Author: Kanayan Tamar

KARABAKH LIBERATION ORGANIZATION CALLS ON TURKEY NOT TO SEND AHMET DAVUTOGLU TO BAKU

Milaz.info
Oct 20 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. "We consider it unacceptable that the Armenian delegation
participates at the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization’s
meeting in Baku", Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) said in its
statement on Tuesday, APA reports.

KLO called on the Government of Azerbaijan not to allow the Armenian
delegation to realize their intention. The organization said it didn’t
agree with traditional arguments like international character of the
event, necessity of observing the international law norms and others.

"Armenia violated all norms of international law and seized the
territories of Azerbaijan and keeps it under the occupation today. It
shrugged off resolutions of international organizations. There is no
logic in fulfillment of international commitments before such country",
said the statement.

KLO emphasized the necessity of prevention of Armenian delegation to
visit Baku and Armenia’s attempt to use the international and regional
events for its disgusting propaganda.

KLO also protests the participation of Turkish foreign minister as
well. "We declared him persona non grata in Azerbaijan. He is one
of the authors of shameful project, which is a serious blow on the
interests of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and sowed seeds of hostility. We
don’t want the Turkish foreign minister to become target of our
protests together with the Armenian representative. Therefore we call
on the Turkish government not to send him to Baku". Source: APA

GUL DID NOT REVEAL

s15591.html
13:08:44 – 19/10/2009

The Turkish president Andullah Gul told the CNN Turk that Ankara’s wish
to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan made the Karabakh issue
actual. Gul said that there is some progress in this connection but
he did not go into details. At the same time, he stated that Turkey
and Azerbaijan are one nation and two countries and the Ankara-Baku
relations are developing normally.

ARMENIA TO CONTINUE REFORMS IN SPHERE OF GAS SUPPLY

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.10.2009 13:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Reforms in gas supply sphere will continue because
the best model selected in any business is never subject to change,
ArmRosGazProm CJSC’s General Director Karen Karapetyan finds. "Our
everyday life changes rapidly, so the task of any good business is
to speedily react to such changes," he told journalists in Yerevan

At that he noted that biggest companies in the sphere had expressed
willingness to conduct ArmRosGazProm CJSC’s regular session in
Yerevan. "Considering recent years’ positive dynamics, reforms and
innovations, association members decided to hold their regular session
in Yerevan and directly get familiarized with company’s activity to
elaborate an experience exchange mechanism," he stressed.

On October 20, the Council of Business and Scientific-Technical
Cooperation of Gas Enterprises started its regular session in Yerevan.

Association comprises all gas enterprises and gas-transport companies
of Europe, CIS and Baltic states.

ArmRosGazProm General Director also said that company tops the list
of abovr-mentioned countries in terms of all indexes, including losses.

"We are the only country that neither produces gas nor has transit
routes, whereas the case with a country with natural gas and transit
capacities is much easier," Karapetyan noted. In that connection, he
brought the example of Hungary and Poland which consume 2-3 billion
cubic metres of gas, with transit volumes comprising 22 billion
cubic meters.

FIFTH ENERGY BLOC OF HRAZDAN-5 THERMAL POWER PLANT TO BE LAUNCHED IN JULY 2010

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.10.2009 13:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The fifth energy bloc of "Hrazdan 5" thermal-power
plant will launched in July 2010, ArmRosGazProm CJSC’s General Director
Karen Karapetyan told journalists. "That’s a unique station, with a
new 180 MGWT power modern bloc being built next to the one inherited
from Soviet times," he said, adding that the two blocs will operated
jointly as a new know-how project not implemented by anyone so far.

Despite financial crisis, ArmRosGazProm CJSC continues modernization of
the 5th energy bloc of Hrazdan-5 thermal power plant. Within project
frameworks, the plant signed relevant contracts with 49 local and
109 foreign organizations.

Experts and business partners estimate this an unprecedented project
in terms of its technical capacities.

Company’s 2006-09 investments in bloc construction and modernization
comprised $ 376 million, of which $248,8 is envisaged for acquiring
premises.

Investments for January-September 2009 comprised AMD 24 billion. The
program was made possible due to company’s means, as well as invested
sums. In terms of attracting investments, ArmRosGazProm cooperates
with local and foreign financial institutions and conducts talks for
long-term credits.

Construction of 5th energy bloc is due to be completed in 2010. Upon
launching production, company intends to start energy export.

FIDE OFFERS YEREVAN TO HOST TOURNAMENT TWO

Aysor
Oct 19 2009
Armenia

Azerbaijani media outlets released information that FIDE had made a
decision to hold the Championship in Baku and, additionally, given
that Armenian Grand Master Levon Aronyan refused to attend Baku,
had had to divide the tournament into two pieces.

As Armenian Chess Federation’s spokesman told Aysor’s correspondent,
no one contacted Levon Aronyan and there in no single word about
his refusal.

The decision was made by FIDE itself given that Azerbaijan and Armenia
have tensions. In accordance with this decision, the tournament will
be held in two countries for 4 players in each round.

Proceeding from this situation, FIDE has proposed Armenian side to
hold the second part of tournament. Armenian Chess Federation hasn’t
yet answered this proposal and is still discussing it. Meanwhile,
it’s possible that Yerevan will host Tournament Two.

NORVIK TO LEVERAGE NEW PRODUCTS IN ARMENIA IN Q1 2010

ARKA
Oct 19, 2009

YEREVAN, October 19. / ARKA /. Credit institution Norvik will introduce
new products on the Armenian market and will resume the lending to
people and businesses already from the first quarter of 2010.

This was told by a member of the board of Norvik Tigran Bostanjyan
in an exclusive interview with ARKA News Agency.

"The direction of our activity will change in the corporate lending
and the credit lines under demand will be directly linked to it.

Norvik will work with corporate clients as an investment bank,"
Bostanjyan said.

He said the company intends to expand its activities and for that
purpose it is in search for a reliable and reasonable business support
and lending.

Bostanjyan did not rule out the possibility of participation of Norvik
in the capital of such companies.

"This is our first step toward corporatism," he said.

Speaking about the company’s plans regarding the conversion into a
bank Bostanjyan noted that earlier Norvik planned to transform itself
into a commercial bank, but those plans changed because of the position
of shareholders and because of the situation in the global economy.

"Currently, we delay our transformation into a commercial bank for an
indefinite time, but the plans remain in force," the council member
of the company said.

Norvik universal credit organization was founded in February 2006
and is the Armenian Daughter Company of Latvian-Icelandic Norvik Bank.

Today the company is the leader among lending institutions on the
country’s largest charter capital, profits, assets and loan portfolio.

According to the information of ARKA Agency, the company’s assets
had totaled 21.4bln Drams by the end of March 2009; liabilities were
18.04bln Drams and total capital was 3.4bln Drams.

Loans and other borrowings to clients were 19.1bln Drams in the period;
net profit after tax amounted to about 401mln Drams in January-March
2009.

Trend, Azerbaijan
Oct 13 2009

Azerbaijani customs services strengthen control to prevent import of
Armenian goods into country

Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 13 / Trend Capital U.Ismayilova /

The Azerbaijani State Customs Committee has burnt a huge party of
expired and unfit for human consumption food products confiscated when
importing into the country, the committee said on Oct.13.

The committee has burnt 78,170 units of tobacco products of various
kinds, 634 units of biological food additives of unknown composition,
634 bottles of beer, 787 liters of homemade alcoholic beverages,
41,820 pieces of firecrackers, fireworks and pyrotechnics, as well as
56 kilos of caviar.

The committee also burnt 500 units and 726 kilograms of counterfeit
labels for clothes of different firms, 2,170 units of plastic caps for
vodka and wine, as well as 224 boxes of coffee, 10 units of ground
pepper of the Armenian production.

The committee has extended its control over the checkpoints of Tovuz,
Khachmaz and Balakan regions of Azerbaijan to prevent the import of
the Armenian products into the country, the committee added.

TURKISH TV SERIES ANGERS ISRAEL

BBC NEWS
iddle_east/8308124.stm
2009/10/15 00:05:51 GMT

Israel’s foreign minister has ordered Turkey’s ambassador to be
summoned over a Turkish TV series that portrays Israeli soldiers
killing children.

Avigdor Lieberman said the programme, whose first episode was broadcast
on Tuesday, incited hatred against Israel.

In one clip screened on Israeli news channels, an Israeli soldier
takes aim at a smiling young girl and kills her.

The complaint is the latest to strain the relationship between Turkey
and Israel.

Strategic ties

In a statement, Mr Lieberman said the series, which "presents
Israeli soldiers as the murderers of innocent children, would not be
appropriate for broadcast even in an enemy country and certainly not
in a state which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel".

Another clip from the series – which tells the story of a Palestinian
family – reportedly shows a bullet fired by an Israeli soldier
travelling in slow motion towards a Palestinian child.

The programme was broadcast on Turkey’s TRT One Channel.

Turkey is one of the few Muslim countries to have relations with
Israel, but these have suffered since Israel’s offensive in Gaza
in January.

Last week, Ankara cancelled an international military exercise in
which Israeli pilots were due to participate.

Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak sought to play down the rift,
stressing that the two states shared "longstanding, important and
strategic" ties.

ARMENIAN LEADER SAYS TERRITORIAL CLAIMS TO TURKEY BAD START FOR TALKS

Mediamax
Oct 8 2009
Armenia

Yerevan, 8 October: Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated in
Yerevan today that "territorial claims to Turkey are a bad start for
normalizing relations".

The president said this at an enlarged session of the National Security
Council while commenting on concerns of many representatives of the
diaspora that by normalizing relations with Turkey, Armenia recognizes
its territorial integrity.

"There are realities of the 21st century’s political culture that we
are obliged to take into consideration," Sargsyan noted.

Speaking about concerns of diaspora members that by normalizing
relations with Turkey, Armenia will stop demanding the international
recognition of the Armenian genocide and stop accusations over the
Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, the Armenian president said
that "we have undertaken commitment over the recognition and accusation
of genocide, and we will carry out this commitment till the end".

All participants in the enlarged session of the National Security
Council, which was attended by Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II,
Minister of the Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, Chairman of the Prosperous
Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan and Chairman of the Public Council Vazgen
Manukyan, expressed their approval of the initialled Armenian-Turkish
protocols.

ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN MEETING IN CHISINAU

News.am
14:03 / 10/17/2009

"The last meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in
Chisinau did not give cause for optimism, because the Armenian side
suddenly began to discuss the issues that were agreed two to three
years ago," said Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov,
Trend News informs Oct. 16.

"We understand that there is a rule that unless everything is agreed,
it means nothing was agreed, but it is impossible to move if to go
back and start to discuss proposals or ideas that were agreed at
least two or three years ago. This is, of course, disappointing,"
stated Mammadyarov.

According to the Azerbaijani official "such actions by the Armenian
side are connected with the latest events in the region – the
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement."

As NEWS.am reported, RA President Serzh Sargsyan declared that the
interim and final status of Nagorno-Karabakh was the subject of the
talks during Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents’ meeting in Chisinau.

However, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated Oct. 16 that
"even if hundred years pass the Nagorno-Karabakh independence will
not be considered."

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on Karabakh peace process keep maintaining
that the meeting in Chisinau was constructive.