Author: Kanayan Tamar

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 14 2008

Bahar Muradova: Goran Lennmarker’s leaving his post does not mean his
withdrawal from the post of rapporteur on Nagorno-Karabakh

[ 14 Jun 2008 15:47 ]

Baku. Elnur Mammedli – APA. "The term of office of President of the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Goran Lennmarker is expiring and the
election of a new president will be considered at a next session next
month,’ said Bahar Muradova, Vice_Speaker of Milli Majlis, and head of
Azerbaijan’s delegation to OSCE PA.

According to her, the Azerbaijani delegation will make its choice
among the candidates for the presidency.

She added that every country has the right to put forward a nominee
for the OSCE PA presidency.

"However, when putting forward a nominee, his position, the attitude
to his country and the existing realities should be taken into
account. There are certain criteria and the candidate must meet these
requirements. Looking back at history, we can see that no
representative from a country in conflict has ever been elected to the
OSCE leadership. Therefore, I think any nomination without taking into
account these factors may not lead to success ", she noted.

She added that Goran Lennmarker’s leaving his post as president does
not mean his withdrawal from the post of rapporteur on
Nagorno-Karabakh.

`There is no link between these two posts. He may also remain as a
rapporteur and this matter is not discussed now", she underlined.

June 13, 2008

PRESS RELEASE
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 248-7737
Fax: (818) 248-7745
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

PRELATE RETURNS FROM ANTELIAS

H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, and members of the
Cilician Brotherhood serving within the Prelacy returned from Antelias where
they had participated in the meeting of the Cilician Brotherhood from June
5th to the 7th, as well as in the blessing of Holy Muron.
Upon his return, the Prelate was interviewed by Horizon Television
during which he conveyed details about his visit. He was also interviewed
for the Prelacy’s weekly television program, which will air on Sunday, June
15, at 9:00 a.m. on Horizon TV.

PRELATE TO CELEBRATE DIVINE LITURGY ON THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE LAS
VEGAS PARISH

On Sunday, June 15th, the Armenian Apostolic Church of Las Vegas
will celebrate the second anniversary of its establishment with Divine
Liturgy and a banquet. On this occasion, H.E. Archbishop Moushegh
Mardirossian, Prelate, will visit the parish where he will celebrate Divine
Liturgy and deliver the sermon on Sunday, June 15th, at the Lakes Lutheran
Church at 3:00 p.m. The Prelate will be accompanied by Christian Education
Co-Director Very Rev. Fr. Muron Aznikian.
In the evening, the Prelate will preside over the second anniversary
banquet of the parish.

DIVINE LITURGY AND BLESSING OF MADAGH AT THE
ST. DERTAD AND ST. ASHKHEN CHAPEL

On Saturday, June 14th, the Feast of St. Dertad and St. Ashkhen,
which is also the name day of the Prelacy Chapel, will be celebrated with
Divine Liturgy at the "St. Dertad and St. Ashkhen" Chapel at 7:00 p.m. On
this joyous occasion, there will also be the blessing of madagh for the
first time at the Chapel.
The Prelate will preside over the Liturgy, which will be celebrated
by Rev. Fr. Ardag Demirjian of St. Mary’s Church in Glendale, and will
deliver the sermon.
Members of the Prelacy youth choir will participate in the Liturgy
as well.

DAVIDIAN AND MARIAMIAN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION GRADUATION CEREMONY

The graduation ceremony for students of the Davidian and Mariamian
Educational Foundation’s Armenian program will take place on the evening of
Saturday, June 14th, at Pacific Community Center in Glendale.
Very Rev. Fr. Barthev Gulumian and Rev. Fr. Nareg Pehlivanian will
attend and convey the Prelate’s blessings and congratulatory remarks.

PRELATE CONGRATULATES SUPERVISOR
MICHAEL ANTONOVICH ON HIS RE-ELECTION

On behalf of the Prelacy Religious and Executive Councils, the
Prelate sent a letter to Los Angeles County 5th District Supervisor Michael
Antonovich, congratulating him on his re-election.
In his congratulatory letter, the Prelate commended Supervisor
Antonovich for his decades-long service to the community, and especially for
his friendship and support of the Armenian community and the Armenian Cause.

PUBLIC TENSION STILL KEPT, CRISIS HAS NOT BEEN OVERCOME, KARINE NALCHAJIAN CONSIDERS

30
NOYAN TAPAN
June 12, 2008

The public tension that arose after the RA presidential elections
is still kept and the crisis has not been overcome yet. Psychologist
Karine Nalchajian expressed such an opinion during the June 12 press
conference. According to her, though the authorities undertake some
profound steps, nevertheless, no systematized agitation is carried out.

"In that respect society is as if left for self-normalization," K.

Nalchajian said. Therefore, according to her, the part of society,
which was infatuated with revolutionary ideas, is not ready for giving
positive estimations to the work being done.

According to the psychologist, possibilities of mitigating the crisis
become noticeable, life has entered its normal course, however, if
there are again strong influences, it is not excluded that public
passions will be again inflammated. "There will be new imflammations
if people are influenced by exact methods," K. Nalchajian said.

As publicist Karine Hakobian evaluated, there are no noticeable
changes in reality, the cause of which is a bad legislation. "When
the lagislation is bad, change of a personality cannot play a part
any longer," she said. In K.

Hakobian’s opinion, the creation of the Public Council is done with a
wrong approach. "We lack the approach that before creating something
we should bring out the problem," she said. According to K. Hakobian,
the creation of the Public Council is a self-deceit, as a result of
which the real problem will not be solved and will deepen for even
more. "We should understand that a Council under the RA President
cannot serve its purpose. And today we de facto have a government,
a National Assembly, and a judicial system under the President,"
the publicist said.

WEST HAS LOST NUCLEAR STANDOFF WITH IRAN – AHMADINEJAD

RIA Novosti
15:02 | 11/ 06/ 2008

TEHRAN, June 11 (RIA Novosti) – Iran’s president said on Wednesday
that the West had lost the confrontation with Tehran over the Islamic
Republic’s nuclear program.

The diplomatic standoff between Iran and the West began almost six
years ago over suspicions that Tehran was secretly developing atomic
weapons. Iran is currently under three sets of relatively mild UN
Security Council sanctions after defying international demands to
halt uranium enrichment, which it claims is needed for electricity
generation.

"Our enemies used every opportunity to pressurize us in the political
and nuclear fields, and threatened us with the use of force. However,
they have lost and they have no room for maneuver," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
said in a televised statement.

In a message to U.S. President George W. Bush, the Iranian leader
said his time was over. "You cannot damage a single centimeter of
Iran’s territory," he said.

Iran maintains that it has never been involved in research into the
development of nuclear weapons.

A report released by the U.S. intelligence community in late 2007
said that Iran had ceased attempts to create a nuclear bomb in
2003. U.S. President George Bush responded that, "Iran was dangerous,
Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the know
how to make a nuclear weapon."

When asked if military action remained an option, the president
answered, "The best diplomacy – effective diplomacy – is one in which
all options are on the table."

WAR IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE IF THERE IS LARGE-SCALE CRISIS IN REGION, RUSSIAN POLITICAL SCIENTIST CLAIMS

NOYAN TAPAN

Ju ne 11, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 11, NOYAN TAPAN. "Progress cannot be meant in
the regulation of the Nagorno Karabakh issue." This opinion was
expressed by political scientist Sergey Markedonov during the June
11 Yerevan-Baku-Moscow TV bridge in the "Novosti" international press
center. According to him, the fact that Armenian-Azeri border incidents
have increased recently speaks about that.

Asim Moladze, an MP of the Milli Majlis, the Chairman of the Democratic
Reforms Party of Azerbaijan and another participant of the TV bridge
dedicated to the results of the meeting held in Petersburg between
Serge Sargsian, the President of Armenia, and Ilham Aliev, the
President of Azerbaijan, characterized that meeting to be of cognitive
nature and the negotiation an imitation. However, according to him,
any bad peace is better than war and not the creation of a new state
but the possibility of self-government should be meant.

Opposing the claim of Shavarsh Kocharian, the Chairman of the National
Democratic Party, according to which it is impossible to expect
anything with regard to this issue as far as Karabakh is not a party
of the negotiations, historian Eldar Ismaylov mentioned that there is
no need to include Karabakh as a party in the process as political
figures of Karabakh origin from Armenia take part, in particular,
RA President Serge Sargsian is meant.

In response to the question of an Azeri journalist of why Karabakh is
not for the highest level of self-government like that of Tatarstan
making part of Russia, Russian political scientist Markedonov mentioned
that it is a quite different format: there was no three-year war
between Tatarstan and Russia like between Karabakh and Azerbaijan,
Tatarstan has not declared about coming out of Russia’s structure, to
name but a few. In response to the question of an Armenian journalist
of how likely is the restart of military actions, the political
scientist said that war is always possible if there is a large-scale
crisis in the region. In response to the question of whether the
Madrid principles of the Karabakh regulation can serve as basis for
regulation, S. Markedonov mentioned that "there are many raw places"
in the suggestions, the demand of societies for making copromises
should serve as basis for regulation.

The viewpoints of Armenian and Russian experts often brought forth
revolts of Azeri side. Political scientist Alexander Iskandarian
mentioned that the fact that even experts speak to each other with
cudgels speaks about the current state of the regulation process,
whereas it is necessary that there should be a struggle of viewpoints
and not a struggle according to national belonging.

ARMENIAN CONVERSEBANK HOLDS DRAWING AMONG ITS DEPOSITORS

ARKA
June 10, 2008

YEREVAN, June 10. /ARKA/. Armenian Conversebank has held a drawing
among the holders of the "Zartonk" fixed-term deposit accounts. The
first prize in the drawing held June 6-7 was a tour to Prague for
two people, in addition to forty pieces of consumer electronics as
secondary prizes.

The campaign on "Zartonk" fixed-term deposits was held from March 24
to May 31, 2008. Deposits were made both in Armenian drams and in US
dollars. The minimum size of the deposited sum was 150,000 drams or
500 US dollars, the deposit term ranging from six to 12 months. The
campaign attracted 2bln drams from 600 depositors with 42.6% of them
described by the bank as first-time customers.

The Conversebank closed joint-stock company was registered on December
20, 1993. Armenian-Argentinean businessman Eduardo Eurnekyan acquired
ownership of the bank in February 2007.

According to the data of March 31, 2008, the bank’s assets totalled
56.2bln drams, with the total capital estimated at 11.6bln drams,
net profit in the first quarter 2008 at 682.4mln drams and for the
year of 2007 at 1.4bln drams. The balance sheet profit on the bank’s
account was 7.8bln drams, as the March 31 data suggest. ($1 -306.94
drams).

CANADIAN HISTORIAN REFUTED AZERBAIJAN’S ACCUSATIONS AGAINST ARMENIAN PARTY

DeFacto Agency
June 10 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 10.06.08. DE FACTO. "There is no evidence that the Armenians
of Nagorno-Karabagh committed "genocide against Meskhetian Turks
of Khojaly," said Canadian military historian Patrick Wilson Gore,
during the launch of his latest book "Tis Some Poor Fellow’s Skull –
Post-Soviet Warfare in the Southern Caucasus" at the embassy of the
Republic of Armenia in Ottawa, an independent French journalist Jean
Eckian told DE FACTO.

The Canadian expert stated that for 70 years Armenians of
Nagorno-Karabagh had been treated as second-class citizens under
Azeri rule. The treatment of Armenians by Azeris was a classic case of
ethnic cleansing. After the Soumgait and Baku massacres of Armenians
in the early 1990s, the Armenians were forced to fight to defend
their families and their lives.

In regard to the Khojaly incident, Gore said "Azeri troops ran
faster than the Meskhetian Turk civilians they had been using as
human shields". Upon their retreat to Agdam, civilians of Khojaly
were fired upon by the Azeri OMON garrison of Agdam, mistaking them
for Armenian forces. He said that a day before the start of Khojaly
battle, the Azeri forces had executed 32 Armenian prisoners of war.

Regarding the ongoing Azeri government threats of resumption of war
to take Nagorno-Karabagh, Gore said that "peace is for the benefit
of both sides". It is true that the Azeri government is getting
emboldened with its new-found oil wealth, but the Aliyev government
has to "consider that their oil and gas pipelines run 30 km north
of Nagorno-Karabagh, and Azeris have invested heavily in their Baku
facilities." Gore questioned whether Azeris wanted to jeopardize
their vital pipelines and "risk their money sources."

To note, the author of the 139-page book is a Canadian specialist in
military history and theory. He studied at Oxford, and subsequently
graduated from the National Defense College at Kingston, one of NATO’s
senior command colleges. Much of his career has focused on strategic
intelligence. This is his eleventh book. He used to be paratrooper
and marine commando.

The gathering was co-sponsored by the Armenian Embassy and the Armenian
National Committee of Canada (ANCC).

INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON MARKETING AND POSTAL COMMUNICATION LAUNCHED TUESDAY IN YEREVAN

ARKA
June 10, 2008

YEREVAN, June 10. /ARKA/. The international seminar focused on
development of marketing and postal communication was launched on
Tuesday in Yerevan.

Armenian Deputy Transport and Communication Minister Vruyr Arakelyan
told journalists that A regular meeting of representatives of CIS
countries’ postal authorities will be held. The meeting will last
until June 12.

Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communication convenes its 27th
session and the postal operators of the Commonwealth will gather as
well for their 16 session.

Arakelyan said that participants of the conference will discuss postal
sector’s achievements and consider ways of developing marketing as
instrument for developing postal business.

They will also discuss the issues related to preparation for 24th
Congress of Universal Postal Union, which will be held in Geneva from
July 23 to August 12.

Hay Post (Armenian Post) Director General Hans Boon said that such
seminars and joint sessions help postal companies in their efforts
to modernize services.

He views them as a good chance to establish cooperation and know the
experience of overseas partners.

The seminar has been organized by Regional Commonwealth in the Field
of Communication and HayPost, Armenian postal operator.

Postal operators from Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia as well as Great Britain, Finland and
France are taking part in the seminar.

HULIQ (press release), NC
June 6 2008

All Banks of Armenia in CIS Top 1000 List

All of the banks from Armenia are included in the list of top 1000
CIS banks, according to the volume of assets: a successful step by
Armenia that aims to make the country top financial center in the near
future bridging between Middle Eastern and European financial centers.

Following the results of 2007, all Armenian banks were included in the
list of 1000 CIS banks, according to the volume of assets.

Mediamax reports that the list of 1000 banks of CIS as to the volume
of assets is composed by the `Interfax-CEA’ Agency.

`HSBC Bank Armenia’ occupied the 272nd place in the list, assets –
$343mln.

Then come:

`Ardshininvestbank’ occupied the 294th place, assets – $308,1mln;
`ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank’ – 330th place, assets – $263,7mln;
`VTB-Armenia Bank’ – 364th place, assets – $230,1mln;
`Converse Bank’ – 408th place, assets – $192,9mln;
`Armeconombank’ – 458th place, assets – $165,6mln;
`Unibank’ – 488th place, assets – $149,7mln;
`Inecobank’ – 564th place, assets – $117,5mln;
`Armbusinessbank’ – 585th place, assets – $108,9mln;
`Anelik Bank’ – 601st place, assets – $105,5mln;
`ARARATBANK’ – 648th place, assets -$91,1mln;
`Artsakhbank’ – 734th place, assets – $73,3mln;
`Armswissbank’ – 743rd place, assets – $71,1mln;
`Areximbank’ – 757th place, assets – $ 68,4mln;
`BTA-Invest Bank’ – 813th place, assets – $58,7mln;
`Armenian Development Bank’ – 903rd place, assets – $45,9mln;
`Prometey Bank’ – 908th place, assets – $44,0mln;
`Mellat Bank’ – 923rd place, assets – $37,1mln;
`Cascade Bank’ – 926th place, assets – $36,0mln;
`Armimpexbank’ – 935th place, assets – $33,2mln;
`ProCredit Bank’ – 960th place, assets – $21,9mln;
`Byblos Bank Armenia’ – 965th place, assets – $19,3mln.

Source: By Mediamax

Final Results of Armenian-Azerbaijani Presidential Meeting Important
for Armenia

YEREVAN, June 6. /ARKA/. The final results of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
presidential meetings are more important for Armenia that the meetings
themselves, Armen Ashotyan, Board member, Republican Party of Armenia
(RPA), stated at the Novosti international press center.

`This is the first meting of the Presidents, and I hope that it will at
least be partly positive. However, it is the final result, not the fact
of the meeting, that is more important for us,’ Ashotyan said.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents, Serge Sargsyan and Ilkham
Aliyev, held a meeting in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Friday. The
sides pointed out that the meeting was a constructive one.

Since 1992, negotiations for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict have been conducted within the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by
the USA, Russia and France.-0-