Author: Kalashian Nyrie

CSTO MEMBER COUNTRIES’ FOREIGN MINISTERS HIGHLY ASSESS RESULTS RECORDED IN ORGANIZATION DURING ARMENIA’S CHAIRMANSHIP
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NOYAN TAPAN
JUNE 15, 2009
MOSCOW

RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who is in Moscow on a working
visit, participated in the sitting of CSTO Foreign Ministers’ Council,
during which issues regarding organization’s various spheres were
discussed, a number of decisions on steps to be undertaken in the
direction of organization’s further strengthening and perfection
were made.

At the sitting E. Nalbandian made a report summarizing the work done
in the direction of confronting CSTO member states’ foreign policy
during Armenia’s chairmanship in CSTO. He touched upon work done
since 2008 September: CSTO Foreign Ministers’ meetings held in New
York and Helsinki on the initiative of Armenia, consultations of CSTO
member countries’ Ambassadors in third countries, other events aimed
at confronting the foreign policy.

According to the report of the RA Foreign Ministry Press and
Information Department, CSTO member countries’ Foreign Ministers highly
assessed the results recorded in the period of Armenia’s chairmanship
in CSTO emphasizing the efficiency of realization of mechanisms in
the sphere of foreign policy confrontation.

Issues of expanding cooperation between CSTO and international
organizations were touched upon at the sitting.

A joint sitting of CSTO member countries’ Foreign Ministers’ Council
and Defence Ministers’ Council took place after the sitting of Foreign
Ministers’ Council, during which a number of documents to be submitted
to the Collective Security Council session were discussed and approved.

The same day E. Nalbandian in the delegation led by the RA President
took part in the Collective Security Council sitting.

ARMENIA VOWS TO BOOST COOPERATION WITH EURASEC, BUT ABSTAINS FROM BECOMING MEMBER

ARKA
June 15, 2009

YEREVAN, June 15. /ARKA/. Armenia is interested in boosting
multilateral cooperation with EurAsEc, RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan said.

"With bilateral cooperation developing dynamically, we can establish
new institutes and enroll in them, as well cerate new instruments as
part of EurAsEC, without being its full-fledged member," the premier
said, summing up the Moscow meeting of the EurAsEC Intergovernmental
Council.

He pointed out the Customs Union issue, stressing its importance
for Armenia.

Russian, Kazakh and Belarus prime ministers made a joint statement
on their intention to join WTO as a single customs area. The customs
union is to launch activities on January 1, 2010 when the three states
will implement a uniform customs tariff. On July 1, 2010, a uniform
customs code will enter into force. All integration procedures are
to be completed by mid-2011.

According to the Armenian premier, Armenia’s partners are to pass
a considerable path, as they have made a political statement on
continuing talks with WTO as a union.

He did not rule out revision of customs tariffs as part of EurAsEC and,
if the countries join WTO, the obstacles will be removed.

EurAsEC is an international economic organization aimed at drawing
up common customs borders in between the member states (Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzst an, Russia and Tajikistan). The organization’s
mission is to work out a uniform foreign trade policy, common tariffs
and prices. Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia have monitored EurAsEC in
the past years.

U.S. ready to cooperate with Iran irrespectively of outcomes of
elections
13.06.2009 18:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. is ready to cooperate with the new
administration of Iran irrespectively of outcomes of
elections. However, the Washington’s position remains unchanged: Iran
must stop its nuclear program, said American foreign policy advisor
and United States Ambassador to the United Nation Susan
Rice. `Politics of the U.S. towards Iran and its nuclear program does
not depend on the government of that country. Our position is Teheran
is obliged to stop elaboration of military nuclear program and our
position will not change against elections results.
In its turn, the U.S. president Barack Obama stated, that he is amazed
by the activity voter shown during the presidential elections in
Iran. He stressed, that he relies on the result, which could help Iran
to lead to democracy.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIAN RAILWAYS ASSURED

LRAGIR.AM
17:44:53 – 12/06/2009

Today, Serge Sargsyan met with the president of the Russian Railways
Vladimir Yakunin, which manages the Armenian Railways on concessionary
basis.

Underscoring the Armenian and Russian strategic relations, Serge
Sargsyan stated, "We consider Russia our most reliable ally and
we attach great importance to the strengthening of bilateral
links". Vladimir Yakunin stated that the work made in the recent
period satisfies him on the whole, there have been taken serious steps
on bettering the effectiveness of the administration. The president
of the Russian Railways assured that their investments duties will
completely be implemented; the press office of the president reports.

ICRC REPRESENTATIVES VISIT RAFIG HASANOV

ArmInfo
2009-06-11 17:38:00

ArmInfo. Representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross
Delegation in Armenia visited Azerbaijani captive Rafig Hasanov,
Thursday.

The ICRC Delegation in Armenia told ArmInfo it was a regular visit
procedure. ‘Hasanov wrote a letter to his family which will be handed
over through the ICRC’, the Delegation reported. Since R. Hasanov
does not speak Russian he needs a translator from the Azerbaijani. The
ICRC employee ensured the communication and translation. ‘It was not
a representative of the ICRC Delegation in Azerbaijan’, the source
specified.

The Azerbaijani soldier R. Hasanov voluntarily crossed the border
and passed to the Armenian party on October 8 2008.

JOURNALIST SENER IN COURT FOR BOOK CRITICISING SECURITY FORCES
Erol Onderoglu [email protected]

BIA Magazine
June 11 2009
Turkey

The court case of journalist Sener has begun in Istanbul. IPI and
the Turkey Journalists’ Society have condemned current legislation,
which makes such trials possible.

The court case of Milliyet newspaper’s journalist Nedim Sener began at
Istanbul’s 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance on Wednesday, 10 June.

Sener is the author of a book entitled "The Dink Murder and
Intelligence Lies". In the book, he writes about the negligence
and attempts to cover up this negligence of gendarmerie, police and
the Turkish secret service prior to the murder of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

Sener now faces a trial, without detention, because of the book. He
attended the hearing with lawyer Yucel Dosemeci.

Milliyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Sedat Ergin also attended the
hearing in support of the journalist.

Following the publication of the book, several police officers who
filed criminal complaints against the writer: Ramazan Akyurek, then
Chief of Police in Trabzon and still in office as Police Intelligence
Unit Chief, Ali Fuat Yilmazer, then Police Intelligence C Unit Manager
and now Istanbul Intelligence Unit Chief and Muhittin Zenit, the
police officer who was responsible for police informant Erhan Tuncel,
who is now accused of encouraging Ogun Samast to kill Hrant Dink.

Another complaint was filed by Faruk Sari, Trabzon Police Intelligence
Branch Manager.

28 years demanded All in all, Sener faces 28 years imprisonment. He
stands accused of "targeting people involved in anti-terrorism
campaigns, revealing classified information, obtaining classified
information, violating the secrecy of these communications, and
attempting to influence the judiciary."

In his defense, Sener said that he had not attempted to influence
the judiciary, but had only tried to contribute to justice being done.

He added that there could be no question of him violating secrecy;
a simple Internet search would allow anyone to find the conversations
between police informant Erhan Tuncel and police officer Muhittin
Zenit. Furthermore, these conversations had been published in the
media long before his book was written.

Media faces increase in oppression The International Press Institute’s
National Committee published a statement in connection with Sener’s
trial, saying that the demand for 28 years imprisonment showed the
increase in oppression of the media in Turkey.

The committee said that last year’s amendments to the controversial
Law 301, which penalises the "denigration of the Turkish state or
state organs", were insufficient:

"Despite all our objections, the Turkish Penal Code, the Press Law
and the Anti-Terrorism Law still contains articles which threaten
the freedom of expression and press freedom."

Urgent need for new legislation The committee further drew attention
to the fact that not even Ogun Samast, the young man suspected of
killing Hrant Dink, is facing such a steep sentence.

They called on urgent changes to the current legislation, which
threatens journalists with imprisonment.

The Turkey Journalists’ Society (TGC) emphasised that Sener was being
tried in two cases, saying:

"For freedom of expression to be protected and provided, first of
all mentalities must change. This becomes clear with every case that
goes to court. The laws which allow the trial of not only Sener but
all journalists must be reconsidered from all dimensions."

The society called on everyone to lobby for a change in
legislation.

ARMENIAN-ESTONIAN REALTIONS DEVELOP DYNAMICALLY

Panorama.am
16:58 11/06/2009

The Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandyan, received the
Foreign Minister of Estonia, Urmas Paet, who is currently paying
official visit to Armenia, MFA reports.

Greeting the Estonian Foreign Minister and his delegation, Edward
Nalbandyan expressed appreciation for the dynamically developing
bilateral relations and emphasized that Armenia was interested in
deepening and strengthening the mutually beneficial cooperation
with Estonia.

Urmas Paet also highly assessed the friendly relations established
between the two countries and noted that Estonia is intended to
take measures towards the development of multisided cooperation
with Armenia.

At the request of the Estonian Minister, Edward Nalbandyan presented
the latest developments over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution
and the process of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations.

RA PRIME MINISTER TIGRAN SARGSYAN-LED GOVERNMENT DELEGATION IS IN MOSCOW ON A WORKING VISIT

Tuesda y, 9 June 2009

The delegation is composed of Chief of Government Staff David Sargsyan,
Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan, Minister of Energy and Natural
Resources Armen Movsisyan, Deputy Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan,
Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan and other officials.

The agenda of the Interstate Council features about two tens of items.

Armenia has the status of observer with the EvrAzEs. By midday,
the prime ministers met in a narrow format. Then, RF Government Head
Vladimir Putin addressed the enlarged meeting. In his opening remarks
Mr. Putin urged EvrAzEs-member States to unite endeavors against the
global crisis. Then, the heads of government in attendance took the
floor by turns.

After the meeting, the prime ministers signed a series of documents,
including the agreement on establishing the EvrAzEs Anti-Crisis
Fund. Next, the heads of government approved a program of joint
anti-crisis action.

The anti-crisis fund will be launched as early as in 2009. Either a
hi-tech center will be operational this year to boost research and
innovation across EvrAzEs countries.

The planned efforts under the EvrAzEs and Customs Union formats
are supposed to promote integration and minimize the impact of the
global crisis.

Armenia’s Embassy in Russia hosted a meeting with businessmen at which
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan delivered a report entitled "Armenia:
Strategy for the Future- 3 Years Later."

Later today the government delegation will be back to Yerevan.

RA PRIME MINISTER BID FAREWELL TO ITALIAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
10.06.2009 19:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan met Italian
Ambassador to Armenia, Massimo Lavezzo Kasinelli, in connection
with completion of his diplomatic mission in Armenia. Thanking the
Ambassador for work accomplished and fruitful collaboration, RA Prime
Minister noted that Armenian-Italian relations promote collaboration
development in different spheres.

The parties discussed developlemnt of trade and economic relations
between the two countries, creation of favorable economic environment
and investment programs’ implementation. The Ambassador expressed
a hope that collaboration between the countries will cover new
spheres. Sargsyan wished him success and expressed a hope that in his
further activities Mr. Massimo Lavezzo Kasinelli will also contribute
to future development of Armenian-Italian relations.

PACE CO-RAPPORTEURS ON ARMENIA TO VISIT YEREVAN ON JUNE 15-18

NOYAN TAPAN
JUNE 10, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The PACE Co-rapporteurs on Armenia
presented their report on activity of democratic institutions in
Armenia at the PACE Monitoring Committee June 5 sitting in Paris.

According to Armen Rustamian, a member of the Armenian delegation in
PACE taking part in the sitting, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee
on Foreign Relations, an ARFD member, the Co-rapporteurs, in essence,
presented their preliminary interpretations and estimations on the
process of fulfillment of PACE resolutions by Armenia, without the
draft resolution, conclusion, and proposals. The discussion of the
latter was postponed: it will take place in Strasbourg after the
scheduled visit of Co-rapporteurs George Colombier (France) and John
Prescott (United Kingdom) to Armenia to take place on June 15-18.

The discussion of the process of Armenia’s fulfilling the resolutions
and proposals is envisaged at PACE summer plenary session’s June
24 sitting.

In their report presented in Paris the Co-rapporteurs, in general,
touched upon four problems, which in the future will be also
touched upon by the draft resolution to be introduced. According
to A. Rustamian, these are problems regarding revision of the
law On Holding of Gatherings and Meetings and its use, holding of
independent and reliable investigation of the 2008 March events, as
well as release of persons not having a special relation to acts of
violence. A necessity of carrying out many-sided and profound reforms
through an open dialogue with involvement of all political forces
was also accentuated, which proceeds from the directions outlined by
point 8 of PACE 2008 Resolution N 1609.