Author: Karakhanian Suren

EGYPT AGREES WITH GEORGIA, ARMENIA ON PROMOTING ECONOMIC, TRADE, TECHNICAL COOPERATION

IPR Strategic Business Information Database
July 24, 2008

Ambassador Safia Ibrahim Secretary General of the Egyptian Foreign
Ministry Fund for Cooperation with the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) said Egypt has agreed with Georgia and Armenia on
promoting economic cooperation in all fields. Ibrahim has paid a
two-week tour for the two European countries as part of the foreign
minister’s directions to bolster ties with the CIS countries in
the various spheres. As for her visit to Georgia, she said Georgian
officials thanked Egypt for technical aid offered by the Egyptian
side to Georgia and asked the fund to organize more training courses
covering the agriculture, health, tourism, antiquities and Arab
and Islamic culture spheres. During her visit to Armenia, the talks
took up the possibility of benefiting from Egypt’s expertise in the
environmental domain. Over the past period, the fund organized several
training courses for trainees from the two countries.

SEVERE STRUGGLE HAS STARTED IN THE REGION FOR THE POSITION OF REGIONAL POWER-HOLDER

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.07.2008 GMT+04:00

Iran does not look around in her foreign policy, like Turkey, and
contributes to regulation of conflicts and controversial issues in
the region.

In all probability severe struggle has begun in the region for
the position of regional power-holder. Candidates are two – Iran
and Turkey. Stakes are high – exclusion of the USA and Russia
from the region and establishment of "personal order" the way
Iran or Turkey picture it. Iran has a more favourable position
in the competition. First, Tehran has oil and gas, which Turkey
lacks. Moreover, according to explored and confirmed data Iran has
the forth standing in the world.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In political aspect Iran’s position is more
favourable than that of Turkey. There exists only the problem dreamed
up by Baku – the problem of South Azerbaijan, the Iranian province
on the Azerbaijani border. There is also the nuclear program that
challenges the USA and the EC. However, Iran does not face any
problems with her neighbouring states. And that is true – Iran does
not look around in her foreign policy, like Turkey, and contributes
to regulation of conflicts and controversial issues in the region.

During a phone conversation between Manouchehr Mottaki and RA FM Edward
Nalbandian, the Iranian Foreign Minister welcomed the positive shifts
in Armenian-Turkish relations. In his words, as a powerful and stable
country in the region Iran can assist reconciliation between the two
neighbors – Turkey and Armenia. The conversation between Mottaki and
Nalbandian shows that serious developments in the Armenian-Turkish
relations are on the agenda. Mottaki also expressed hope that
improvements of relations between the two countries would contribute
to the establishment of peace and harmony in the region. At the end
the Iranian FM invited his Armenian counterpart to a conference on
Non-Alignment Movement due in Tehran, late July, and confirmed his
earlier invitation to visit Iran in current September.

Meanwhile, according to Iranian expert Hatam Ghaderi, Iran’s
willingness to mediate in Armenian-Turkish reconciliation is a
unique tool to exert pressure on Official Ankara and is a response
to Turkey’s mediation between Syria (Iran’s ally) and Israel (Iran’s
opponent) . "Using the Armenian factor Iran is willing to put pressure
on Turkey. In fact, Turkey was the first to toy with Iran and ‘put
its cards on the table’ against this country. And now, in response,
Official Teheran is eager to put pressure on Turkey, using Armenia
as its trump-card," Ghaderi said.

In his turn, Turkish political analyst Ufug Coshgun considers that
Iran issued statements on her willingness to serve as a mediator
between Turkey and Armenia as an alternative to Turkey’s mediation
between Syria and Israel. According to Coshgun, there is a chance of
Iran’s mediation to prove effective but it is not something you can
be fully certain about.

However, it should be noted that Turkey’s mediation in establishing
negotiations between Syria and Israel has produced no results. In
the words of Prime-Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert the issue can
be reconsidered only in January 2009 with a new president in the
USA. The US European lobby might hold back the initiative until it has
a guarantee of Israel’s security, whereas Turkey is unable to provide
such a guarantee since the Iranian President keeps threatening Israel
with enviable drive.

However, Iran’s success in developing Armenian-Turkish relations is
not definite. In both cases the efforts of mediators will fail if the
parties are unwilling to come to an agreement. And it is exactly what
the parties now lack.

ASSEMBLYMEMBER PORTANTINO DISCUSSES TURKEY’S GENOCIDE DENIAL WITH ARMENIAN AMERICANS

armradio.am
23.07.2008 11:30

In a meeting with Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, members of the
Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR)
discussed several issues of importance to Armenian Americans. The
Assemblymember reiterated that it is unacceptable for Turkey
to continue its international campaign of genocide denial. Also
discussed was the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) position on the
Armenian Genocide and the recent expose by the Southern Poverty Law
Center highlighting the Turkish government’s interference in Armenian
domestic academia and politics.

"It’s always a pleasure to meet with the leadership and grassroots
activists of the ANC," stated Portantino. "The opportunity to discuss
issues important to the Armenian community in my district is incredibly
valuable and deeply appreciated," he added.

Among those in attendance were Amy Kaladzhyan and Shant Karnikian,
two of the seven ANC-WR Internship Externship Program (ANC-WR IEP)
interns. They explained that since meeting with the Assemblymember
in Sacramento for the State Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide
in April 2008, they had been very active in human rights activities
in Santa Barbara.

"Today’s meeting was a great opportunity for us to realize that our
Assemblymembers care about issues pertaining to human rights and
take the time out of their busy schedules to meet with us on these
matters," said Kaladzhyan. "We definitely appreciate the positive
and encouraging feedback we received from Asm. Portantino," she added.

Asm. Portantino expressed that he is looking forward to the visit of
Armenia’s Minister of Education Spartak Seiranyan. The Assemblymember
currently serves as the Chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Higher
Education and will play a pivotal role in engaging California
institutions of higher education, laboratories and industry giants.

ANC of Crescenta Valley activist Arick Gevorkian thanked Portantino
for his support and close relationship with the Crescenta Valley
community. "It was very pleasing to see what the ANC has achieved as
far as building relationships with legislators, Assemblymembers and
Congressman," stated Gevorkian. "Asm. Portantino has always welcomed us
and this is a result of years of relationships building. His sincerity
and commitment to the Armenian American community is truly admirable
and he a strong voice for our community," he added.

Assemblymember Anthony Portantino was elected to serve the 44th
Assembly District in November, 2006. The district encompasses Altadena,
Duarte, La Canada Flintridge, Pasadena, South Pasadena and Temple
City. Portantino has been a long time friend and supporter of the
Armenian National Committee and the Armenian American Community
in large.

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

========================================== ======
Wednesday 23 July 2008
AZERBAIJAN: "PROSECUTORS VERY MUCH WANT TO SENTENCE HAMID"

The criminal trial of Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov began in the
north-western town of Zakatala on 22 July, despite the fact that the
prosecution had refused to hand the defence the case materials, Baptist
Union leader Ilya Zenchenko told Forum 18 News Service. The trial resumes
on 28 July. The same court sentenced fellow Baptist pastor Zaur Balaev to
prison in 2007. Shabanov is being prosecuted on charges that he held an
illegal weapon and faces up to three years’ imprisonment. His church and
family insist the weapon was planted during a massive raid on his home on
20 June during which he was arrested. They say he is being prosecuted to
punish him for leading his congregation. "Prosecutors very much want to
sentence Hamid," Zenchenko warned. "This whole case has been staged. We
pray to God for him to come home," Shabanov’s family told Forum 18.
Meanwhile prosecutors in the capital Baku are trying to prosecute Jehovah’s
Witness conscientious objector Mushfiq Mammedov for a second time on
charges of evading military service, although the Constitution and the
Criminal Code ban this.

AZERBAIJAN: "PROSECUTORS VERY MUCH WANT TO SENTENCE HAMID"

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;

The criminal trial of Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov began yesterday (22
July) with a preliminary hearing in the north-western town of Zakatala
[Zaqatala], Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The full trial – at which he
faces up to three years’ imprisonment – begins on 28 July and could be over
within two days, the head of Azerbaijan’s Baptist Union Ilya Zenchenko told
Forum 18 after the preliminary hearing on 22 July. "Prosecutors very much
want to sentence Hamid," he warned. He views Shabanov’s prosecution as part
of an official campaign against local Baptists which has lasted more than a
decade. Meanwhile a police manhunt has begun for a Jehovah’s Witness
conscientious objector Mushfiq Mammedov, who has already served one
sentence for refusing military service. Prosecutors want to sentence him a
second time for the same offence, although this is banned in law.

Zenchenko – who travelled the 450 kms (280 miles) from the capital Baku to
attend the hour-long hearing – said Shabanov "looked bad". "Hamid was
wearing the same clothes he had been arrested in back on 20 June," he told
Forum 18. "The Zakatala police who are now holding him have not allowed his
family to pass on food or clothes. Hamid’s wife and daughters were crying
in court – it was the first time they had been able to see him since he was
brought back to Zakatala earlier this month. Even then they were kept at a
distance of three metres [yards] and were not able to touch him."

Forum 18 was unable to find out from Zakatala police why they had refused
to accept food and clothes for Shabanov and why family visits had been
denied. The duty officer refused to put Forum 18 through to the police
chief Faik Shabanov (no relation) on 23 July. "Why should I put you
through?" he asked, before putting the phone down.

Shabanov is leader of one of several Baptist congregations in the majority
Georgian-speaking village of Aliabad several kilometres (miles) from
Zakatala, the regional centre. The 51-year-old pastor is married with three
adult children, two daughters and a son. He is being tried at the same
court where fellow Aliabad Baptist pastor Zaur Balaev was sent to prison in
2007.

"We saw him today in court," Shabanov’s family told Forum 18 on 22 July
from their home in Aliabad. They report that about fifteen family and
church members were allowed into the court and say that for the first time
the police did not refuse to accept food and clean clothes for Shabanov.
"We hope they now hand them on to him."

The family insists that all they want is Shabanov back home. "This whole
case has been staged. We pray to God for him to come home."

Zenchenko complained that Shabanov’s lawyer, Mirman Aliev, was only shown
the full case file at the 22 July hearing and can only now begin to prepare
Shabanov’s defence. He said that Shabanov is being tried under Article 228,
part 1 of the Criminal Code, which punishes illegal holding of a weapon
with a sentence of up to three years’ imprisonment. Shabanov’s congregation
and his family insist that a Nagan pistol a Prosecutor’s Office official
claims to have found during the 20 June house search was planted in his
home. Shabanov was arrested immediately after the alleged discovery.

During the search by some ten officers of the police, Prosecutor’s Office
and National Security Ministry (NSM) secret police, Christian literature
was deemed "banned literature" and confiscated (see F18News 7 July 2008
< e_id=1155>).

Zenchenko also complained that the case paperwork includes allegations
that Shabanov was promoting separatism among other members of Azerbaijan’s
Georgian-speaking minority, allegations Zenchenko rejects. "Hamid did not
have an illegal weapon and he did not promote separatism," he told Forum
18. "But he has been accused of trying to create a new Karabakh," he
reported in a reference to the mountainous region populated by ethnic
Armenians which broke away from control from Baku in a bitter war in the
late 1980s and early 1990s.

Forum 18 was unable to find out from Hekimkhan Seferov of the Zakatala
District Prosecutor’s Office why materials on Shabanov’s case had not been
handed to the defence until the first day of the trial. The official who
answered the telephone on 23 July said Seferov was not in the office and
refused to discuss Shabanov’s case.

Zenchenko lamented that unlike with earlier hearings in the prosecution of
fellow Aliabad Baptist pastor Balaev, no observers from the Baku Office of
the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were present
in court.

Balaev was arrested in May 2007 on charges of attacking five police
officers and damaging a police car that he and his church insist were
trumped up and aimed to punish him for leading his congregation. He was
sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, but was freed on 19 March after being
held for nearly a year. He was summoned and threatened with a new prison
term in early May (see F18News 12 June 2008
< e_id=1142>).

Meanwhile Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector Mammedov faces a
possible new sentence for refusing compulsory military service, despite the
fact that he has already served one sentence on this charge. Jehovah’s
Witnesses told Forum 18 on 22 July that the new criminal case could have
been lodged to punish him for challenging the original sentence through the
domestic courts and at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in
Strasbourg, where his case is now awaiting an admissibility decision.

Forum 18 tried to find out why the Prosecutor’s Office is seeking to
prosecute Mammedov for a second time, but the telephone went unanswered on
23 July.

Mammedov was found guilty by Baku’s Sabail District Court on 21 July 2006
of violating Article 321.1 of the Criminal Code, which punishes evasion of
military service with a sentence of up to two years’ imprisonment. He was
given a suspended sentence of six months. The authorities have repeatedly –
as in other cases such as that of Pastor Balaev – violated due legal
process in hearing Mammedov’s appeal (see F18News 22 January 2008
< e_id=1075>).

The original prosecution and the new attempted prosecution come despite
Azerbaijan’s commitment to the Council of Europe to have instituted an
alternative sentence by January 2004, three years after it joined the
pan-European organisation. Azerbaijan failed to meet this deadline and has
still not adopted an alternative service law.

Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 that the "harassment" of Mammedov and
his family began soon after he filed the application to the ECHR in March
2008. "Starting from May this year, policemen several times went to the
apartment where Mushfiq is registered," they told Forum 18. "And several
times officials from Sabail District Prosecutor’s Office called his mother
and told her that Mushfiq should come to the Prosecutor’s Office, allegedly
because Mushfiq was accused of committing the crime of stealing a mobile
phone."

On 8 June Mammedov and his mother Sevil Najafova filed a complaint against
these actions with Sabail District Prosecutor’s office. "Up till now they
received no answer from the Prosecutor’s Office," the Jehovah’s Witnesses
complained. Copies of the complaint were also sent to the Human Rights
Ombudsperson Elmira Suleymanova and human rights organisations.

On 7 July a police officer named Javad called Mammedov’s mother and said
that a criminal case has been instigated over his alleged evasion of
military service. He said he had received a written order to find him and
bring him forcibly to the investigator Vugar Alekperov of Sabail District
Prosecutor’s Office. "Interestingly, up till that time Mushfiq did not
receive any written notice from the Prosecutor’s Office," the Jehovah’s
Witnesses commented.

The next day Mammedov’s mother went to the prosecutor’s office where she
was given the written decision that a criminal case had been instigated
against her son. The decision – of which Forum 18 has seen a copy – was
dated 5 June. She was also informed that police would soon declare a
manhunt for him.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses point out that Article 64 of Azerbaijan’s
Constitution and Article 8.2 of the Criminal Code do not allow criminal
charges to be brought against someone twice for the same crime. "Moreover
this should be true in this case when Mushfiq did not commit any crime, but
used his constitutional rights to request alternative service." They said
Mammedov intends to file another complaint shortly with Sabail District
Prosecutor’s Office about the attempt to prosecute him a second time for
the same offence.

Another Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector prisoner, Samir Huseynov,
was freed from jail on 1 May (see F18News 14 May 2008
< e_id=1129>). (END)

For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the
international community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan,
see < 482>.

For more background information see Forum 18’s Azerbaijan religious
freedom survey at <‘ >.

More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan
is at <; religion=all&country=23>.

A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
< id=806>.

A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;.
(END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at

ELNUR BAIMOV: "UNDER PRETENSE OF FIGHT FOR NATIONAL INTERESTS AND INFORMATION SECURITY, THE ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES CAN CALMLY CONTINUE REPRISALS ON REMAINDERS OF INDEPENDENT PRESS"

Today.Az
July 22 2008
Azerbaijan

"Serzh Sargsyan’s announcement about Armenia’s plans to create a
structure to fight policy of disinformation, targeting the country,
demonstrates several factors:

The first factor is an attempt to fill the deficit of trust of the
country’s population at the cost of conservation of the idea of threat
to Armenia by the external enemy. Realizing the vanity of attempt to
oppose official Baku on the diplomatic level, the President of Armenia,
who is a protege of the Karabakh clan, again tries to play on the
nationalistic feelings of his people, in fact, conducting policy of
national intolerance, whose bright reflection was scandalously known
announcement of Armenian former president Robert Kocharyan about
genetic incompatibility of Azerbaijanis and Armenians.

The second factor results from the first one. Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan, who does not have a big trust of the population,
tries to secure himself from possible crisis inside the country,
connected with the significant weaking of Armenia in the negotiation
process on the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

In fact, the second through Sargsyan’s presidency, secret censorship is
being applied. The thing is that under pretense of fight for national
interests and information security, the Armenian authorities can
continues reprisals on the remnants of independent press and Armenian
oppositioners, who disagree with the usurpation of powers in Armenia
by the "Karabakh clan".

I would recommend to representatives of the leading international
organizations, particularly the Council of Europe, to observe the
influence of the creation of the promised structure on the internal
political situation and issues of freedom of speech and throught
in Armenia.

And the third factor, which I think explains the Sargsyan sounded
initiative, is Armenians’ inclination to plagiarate Azerbaijanis. Used
to steal Azerbaijani music, Armenians, feeling deficit of ideas,
could not help stealing Day.Az initiative. To substantiate, I would
remind that on October 27 of 2007 Day.Az has posted an article
"Karabakh, Nakhchivan, everywhere later on or how to oppose world
Armenians?". The said article also stated the need to create the
Ministry of External Propaganda. It seems that the structure, Serzh
Sargsyan has promised to create in Armenia, will deal with the same
tasks, we have written about.

Considering Day.Az popularity in the Armenian supreme leadership,
we think of writing a material to speak of the ways of Armenia’s
returning of Nagorno Karabakh lands, it occupied. I hope this material
will be taken for consideration and executed by Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan", Day.Az editor-in-chief Elnur Baimov said commenting
on the recent announcement of Serzh Sargsyan.

WEIGHTY WORDS THAT SINK LIKE STONES

Washington Post
July 22 2008
DC

In Micheline Marcom’s ambitious novel "Draining the Sea," a nameless
narrator collects the dead bodies of dogs, puts them carefully into
the trunk of his car and takes them to his house in the Santa Monica
Mountains. When he’s not driving this stinking roadkill around Los
Angeles, he watches game shows on television, ponders the sterility
of American life and dreams of a woman in Guatemala.

Los Angeles seems to induce the same apocalyptic visions in writers
with very different sensibilities. For Jack Kerouac, Nathanael West
and Joan Didion, to name a few, the city is a burial ground for the
American dream. For Marcom’s narrator, Los Angeles is a nightmare
where "the horizon has perished, and we are stranded here, at the
pilgrim’s apogee" — the place where Americans play out the last act
of their lives, "eating ice cream," "dieting on fat bowls of cereals
and swimming in . . . chemical pools."

"Draining the Sea" is the last volume of a trilogy in which Marcom set
out to explore the atrocities of the Armenian genocide of 1915. But
here, the author’s interests have shifted to the Guatemalan civil
war of the 1980s. The book’s title comes from words attributed to the
military commander responsible for the scorched-earth policy his army
carried out against the people of Guatemala: "The guerrilla is the
fish. The people are the sea. If you cannot catch the fish you have
to drain the sea." What justified this madness, in which children’s
heads are bashed against river stones and young men are beaten until
their brains fall out? "We are fighting a cold war," he says. "The
communist scum will get us if we don’t watch out."

The novel is a richly symbolic dream. Wandering around Los Angeles,
the narrator is overwhelmed by his love for Marta, an indigenous girl
from a remote province of Guatemala. But Marta — a simple creature
who can speak only the Ixil dialect, and who fled to the mountains to
escape the massacre — may be a phantasm. A year after her flight,
government soldiers murdered her in the basement of a school in
Guatemala. Or did they? Was she tortured and killed? Did she ever
exist? And finally, does the narrator bear a responsibility for her
death, even if she is his creation?

In this highly mannered, plotless novel, the leading characters share
a tenuous connection to reality. Given the author’s predilection
for ambiguity, it’s not easy to summarize the plot of "Draining
the Sea" — or even to follow it. Her frequent use of invented
words and run-on sentences perplexes the reader and disserves the
writer. What are "denizens of livered historiographies"? Can you
make sense of this? "The heart, an organ’s meaty desire, can be like
capital’s descent into your cities and towns — because who built
the cathedrals?"

Outside of creative writing workshops, stream of consciousness has
pretty much gone out of fashion, perhaps because, except where the
consciousness belonged to a master like James Joyce, it is such a
chore to "unstream." The inner workings of a character’s mind do
not necessarily communicate the character’s essence. More important,
stream-of-consciousness prose often lacks emotional texture, resulting
in a flatness that bogs the reader down. "Draining the Sea" fails to
reward the reader for the hard work of slogging through its text.

Whatever meaning one can discover in Marcom’s novel comes from
its incessant repetitions, which create indelible images for the
reader. Most of these sensational images are almost too much to bear:
Marta with her hands cut off; Marta possibly alive when she’s thrown
into a pit and doused with chemicals; young soldiers carrying their
dogs on their backs, forced to kill them with their bare hands and
ordered to drink their blood. Seared in one’s mind is the image of
the complicity of the United States: "My president [Reagan] is eating
dinner sugary desserts in Tegucigalpa with your general."

Raised in Los Angeles, the child of an American father and an
Armenian-Lebanese mother, Marcom observed the force of history as
it bore down on her grandmother during the Armenian genocide. A
talented, passionate young writer, she urges the reader to revolt at
the inhumanity in our midst. Even though her style lacks maturity,
"Draining the Sea" is a daring attempt to face down evil and an
original contribution to a growing body of literature that bears
witness to the atrocities of our time.

The dog-corpse collector narrator who watches television from a green
armchair in L.A. finally becomes a sympathetic Everyman. He starts out
as a "good American boy; he likes parties, he likes the television,
he likes ice cream." But in re-creating the martyrdom of Marta, he
transcends his passivity to become a storyteller. Stories console
for the memories that prompt them, making it possible to endure all
that is precarious and horrific in reality. In the end, it’s stories
that defeat death, and if that’s the case, then for Micheline Marcom,
writing them is an act of love.

"PEACE MEANS TO SOLVE KARABAKH CONFLICT NOT EXHAUSTED" – ARMENIAN PRESIDENT

Trend News Agency
July 21 2008
Azerbaijan

Serzh Sargsyan, Armenian President believes that the peace means to
solve the Karabakh conflict has not been exhausted yet.

"The first meeting with the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made
an impression upon me that the peace means to solve the Karabakh
conflict has not been exhausted yet," the Armenian President stated
in the news-conference on 21 June, Novosty-Armenia reported.

On 7 June, the first meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani
President was held in St.Petersburg.

According to the Armenian President, Aliyev is to continue the
negotiations. Sargsyan stated that the Karabakh conflict can be
settled through negotiations.

Commenting Azerbaijan’s dissatisfaction over the activity of the OSCE
Minsk Group, Sargsyan said that "we will be calm until Azerbaijan
criticizes the activity by the Minsk Group". According to Sargsyan,
Azerbaijan uses ruse in order the mediators to soften their positions
or to meet country’s demands. "This is Azerbaijanis business, I do
not believe that this will promote peace negotiation process," the
Armenian President said.

Sargsyan proposed to continue the negotiations on the ground of the
Madrid proposals, and believes that the current format of the OSCE
Minsk Group can promote success.

At the same time the Armenian President stated that the Presidents
and Defence Ministers of the both countries should consider that
the military actions can starts ever until no peace agreement has
been achieved.

According to Sargsyan, the efforts have been taking to reach agreement
and the Armenian Armed Forces is the powerful factor. The Armenian
President said that he would allocate the necessary funds to develop
the army.

MCA-ARMENIA SIGNS CONTRACT FOR THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION OF IRRIGATION TERTIARY CANALS

armradio.am
21.07.2008 14:55

Millennium Challenge Account – Armenia SNCO has announced the award of
a contract to the Institute of Water Problems and Hydraulic Engineering
n/a V.

Yeghiazarov CJSC (Armenia), in partnership with WYG International Ltd
(UK) and JEN Financial, Engineering and Management Consulting Limited
(Armenia), for the design and construction supervision of up to 523
km of irrigation tertiary canals, 20 tube wells and 55 km of power
transmission lines under the MCA-Armenia Irrigated Agriculture project.

The contract was signed at MCA-Armenia SNCO office by MCA-Armenia CEO
Ara Hovsepyan and the Director of to the Institute of Water Problems
and Hydraulic Engineering CJSC Martin Hovsepyan.

The contract value is USD 870,000 for a period of 3 years. The work
will cover all 10 marzes of Armenia. The currently existing 52
Water Users Associations will have a crucial role to play in the
implementation of the project, in particular, helping to identify
the rural communities that need repair of their tertiary irrigation
network. The beneficiary communities will have to contribute 15%
of the overall design and construction costs.

YEREVAN HONORS MEHRJOUEI, WENDERS

Press Tv
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:33:03

Iran’S Dariush Mehrjouei (L) And Germany’S Wim Wenders Armenia’S
Golden Apricot Int’L Film Festival Has Granted Lifetime achievement
awards to filmmakers Dariush Mehrjouei and Wim Wenders.

Renowned Iranian filmmaker Mehrjouei and acclaimed German director
Wenders received this year’s Golden Apricot lifetime achievement
award in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

The international festival dedicated special screenings to prominent
films by both Mehrjouei and Wenders, who will chair the Venice film
festival this year.

Mehrjouei’s award winning films The Pear Tree and The Postman as
well as Wenders’ Cannes competition film The Palermo Shooting were
screened during the program.

The 5th Golden Apricot International Film Festival ran from July 13
to 20 in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

ARMENIAN, AZERI FOREIGN MINISTERS LIKELY TO MEET AUGUST 1

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.07.2008 13:09 GMT+04:00

Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian of Armenia and Elmar Mammadyarov
of Azerbaijan will possibly meet in Moscow on August 1, RA MFA acting
spokesman Tigran Balayan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

The date is being exacted, according to him.

Earlier, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs announced that their meeting
with the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers will take place
in Moscow on August 1.