Author: Khondkarian Raffi

TWO WAYS FOR THE COUNTRY’S DEVELOPMENT
Gevorg Haroutyunyan

Hayots Ashkhar
Published on March 11, 2008

Interview with SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN, Head of the National Democratic
Party

"Mr. Kocharyan, to what extent is the number of votes obtained by
the candidates as a result of the elections regular or unexpected,
and what are the political causes?"

"The ex-President received quite a large number of votes, and the fact
itself is illogical. Estimating his political activity, we can say
that during the whole pre-election stage this particular candidate
was promising to fight all the unlawful phenomena unacceptable to
the people, whereas he himself was the author of all that. I don’t
rule out the possibility that the votes he obtained result not only
from the assessment of his political activity but also from the use
of certain political technologies and psychological impact.

To properly understand what happened, it is worth remembering the
phenomenon of Arkadi Vardanyan’s. He was a citizen of the Russian
Federation who could have quite restricted ambitions, and he appeared
in our internal political life from some unknown place. But in a
short period of time, he managed to gather tens and thousands of
people and organize a protest rally.

In this case, it is difficult to speak about special technologies,
powerful financial and foreign intervention. None of these factors
can be ruled out as far as the former President is concerned, but
the general idea is that the overwhelming majority of our people do
not want to live in such conditions.

The people want to live in Armenia. They are dissatisfied and do not
tolerate shadow corrupt practices and impunity. They want to live in
a fair country and be protected."

"But as a matter of fact, the candidate you mention wanted to establish
a ‘one-man power’ and not build a ‘new Armenia’."

"This is also the result of another syndrome existing in our society.

There is a belief among the people that elections are not a way
of solving such problems. Leaning on their negative experience, the
voters just try to decide which candidate has chances to come to power,
instead of considering the given candidate’s program and the existing
situation. The other circumstances are pushed to the background,
and the factor of rebelling against the state becomes a primary task.

This was the ace used by the ex-President who, with the help of certain
technologies, simply instilled false thoughts into the people, saying
that he received support by the Army, the Police, the intelligence
services and the civil servants. There were some officials who later
confirmed such false information in their statements. Under the
influence of various impulses, his listeners obliterated from their
memories their ideas about the former President. The belief that he
couldn’t carry out the promised changes because he himself was the
author was being neutralized.

Unfortunately, this enabled him to become the leader of the protesting
electorate and gather under his banner the dissatisfied mass of people
from all the strata of society. But what happened cannot be considered
as peaceful rallies because among the people who gathered under
his banner there were also slaughterers, plunderers and ‘Yerkrapah’
members who never participated in the Artsakh war."

"Nonetheless, our society is somehow split apart. How is it possible
to overcome such internal challenge?"

"Both our society and country can no longer be the same as they were
before the elections. There are two possible ways of development. It
is possible to continue strengthening the system of one-man power
and thus, continue the activity initiated by the former President.

The alternative is the further strengthening of the all the state
institutions in order to prevent such disorders from happening any
more and move towards democracy. It requires large-scale system
reforms. This should now be the primary task of the state. And if
the system of one-man power continues to strengthen, the number of
dissatisfied people will increase.

Power in Armenia will turn out to be sitting on a mine that may go
off at any moment. But in conditions of accomplishing society, the
dissatisfied people will gradually decrease in number.

After the rough clashes that took place on March 1, slow steps are
already dangerous. The state must be able to overcome the existing
challenge, and this may lead to the formation of the upcoming
strategy."

RUSSIA TO START URANIUM EXPLORATION IN ARMENIA
By M. Alkhazashvili

The Messenger
March 10 2008
Georgia

A joint Russian-Armenian venture will soon begin exploration and
mining of uranium in Armenia, following an agreement signed between
the two countries on February 6.

Russia plans to invest USD 3 million on uranium exploration in Armenia
this year, the news agency RIA Novosti reports.

Preliminary data puts uranium reserves in Armenia at 50 000 tons,
although the total amount could be anywhere between 25 000 and 100
000 tons.

ARMENIAN POLICE HOLD ENLARGED OPERATIONAL CONFERENCE

arminfo
2008-03-10 20:26:00

ArmInfo. Today the police of Armenia held an enlarged operational
conference.

The press service of the Police reports that the conference was
chaired by the chief of the police, Gen. Hayk Haroutyunyan. The key
topic was the Mar 1 disorders in Yerevan. Haroutyunyan pointed out
the mistakes committed by the police and gave specific instructions
on how to improve their efficiency. He demanded that the police be
more resolute in detecting and prosecuting the organizers of the riots.

TURKISH POLICE FOILED ALLEGED PLOT TO BOMB U.S. COMPANIES

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.03.2008 15:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish police have foiled an alleged plot to bomb
U.S. companies in the country.

Police arrested three suspects belonging to a leftist militant group
during a raid in Istanbul. Authorities seized a remote-controlled
toy car allegedly being prepared to be used in a bombing.

Police also seized a list of U.S. companies that the DHKP-C group
was targeting, including Coca Cola, Pepsi and Citibank.

The DHKP-C is listed as a terror group by the U.S. and EU, and has
been active since the 1970s, The Associated Press reports.

RA PM CONGRATULATED WOMEN ON MARCH 8 HOLIDAY

arminfo
2008-03-10 12:36:00

ArmInfo. RA PM Serzh Sargsyan congratulated the Armenian women on
the International Woman’s Day March 8. Today, ArmInfo received the
felicitation of RA prime minister from the Armenian governmental press
service. "Today, each of us wishes to say you the words of respect,
love and high appreciation. It is difficult to reassess the women’s
contribution to the formation of our state, assurance of Armenia’s
progress and development", the felicitation reads. It alsoemphasizes
the sufficient role of the Armenian women in the country’s public
and political life, in education and health areas. Along with it,
the women succeed to keep the atmosphere of happiness and kindness
in families due to their warmness and self- sacrifice. "I want
to especially congratulate the women who celebrates this day at
the workplace, who treats the people, bakes bread and protects the
country’s legality and security. I congratulate all the mothers and
sisters, wives and daughters on this beautiful holiday. I wish them
happiness, love and success", S. Sargsyan’s felicitation reads.

SINCE MARCH 6 PRE-ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN OF DEPUTATION CANDIDATES OF
ISLAMIC PARLIAMENT STARTS

TEHRAN, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The electoral campaigns
of more than 5400 candidates of the 8th session of the Islamic
parliament are starting since March 6.

As Alik (Wave) daily reports, Abbas Ali Kadkhoda, the Spokesman of the
Guardian Council, mentioned that the worthiness of the 27 percent of
the 7 thousand 597 parliamentarian candidates of the 8th session has
not been accepted. The campaign of the candidates will last up to March
12 midnight and the elections will be held on March 14.

According to official statements, the Iranian-Armenian certified
candidates are Gevorg Vardan, Robert Beglarian, Gevorg Adam Mkrtchian,
Sargis Stepanian, Hrayr Shahnazarian, Aramik Simonian, Harout
Keshishian and Vardan Vardanian.

Zenit News Agency, Italy
March 7 2008

Statement on Meeting of Armenian Patriarch and Cardinal Bertone

VAGHARSHAPAT, Armenia, MARCH 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the joint
communiqué released on the occasion of the Tuesday meeting between
Karekin II, supreme patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and
Benedict XVI’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who is
visiting Armenia this week.

* * *

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, and His Eminence Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of
State for the Holy See, came together in the Mother Cathedral of Holy
Etchmiadzin with a holy greeting of peace and offered their fervent
prayers to Almighty God in heaven.

The State Secretary, Cardinal Bertone, conveyed the warmest greetings
of unity in Jesus Christ and the fraternal love of His Holiness
Benedict XVI, the Pope of Rome, to His Holiness Karekin II,
Catholicos of All Armenians. Cardinal Bertone also presented a
handwritten letter from the Pope, with his invitation to visit the
See of Peter.

His Holiness and His Eminence offered their gratitude to God for this
cordial meeting — a sign of the continuing development of ties
between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Caholic Church — to
know one another better, to appreciate each other’s incomparable
spiritual heritage, and to love one another, confirming their equal
calling to serve mankind as is required by our one Lord Jesus Christ.
They agreed to continue taking steps on these blessed paths.

The Catholicos and the Cardinal appealed to God during these
difficult days for Armenia, so that peace and reconciliation be
established within the country. They prayed together for the souls of
the victims and asked the Lord to keep and protect the Armenian
people and reinforce them with faith, hope and love.

The Cardinal expressed the complete support of the Catholic Church to
the Armenian Church, for her efforts utilizing her high moral
standing, aimed at providing solutions to all concerns through the
promotion of dialogue and peaceful means and fostering a common sense
of responsibility, so that the dignity of the Armenian people and
state remain unharmed within international society.

His Holiness and His Eminence jointly entreated the Most High to make
statesmen and politicians realize that politics is also a spiritual
calling, which demands honesty, mutual respect, love tolerance and
defence of the rights of the poor and vulnerable.
May God bless Armenia and all Armenians — the first Christian people
in the world — so that all of Christendom can continue to enjoy
their exceptional and irreplaceable contributions.

Tunisian President congratulates Serge Sargsyan

armradio.am
07.03.2008 13:07

President of the Tunisian Republic Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
congratulated RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan on his victory in the
presidential election. He message says, in part:

`I’m glad to congratulate you on being elected to the high position of
the President of the Republic of Armenia. I wish success to you and
progress and prosperity to the Armenian people.

I want to use the opportunity to express my willingness to work
together for the sake of reinforcement of friendly relations and
cooperation between our countries.’

US DEPARTMENT OF STATE REACTS TO CEASEFIRE VIOLATION

Azeri Press Agency
March 6 2008
Azerbaijan

Washington. Husniyya Hasanova – APA. Spokesman of US Department of
State Tom Casey reacted to the last violation of ceasefire in the
contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces.

APA US Bureau reports, Tom Casey spokes about Washington’s regret on
this fact:" We regret that there was a violation of ceasefire along
the dividing line in Nagorno Karabakh. US Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew J. Bryza voiced
his concern about this issue to local officials in Baku as well as to
Armenian Foreign Minister through a phone call. We think it’s important
that there should be no further violations and it just points out the
need for the two parties to work together with the Minsk Group to be
able to come up with a diplomatic resolution of the situation". Tom
Casey informed about Matthew Bryza’s move form Baku to Armenia:" He
will be having meetings there tomorrow. The primary focus of that and
the intention of his visit there was first and foremost to see what
he could do to help encourage and facilitate a dialogue between the
government and the opposition there in light of some of the violence
that we’ve seen in the post-electoral period.

One of his core messages to Armenian Government that now that the
situation has calmed down, it’s very important for us to see the state
of emergency lifted there. We are also concerned about the limitations
and restrictions that have been placed on the media, including Radio
Liberty and Radio Free Europe and we’d like to see those lifted as
well. It’s much more important not only for us, but for the people
of Armenia in this period to have access to open information".

KOCHARIAN DEFENDS IMPOSING STATE OF EMERGENCY

ARMENPRESS
March 5, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS: President Robert Kocharian defended
today his decision to declare state of emergency in Yerevan late on
March 1 to quell a mass unrest saying further developments showed
that the state of emergency was a necessity and if not imposed the
damages and casualties would have been by far bigger.

He said the entire picture of the riot would be restored minute by
minute as there is a great deal of video images and other material
‘to give a right assessment and help law-enforcement bodies to track
down all inciters, masterminds and executors of the unrest.’ He said
investigators were told to work day and night to recover the whole
picture of developments as soon as possible.

Kocharian said these events have damaged the country’s image severely
and advised to make a retrospective look into Armenia of one month
ago to compare things then and now.

"When I am watching these video images I am ashamed, I can not believe
that that happened in Armenia," he said, adding that all must assess
the situation reasonably and join efforts to recover Armenia’s
good name.

Kocharian also said he will not extend the state of emergency that
expires on March 20.

"First of all law-enforcement bodies should specify the whereabouts of
the riot’s masterminds and their list and before we lift the state of
emergency we must be sure that nothing of that kind will ever occur
again,’ he said.

He said many of inciters and riot participants who used arms and
explosives against security troops are still at large and as long as
this issue is not resolved ‘we shall not lift the state of emergency.’
He also suggested that city authorities should deny any petition for
rallies until the situation is pacified again.