Author: Maghakian Mike

ARMENIAN SPEAKER, PREMIER JOIN BOARD OF MAJOR FUND

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
19 Jun 07

[Presenter] The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund is marking its
anniversary. For the past 15 years, the fund has implemented projects
worth 165m dollars.

They have contributed to the reconstruction and development of the
infrastructure in Armenia and Artsakh [Nagornyy Karabakh] as well as
helped implement social, cultural and scientific projects.

At the government’s House of Receptions, the 16th meeting of the
board of trustees opened today [19 June] after a blessing by the
Armenian catholicos.

The board of trustees unanimously voted to include National Assembly
[parliament] President Tigran Torosyan and Prime Minister Serzh
Sargsyan in the board based on their positions. The proposal was made
by President Robert Kocharyan, who is the chairman of the board of
trustees. In recent years, the fund has been sponsoring the Artsakh
Resurrection Project, the goal of which is to promote the economic
growth of Karabakh. In 2006, 47 projects, worth 40.2m dollars, have
been implemented. Armenia’s participation has also been significant
in the fund’s projects – about 80 projects, worth 22.82m dollars,
have been implemented.

[President Robert Kocharyan, addressing the meeting of the board of
trustees] I remember the period when the fund was established. It
was major progress, of course. There was great enthusiasm, romantics
then. All this has been transformed now into a better organized
structure, a more pan-Armenian [indistinct] structure, which has proved
over the past 15 years to be is a national treasure. This is the most
representative structure, and probably the most effective organization
among all the organizations of this type. Every time when participating
in the work of the fund, I am proud that I am not only the chairman of
the board of trustees of this structure but also an active participant,
and I believe that we all should have this feeling of pride. A lot
of work has been done and looking back the work looks more impressive.

AZERBAIJAN SHOULD DECIDE ON CONCESSIONS IT’S READY FOR

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.06.2007 14:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Until Azerbaijan doesn’t decide what he means by
saying compromise, there will be no progress in the talks," RA NA Vice
Speaker Vahan Hovhannisian told reporters in Yerevan. The situation
is like the Armenian-Turkish relations, he said. "We are told ‘open
the Armenian-Turkish border’. But we did not close this border. So,
let Turkey open it. We did not wage war in Karabakh. So, let Baku say
to what kind of compromise it’s ready for and whether it’s ready to
hold talks with Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia will not start hostilities
in case of signing an agreement. It’s already a compromise from the
Armenian side," the RA NA Vice Speaker said.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: YEREVAN MUST TOUGHEN ITS POSITION IN KARABAKH TALKS

Regnum, Russia
June 18 2007

Statements that the OSCE Minsk Group for Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement has exhausted itself is an Azerbaijani idea and the
Armenian side must not pick up the idea, member of the Dashnaktsutyun
ARF Bureau, Armenian Parliamentary Deputy Speaker Vahan Hovhannisyan
announced at a news conference in Yerevan today. A REGNUM correspondent
quotes him as saying that the OSCE MG co-chairs have done a serious
work and none of international institutions like the Council of Europe,
or the UN or even the CIS, has such a professional and peculiar
team like the OSCE Minsk Group. "It is too early now to state the
task of the group is exhausted. We are satisfied with their activity
and we see development, a more profound understanding of the issue
and reflection of this understanding in the documents they propose,
which naturally angers Azerbaijan," the deputy speaker said.

Hovhannisyan believes that under the current condition the OSCE MG
co-chairs have done the utmost. Despite alternative statements made
by Armenia and Azerbaijan, they managed to create a document that at
least was capable of becoming a basis for the settlement. The problem
is Azerbaijan’s position, the deputy speaker believes. "I believe
that from now on Armenia must toughen its position and introduce two
tasks into the agenda: until Azerbaijan announces what concessions
it is ready to make, we shall not discuss the issue. The second task
is Nagorno Karabakh’s participation in the negotiation process,"
he stressed. By present moment, says Hovhannisyan, Azerbaijan does
not give up attempts to transfer the settlement issue from the OSCE
to the United Nations. "Azerbaijan understands it fully that more
Muslim countries are represented in the UN that do not understand
the gist of the conflict, but grounding on the religious solidarity
will vote, as it often happens, for a pro-Azerbaijani resolution,"
the politician stressed. Commenting on statements that recognition
of Kosovo independence cannot become a precedent for settling other
territorial conflicts, the deputy speaker noted that such statements do
not cost a cent as it would be impossible to explain to the Karabakh or
any other nation why they are not allowed to have what the Albanians
have. "I am sure that recognition of Kosovo independence will become
a precedent for settlement of other territorial conflicts," he noted.

Speaking about presidential election in Nagorno Karabakh, Hovhannisyan
stressed that the national interests claim for a smooth change of power
in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. He also assured that elections in
Nagorno Karabakh have always been much more democratic than in other
neighboring countries, including Armenia, and expressed confidence
that this would happen at the forthcoming election too.

AZERI OPPOSITION PARTY URGES CLOSING OF GABALA RADAR STATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.06.2007 18:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Musavat Azeri opposition party thinks that the
most advisable variant for Azerbaijan is to close the Gabala radar
station. Party deputy leader Mehman Javdoglu said the issue of
joint U.S.-Russia use of the radar station was in focus of the party
council sitting.

"If Russia and the United States launch talks on Gabala, our state
should participate in the negotiations as one of the hosts of the
radar station," he said, Day.az reports.

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN TO HEAD HERITAGE PARLIAMENTARY FACTION

ArmRadio.am
13.06.2007 15:15

Today the Heritage Party’s parliamentary group held its first meeting
at its office in the National Assembly. The meeting adopted the by-laws
of the Heritage faction, and then elected Raffi K. Hovannisian as
its chairman and Stiopa Safarian as its secretary.

In addition, MP Larisa Alaverdian was nominated to represent Heritage
in the Parliament’s Standing Committee on European Integration,
Vardan Khachatrian in its Committee on Defense, National Security
and Internal Affairs, Anahit Bakhshian at the Committee on Science,
Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Stiopa Safarian at the Committee
on Foreign Relations, Zaruhi Postanjian at the Committee on State
and Legal Affairs, and Armen Martirosian at the Committee on Social
Affairs, Health Care and Environment.

KOSOVO PRECEDENT WATCH
by Nikolas K. Gvosdev

The National Interest Online, DC
4626
June 13 2007

One of the more novel arguments raised by those who maintain that no
new United Nations resolution would be needed to replace 1244-which
explicitly called for the maintenance of the territorial integrity of
"Yugoslavia" and called only for substantial autonomy for Kosovo, is
to maintain that the Serbia of 2007 is a "different" state and that
the dissolution of the union between the two constituent republics of
the 1999-era Yugoslavia-Serbia and Montenegro-invalidates the whole
notion of preserving Serbia’s territorial integrity.

Linked to this, one sometimes hears a second but related argument-that
autonomous provinces within Serbia also have the right to leave Serbia.

Now, an interesting variant of these arguments has arisen
in the context of the Minsk Group which is seeking to find a
settlement between the separatist (and largely Armenian) republic
of Nagorno-Karabakh while preserving the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. There are now reports that the Russian co-chair Yuri
Merzlyakov offered this attempt to "square the circle" -between
recognizing the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and permitting an
independent Nagorno-Karabakh state to emerge-by drawing a distinction
between "Soviet" Azerbaijan, within which Nagorno-Karabakh was an
autonomous republic-and "independent" Azerbaijan which has never
exercised sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Merlyakov said, "From the legal viewpoint the Nagorno Karabakh
Autonomous Region (NKAR) was a part of the Azerbaijani SSR. Now Nagorno
Karabakh is an unrecognized state and the issue of its borders and
who belongs it to lies in the sphere of international law."

U.S. co-chair Matt Bryza has not apparently commented on Merlyakov’s
remarks.

(By the way, a news conference was held in Yerevan earlier today on
this question: Why can Kosovo be independent but Karabakh cannot?)

Nikolas K. Gvosdev is editor of The National Interest.

TOO DIFFICULT TO EXPECT A BREAKTHROUGH IN RESOLUTION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SOON: ICG GROUP

TREND News Agency, Azerbaijan
June 13 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend K.Ramazanova / Magdalena Fritcheva,
the International Crisis Group Caucasus Project Director, stated
on 13 June that it is too difficult to expect a breakthrough in the
resolution of the [Armenian-Azerbaijani] Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
in the near future.

Fritcheva noted that the continuation of the dialogue is a positive
step and it is very important to hold it at every level. She was
commenting on the recent meeting between the Presidents of Azerbaijan
and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian, in St. Petersburg.

Fritcheva announced that in July the ICG will present its third report
on Nagorno-Karabakh, the new report will cover new developments since
the publication of the last report by ICG in 2005, estimating the
situation in the negotiations. The report will consider the tendencies
and dynamics of developments in both communities.

With respect to POWs from both the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides,
the ICG representative said that media reports from these sides
actually pursue political agendas.

CONTACT LINE OF TROOPS MONITORED

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 13 2007

Today the monitoring on the contact line of troops, near the
Garakhanbayli village of Fuzuli region of Azerbaijan was held
in accordance with the mandate of Personal Representative of OSCE
Chairman-in-Office. On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was held
by the Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, Miroslav Vimetal and Imre Palatinus and from
the Armenian side which is internationally recognized as Azerbaijan
territory, the monitoring was held by Peter Ki and Jaslan Nurtazin.

The field assistants were in Fuzuli Region’s Office of executive
power meeting there deputy head of executive power Shakir Hajiyev,
APA reports. The line of troops was monitored after the meeting. The
monitoring passed without incident.

ARMENIAN COURTS DELIVERED VERDICTS ON 5 CRIMINAL CASES REGARDING THE VIOLATIONS OVER THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION

ArmInfo
2007-06-12 22:03:00

Armenian courts delivered verdicts on 5 criminal cases regarding the
violations over the parliamentary election.

As press-secretary of the Prosecutor General, Sona Truzyan, told
Arminfo correspondent as of today a total 6 criminal cases regarding
15 people were transferred to the courts, which delivered verdicts
on 5 criminal cases.

Three persons were sentenced to imprisonment for a year or two. One
person was fined to 300 thsd drams as after voting he left the polling
station taking the lists of voters with him. Another 10 people were
sentenced to conditional sentence.

ALLIES OF SAKOZY TO GAIN MAJORITY AT FRENCH SENATE
By Petros Keshishian

AZG Armenian Daily
12/06/2007

According to the final data, the allies of Nikolas Sarkozy gained the
majority in the French Senate after the parliamentary elections. "Union
of Democratic Movement" party led by Sarkozy received 39,54% of
the votes.

The Socialists received 24,73% of the votes, "MODEM" party 7,61%,
"National Front" party and "Communist Party" received 4,29% votes each.

According to FrancePress, 80 political forces and 7639 candidates
ran for the recent parliamentary elections in France. About 60%
of the electors participated in the elections. As a result of the
first stage of the elections, the allies of Sarkozy are expected to
occupy 383-500 mandates at the parliament. The Second stage of the
elections is envisaged for June 17.

According to "Figarot," "Union of Democratic Forces" and their allies
will have 405-445 places in the parliament, while the Socialists will
have 100-140 mandates.

This is an unprecedented case when a faction gains such a majority
in the parliamentary elections in France. This victory is a proof
that most of the French citizens trust the policy of Nikolas Sarkozy.