Author: Karabekian Emil

ELECTRIC NETWORKS OF ARMENIA CJSC CANNOT SIGN A CREDIT AGREEMENT WITH VNESHTORGBANK BECAUSE OF INTERNAL PROBLEMS

arminfo
2007-12-21 17:04:00

ArmInfo. The "Electric Networks of Armenia" (ENA) CJSC cannot sign a
credit agreement worth $70 mln with Vneshtorgbank (Russia) because
of internal problems, ENA Director General Yevgeny Gladunchik said
at a press-conference, Friday.

He recalled that the partied reached agreement on credit, however,
the credit agreement cannot be signed because of ENA, not the bank. He
added that the company was going to spend these funds on upgrading
of electric networks in Yerevan, as well as on construction of 110 KV
substations and 2 substations of 35 KV each. According to the project,
the electric capacities in Yerevan were to be increased to uncouple the
scheme of electric supply of the city where the energy consumption is
steadily growing. However, the Yerevan City Hall was to give grounds
for construction of substations, and it is hard to solve this problem,
Y.Gladunchik said. He added that another cute issue is to take out
the electric substations from residential buildings. He noted that
there are about 130 such substations in the city and less than ten
of them were taken out from buildings. "In this issue we come across
the residents’ resistance", said Gladunchik.

LITTLE SINGERS OF ARMENIA TO MARK THEIR 15th ANNIVERSARY WITH JUBILEE CONCERT

Noyan Tapan
Dec 20 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. A jubilee concert of the Little
Singers of Armenia choir dedicated to choir’s 15th anniversary
will take place on December 21 at Yerevan’s Aram Khachatrian concert
hall. As Tigran Hekekian, choir’s founder, Art Director and Conductor,
said at the December 20 press conference, choir’s former pupils will
perform during the concert.

"Our choir is of the same age as our state and we always think of
not only perfecting it for even more, but also representing Armenia
on international stages," T. Hekekian said.

Karine Khodikian, the RA Deputy Minister of Culture, said that at the
end of the concert, for its achievements in the choir art and on the
occasion of its 15th anniversary, the choir will be awarded the diploma
of the RA Ministry of Culture. For her contribution to choir’s creation
to its becoming fully-fledged, Elmira Hekekian, RA Merited Figure of
Art, a producer, a pedagogue, will be awarded Ministry’s gold medal.

The Little Singers of Armenia choir has taken part in many festivals,
in international contests, performed on authoritative stages of many
cities of the United States and Europe. Choir’s repertoire incluces
medieval, Renaissance and modern works.

DAVID NALBANDYAN 9TH BEST IN THE WORLD

armradio.am
20.12.2007 17:52

With 1 775 points Argentinean Armenian tennis player David Nalbandyan
occupies the 9th place in the list of best tennis players of the
world issued today by the Professional Tennis Association.

The first is Roje Federrer of Switzerland with 7 180 points. The
second is Rafael Nadal of Spain with 5 735 points. Serbian Navak
Jokovich comes third with 4 420 points.

P. SEMNEBY: THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM IN THE FAILED DIALOGUE BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY IS THAT THE PARTIES CONTACT NOT ENOUGH, DON’T UNDERSTAND AND TRUST EACH OTHER

2007-12-19 23:58:00

ArmInfo. The most important problem in the failed dialogue between
Armenia and Turkey is that they contact not enough, don’t understand
and trust each other, EU Special Representative in South Caucasus
Peter Semneby told journalists in answer to ArmInfo correspondent’s
question upon completion of parliamentary hearings "Armenian-Turkish
Relations: Problems and Prospects" in Yerevan.

He emphasized that if the sides managed to overcome these obstacles,
it would be qualitatively much easier to come to an agreement and
to see the probable dialogue for normalization of relations between
Armenia and Turkey.

P. Semneby said it will be useful for the parties to approach the
dialogue with small steps. He said that the important thing is that
historical and political issues were not interpreted particularly as
political. The special representative also said that it’s important
for Armenia to promote and support the impetuses, existing in Turkey.

According to him, EU is interested in that Armenia and Turkey
are prosperous countries. P. Semneby didn’t want to comment on the
journalists’ question that Armenia is ready to sit at the negotiation
table with no preconditions, while Turkey adheres to another point
of view.

TURKEY: BROTHERS IN ARMS?
By Elif Aydýn

The Muslim News, UK
icle=3298
Dec 20 2007

The protracted problem of how to deal with terrorists agitating for
separatism in Turkey is back on the agenda with a vengeance. With
the Chief Prosecutor filing a motion to force the closure of the
Democratic Society Party (DTP) for alleged links with the Kurdistan
Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan – PKK) and cross border
incursions by the Turkish military in northern Iraq, the issue has
resurfaced in recent weeks with demands for an insistence on clearer
boundaries and concrete proposals for conflict resolution.

It wasn’t anticipated when the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
won the elections on July 22, that the party’s new government
would adopt quite so belligerent an attitude towards the PKK rebels
operating from bases in northern Iraq and causing much bloodshed
in Turkey’s southeast. Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in
the weeks leading up to the elections patently refused to sanction
a cross border operation by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) despite
public protestations by the head of the TSK, General Yaþar Buyukanýt,
that such an operation would yield significant and important results
in the battle against renewed terrorist activity in the south east.

Erdogan throughout his electioneering was keen to project his party as
one that saw the problems in the south east as socio-economic; rooted
in cultural and economic neglect, and not political, in terms of a
concerted programme in support of secession. He was the first PM when
in 2005 he openly acknowledged the existence of a ‘Kurdish problem’
and of the failure of the state and successive governments to foster
economic growth and investment in the south east as a palliative to
the discontent that had festered since. His plan of action to reverse
the history of the state’s neglect has been one which focussed on
the expansion of cultural rights, consistent with the demands of
the EU negotiation process, and on economic development. But in
recent months, the escalation in deaths of soldiers on the border,
as well as matters well beyond the region itself, has changed much of
the Erdogan’s and the party’s attitude towards endorsing a military
operation in northern Iraq.

It’s no coincidence of course that the vote in the Turkish Parliament
supporting a cross border operation to rout out PKK rebels that
use the Kandil mountain region to launch offensives into Turkish
territory occurred not soon after a vote in the US House Foreign
Affairs Committee supporting claims for the designation of the
massacre of Armenians in 1915 as ‘genocide’. The Turkish President,
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister had been active, as with every
previous attempt by the House of Representatives, to concede to the
rigorous lobbying of Armenians, to stress the impact of any such vote
on US-Turkish relations. Indeed, so significant was the likely impact
of a vote of support that US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice,
and President George Bush warned the House of the damage its obstinacy
would present to US strategy and interests in Iraq.

For some, Turkey’s behaviour in threatening to cut off vital logistical
support for and co-operation with the US in Iraq in protest over the
Armenian issue, and the Turkish General Assembly’s vote in favour
of military action is commensurate with that of a behemoth whose
ardent nationalism, societal as well as statist, is responsible for
the disdain with which ethnic and religious diversity is treated in
Turkey. The policy of Turkification which has directed the building of
the nation since the Republic’s inception, and latterly, a penal code
which criminalises insults to ‘Turkishness’ and Turkish institutions,
both undermine ethnic pluralism and critical perspectives of the
nation’s history.

Armenians would no doubt contest that the suspension of the vote on
the floor of the House is yet another example of Turkey’s refusal to
face up to its past. And the administration in northern Iraq, which
protested furiously at any attempted incursion into its territory by
the Turkish army, is similarly unimpressed by the militarist posturing
of its powerful neighbour.

Regional and Armenian diaspora politics aside, the problem of
the Demokrat Turkiye Partisi (Democratic Turkey Party, DTP) in
Turkey’s broadening democracy, like so many other internal squabbles;
involving scarf clad women and courageous journalists to Christian
missionaries and foreign property investors, is about the comfortable
fit of diversity and difference in a society long led to believe that
uniformity and a single, supra all embracing identity was its source
of strength.

Many in the AKP have themselves learnt from the harsh experience
of February 28, 1997, what Turks call the post modern coup; that
ousted the coalition government of Necmettin Erbakan’s Refah Party,
as well as the closure of the party’s successor, Fazilet, in 2001,
what it’s like to be at the receiving end of discriminatory policies
and establishment prejudices.

The ruling party’s backing of reforms contingent to its EU membership
bid, has had the intended consequence of broadening the liberties
it seeks for its own constituency, with respect to the freedom of
religion, to the Kurdish minority. The AKP’s insistence on the Republic
encompassing those of both a religious and non religious inclination
is as easily extended in this discourse on the indivisibility of the
unitary state and the recognition of ethnic, as well as religious,
difference.

The distance travelled by the AKP to render itself a party of the
people, not of ‘a’ people, something evident in the party’s candidate
list for the 2007 general elections, governs its attitude towards
its Kurdish brethren.

While Kurdish parliamentary hopefuls contested the election as
independents, so as to overcome the 10% threshold to parliamentary
representation, the party was trumped by the AKP at the ballot box
with the incumbents almost doubling their support in the South East,
attracting more than half the votes in the region’s 20 largest Kurdish
populated cities.

The AKP’s hitherto more co-operational stance and its emphasis on
political methods for divesting ethnicity based party organisations
of their ethnic constituency and a separatist agenda has seen Prime
Minister Erdogan adopt an inclusionary policy in the make up of his
new administration. Efkan Ala was announced as the new Permanent
Undersecretary to the PM’s office. Ala is former governor of Batman
and Diyarbakýr, densely Kurdish populated provinces in the South East,
and a well respected figure for his handling of ethnic tensions in
the region through the 1990s.

The current cabinet also includes several deputies representing
southeast regions, ensuring that an ethno-regional representation
in the Government persists at a time when hostilities at the border
have given rise to sufficient grievance in the wider population to
return deputies from the far right nationalist party, as well as
Kurdish representatives.

Just as the AKP over the years has had to imprint its commitment
to Turkey’s secular democracy on the populace in words and deeds,
so too is the DTP required to make clear its rejection of terrorism
and violence for political gains if it is to be a valued and valuable
actor in Turkish politics. While the establishment and sections of the
population at large have in the past demonstrated their weaknesses in
failing to reject the inherent flaws of a nation building policy that
manufactured consent but didn’t entirely merit it, through neglecting
difference; ethnic, religious or otherwise, the long path trodden by
the AKP, with the aid of the EU walking stick, holds out some promise
for the future. Having learnt that protesting one’s commitment to the
rules of the democratic game must be evidenced in deeds and not merely
panegyrics, its demands that the DTP and residents in Turkey’s south
east speak out and clearly against terrorism as the sine qua non to
normalised political engagement, is a lesson borne of personal and
party experience.

Broadening the Turkish imagination to willingly embrace the country’s
diversity is a struggle in which, as Erdogan rightly insists, all
Turks are involved whatever their ethnic, religious or linguistic
origins. "Those who have embraced the fundamental values of this
country are my brothers," he says.

And of those that demand the unilateral and unequivocal backing
of democracy as the means through which to deal with diversity
in dignity, let them too demonstrate their commitment to the
‘brotherhood’. Amending aspects of the penal code and the law on
foundations would be a good place to start wouldn’t you say so,
brother?

–Boundary_(ID_/EKXUYj/Fhiripd3U/yov g)–

FAREWELL VISIT OF IRI AMBASSADOR TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

National Assembly of RA, Armenia
Dec 19 2007

On December 18 Mr. Tigarn Torosyan, President of the National Assembly,
received Mr. Alireza Haghighian, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic
of Iran to Armenia, following the completion of his mission.

Evaluating the Ambassador’s contribution to the development of
relations between the two countries, Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President
of the National Assembly, thanked him and noted that the traditional
friendly relationship gained new quality during this period, economic
ties were deepened and mutual visits took place. The President of the
National Assembly also highlighted the development of cultural ties,
regarding them as an opportunity of strengthening practical ties.

According to him, not only the centuries long friendship but also
mutual interests, promoting the development of the two countries,
are at the base of building ties between Armenia and Iran. Mr. Tigran
Torosyan, highly assessing the Ambassador’s activity highlighted
that bases were also created during these years for the realization
of the new programs and projects.

Mr. Alireza Haghighian, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of
Iran to Armenia conveyed congratulations and best wishes of New Year
and Christmas to the President of the National Assembly on behalf of
Mr. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, Iranian Parliament Speaker and reassured
the NA President’s official visit to Tehran. He also highly assessed
the relations of the two countries, also highlighting them in the
context of regional peace and stability. For having the support of
the parliament during the years he worked in Armenia the Ambassador
expressed his gratitude to the President of the National Assembly,
assuring that he will remain a friend of Armenia.

Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly thanked the
Iranian Parliament Speaker for the best wishes and invitation but noted
that as the autumn session of the National Assembly was very full with
the regular and extraordinary sittings, there was no opportunity to
visit IRI this year. He expressed hope that the official visit should
take place after the presidential elections in 2008.

OPERATION DEFROST
Translated by A. Ignatkin

DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
Source: Novye Izvestia, 13.12.2007, pp. 1, 4
December 17, 2007 Monday

by Rafael Mustafayev (Baku), Irina Maramidze (Tbilisi), Yana Stadilnaya
(Kiev), Artyom Oparin

LATENT CONFLICTS ON THE TERRITORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH ONCE AGAIN BECAME
THE TALK OF THE DAY; The problem of self-proclaimed republics aspiring
for recognition of their sovereignty threatens the Commonwealth with
new wars.

Latent conflicts on the territory of the Commonwealth once again
became the talk of the day throughout the world. Azerbaijani defense
minister openly proclaims inevitability of a war over Nagorno-Karabakh
with Armenia; Georgian Foreign Ministry is upset over what it brands
as "increase of Russian military presence" in Abkhazia; Moldovan
leadership keeps questioning "expediency" of the Russian military in
the restive Trans-Dniester region…

Self-proclaimed republics in the meantime demand recognition of their
sovereignty from the international community. Confrontation between
Russia and the West over the future of Kosovo adds oil to the flame.

Defense Minister Safar Abiyev, the Azerbaijani politician who speaks
his mind and doesn’t mince words, promotes a military solution to
the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh. The 2008 draft military budget of
Azerbaijan will amount to the unprecedented figure of $1.3 billion.

Recalling how Baku had made laser sights and aviation and navy gear in
the Soviet Union, Azerbaijani Deputy Premier Yagub Ejyubov suggested
transformation into a major arms merchant.

Armenian politicians in their turn seem to rely almost exclusively
on membership of their country in the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization and aid from allies (first and foremost, Russia).

Predictably, it makes them considerably more reserves than their
opponents. Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosjan, for example,
indirectly responded to Abiyev’s aggressive rhetoric with a speech on
benefits of "preventive diplomacy." In the meantime, it never occurs
to anyone in Yerevan to withdraw from a single square meter of the
occupied territories.

American diplomat Matthew Bryza, one of the chairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group wrestling with the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict settlement,
urged Baku and Yerevan the other day to stop bickering and adopt
the plan charted by foreign intermediaries. The plan stands for
withdrawal of the Armenian troops from some occupied territories as
phase one of the process of reconciliation. It is to be followed by
removal of land-mines and return of refugees to their homes. Baku
in the meantime is asked to forget about restoration of control over
Nagorno-Karabakh… Bryza’s was a voice in the wilderness.

The situation with conflict areas in Georgia nearby – Abkhazia and
South Ossetia – is no less dramatic. With the presidential campaign
under way in Georgia, officials in Tbilisi and media outlets regularly
bring up the subject of Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry and U.S. Department of State in the
meantime castigate Moscow for the temerity to draw parallels between
Abkhazia and Kosovo. Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili ever warned
the Kremlin that its stand on the matter might "backfire."

Neither does the presidential campaign in Georgia and those involved
in it forget about the possibility of armed provocations in conflict
areas. Political scientist Pata Zakareishvili of the Development and
Cooperation Center does not expect any armed provocations.

Zakareishvili is convinced that the Georgian leadership uses the
subject as a bugaboo the way politicians in Russia speculate on how
Kosovo may set a precedent for Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "It is wrong
for Russia to draw parallels between Kosovo and Abkhazia, and wrong
first and foremost for the Abkhazians. Insisting on viewing Kosovo
as a precedent is not going to avail Moscow anything," Zakareishvili
said. "Russia is getting stronger and wealthier.

Granted that it is, it nevertheless has certain weak points. Neither
the United States nor China will defeat Russia but the Caucasus just
might do it. By flirting with Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region,
the Kremlin is playing with fire. These regions are located near
the Russian borders. Should Moscow be so reckless as to question the
territorial integrity of Georgia, Tbilisi will certainly use its clout
with the Caucasus [against Russia – Vremya Novostei. I’m not saying
that Russia should abandon Abkhazia and South Ossetia altogether. It
should demand from the Georgian leadership a solution to the local
problems in a civilized and peaceful manner – the way countries of
the West have been demanding it."

Everyone talks peace and peaceful settlement. The situation in the
Kishinev-Tiraspol conflict area in the meantime is regarded the
less problematic of all. Rank veterans of the 1992 war there that
took almost 1,000 lives on both sides eventually stopped seeing each
other through the prism of ethnic origin – and that’s what makes the
situation in the Trans-Dniester region unique.

The last serious attempt to arrange direct negotiations between the
leaders of the sides of the conflict was undertaken in 2006. It
failed. The negotiations were arranged in the traditional 5+2
manner – five intermediaries (OSCE, Russia, Ukraine, United
States, European Union) and two warring sides (Moldova and the
self-proclaimed Trans-Dniester Moldovan Republic). Try as they might,
the intermediaries failed in getting Kishinev and Tiraspol reach an
understanding on a single issue.

This diplomatic failure was followed by economic blockade of the
runaway territory by Moldova and Ukraine and by caravans of relief aid
from Russia. Where the Ukrainians are concerned, the latent conflict
between Kishinev and Tiraspol concerns them directly because Ukraine
remains an official intermediary and guarantor.

"As a matter of fact, the part Ukraine has played in this whole
conflict is as important as Russia’s," to quote Dmitry Levus, Director
of the Social Studies Center Ukrainian Meridian (Kiev).

Active interaction with Trans-Dniester businesses makes Ukrainian
politicians particularly interested in peaceful settlement.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe arranged a
conference on suspended conflicts in Berlin in November 2007.

"Geography of conflicts" was restricted to what had constituted
the Soviet Union once – neither Kosovo nor North Cyprus were even
mentioned. Eduard Lintner, Chairman of the International Committee of
the Parliamentary Assembly, said the problem of suspended conflicts
was ever in the focus of attention of the Council of Europe. "Truce is
upheld in conflict areas these days, but the problems [that fomented
them in the first place – Vremya Novostei] remain unsolved.

That is why we view them as suspended," a Parliamentary Assembly
official given the floor said.

The conference decided almost unanimously that once the armed conflicts
on the territory of post-Soviet countries had been suspended, Russia
chose the policy of deliberate conservation of the status quo that
impeded conflict settlement. The nearly unanimous decision was the
very suspension of conflicts had been a factor impeding settlement
rather than a means of putting an end to bloodshed.

What will "defrosting" result in then? When involved societies do not
even want communication with each other, much less compromises? When
leaders of the warring sides view the very idea of a compromise as
treason against the state and national interests? When the conflicts
are used as a device to consolidate the masses? "Defrosting" will
inevitably mean renewal of the hostilities and ruination of the
existing parity. In short, it will be much worse than the status quo.

Of course, someone might decide that peace is worth a "little war"
but that’s a questionable assumption at best.

Dismissing the patent danger of conflict escalation in
Nagorno-Karabakh, the European Union seems to be interested in it
much more than it is in the problems of Abkhazia, South Ossetia,
and particularly Trans-Dniester region, Nicu Popescu of CEPS (Center
of European Political Studies) said. The European Union is not going
to participate in peacekeeping operations there unless an operation
like that is warranted by an Azerbaijani-Armenian agreement. France,
Russia, and United States in the meantime chair the OSCE Minsk Group
for Nagorno-Karabakh. Neutral as it is, the European Union condemns
the policy of economic blockade of Armenia pursued by Azerbaijan and
Turkey. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia participate in the New European
Neighborhood program the European Union charted for post-Soviet
countries, Middle East, and North Africa. On the other hand, the
EU-Azerbaijan action plan signed within the framework of this program
promotes the principle of territorial integrity but the US-Armenian
one advocates the principle of self-determination. In other words,
Brussels is telling each of its partners whatever this particular
partner would like to hear.

PRELIMINARY DEAL ON NAGORNO KARABAKH CAN BE SEALED BEFORE ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.12.2007 18:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A preliminary deal with Azerbaijan over Nagorno
Karabakh could be possible before the presidential elections early
next year, Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan told Reuters in
an interview.

"I don’t think the presidential election should impact on these
negotiations. I am very hopeful, confident even, that we can still
reach a conclusion on such a framework before then,"

PM Sargsyan is confirmed his intention to run in next year’s elections
for the right to replace his ally, outgoing President Robert Kocharian,
but said it would not distract from efforts to reach a consensus
with Azerbaijan.

"The thing is that I am not a new person in Armenian politics and
Armenian government. I was there for long time and I participated
in all developments particularly as regards the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict," Sargysan said late on Tuesday on a visit to the European
Parliament. "I am well aware of all the details and now when new
proposals are coming, there are also coming with my consent. That
is why I don’t think that the presidential elections can disturb the
negotiation process."

TRANSCAUCASIAN HIGHWAY CLOSED BECAUSE OF AVALANCHE

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.12.2007 13:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The Transcaucasian highway connecting Russia and
South Caucasus via North Ossetia was closed because of avalanche.

"The decision to block the highways is conditioned by abundant
snowfalls and avalanche threat. Weather conditions don’t allow securing
traffic on the pass," said the North Ossetian Ministry of Emergency
Situations, RIA Novosti reports.

ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RATES CAN BE REGARDED AS POSITIVE: WORLD BANK’S DEPUTY PRESIDENT

ARKA News Agency
Dec 14 2007
Armenia

YEREVAN, December 14. /ARKA/. The current economic development rates
in Armenia can be regarded as positive, said the World Bank’s (WB)
Regional Deputy President in Europe and Central Asia Shigeo Katsu.

He pointed out that a two-digit economic growth has been recorded
in Armenia for the past years. Katsu believes these are rather
positive rates for Armenia. According to him, the country has passed
a long way after its independence, but it still has to face lots of
challenges. Armenia’s economy has been pumped up with investments.

Unfortunately, they were allocated for only certain branches of
economy, WB Deputy President said.

He believes the focus now should be how to make the economic growth
more viable. For this purpose, Armenia should attract both foreign
and local investors and focus on the economic development, according
to Katsu.

13.3% economic growth was recorded in Armenia in January-October 2007
against the corresponding period in 2006, the National Statistical
Service reports.