Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ARMENIA TO HAVE MORE PUBLIC BEACHES

news.am
June 07, 2012 | 14:47

YEREVAN. – The Government of Armenia on Thursday adopted a decision,
whereby new public beaches will be set up this year at the recreation
area of the Sevan National Park.

A 5.5-hectare land will be allotted for the new beaches, and the
financing will be provided by the Global Fund.

To note, two public beaches were put into operation last year upon
the President’s instruction. And their hectic schedule has shown that
the people demand a new model for recreation.

The new public beaches will provide equal, accessible, and cost-free
opportunities for the people, additional tourism infrastructures will
be built in the areas, and new seasonal jobs will be created.

ARMENIA RECEIVES $37-MILLION LOAN

news.am
June 07, 2012 | 17:10

YEREVAN. – In May 2012, Armenia’s State Budget received a US$37-million
loan from the International Development Association (IDA) and the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which are
World Bank Group members.

Armenia’s National Assembly ratified on March 20 the funding agreement
signed between Armenia and the IDA and the loan agreement signed
between Armenia and the EBRD on February 15, 2012.

But since these amounts were not envisioned in the State Budget,
the Government on Thursday was compelled to redistribute the sources
for funding the Budget deficit.

POLITICIAN: AZERBAIJANI HYDROCARBON CAST DOUBT UPON EFFECTIVENESS OF ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

arminfo
Thursday, June 7, 18:55

Azerbaijani hydrocarbon cast doubt upon effectiveness of
Armenian-Russian strategic partnership which may hardly be called such,
deputy chairman of the opposition Heritage party, former member of
the parliament, Stepan Safaryan, said at today’s press-conference.

He said that Azerbaijani sabotage actions at the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border and Russia’s silence, although it had taken a duty to ensure
Armenia’s security, has revealed the true core of this co-called
partnership. “In all probability, Azerbaijani oil and gas have done
their business. For this reason, the Russians did not interpose in
the situation”, – Safaryan said.

He also added that the USA also doubts about the ability of the
Russians to preserve stability and security in the South Caucasus.

Moreover, the recent statements by US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton about new ways of the Karabakh conflict settlement are evidence
of the fact that Washington does not trust in the new president of
Russia, Vladimir Putin, and does not want Moscow to keep leadership
in the intermediary process.

HAUT-KARABAKH: MOSCOU PREOCCUPE PAR LE REGAIN DE TENSION
Alexandre Loukachevitch

RIA NOVOSTI
07/06/12

RIA Novosti. Aleksey Kudenko18:12 07/06/2012MOSCOU, 7 juin – RIA
Novosti La Russie est preoccupee par la montee des tensions dans la
zone du conflit du Haut-Karabakh et appelle les parties a trouver une
solution pacifique a leurs desaccords, a declare jeudi le porte-parole
du ministère russe des Affaires etrangères Alexandre Loukachevitch.

“Nous jugeons inadmissible l’escalade continue de la tension et
appelons les deux parties a poursuivre leurs efforts en vue de regler
le conflit par des moyens politiques et diplomatiques sur la base du
principe de non-recours a la force”, a indique M. Loukachevitch lors
d’un point de presse a Moscou.

Il a souligne qu’a la suite des violations du cessez-le-feu commises
depuis le debut du mois, le nombre de morts parmi les militaires
avait considerablement augmente, et que les echanges de tirs avaient
egalement fait des victimes parmi les civils.

“Nous sommes preoccupes par les informations faisant etat de
l’aggravation de la situation dans la zone du conflit”, a affirme
le diplomate.

“Nous partons du fait que les parties au conflit doivent observer
strictement l’accord de cessez-le-feu signe en 1994”, a ajoute M.
Loukachevitch.

Le conflit du Haut-Karabakh remonte a fevrier 1988, lorsque cette
region autonome principalement peuplee d’Armeniens a annonce son
intention de se separer de l’Azerbaïdjan. Cette demarche a provoque
des combats entre les troupes armeniennes et azerbaïdjanaises, a
la suite desquels Bakou a perdu le contrôle du Haut-Karabakh et de
sept regions adjacentes. Le cessez-le-feu decrete le 12 mai 1994 est
regulièrement viole par les deux parties.

RUSSIA CALLS THE SIDES OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT TO FIND DIPLOMATIC SOLUTIONS

ARMENPRESS
7 June, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS: Official representative of Russian Foreign
affairs ministry Alexander Lukashevich in the twitter account of the
ministry reverberated to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and called the
sides to continue finding political and diplomatic solutions of the
conflict. “The number of victims has increases in Nagorno-Karabakh
in June. The further tension of the situation is unacceptable”
Armenpress reports that abut this wrote Lukashevich. In his words
Russia will continue to support the sides of the conflict to find
peaceful solutions.

“During the talk with “Russia 24” Lukashevich hoped that the
meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Paris will
reduce the tension and be favorable for coordination of the basic
principles of the conflict’s solution. “Russia thinks that sides must
remain loyal to the cease-fire regime. The incidents in contact line
failure agreements reached in past and complicate negotiations” said
Lukashevich. He called the sides one more time to continue making
efforts for peaceful settlement of the conflict based on refraining
from use of force, territorial integrity of states, and the right of
people’s self-determination principles.

POLITICAL SCIENTIST DOES NOT SEE AIM FROM AZERBAIJAN TO RESUME WAR

ARMENPRESS
6 June, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS: The visit of US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton to the region helped Azerbaijan to reconfirm its approach: The
opinion of international institutions is not important for Azerbaijan
at all. Armenpress reports that political scientist Narek Galstyan
mentioned during the press conference on June 7 that about it state
Azerbaijani diversion attacks during Clinton’s visit.

“We should not forget that Azerbaijanis did such things several months
ago too. It was an expression of contempt towards international law and
offence to USA” he mentioned. In Galstyan’s opinion however diversion
attacks by the opponent does not seek war. Political scientist predicts
that border incidents of limited impact will continue in contact line
between Armenia and Azerbaijan but the opponent will not undertake
large-scale operations as it is not favorable for him.

After Clinton’s visit Galstyan considered it possible the offering new
version of Artsakh conflict’s settlement. Galstyan had a difficulty
to say clearly what kind of version it will be.

SERIOUS ESCALATION IN ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN VIOLENCE GREETS CLINTON
by Joshua Kucera

EurasiaNet.org
June 6 2012
NY

Just as Hillary Clinton is making a trip through the Caucasus, the
Azerbaijan-Armenia border is seeing some of the worst violence in
years. On Monday, three Armenian soldiers were killed by Azerbaijani
forces, and on Tuesday, the Armenians retaliated, killing five
Azerbaijanis. Alex Jackson, in a very worthwhile post at his blog
Caspian Intel, notes that the violence was not on the “Line of
Contact” separating Azerbaijanis and Armenians at the de facto
border of Nagorno Karabakh, but at the state border between Armenia
and Azerbaijan proper. Further, the two incidents took place about
25 miles apart, “which indicates that the clashes are not linked
by local geography (i.e. an Armenian incursion followed by a local
Azerbaijani counterattack) but part of a broader pattern of probing
attempts along the border,” Jackson writes.

The implication is that, on one side or both, there was a degree of
regional-level coordination by military commanders and a willingness
to test the defences of the other side across a wide swathe of
territory. This expansion of the battlefield marks a serious
escalation.

The violence came at an awkward time for Clinton, who issued a bland
statement in Armenia “calling on everyone to renounce force as well as
refraining from violence.” There was a discussion of Nagorno Karabakh
on Tuesday at the Wilson Center in Washington, and regional expert
Tom de Waal addressed the question of why international officials
can’t make more direct statements “naming and shaming” whichever side
started the violence. The problem, de Waal said, is that there’s no
way for them to know. There are 20,000 soldiers dug into trenches
on each side of the line, and six monitors from the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe. Another stark statistic: since the
beginning of 2011, 63 people have been killed in skirmishes between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The pessimism at the Wilson Center event was stark, but entirely
warranted. Wayne Merry of the American Foreign Policy Council
suggested that we should be moving from a “post-war” frame of mind to
a “pre-war” one, given that the renewal of serious conflict seems so
inevitable. Charles King, a Caucasus expert at Georgetown University,
observed that this is the most militarized border in Eurasia,
“yet it’s received the least amount of attention over the years”
compared to the unresolved conflicts in Georgia and Cyprus. Perhaps
the only comfort, given the news of the last few days, was that the
experts seemed to agree that full-scale war is less likely to begin
from an accidental escalation of these sorts of border skirmishes
than from a strategic decision by one of the parties (obviously most
likely Azerbaijan) to think that war is in their interest. “The only
thing that will alter the strategic calculations on both sides,” King
said, was for the “international community” to raise the stakes for
starting a conflict. But then you think of those six lonely European
monitors, and what a small priority this is for anyone outside of
Armenia and Azerbaijan. How often in history has the breakout of a
war been so obvious?

CLINTON IN BAKU AMID RUSSIAN-IRANIAN FRICTION OVER AZERI STAKE IN ISRAELI ENERGY

Debka File

June 6 2012
Israel

DEBKAfile Special Report June 6, 2012, 1:22 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags:
Hillary Clinton Azerbaijan Israel arms deal Energy & Oil Iran Russia
Richard Morningstar, designated US ambassador to BakuUS Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton arrives in Baku, Azerbaijan Wednesday, June 6, to
kick off a South Caucasian tour amid President Ilam Aliyav’s worsening
relations Israel Iranian leader Ali Khamenei and Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Baku’s pro-Western orientation and its fast-growing
military and energy ties with Israel are thorns in both their sides.

But for Washington, Azerbaijan is an expanding strategic asset:
Since Pakistan closed its overland route for supplies to US and NATO
forces in Afghanistan, the US is increasingly reliant on Azerbaijan’s
airfields. Its logistical value will rise with the advance of the
2014 date for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Clinton will have another go, after several failures, at resolving
the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict over which Russia and Iran
side with Armenia against Azerbaijan. The day she landed in Baku,
Armenian forces killed five Azerbaijani soldiers in a border clash.

Washington has never admitted its direct involvement in the bilateral
ties unfolding between Baku and Jerusalem but its generally understand
that those ties act as a thin wedge through America’s door to the
region. It is significant that the party welcoming the US secretary in
the Azerbaijan capital includes Richard L. Morningstar, whom President
Barack Obama picked in May as ambassador to the small oil republic. He
is still awaiting congressional endorsement.

debkafile’s Middle East sources report that Morningstar is the
architect of the Obama administration’s oil and gas policy in Central
Asia opposite Russia and Iran, as well as the linchpin of US energy
policy in the Middle East. He was present at all the negotiations
leading up to the contracts signed by Israel, Greece and Cyprus for
the distribution of offshore Mediterranean gas and oil beds. His
presence bespoke the administration’s support for the investment in
their exploitation by American oil interests.

It may be presumed that Morningstar was in on the newly-signed $1.6
billion contract for the sale of Israeli arms to Azerbaijan – although
Washington is unlikely to confirm this.

Moscow and Tehran are particularly put out by this deal in the regional
context, concerned that it will enhance Azerbaijan’s military clout
in the Caucasian and the Caspian Sea. With a well-equipped militlary,
he will be a lot freer to pursue an independent energy policy and
less vulnerable to pressures from Tehran and Moscow.

Regarding the second side of the relatationship, towards the end of
2011, the Azerbaijan state-owned Caspian Drilling Company quietly
signed a contract for the acquisition of a 5 percent share in the firm
controlling the Israeli Med Ashdod, which is developing an offshore
field estimated to hold 280 million barrels of oil. This was the
first Azeri investment in a foreign energy project.

Soon after the signing, in November 2011, a secret meeting took place
in London between representatives of the Russian energy colossus
Gazprom and Israel to discuss a Russian bid to acquire a stake in
Med Ashdod.

Moscow also put out secret feelers for stakes in additional Israeli
gas and oil Mediterranean projects. One offer was for the Russians to
provide and finance pumping facilities and pipelines for the Israeli
fields and take charge of marketing to Europe. Vladimir Putin, while
running for president, quietly lobbied top Israeli officials to gain
their support for Moscow’s partnership proposition.

In the last week of April this year, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman spent two days in Baku. The talks he held there with Azeri
leaders were veiled in secrecy, but sources in Baku said they were
concerned with the highly important laying down of guidelines for the
rapidly-evolving security and energy ties between the two countries.

In 2011, Israel purchased one-third of its oil consumption from
Azerbaijan – 2.5 million barrels worth $2 billion dollars, and the
volume of trade between them rose to $4 billion, making that Caspian
country Israel’s biggest trading partner in the former Soviet bloc.

The military and intelligence ties between Baku and Jerusalem have been
consistently kept under wraps, but while Moscow and Tehran knew about
them, they never expected them to expand to their present magnitude.

The deal today holds Azerbaijan’s investments in Israel’s burgeoning
energy industry contingent on the scale of its arms purchases. Both
elements of this trade-off are earmarked for massive growth.

According to European energy sources, Azerbaijan’s aspirations go
beyond investment in developing Israel’s Mediterranean gas and oil
fields and extend to bidding for a role with American energy firms
in laying the pipelines planned to carry the oil to European outlets.

This would make Baku a rival for Putin’s ambitions to carve out a
place in the new markets for Gazprom.

In the view of some Western military experts, the interface between the
Azerbaijani and Israeli energy and military spheres offers Jerusalem
a strategic pathway to the Caspian region under Iran’s nose, as well
a lucrative source of revenue for its arms industry for years go come.

ARTSAKH LEADER, OSCE REP. DISCUSS AZERI CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 6, 2012 – 22:13 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On June 6, Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan
met Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office
Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

Issues related to the current stage of Karabakh talks, its prospects
as well as the situation along the contact line between the NKR and
Azerbaijani armed forces were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan characterized the recent gross violations of the
ceasefire regime by Azerbaijan as provocations aimed at destabilizing
situation in the region and undermining the efforts of the mediator
countries.

In this context, Artsakh leader stressed the need to take action to
neutralize such behavior, Central Information Department at Artsakh
President’s Office reported.

VALERIE BOYER PROMISES TO CONTINUE FIGHT FOR ADOPTION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

18:36 . 06/06

Marseille’s Armenians are ready to vote for candidate of French MP,
representative of the Union for a Popular Movement, Valerie Boyer.

During her meeting with the Armenian community within the frames of
election campaign the author of the bill criminalizing the Armenian
Genocide has said that she intends to continue her activity directed
to the adoption of the bill.

“I promise you not to weaken the fight. We’ll ask to submit such a
bill to the parliament once more,” she has said.

The film “The son of an Olive Seller” was shown during the meeting
telling how the fact of genocide is perceived in Turkey.

To recall, on January 23 the French Senate voted for the bill
criminalizing genocides including the Armenian genocide. In total,
213 senators participated in the voting, 127 of them voted for and 86
voted against. The bill foresees 1 year’s imprisonment and a penalty
of 45 000 Euro for denying the genocides.

On February 28, France’s Constitutional Council deemed the bill
criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide unconstitutional. It
is justified by the fact that the law contradicts Article 33 of the
French Constitution and freedom of expression.

France’s present president Francois Hollande has also promised to
contribute to the bill’s adoption.