Author: Karagyozian Lena

Le Monde, France
1 janvier 2008 mardi

Radio;
Entretiens avec Gérard Chaliand, poète et gentleman baroudeur

L’émission de France-Culture " A voix nue " donne la parole, toute la
semaine, à ce spécialiste de géostratégie

Voyageur, spécialiste de géostratégie, auteur de plusieurs dizaines
d’ouvrages individuels ou collectifs, Gérard Chaliand parcourt le
monde depuis son plus jeune ge. Sur France Culture, l’émission " A
voix nue " lui donne la parole toute la semaine, au fil de cinq
entretiens avec Thierry Garcin, le responsable des " Enjeux
internationaux " à l’antenne chaque matin.

Ce grand témoin des conflits armés de la deuxième moitié du XXe
siècle, né en 1934 dans une famille d’origine arménienne, raconte sa
vie de gentleman baroudeur, dévoreur de littérature épique à 8 ans,
docker, représentant en montres ou terrassier à 20 ans pour payer ses
voyages, puis enquêteur chez les guérilleros de Guinée-Bissau ou du
Kurdistan et enseignant invité à l’Ecole nationale d’administration
(ENA), à Harvard et à Montréal.

De l’aventurier, Gérard Chaliand a le verbe haut, le sens des
anecdotes chatoyantes et, quand il parle des institutions de
recherche, la voix cassante. Du spécialiste, l’auteur de L’Atlas
stratégique, géopolitique des nouveaux rapports de forces dans le
monde (Complexe) a la précision et la patience pour fouiller ses
sujets favoris : guérillas et guerres irrégulières, tiers-monde. LE
SON DES MOTS

L’Algérie, son voyage initial en 1952, lui ouvre les yeux sur le
colonialisme. Trois ans plus tard, la conférence de Bandung
(Indonésie), premier sommet des pays du tiers-monde, témoigne de la
marche vers les indépendances.

" C’était enthousiasmant de soutenir l’Algérie ou de soutenir Castro
à ses débuts. Quand il se rend à New York pour prononcer un discours
aux Nations unies, il loge à Harlem et défend la lutte des Noirs pour
les droits civiques ", se souvient-il. Il travaille en Guinée-Bissau,
à l’heure d’Amilcar Cabral, leader indépendantiste assassiné par les
services portugais en 1973.

Par la suite, il observe la montée des nationalismes, les phénomènes
islamistes, les nouvelles formes de guerres irrégulières. Il commence
la rédaction d’un atlas, dans les années 1990, sur le nouvel ordre
mondial, les diasporas ou le nucléaire. Il établit des anthologies
poétiques ou littéraires, pour enfants et pour adultes (Anthologie de
la poésie populaire kurde, L’Aube). Car Gérard Chaliand se veut aussi
poète et qualifie de " poème en prose " Mémoire de ma mémoire
(Julliard), son récit sur la trace de l’histoire familiale arménienne
et sur ce " caillot que j’avais dans le poing au jour de ma naissance
et dont, enfant, on m’a transmis la tragédie ". Il avoue avoir mis
vingt ans à écrire ce livre. " La poésie, le son des mots, c’est ce
qui donne un peu de sens à l’existence ", affirme-t-il.

Catherine Bédarida

" A voix nue ", du lundi 31 décembre au vendredi 4 janvier à 20
heuressur France Culture.

Artsakh Forest will not sell timber

27-12-2007 13:01:37 – KarabakhOpen

From now on the ministry of agriculture will license logging instead of
Artsakh Forest. The decision was made in the meeting of parliament.
According to Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan, Artsakh Forest was
reorganized into a state non-profit organization and will deal with
preservation and reproduction of the forest.

License for logging will be provided from next year. After getting the
permission of the ministry of agriculture it is necessary to turn to
Artsakh Forest for instructions on which trees can be logged, and the
organization which gets the license will do logging.

The government will thereby control loggers. During the meeting of
government it was underlined that there is too much breaching and
misuse, and forests are destroyed.

Officers of Azerbaijani Internal Troops met with Ramil Safarov

ANS
25.12.2007 20:47

"He only misses Azerbaijan"
The officers of Azerbaijani Internal Troops participating in the
training courses in Hungary met with Azerbaijani Army officer Ramil
Safarov in Budapest, Internal Troops press service told the APA.

The meeting with Ramil Safarov lasted more than 90 minutes. Azerbaijani
servicemen interested in the health and detention condition of Ramil
Safarov during the meeting.
Ramil Safarov said that there was not any problem in his health and
detention condition and he misses Azerbaijan. /APA/

The Financial, Georgia
Dec 26 2007

Armenian CB Board recognized as having lost validity the license of
`Cascade Insurance’ for life ins

26/12/2007 11:58

The FINANCIAL — According to Banks.AM, board of the Central Bank of
Armenia recognized on December 25 as having lost validity the life
insurance license of `Cascade Insurance’ CJSC, granted on December 30
of 2004.

As Mediamax was told in the CB press service on December 25, during
session on December 25 the Board also made changes and amendments in
the order `On operations, realized with cash in the Central Bank of
Armenia’, in the 2nd code of rules `Regulation of banking activities,
the basic economic norms of the banking activity’ and in the 3rd code
of rules `Banks reports, their presentation and publication’.

Panorama.am

20:24 28/12/2007

TWO OBSERVERS FROM ARMENIA IN GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTIONS

In 5 January 2008 there will be presidential elections
in Georgia and two Armenian observers will carry out
their observation there. According to Tatevik Ohanyan,
the press secretary of the Central Electoral
Committee, Atom Mkhitaryan from CEC is invited by OSCE
to carry out observation mission in Georgian
presidential elections.

And according to the public relations department of
the National Assembly, Deputy Vladimir Badalyan will
carry out his observation mission in the Georgian
presidential elections as a representative of Armenian
National Assembly. Note that Vladimir Badalyan is the
president of Armenian-Georgian business collaboration
association.

Note that the following candidates are nominated in
the Georgian presidential elections: former president
Mikhail Sahakashvili, Levan Gachechiladze from
opposition, Shalva Natelashvili, David Gamkrelidze,
Gia Maisashvili and Iraina Sarishvili.

Source: Panorama.am

ACCORDING TO EDWARD SHARMAZANOV, AUTHORITIES FORMED THROUGH DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS CAN SETTLE PROBLEMS SET IN FRONT OF PEOPLE

Noyan Tapan
Dec 24 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 24, NOYAN TAPAN. "The parliamentary elections showed
that society does not throw in its future with the extremely right
and the extremely left, but with those, who carry out a balanced and
productive policy." This statement was made by Edward Sharmazanov,
a member of the Republican Party of Armenia faction of the RA
National Assembly, during the discussion on the "Conclusion of the
pre-electoral year of 2007" subject organized in the National Press
Club on December 21. In addition to this, according to him, as a
result of the parliamentary hearings an opposition of a new quality
was formed, which is more coming up from building positions.

In the estimation of the Republican MP, the forces, which together
with the President of the Republic of Armenia have been carrying out
a policy for the past seven years, as a result of which the political
and social bases of the country were strengthened, have appeared in
the current parliament. "Of course, there have been and there are
faults, including corruption, social polarization, however, there is
no country, where everything is ideal," Edward Sharmazanov mentioned.

Touching upon the forthcoming presidential elections, Edward
Sharmazanov mentioned that the authorities formed through legitimate
and democratic elections can settle all the problems, which are set
in front of society.

Speaking about the 2008 budget, the member of the Republican Party
of Armenia faction qualified it as pretentious and realistic. In his
words, the budget has a social trend, since the 46% of the allocations
are mainly directed at the social sphere.

Stepan Safarian, the Secretary of the Zharangutiun (Heritage) faction
of the National Assembly, declared in his turn that the Zharangutiun
has little hope for the holding of presidential elections correponding
to the democratic norms. As regards the budget, according to the MP,
the main peculiarity of it is that the budget, in essence, is risky
in terms of execution.

In the words of Stepan Safarian, "if it is stressed that Armenia
is isolated, that it has appeared in a state of economic and
political competition with Azerbaijan, it is natural that we should
see in the budget the programs, which allow to overcome those
challenges." However, according to him, the budget is inadequate to
the set political goals.

In addition to this, in the estimation of the representative of
Zharangutiun, a budget, where there is no word about the industrial
development, cannot be praised. "That is more a pre-electoral budget,
since they speak about a 60% increase in pensions, however, under these
circumstances of inflation that increase does not settle a problem,"
Stepan Safarian stressed.

NEW UNDERGROUND STATIONS ENVISAGED TO BE BUILT IN YEREVAN IN ORDER TO IMPROVE STATE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Noyan Tapan
Dec 24 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 24, NOYAN TAPAN. 79 Bogdan Ukrainian buses have
been brought to Yerevan this year and another 50 will be brought by
the end of the year. Thus, as Yerevan Mayor Yervand Zakharian said
at the December 24 press conference, 307 new buses brought in the
last three years will operate in Yerevan starting January 1.

Nevertheless, according to the Mayor, the traffic is very busy in
Yerevan: "The number of cars increases year by year in Yerevan:
22 thousand cars have been brought in January-August this year,
and this number will reach 30 thousand by the end of the year,"
Y. Zakharian said.

In order to avoid problems and to improve the state of the land
transport it is envisaged to allocate funds for Yerevan underground’s
development and to increase the number of its stations in the coming
years. By the way, in the Soviet years new underground stations
were being built from Barekamutiun station to the Achapniak district
and Shiraz street, but the construction work was stopped after the
collapse of the USSR. According to Y. Zakharian, probably that work
will be resumed in the coming years. Besides, another two new stations
will be built in Komitas Avenue.

The Mayor also said that at present they negotiate with the World
Bank over the issue of financing the above mentioned work.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Moscow: EU should not deal with Kosovo status
22.12.2007 14:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Any change in civil presence, simultaneous
establishment and replacement by any other international mission
should be approved by the UN Security Council, said Mikhail Kamynin, a
Spokesman for the Russia Foreign Ministry, when commenting on the EU’s
decision to sent a mission to Kosovo to contribute to Kosovo’s
transition to `independence under international supervision.’

`If the matter concerns fundamental revision of aims and tasks of the
mission, attempts to transform it into a tool for construction of an
independent Kosovo, as planned by the EU, it will appear as a rough
violation of the UN regulations. We take account of EU’s aspiration to
play a more significant role in Kosovo resolution but determination of
the province’s status goes beyond the EU’s competence. We are hopeful
that our partners will abide by their commitments to the UN and will
refrain from steps pregnant with a dangerous precedent for the entire
system of international relations,’ Kamynin said, the RA MFA press
office said.

ASORIES AND GERMANS TO ELECT SERZH SARGSYAN

Panorama.am
18:11 21/12/2007

"In the upcoming presidential elections we will support the candidacy
of Serzh Sargsyan," Asorian "Khatata" federation chairperson Irina
Gasparyan made this statement today. She said during the rule of
Levon Ter-Petrosyan the national minorities were ignored. "There was a
situation as if we did not exist. Our educational issues were ignored,"
she said.

Gasparyan mentioned that the Assyrian community, composed of 3,400
people, supports the policy of Serzh Sargsyan.

Victor Vokhrer , chairman of "Teutnoia" German Cultural Public
Organization, also present at the press conference, mentioned that
he cannot speak on behalf of the community and he expressed his
own viewpoints. "Only the Republican party can contribute to the
development of the Armenian economy and education. There is no other
party with so much power," he said. In his words, there are about 20
German families living in Armenia today.

A GROUP OF FIVE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT

Panorama.am
17:14 20/12/2007

"As of today there are four or five candidates that have real chances
of winning at the presidential elections," Gerasim Barseghyan, a
political scientist, told a meeting with reporters today. In his words,
Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan has serious chances of winning. "The
electorate of the Republican Party is mainly in the marzes where
people do not have high political ambitions and want to be sure that
their irrigation water and bread will be tomorrow, although we cannot
say that Yerevan will not be decisive," Barseghyan said.

Among candidates with realistic chances of winning he mentioned the
name of Arthur Baghdasaryan.

"Baghdasaryan has the skills of populism and political
technologies. Besides, he may take up very unpredictable actions but he
has taken time out at this point," he said. Among serious candidates,
Barseghyan mentioned Vahan Manukyan as charismatic and prestigious
party representative. Barseghyan said Levon Ter-Petrosyan is among the
five with chances to win. Ter-Petrosyan has some skills of political
technologies and guides the discontent masses, the political scientist
said. Lastly, he mentioned the names of Artashes Geghamyan and Vazgen
Manukyan who share the last 5th position. "Geghamyan may give away
his positions as he entered into the cycle of black PR as a result
of being criticized by the press. Vazgen Manukyan turned out to be
more cold-hearted," he said.