Author: Karakhanian Suren

QUALITATIVE CHANGE WITH PASSIVE MASSES

Panorama.am
18:52 01/03/2007

"We believe that the pre-election situation in Armenia is complex. The
authorities try to ensure votes with purchased votes and coercion but
we do not believe such people are many," Dustrik Mkhitaryan, secretary
of National Democratic party board, told reporters today. In her words,
past experience shows that only 35 percent of citizens with the right
for vote participate in elections. She said if the opposition parties,
including NDP, may make passive masses more active, qualitative changes
may come about. "We want to make those layers active that do not sell
their votes or go for coercion," Shavarsh Kocharyan, party leader said.

CONFLICT OCCURRED BETWEEN AZERBAIJANI AND TURKISH STUDENTS IN TURKEY

Arminfo
2007-03-01 12:33:00

Azerbaijani students tore the posters hung on the walls of their hostel
"Hrant Dink and nations’ friendship" on the 15th anniversary of the
Khojaly genocide. Conflict occurred between the Azerbaijani students
and the leftists who hung the posters on the walls. The leftists wanted
to spread special lists devoted to Hrant Dink outside the university,
but the Azerbaijani students did not allow them. Turkish gendarme
forces prevented the conflict. Leftists, supporting the idea of
"Nations’ friendship" held a meeting devoted on the conflict with the
Azerbaijani students and decided to change the posters. They hung the
posters "We all are Armenians, we all are Hrant, we all are Turks,
we all are Kurds, we all are Arabs" on the walls. Following this,
the leftists organized rally from the university to the hostel as
a protest against the Azerbaijani students’ tearing the posters. No
incident was recorded during the rally.

IFC TO PROVIDE 11 MILLION DOLLAR CREDIT TO ARMAVIA

Noyan Tapan
Feb 28 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The International Financial
Corporation (IFC) will provide a 11 million US dollar credit to the
Armenian airline Armavia. Gerome Souklal, IFC Regional Director for
Central and Eastern Europe, told this to reporters on February 27.

According to him, it is envisaged to start negotiations around signing
the agreement between IFC – the World Bank’s unit on private sector –
and Armavia in March.

ARMENIA INTERESTED IN COOPERATION WITH POLAND – PRESIDENT

Mediamax news agency
27 Feb 07

Yerevan, 27 February: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said today
that Yerevan is interested in developing large-scale partnership with
Poland, the biggest country and economy in eastern Europe.

Kocharyan said this at a meeting with Polish Foreign Minister Anna
Fotyga, the presidential press service told Mediamax.

Kocharyan said that a number of institutional steps should be taken to
make bilateral ties more practical. In particular, there is a need to
complete as soon as possible the process of forming an Armenian-Polish
intergovernmental commission.

He noted the importance of Armenian-Polish cooperation in the context
of Armenia’s European integration.

"We are trying to make effective and full use of the possibilities
of the European Neighbourhood Policy and regard Poland as one of our
main partners," Kocharyan said.

Israel Seeks All Clear for Iran Air Strike
Saturday, February 24, 2007 by the _Telegraph/UK_
ews/2007/02/24/wiran124.xml
by Con Coughlin in Tel Aviv

Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly
over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, The
Daily Telegraph can reveal.

To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme,
Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the
Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the
Pentagon.

A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway
between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide
an "air corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on
unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear
weapons.

"We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues such as
these are crucially important," said the official, who asked not to be
named.

"The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled air space. If
we don’t sort these issues out now we could have a situation where
American and Israeli war planes start shooting at each other."

As Iran continues to defy UN demands to stop producing material which
could be used to build a nuclear bomb, Israel’s military establishment
is moving on to a war footing, with preparations now well under way
for the Jewish state to launch air strikes against Teheran if
diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the crisis.

The pace of military planning in Israel has accelerated markedly since
the start of this year after Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service,
provided a stark intelligence assessment that Iran, given the current
rate of progress being made on its uranium enrichment programme, could
have enough fissile material for a nuclear warhead by 2009.

Last week Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, announced that he
had persuaded Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad for the past six years
and one of Israel’s leading experts on Iran’s nuclear programme, to
defer his retirement until at least the end of next year.

Mr Olmert has also given overall control of the military aspects of
the Iran issue to Eliezer Shkedi, the head of the Israeli Air Force
and a former F-16 fighter pilot.

The international community will increase the pressure on Iran when
senior officials from the five permanent of the United Nations
Security Council and Germany meet at an emergency summit to be held in
London on Monday.

Iran ignored a UN deadline of last Wednesday to halt uranium
enrichment.

Officials will discuss arms controls and whether to cut back on the
$25 billion-worth of export credits which are used by European
companies to trade with Iran.

A high-ranking British source said: "There is a debate within the six
countries on sanctions and economic measures."

British officials insist that this "incremental" approach of
tightening the pressure on Iran is starting to turn opinion within
Iran. One source said: "We are on the right track. There is time for
diplomacy to take effect."

RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS LAW ON RELATIONS BETWEEN RA AND ARMENIAN
APOSTOLIC CHURCH

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. At the February 22 special sitting,
the RA National Assembly adopted in third reading and completely the
bill on relations between the RA and the Armenian Apostolic
Church. The bill was prepared by the NA Speaker Tigran Torosian.

According to the bill, the Republic of Armenia recognizes the Armenian
Apostolic Church as the national church with its center – Mother See
of Holy Etchmiadzin, the churches of the Catholicosate of the Great
House of Cilicia and the Jerusalem and Constantinople Patriarchates,
and its exclusive mission in spiritual life of the Armenian people,
development of its national culture and preservation of its national
identity.

The bill stipulates the role of the Church in the educational sphere.
It is also stipulated that the RA recognizes church weddings and
divorces if these were conducted in order envisaged by the agreement
signed between the government and the church. The church has the right
to receive tax-free donations and presents. Production and sale of
items of ritual significance is is also tax-free. According to the
bill, the RA recognizes secrecy of church confession. No one may
question a church confessor as witness about the facts which he learnt
during a confession.

SAMVEL KARAPETIAN: TURKISH SPECIALISTS RESTORE SURB KHACH CHURCH WITH MASTERY AND SKILL EXCITING ENVY

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Feb 22 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The restoration
works of the Surb Khach (Saint Cross) Church of the Akhtamar Island
were done at high level. Stating about it at the meeting with
journalists, specialist on monuments Samvel Karapetian emphasized
that Turk specialists restored the church "with mastery and skill
exciting envy," by using every removed or pulled down stone. Opening
of the Surb Khach Church will take place on April 15. According to
the rumours being in circulation, the RA Minister of Culture and
Youth Issues will also be invited to it. In S.Karapetian’s words,
there is yet no official information about the invitation.

S.Karapetian expressed confidence that restoration of this church
by the Turkish government has political and economic interest:
in the first case this state wants to look like as civilized one,
in the second case, it has clear economic accounting: this place
is one of tourism points. "If I am mistaken why the Nareka vank
(Narek monastery) which is just near the Surb Khach Church and other
lakeside monasteries which were blown up in 60-70s are not restored,"
the speaker said. S.Karapetian, again touching upon destruction
of the Jugha graveyard, inflexibly mentioned that Armenians also
have their part of guilt in it: in his words, Europeans as well
accused Armenians of this issue, saying that it was necessary to take
adequate steps in time. The specialist on monuments also facted that
preservation of monuments being in the territory of Armenia is also
in poor state today.

During the Soviet years, the Committee on Preservation of Monuments was
among the structures attached to government, but today it decreased
and became an agency with 7 employees. "This is an obvious state
ill-will towards our monuments, and we speak about strangers’
attitude," he emphasized.

TURKISH LOBBYIST WARNS OF THE POSSIBILITY OF PAYING COMPENSATION TO ARMENIA IN THE NEAR FUTURE

ArmRadio.am
21.02.2007 17:40

Former head of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations Erjument
Gilinj has warned about the possibility of a large compensation to
Armenia from Turkey during the years to come.

According to the Turkish "Hurriyet," Ercument Kilic asserted that the
insistence of Armenians on the adoption of the Genocide bill pursues
the aim of financial reimbursement.

He noted that some American insurance companies have already started
paying compensations to Armenians that suffered as a result of the
genocide.

Therefore, as Ercument Kilic concludes, large insurance companies
will soon apply to Turkey with the demand to reimburse their financial
losses.

The former head of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations
underlined also that the flow of applications by Armenians to different
websites, including www.armenianinsurancesettlement, has started,
which will undoubtedly result in the pressure on Turkey to satisfy
these demands.

WISHES OF SIDES SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT BEFORE DEPLOYING PEACEKEEPERS IN KARABAKH

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2007 14:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The wishes of the sides should be taken into
account before deploying peacekeeping forces at the territories under
Karabakh’s control, said Jonathan Henick, the PR Officer at the U.S.
Embassy in Azerbaijan. "On one hand, it’s a positive factor that the
sides do not involve into open military operations despite absence
of peacekeeping forces. On the other hand, people still hit mines
and die. Absence of peacekeepers is also dangerous, since in case of
hostilities it will be extremely hard to stop the process," he said.

When asked to comments on fires on the territories adjacent to
Karabakh, the U.S. Embassy official said, "The parties consent to the
visit of experts could be a model for resolution of other issues,"
reports Novosti Azerbaijan.

KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION TO BE CRUCIAL FOR POLITICAL STABILITY IN ENTIRE REGION

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2007 13:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "All "frozen conflicts" in the region of South
Caucasus, including the one in Nagorno Karabakh, should be resolved in
a peaceful way with respect to the territorial integrity of existing
states. At the same time, we put emphasis on granting high level of
autonomy to national minorities, thus allowing them to develop freely
within the internationally recognized borders," said Anna Fotyga, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland. "Poland supports the efforts of
OSCE in the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, in particular
the activity of Minsk Group. Polish diplomat – Mr Andrzej Kasprzyk –
is the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office on the
Conflict Dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference. We are convinced
that the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict would
be crucial for political stability in the entire region of South
Caucasus. In our opinion, time has come for political leaders and
societies of Azerbaijan and Armenia to find a solution to this
years-lasting conflict, basing on proposals of the Minsk Group,"
she said, reports Trend.