
between Armenia, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan is the
persecution orgy with public mass burning of books of Azerbaijani
eminent writer Akram Aylisli. In his novel Aylisli dared to truthfully
describe along with the peace and good neighborliness of the Armenians
and Caucasian Tartars in Nakhichevani city of Agulis also the cruelty
of Turkish and Caucasian Tartars against the Armenian population
of Nakhichevan and Baku. The official and committed-to-authorities
public circles reacted with repressions and treachery accusations as
per the worst traditions of Nazi Germany. The parallels between the
fires of the books by Heine, Mann, Freud, and Remarque burned by the
Nazis of Hitler’s Germany and the publications of the people’s writer
and honored artist of Azerbaijan are obvious.

The symptoms of hyper-chauvinism of the Aliyev regime is also expressed
in the glorification of Ramil Safarov – a cowardly murderer of the
sleeping colleague – an Armenian officer at the NATO international
training program. This provocation by the Azerbaijani authorities
aimed at undermining the participation of the three permanent members
of the UN Security Council – Russia, the US and France – in the format
of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in the peaceful resolution of the
Karabakh conflict – has been condemned by the authorities of all the
three Co-Chair countries.

We believe that the only realistic way which can lead to a lasting
peace between Armenia, the NagornoKarabakhRepublic and Azerbaijan
passes through the recognition of the legitimacy of 1991 referendum
and independence of the Nagorno-KarabakhRepublic by Azerbaijan. The
participants of the confidential negotiations based on the results
of the Karabakh war of 1992-1994 witnessed that the former President
of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev with his Armenian counterparts was also
inclined to the possibility of such an effective resolution of the
conflict.

The preparation of the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh
populations for the recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, as
well as for parallel negotiations among the Republic of Azerbaijan,
the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the Republic of Armenia on the
status of some territories of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s security
zone – to guarantee the security of the population and sustainable
development of all the three independent states – could be a factor in
the establishment of lasting peace and security in the South Caucasus
and its integration into the international community.

Another obstacle on the road toward peace and stability in the South
Caucasus is the Turkey’s policy of isolation and blackmail against
Armenia. As we know, heavily influenced by Azerbaijan the Turkish
leadership has rejected the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish
protocols signed in 2009 with mediation efforts of Switzerland
and support of the US, Russia, France and the EU. Being involved in
struggle with the Turkey’s “DeepState”, current Turkish leadership in
its relations with Azerbaijan ironically backs the ideological notion
of “one people, two states” which was jointly elaborated by the former
leaders of Azerbaijan and their partners from Turkey’s “DeepState”.

Turkey continues to put preconditions on Armenia demanding unilateral
concessions in the Karabakh negotiations as well as stepping up its
state policy of denial concerning the fact of the Armenian Genocide
committed in the Ottoman Empire.

As it is well known, Armenia strongly believes that the productive way
ahead in the Armenian – Turkish relations is the ratification of the
Armenian-Turkish protocols without preconditions and establishment of
diplomatic relations between two states with simultaneous opening of
the Turkish – Armenian border, as it was signed under the auspices
of the three permanent members of the UN Security Council – France,
Russia and the United States. Meanwhile, as the Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan has recently emphasized, Armenia cannot and will not
wait indefinitely for the ratification and will consider the recall of
its signature from protocols within the reasonable time frame. In my
personal view, normalization of the Armenian – Turkish relations on
the basis of 2009 Protocols could foster significantly the security
and stability in the South Caucasus and the surrounding Greater Black
Sea Region.

I would like also to touch upon the perspectives of Georgia’s
domestic and foreign policy in the light of recent political
developments in Georgia. It’s worthy of mention that after October
2012 well-done democratic Parliamentary Elections we are witnessing
the ongoing consultations and sometimes tensions between the President
Saakahsvili’s team and the Prime Minister Ivanishvili’s coalition. One
thing is obvious: till now the level of uncertainty is too high for
making any valid forecasts either on Georgia’s domestic or foreign
policy mid- and long-term developments. At the same time, we expect
that normalization of the Georgian – Russian relations in parallel
with keeping the advanced Georgia-West strategic partnership in
balanced harmony may play a significant role in furthering mid-
and long-term regional stability.

In the meantime, taking into account the constitutional amendments
which are set to come into force in October 2013, the center of
political power will be gradually shifted from the Government and the
President’s Office to the Georgian parliament and, in my viewpoint,
our expert community should pay more attention to the developments
within the Georgian National Assembly where the Prime Minister’s
coalition holds a majority.

At the end of my presentation I would like to highlight the importance
of the Harvard Black Sea Security Program role which since its
inception in 1997 has been playing a key role in fostering the frank
and academic discussions at expert and political level on several
issues concerning the Greater Black Sea Region. These workshops present
an important opportunity for expert community and policymakers to share
views on regional security dynamics and to come up with new ideas
which may be useful in overcoming the complicated set of challenges
facing our region through its sustainable development. I would also
like to express my gratitude to the Romanian side for hospitality and
creating all conditions necessary for organization of this workshop.

“KRUNK AIR” NOT REGISTERED IN ARMENIA

12:14, 5 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, ARMENPRESS. “Krunk Air” company does not exist. In
a conversation with “Armenpress” the Press Secretary of the Chief
Department of Civil Aviation Nelly Cherchinyan stated this refuting
the information of the media saying that “Krunk Air” company, which
has already acquired aircrafts, will substitute “Armavia” Air Company.

Among other things Nelly Cherchinyan noted: “There are 11 air companies
in the Republic of Armenia, which received exploiter’s certificate and
realize both regular and irregular air transportations.” “Krunk Air”
has never received the exploiter~Rs certificate in Armenia.

ARMENIA BUYS ITS OWN PROPERTY EXPENSIVELY

Armenia does not receive the profit from its own mines. In addition,
it buys its own property from itself.

Copper, gold and molybdenum extraction is growing, which means that
Armenia is conducting a policy of emptying mines. Evidence is state
statistics on extraction of solid minerals in 2005-2011. Few of
these minerals are used in Armenia. They are exported to be resold
to Armenia later.

Mostly non-metal minerals are used in Armenia, such as gravel,
perlite, basalt, granite which are used in building, salt which is
used to clean roads from ice in winter. Lime and earth are used in
the production of cement, says Ruben Movsesyan, the chair of Mineral
Exploration and Study at the Department of Geography and Geology of
Yerevan State University.

According to him, some minerals are extracted for export only, such
as tellurium.

By the way, copper and molybdenum can come with gold, tellurium,
selenium, cadmium, bismuth or other solid minerals. It is not known
what the factories do with these minerals. It is possible that they
extract these minerals.

Movsesyan says copper could be used in Armenia to produce cables
which are now imported.

According to the Customs Service, in 2011-2012 118,332.5 tons of
copper ore and concentrate at a total value of 260,552,500 dollars
was exported. In 2012, the amount is not mentioned but the value is
227,579,700 dollars.

In the meantime, Armenia imports a wide array of products which
contain copper. According to the Customs Service, in 2011 276,087.6
tons of products containing copper at a value of 3,195,900 dollars
was imported to Armenia, in 2012 249,737.4 tons of products containing
copper at a value of 3,040,900 thousand dollars was imported.

The same analysis could be made for other solid minerals of high
value which are imported in large amounts and return to Armenia in
imported products.

Karine Ionesyan 11:55 05/04/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

AZERBAIJAN COULD RESORT TO EXTREME MANIFESTATIONS – REPUBLICAN PARTY OF ARMENIA

April 05, 2013 | 12:01

YEREVAN. – The tense situation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is a
matter that concerns Azerbaijan’s domestic politics. Ruling Republican
Party of Armenia (RPA) MP, National Assembly Standing Committee on
Foreign Relations Chairman Artak Zakaryan said this during a press
conference on Friday.

In his words, Azerbaijan has found itself in a political situation
where it could resort to extreme measures.

“Preparing for the presidential elections, having the international
relations’ active and somewhat overwhelming influence on Azerbaijan’s
domestic political developments, [having] an intolerant public
resistance, and not having the prospect for its desired results in
the Artsakh [that is, Nagorno-Karabakh] negotiation process, this
country [that is, Azerbaijan] could resort to an extreme policy,”
Zakaryan noted.

As per the RPA MP, Azerbaijan could enter into all types of political
processes, provided that it comes out of this impasse.

“Azerbaijan stays in the same place and understands that this could
cause an internal outburst, especially when Turkey’s attention diverts
toward the Middle East, and Azerbaijan is considered as the last
country in European platforms,” Artak Zakaryan concluded.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

5 NEW HOTELS IN YEREVAN TO DEVELOP BUSINESS TOURISM

10:32, 5 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, ARMENPRESS: By the end of the year five new hotels
will be built in Yerevan, which will be both of the medium class and
5-stars class complexes. As Armenpress was reported by the Head of the
Yerevan Municipal Culture and Tourism Department Maria Baraghamyan,
the three of the hotel complexes would be built in the Center of
the city, one of them – in Nork Marash community and one – in Avan
administrative community.

The Chairman of the Armenian Association of Travel Agents Simon
Khachaturyan believes that the hotels would foster the development of
business tourism in Yerevan. “Today Yerevan needs business class hotel
complexes, which will be able to accept several hundreds of clients.

Often some delegations, visiting Yerevan, complain that they do not
fit in the same hotel and have to take rooms in different hotels”,
– said Khachaturyan.

The Armenian Tourism Association Arthur Voskanyan stated that Yerevan
needs not only expensive but also comfortable medium class hotels.

“Notwithstanding how important it is to have 5-stars hotel complexes,
the experience shows that the tourists more prefer medium class hotels,
which are not so expensive, but at the same time have all the necessary
conditions”, – said Voskanyan.

There are 44 hotels in Yerevan at present. About 850 thousands of
tourists visit Yerevan annually.

LE PRESIDENT BAKO SAHAKIAN REAFFIRME LA PRIORITE D’UNE RECONNAISSANCE INTERNATIONALE DU KARABAGH

Lors d’une rencontre avec le personnel diplomatique a Stepanakert le
mardi 2 avril, le president de la Republique du Haut-Karabagh, Bako
Sahakian a souligne que les priorites de la politique etrangère de
l’Arstakh restaient la reconnaissance internationale du territoire,
la resolution pacifique du conflit l’opposant a l’Azerbaïdjan,
ainsi que le developpement des relations a differents niveaux avec
des pays tiers.

M. Sahakian a rappele ces priorites lors d’une visite dans les locaux
du ministère des affaires etrangères de la Republique du Haut-Karabagh,
où il participait a une reunion dediee aux activites du ministère
et aux grandes lignes de la politique etrangère. Les participants
ont rendu compte de l’action de la diplomatie du Karabagh en 2012 et
presente les grands enjeux de l’annee 2013 en matière de diplomatie. Le
president du Karabagh a soulige a cette occasion la necessite de
renforcer la strategie d’information et de communication du ministère,
afin de fournir les informations les plus precises et les plus justes
sur la realite du Karabagh et de lutter ainsi avec plus d’efficacite
contre la machine de propagande utilisee par l’Azerbaïdjan contre
les Armeniens.

Le president du Karabagh a indique qu’il fallait “cesser d’etre
reactifs et etre plus actifs, car nous disposons de l’avantage moral,
politique et juridique”. M. Sahakian a aussi souligne l’importance de
l’activite diplomatique dans le domaine des relations economiques avec
les pays tiers. Le ministre des affaires etrangères du Karabagh, Karen
Mirzoyan, qui dirige donc les differents departements du ministère,
a rendu son rapport d’acticvites pour l’annee 2012, en fisant le cap
diplomatique pour l’annee en cours.

vendredi 5 avril 2013, Gari ©armenews.com

REGIONAL COOPERATION EFFECTIVE IN ESTABLISHING STABILITY: IRANIAN OFFICIAL

Press TV, Iran
April 4 2013

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has stressed
the importance of strengthening regional cooperation to establish
stability in the region.

In a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in
Yerevan on Wednesday, Mehmanparast said that regional cooperation
would play a “very effective” role in establishing stability in the
region and resolving problems.

He hailed the high level of political relations between Iran and
Armenia and called on the two countries to make efforts to enhance
their economic and trade cooperation.

“The economic conditions of Iran and Armenia have appropriate
capacities to increase the level of trade ties and technical and
engineering services, which should be supported by facilitating the
presence and activities of traders and technical and engineering
firms,” the Iranian spokesperson reiterated.

The Armenian foreign minister, for his part, said that Tehran and
Yerevan are witnessing good developments in their ties, adding that
having relations with Iran on the basis of mutual respect is among
the priorities of his country’s foreign policy.

Nalbandian pointed to the second round of the talks between Iran and
the six major world powers of the P5+1 scheduled to take place in the
Kazakh city of Almaty and expressed optimism that issues pertaining
to the Iranian nuclear program would be resolved peacefully.

The two-day talks, which will cover a range of topics including Iran’s
nuclear energy program, have been scheduled for April 5-6.

Iran and the P5+1 (China, Russia, France, Britain and the US plus
Germany) have held several rounds of talks with a focus on the Iranian
nuclear energy program. The last round of the negotiations between
the two was held in Almaty on February 26-27.

The United States, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly
accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear
energy program.

Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to
the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology
for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iranian
nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s
civilian nuclear program has been diverted toward non-civilian aspects.

SF/HJL

SPOKESMAN DISCUSSES WITH YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY CHANCELLOR

Islamic Republic News Agency IRNA, Iran
April 3 2013

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mihman-parast discussed issues of
mutual interest with Chancellor of Yerevan State University Aram
Simonyan here on Tuesday.

In the meeting, the two sides called for expansion of cooperation
between universities of Iran and Armenia.

Simonyan suggested that more Iranian students attend Armenian
universities and wider relations between higher education institutes
of the two countries establish.

He also called for cooperation between universities in the fields of
geology, seismology and book publication and more exchanges between
Iranian and Armenian universities students and faculties.

Mihman-parast said that Iran currently has 45 million population under
35 years old, so it has a great capacity for university admission
and would welcome increase in universities cooperation with other
countries.

He added that relations between the two countries are in a good level
now, but it should increase to its highest level and in this concern
increasing students visits, exchanging student delegations, decreasing
cost of students trips and using university capacities for this
concern such as dormitories and food services could be very effective.

After this meeting, Mihman-parast met with Dean of Orientology
Department of the university Gorgen Malikian.

In the meeting, Malikian called for students visits to Iran to increase
their experiences and increasing their knowledge about Iran’s history
and civilization.

Head of Iranology Chair in Orientology Department of the university
Garnik Astatorian, who attended the meeting, presented a report on
activities of the center.

Media delegations from IRNA, Fars, ISNA, Mehr and News Network are
accompanying Mihman-parast in his visit to Armenia.

The spokesman is to meet with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian on Wednesday.

MP SAYS 17 CAUCASIAN CITIES “INTERESTED IN JOINING” IRAN

Fars News Agency , Iran
April 3 2013

A senior Iranian MP has said that 17 Caucasian cities, including Baku,
“are interested in joining Iran”, Fars News Agency reported on 3 April.

“A trend has started calling for 17 Caucasian cities, including some
in Azerbaijan, to join our country; we hope that this is achieved
with the support of the people and international organizations,”
Mansur Haqiqatpur, deputy head of Iranian parliament’s national
security and foreign policy committee told Fars.

The MP was reacting angrily to Azerbaijan hosting a conference of
groups seeking independence for Iran’s 20 million-strong minority of
ethnic Azeris.

On 31 March, Iran summoned the Azeri ambassador to Tehran over the
conference, which it termed as “unjustifiable”.

Despite this, Haqiqatpur criticized Iran’s reaction to the conference,
saying: “Some of the contemptible statements of Azeri officials were
not confronted seriously.”

“The issue about 17 cities in the region joining our country is
serious, and there is going to be a meeting about this in the
Caucasus,” he added.

Chiding relations between Azerbaijan, Israel and the UK, the Iranian
MP said: “These foreign regimes laugh at Azerbaijani statesmen,
and consider them too weak to liberate the 20 per cent of their land
which is occupied by the Armenians.”

Haqiqatpur described the level of ties between Iran and Azerbaijan
as “weak and lower than average”, and said: “Expanding ties must be
damaging to them, which is why they think of downgrading relations
with Iran everyday.”

He added that he had written nine letters to Azerbaijan’s parliament,
to which they had not “given a transparent response”.

[Translated from Persian]

SUKHOI CIVIL AIRCRAFT WILL SUE ARMENIA’S ARMAVIA OVER $1.4 MILLION DEBT

InSerbia News
April 4 2013

MOSCOW – Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC) is ready to sue Armenian airline
Armavia over the unfulfilled terms of a deal on SSJ-100 aircraft,
the first Sukhoi Superjet in the airline’s fleet, and losses from
the termination of the sale agreement.

The Russian aircraft manufacturer is planning to go to the
International Commercial Arbitration Court, Gazeta.ru reports referring
to an unnamed source in the company.

“The lawsuit will be filed in the next few days. The plaintiff’s
claim totals around $1.385 million,” the source is quoted as saying.

In December last year the Armenian national carrier released its
financial statement for 2012. According to the document the company’s
debt was 540 million roubles ($17 million). The owner of the troubled
airline Mikhail Bagdasarov blamed the carrier’s financial problems
on the global economic crisis and losses from the use of the Russian
SSJ-100.

The Armenian airline became the first customer of the Sukhoi
Superjet-100 airliner.

Under the terms of the contract, the liner was mortgaged with SCAC
until the full price was paid by Armavia. However the carrier failed
to pay the full sum for the aircraft and decided to terminate the
sales contract and return the aircraft to the manufacturer.

The airline sealed an amendment to the sale contract and returned
the airplane to Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. According to a SCAC statement
Armavia mortgaged the aircraft to third parties while it was in
their possession.

The manufacturer hopes the International Commercial Arbitration Court
will help solve the disparities.

“Taking into account the financial state of the Armenian airline
and a high probability of its bankruptcy, the prospects for a full
implementation of the above-mentioned contract look rather uncertain,”
SCAC statement says. “In case of bankruptcy, the courts in Armenia
may seize the aircraft…”

Armavia halted flights on April 1 and launched bankruptcy proceedings.

Armavia had 14 aircraft making more than 100 flights a week to 20
countries.

Armavia is owes money to Russian airports, banks and Russia’s civil
aviation authority. According to the authority the carrier owes $1.4
million to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport and smaller ammounts to two other
airports in southern Russia.

VTB bank has already filed a lawsuit against Armavia and Mika Limited
owned by Mikhail Bagdasarov to claim a reported debt of $22 million.

The bank was refinancing the airline’s loan for the purchase of the
SSJ-100 airplane.

Mikhail Bagdasarov, announced his intention to sell the company last
year, however he failed to find a buyer.