Author: Karagyozian Lena

Karabakh’s status “priority” for Yerevan – Armenian Foreign Ministry
Arminfo
21 Jun 05
YEREVAN
“Every party can speak out on any issue during the talks. But this
does not mean that any suggestion by one of the sides is automatically
put on the agenda even if there is some preliminary agreement,”
Armenian Foreign Ministry’s press secretary Gamlet Gasparyan said
while commenting on a statement by the Azerbaijani side that the
Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers had discussed the reopening
of roads in Paris.
Gasparyan said Armenia had a precise position on this issue: “The
priority is Nagornyy Karabakh’s status,” he said. “And as long as this
issue remains unclear and there is no agreement on this, it is too
early to discuss any other issue.”
Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said in Baku
yesterday that Azerbaijan had suggested opening transport links
between Azerbaijan and [its exclave] Naxcivan via Nagornyy Karabakh
and Armenia.
[Passage omitted: details of Azimov’s statement]

Pan Armenian News
PACE KARABAKH COMMISSION TO CONVENE FIRST MEETING JUNE 23
21.06.2005 06:10
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The first meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe temporary commission on the Karabakh issue will be held
June 23. The Commission includes Armenian and Azeri delegates,
representatives of diverse PACE committees, heads of delegations, as well as
rapporteurs on Armenia and Azerbaijan. Lord Russell-Johnston heads the
Commission, the Yerkir newspaper reported.

Pan Armenian News
DEMOCRATIC PARTY WINS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN KARABAKH
20.06.2005 06:55
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ According to the preliminary results made public by the
Central Election Commission of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR), 78
percent or 66,774 voters cast their ballots in the June 19 parliamentary
election, Yerkir Online reported. In the proportional system, constituencies
Artsakh Democratic Party (chaired by Ashot Gulian) received 22, 939 votes,
(5 seats) followed by Azat Hayrenik (Free Homeland) with 15, 931 votes (3
seats) and ARF-Movement 88, with 14, 535 votes (3 seats).

2 CRUCIAL DOCUMENTS FOR ARMENIA’S INTEGRATION INTO EUROPE PRESENTED
DURING ARMENIAN FM’S VISIT TO BRUSSELS
YEREVAN, JUNE 20. ARMINFO. 2 documents of crucial importance for
Armenia’s integration into Europe were presented during Armenian FM
Vardan Oskanyan’s recent visit to Brussels: Armenia’s individual
partnership plans with NATO and EU.
Oskanyan says that he has told NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer and the ambassadors of 26 NATO member states about Armenia’s
key foreign political priorities and approaches to cooperation with
NATO
The work on the documents will be finished by the end of this year.
In Brussels Oskanyan also met with the secretary general of EU council
Javier Solana. The sides discussed the Karabakh peace process,
regional cooperation process, the issue for opening the
Armenian-Turkish border, EU new transport and energy projects.
As to his recent visit to the US Oskanyan says that his key meeting
was with US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice. The sides discussed a
wide spectrum of Armenian-US relations which is dynamically developing
particularly in trade and economy. The US continues to actively
provide Armenia with humanitarian aid. Rice highly appreciated
Armenia’s involvement in the international anti-terror operations.
The sides also discussed internal political processes and democracy
building in Armenia and of course the recent developments in the
Karabakh peace process and Armenia’s relations with its neighbors
especially Turkey.
In the US Oskanyan also met with representatives of the Armenian
Caucus of the US Congress, Hay Dat and Armenian Assembly of America.
He also spoke at US National Club.

Armenian opposition deadlocked as authorities accept constitutional changes
Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
17 Jun 05

Text of Naira Zograbyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan
Zhamanak on 17 June headlined “Deadlock for the opposition”
By accepting the main suggestions of the Venice Commission, the
Armenian authorities have in fact driven the opposition into deadlock.
The point is that the opposition had been saying for already a year
that they agreed to all the suggestion of the Venice Commission on the
draft constitution, and since the authorities had rejected the joint
suggestions of the opposition and the Venice Commission, they would
turn the constitutional referendum into a vote of confidence in
[Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan. The Armenian authorities had
little choice but to accept those suggestions almost without
reservations at the insistence of the Venice Commission.
At present, after these enforced compromises, it is difficult to say
if Kocharyan himself will become the person who will foil the
referendum. Especially that the new constitution will come into force
after the next [parliamentary] elections and the authorities, taking
advantage of the super powers granted to the president by the acting
constitution, still have a chance to form another puppet parliament
which will not be able to fulfil provisions even of the most
democratic constitution. For this reason and because of this latest
“democratic” concession of the Armenian authorities, the opposition’s
plan to replace the authorities is in danger since it relied on the
constitutional referendum.
It is difficult to imagine how the opposition is going to stage
rallies and call on people to vote against the constitution which
takes into account the main demands of the opposition and the world
community. Even if the opposition manages to spur a popular uprising,
the world community will support the opposition and stop Kocharyan
from suppressing the opposition, and Kocharyan will get carte blanche
to protect his main obligations against Europe [sentence as
received]. What will the opposition do in this case?
An independent [as received, actually opposition] MP, Mayak Ovanesyan,
believes that the “opposition for the sake of opposition” slogan is
nonsense.
“If all the main suggestion of the Venice Commission have indeed been
accepted, I cannot imagine how the opposition will encourage people to
vote down the constitution,” the independent member of the opposition
[as received] said.
The secretary of the [opposition] Justice bloc, Viktor Dallakyan,
whose major challenge is to turn the constitutional referendum into a
vote of confidence in Kocharyan, does not think that having reached
agreement with international structures, the authorities have
safeguarded themselves.
“In spite of everything, even if we accept that an absolutely
democratic constitution will be put to vote, our plans to turn that
process into the change of the government will remain valid. If the
draft constitution is bad, we shall call on people to vote against it
and to turn it into a vote of confidence in the authorities. If it is
good, we shall explain to the people that the draft was suggested by
the opposition and the authorities made enforced compromises. In that
case we shall call on people to vote for the draft, explaining that
with this constitution will split the authorities and they will weaken
and that this will be the best opportunity to get rid of the criminal
administration. In any case, the authoritarian nature of the regime
will not change,” Viktor Dallakyan said.
Certainly, this option of the opposition may not be considered
illogical. But it is clear that the chances to realize this option are
slim and the opposition needs to make more efforts to reach its goal.

A1plus
| 11:17:53 | 18-06-2005 | Politics |
NO POLITICAL WILL
June 20 the amendments to the Electoral Code will come into force
“Let the authorities not to connect the conduction of fair and
transparent elections with the clauses of the Electoral Code. They just
want to secure a basis for further lawless actions”, secretary of the
National Unity faction Alexan Karapetyan says. He considers that the
new Electoral Code showed regress as compared to the previous one. In
his opinion, taking into account the circumstance that the election
process will be controlled by the powers with rich experience of
falsifying the outcomes, the next elections will be much more worse.
Among the shortcomings of the EC Alexan Karapetyan marked the order
of formation of the election commissions. “Judges are included
in the commissions. How is the juridical power connected with the
conduction of elections?” he says. He also noted one more omission:
the Electoral Code does not regulate the issue of the participation
or non-participation of judges serving on the election commission
in the court proceedings. Alexan Karapetyan is convinced that the
amendments have not changed anything, since de facto judges are
appointed by the President.
Justice faction secretary Victor Dallakyan who is a co-author of
the previous Electoral Code, noted, “As a matter of fact the Code
was not improved. It can be proved by two ordinary examples – first,
the process of formation of the commissions offers the authorities the
possibility of large-scale falsifications and second, though there is
some progress as regards the empowered persons, the Central Election
Committee have exceed power of regulating the rights of the empowered
persons and observers.
Reminding that the Electoral Code is an essential but sufficient
condition for the conduction of democratic elections People’s Deputy
faction member Mkrtich Minasyan noted, “The new Electoral Code is not
perfect, however it contains some advantages.” For example, its authors
tried to settle the problems such as the expansion of authority of the
observers and empowered persons, responsibility for filing the rolls as
well as prolongation of the election campaign period. Diana Markosyan

KAPAN-MEGHRI HIGHWAY TO BYPASS SHIKAHOGH RESERVE
YEREVAN, JUNE 17, NOYAN TAPAN. RA Minister of Transport and
Communication Andranik Manukian stated at the June 17 public hearing
that the Kapan-Meghri highway will be built by bypassing the Shikahogh
Reserve. He announced that the previous project envisaging that
the road will intersect the reserve at the Mtnadzor Forest has been
withdrawn. According to him, a commission to provide the technical and
economic substantiation of the alternative project has been set up. By
this alternative project, the road not only does not cross the reserve
but also runs through the village of Shishkert which would be of great
importance for the economic development of Syunik marz. Minister of
Nature Protection Vardan Aivazian welcomed the decision underlining
that the economic damage should be assessed not only in terms of
the number of the trees cut down but also means the destruction
of the unique ecosystem, which is even more dangerous. Director
of the World Wild Fund (WWF) Armenian Office Karen Manvelian said
that the implementation of the previous project would result in the
destruction of the Mtnadzor Forest as part of the Shikahogh Reserve,
as well as of tens of plant and animal species included in the Red
Book. At the conclusion of the hearing, the environmental community,
under the pressure of which the initial project was withdrawn, stated
its intention to conduct the monitoring of all the activities on the
construction of the Kapan-Meghri highway. The hearing was organized by
the working group “SOS Shikahogh” composed of representatives of the
Coalition of Ecological NGOs, WWF, the American University of Armenia,
the Armenian Tree Project and the organization Armenian Forests.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
June 16 2005
ARMENIA AND NATO EDGING CLOSER
How far down the road towards NATO membership is Armenia likely to
go?
By Ara Tadevosian in Yerevan
Armenia’s defence minister Serzh Sarkisian and NATO secretary general
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer have come to an agreement that many see as
proof of a new strategic shift by Armenia towards the West.
At a meeting in Brussels on June 10, Sarkisian formally presented
de Hoop Scheffer with his country’s so-called Individual Partnership
Action Plan, IPAP, as well as a personal letter from President Robert
Kocharian.
The event marked a breakthrough in relations between Armenia and NATO,
which were once quite frosty. It also lays out many new obligations
on Yerevan, which NATO will now monitor very closely.
Essentially, the latest agreement leaves Armenia facing a long-term
strategic choice: when the IPAP expires in two years’ time, will
Yerevan take the next logical step and seek to apply for NATO
membership?
Since gaining independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991,
Armenia has been a close military ally of Russia. Moscow still
maintains a large military base in Gyumri, in the north-west of
the country.
But a slight cooling of relations with Russia, overtures from the
West and the NATO aspirations of neighbouring Georgia and Azerbaijan
have changed the picture. Visiting Georgia last month, US president
George W Bush made it clear that he welcomed the idea of Georgia
joining the alliance.
“If it turns out that Georgia and Azerbaijan eventually become members
of NATO and Armenia does not, then obviously this will lead to new
lines of division in the Caucasus,” Armenian foreign minister Vardan
Oskanian said last year.
In April, Sarkisian insisted, “After we set ourselves the goal of
joining the European family, we must have close relations with NATO
and be responsible for guaranteeing security in Europe.”
Armenia and NATO began to develop a closer relationship prior to the
alliance’s Prague summit in 2002. In November 2002, George Robertson,
then secretary general of NATO, told the Armenian news agency Mediamax
that the alliance should pay more attention to the “specific needs
of its partners in the Caucasus”.
“We need to organise NATO’s advice and assistance on an individual
basis and put our resources where they are needed the most,”
said Robertson. “We need to improve liaison arrangements between
Brussels and capitals in the region. In a word – we need to develop
‘smarter’ instruments of cooperation, to make the most efficient use
of our resources.”
This new approach led to the development at the Prague summit of IPAPs
for countries from the South Caucasus and Central Asia, setting out
practical steps by which they could converge with NATO standards.
In June 2003, Armenia played host for the first time to NATO’s
so-called “Cooperative Best Effort 03” military exercise, which was
hailed as a success. And in February 2004 Yerevan sent peacekeeping
troops to join the international presence in Kosovo.
The recent meeting between Sarkisian and de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels
coincided with the start of moves to shift weaponry from Russian
bases in Georgia to the Gyumri base.
But in a sign of a change in atmosphere, a leading official in
Armenia’s opposition Republic Party Suren Sureniants criticised the
move, saying it “only reinforced the prevailing opinion in the West
that Armenia is Russia’s forward post in the Caucasus”. Sureniants
also said the time had come when “the Armenian political elite ought to
raise the issue of the withdrawal of Russian bases from the territory
of our country”.
But many Armenians remain deeply suspicious of NATO, of which Armenia’s
historical enemy Turkey is a member, and continue to regard Russia as
a more reliable ally. “If NATO needs us so badly, then why doesn’t
it force Turkey to open its border with Armenia?” asked 55-year-old
teacher Misak Alexanian.
President Kocharian declined to attend a NATO summit in Istanbul
last year because of Turkey’s refusal to begin diplomatic relations
with Armenia and open the two states’ shared border. But the protest
achieved little, with NATO officials pointing out that it is not the
role of the alliance to act as a referee between two countries or to
insist that a member state change its foreign policy.
At the same time, Armenians have welcomed the position taken by NATO
on relations with Azerbaijan. Last September the alliance cancelled
a planned “Cooperative Best Effort 04” exercise in Azerbaijan, after
the Azerbaijani government refused to allow Armenian officers to take
part in the manoeuvres.
Kocharian had previously won admiration within NATO for permitting
Turkish officers to travel to Armenia for the 2003 exercises. The
president said, “On an emotional level I am not thrilled about the
possibility of a Turkish contingent taking part in exercises on our
territory…However, as president I understand that well-constructed
relations with NATO are more important for the country.”
Another problem facing Armenia is that it now finds itself in the
tricky position of being both a member of the Russian-led Collective
Security Pact of the Commonwealth of Independent States and a growing
friend of NATO.
Nicholas Burns, formerly US ambassador to NATO and now under secretary
of state, suggested to IWPR last year that Armenia would need to adapt
to allow for the differences of approach between the two alliances.
“There are indeed substantial differences in the ways NATO and Russia
organize their military forces and defence organizations,” he said.
“If Armenia wants to significantly improve its interoperability with
NATO, it will have to revise some of those structures.”
American political analyst Ronald Asmus, one of the chief advocates of
NATO’s eastern expansion, told IWPR that the alliance, for its part,
“needs to try to pursue a dual-track strategy where it expands its
outreach to this region and tries to deepen its cooperation with Moscow
in parallel. It is clearly in our as well as Armenia’s interest that
we succeed in doing so”.
Armenia will also have to bring its own armed forces under democratic
control – not an easy process for a country where the military has
big political clout and whose conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorny
Karabakh remains unresolved.
In the meantime, public interest in Armenia about possible NATO
membership – in contrast to Georgia and Azerbaijan – remains very low.
Only one of the country’s daily newspapers printed a small article
about the presentation of the IPAP in Brussels.
And the government has other more serious problems to deal with. A
decision will have to be made about what will happen to the strategic
alliance with Moscow when the two-year IPAP comes to an end. And
Yerevan must consider that NATO now identifies itself as a political
as much as a military organisation, meaning that Armenia will need
to implement democratic reforms to achieve a closer relationship with
the organisation.
Ultimately, the strategic choice about whether to apply for NATO
membership will be in the hands of the successful candidate in the
next round of presidential elections in 2008.
Ara Tadevosian is director of the Armenian news agency Mediamax
in Yerevan.

THE FIRST DRAW
A1plus
| 15:12:11 | 15-06-2005 | Sports |
In the forth round of the Chess European Championship Lilit Lazarian
played a draw with Katerina Lahno, but continues to top the list
with 3.5 points with 4 other players. Lilit is only the 27th in the
Championship with her reputation, but she is one of the real pretenders
of the first title.
In the 5th round the Armenian player will meet Georgian Lena
Yavakishvili. As for Elina Danielyan, she won the 4th round and has
now 3 point. She too can join the race for the first title if she
continues to play stably.
Lilit Galoyan and Siranoush Andreasyan who also represent Armenia
have 2 points each.
There are also other Armenian chess players participating in the
Championship, but they represent other countries.

ARMENIA ELECTED 60-TH UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION VICE CHAIR
Pan Armenian News
15.06.2005 06:22
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ June 13 Armenia was elected vice chair of the 60-th
session of the UN General Assembly, RA MFA press center reported. The
session will start September 14. In the person of RA Ambassador to
the UN Armen Martirosian Armenia will take part in the work of the
General Committee, which is in charge for the GA activities including
the discussion of the agenda and submission of proposals.