Author: Maghakian Mike

RA AND AR FMS MET IN BRUSSELS
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Nov 14 2006
November 14 a recurrent meeting of RA and AR FMs Vardan Oskanian and
Elmar Mammadyarov was held in Brussels.
According to the information DE FACTO got at the RA MFA Press Service,
the OSCE Minsk group Co-Chairs had also been present at the meeting.
To remind, the Karabakh conflict settlement’s basic principles
suggested by the OSCE Minsk group are being discussed at the talks’
present phase.

U.S. DEFENSE MINISTER DOES NOT ATTEND TO WATER PIPELINES
10-11-2006
LRAGIR.AM
“A financial document cannot be magnificent, it is another survival budget
and pursues pre-election aims,” stated Member of Parliament Victor Dallakyan
November 10. He thinks the estimation that the collections in 2007 will be
up by 70 billion drams are not realistic. If they are likely to fight black
economy, why they failed before, asks the member of parliament. Meanwhile,
with regard to the proposal of the government to allocate 710 million drams
to raise the salary of high-ranking officials in 2007 the member of
parliament does not ask questions but puts forward evaluations and
proposals. According to Victor Dallakyan, “This is electioneering, pledges
of the corrupt government to the officials, who will need to be highly
active in the election. This is an effort to use the administrative and
financial levers in electioneering, and immoral. The average pension is 12
thousand drams, and the high-ranking official’s salary may mount to 350
thousand drams.”
Victor Dallakyan suggests saving this 710 million, cut the 860 office cars
twice, add this 2.5 billion drams and spend this 3.2 billion on social
policies, namely raise pensions, return the lost savings, medicaid, etc.
Victor Dallakyan announced in joke that even his wife is asking her not to
act against the proposals on raising the salary or pension of members of
parliament. The member of parliament resists.
Victor Dallakyan is worried by the disbalance of our budget and the
Azerbaijani budget, the comparison of other economic indexes. “The
settlement of Nagorno Karabakh has moved from the military to the economic
sphere, if the country is in a better political and economic state, it will
eventually dominate. Patriotism will be replaced by economic factors,” he
thinks and speaks in numbers. Their military budget totals 1 billion
dollars, ours is 263 million. Our state budget is 1.2 billion dollars, their
economic growth is 34 percent, ours is 12.5 percent. From 2003 to 2007 their
state budget grew 8 times, ours grew 4 times. Azerbaijan’s oil revenues may
mount to an annual 7 billion dollars.
If we had built an Iran-Armenia transit pipeline, we could get 250 million
dollars from transit. But we will not because Russia used its “energy
truncheon” and a small-width gas pipeline is built. Unlike Serge Sargsyan,
Victor Dallakyan knows cases when Russia has used investments in the economy
for political tension. “The government is vulnerable because it is not
legitimate. And it is vulnerable in the relations with Russia. These
relations are vertical,” stated Victor Dallakyan.
Victor Dallakyan also noticed that it is hard to imagine the U.S. defense
minister open a water pipeline in the state of Arizona.

AsiaNews.it, Italy
Nov 10 2006
Increasing Russian control of Iranian gas

Russia’s energy giant Gazprom takes over Iran-Armenia gas pipeline;
Russian government is interested in participating in
Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. From Moscow Iranian nuclear
negotiator threatens to review Iran’s ties with IAEA if Russian
amendments are not included in Security Council draft resolution on
his country’s nuclear programme.

London (AsiaNews) – Whilst Tehran is threatening to `re-examine’ its
relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if the
United Nations accepts a draft resolution proposed by the EU3 group
(UK, France and Germany) without Russia’s amendments, Russia’s giant
energy company Gazprom is picking up energy deals. In the latest one,
it bought control in a gas pipeline project between Iran and Armenia.
The Russian government is also getting involved in another project
that would see a pipeline bring gas from Iran to Pakistan and India.
All in all, these plans are worth billions of dollars if one
considers that Iran, which holds 18 per cent of the world’s known
reserves, is second biggest gas supplier after Russia.
Gazprom raised its stake in ArmRosGaz, a company that controls both
Armenia’s domestic gas distribution business and the
soon-to-be-completed gas pipeline from Iran, to 58 per cent.
Last year it had signed an agreement with the Armenian government
under which Armenia would have to pay only US$ 110 per cubic metre of
gas or about half the market price. In doing so, Gazprom will run
Iranian gas supplies to Europe, rid itself of a potential competitor
and achieve near monopoly in gas supplies to Western Europe.
`We hope to use the joint venture to become involved in extraction
and development [of Iranian gas],’ Alexander Medvedev, deputy
chairman of Gazprom, told The Times. And there is a lot of extraction
and development to do. Analysts in fact believe that 62 per cent of
Iran’s potential gas reserves – estimated at 27,000 billion cubic
metres – remain undeveloped.
But that is not all. Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli
Deora said that Russia was keen to participate in all aspects of the
proposed multi-million dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline
project.
In a recent visit to Moscow, Mr Deora said that Russia’s Industry and
Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko expressed his country’s interest in
participating `in the technical and financial aspects of the proposed
Iran gas pipeline’
A final decision about this undertaking, with both Pakistan and India
as active participants, will be taken by the two governments and that
of Iran at a meeting yet to be scheduled but expected to be announced
in the next few days.
At the same time, Iran has made it clear that nuclear fuel production
will remain part of its energy strategy notwithstanding any
disagreement with the IAEA.
>From Moscow where he is currently on a visit, Ali Larijani, secretary
of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and Iran’s top nuclear
negotiator, said that Iran would review its ties with the
International Atomic Energy Agency if the draft resolution presented
in the last few days by the United Kingdom, France and Germany was
approved.
Russia has for its part submitted some amendments to the draft
proposal, which calls for sanctions, whose effects would be to lessen
its punitive aspects.

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 10 2006
SERGE SARGSYAN WILL NOT MEET ARMAN BABAJANYAN’S REQUEST

The commission of the Ministry of Defense discussed the application
of Arman Babajanyan, Editor-in-Chief of the Time Yerevan Newspaper,
and rejected it. On November 10 the minister of defense Serge
Sargsyan stated this to news reporters.
Arman Babajanyan was sentenced to four years of imprisonment for
forging documents and avoiding military service. Babajanyan appealed
to the Court of Cassation and the case is on trial. At the same time,
the editor-in-chief of the Time Yerevan Newspaper submitted an
application to the minister of defense on applying the law on
pardoning persons who avoided military service in 1992-2005 if the
latter pay a certain sum.
`We have a written conclusion, which runs that the commission cannot
attend to a cases if there is already a decision of the court. The
commission cannot be superior to the court,’ stated the minister of
defense. According to him, the commission has never attended to cases
if there is already a decision of the court.
It should be noted that several days ago Arman Babajanyan’s attorney
stated in a news conference that the decision of the court has not
come into force yet because the case is tried by the Court of
Cassation, which means that Arman Babajanyan remains under
prosecution.

Aravot, Armenia
Nov 9 2006
THE OPPOSITIONISTS AND TIGRAN TOROSIAN ARE ENTHUSIASTIC
CC decision about disparity of “Electoral Code” to the Constitution
will face the opposition and parliamentary majority to an interesting
situation. It becomes clear that there is a lot of thing to do on
“EC” project, and the majority will have to work with the opposition,
and the opposition perhaps will think about not to sign for the joint
project. Yesterday we asked NA chairman Tigran Torosian about his
opinion about CC decision. Tigran Torosian tried to insert and
explanation. “CC wasn’t discussing disparity of “EC” project of
amendments to the Constitution, but the current “EC”‘s, and more, the
judges have been included in the commissions after amendments in
2005. Some media today. But it isn’t so. Unfortunately, there is a
disparity in the current Constitution. One of the articles says that
the electoral commissions are state bodies but another article says
that the electoral commission mustn’t submit to state bodies or be
influenced by them. After constitutional amendments the formulation
about involvement of our judges in other activities is righter in our
Constitution than it was in the amendments adopted in 1995.
I think the CC decision is right and it must be fulfilled.” Certain
solutions aren’t known yet but there are a lot of solutions in T.
Torosian opinion and they will speak about a certain solution after
“EC” project discussion. We noticed that opposition groups and
independent parliamentarians, those who have turned to the CC for
that purpose are rather enthusiastic and think that this is a
victory. T. Torosian said that he was also enthusiastic; “I think
Constitutional amendments affirm day by day that they include very
important items, which lead to essential changes in our life. It
becomes obvious today that we deal with a new demonstration; the
opposition’s opportunity to turn to the CC and have success there. I
think the opposition must feel sorry for its inadequate attitude to
the constitutional amendments”. We reminded that Shavarsh Kocharian’s
‘EC” draft is also put into circulation in the NA where there is no
omission which exists in the joint project and whether it is possible
the parliament will review that draft. NA chairman said that the
parliament assumed very serious attitude to all drafts. The proposal
about involvement of judges into commissions was made and adopted in
2005. T. Torosian said on this occasion: “I myself have no
participation in the discussions of those amendments and when I saw
that the process of those amendments is turned into show, I said
about it the head of OSCE Yerevan office and the secretary of the
commission of Venice, still in 2005.
It’s interesting that both the opposition parliamentarians and
representatives of the majority are going to make proposals about the
amendments. The author of the initiative and the member of “Justice”
group Shavarsh Kocharian told us that the constitutional amendments
become operating and he is enthusiastic. In Shavarsh Kocharian
opinion, CC displayed a juridical approach and proved that the
Constitutional amendments were justified. He also said that all “EC”
items which refer to the involvement of judges, won’t act any more;
“This is a proper time to reach to the balanced commissions, and its
mechanisms exist in the “EC” draft.
It is possible to separate those mechanisms and to produce as
amendment, coming from CC decision. I hope this time the opposition
groups will unify,”- Shavarsh Kocharian said
Margaret Yesayan

THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO HOAGLAND
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 9 2006
The U.S. Embassy to Armenia does not know when the new U.S. Ambassador
to Armenia Richard Hoagland will arrive in Armenia. U.S. Charge
d’Affaires Anthony Godfrey, whom Matthew Bryza describes as an
excellent diplomat, stated November 8 that the question on the timing
of arrival of Hoagland should be asked to the Senate.
Anthony Godfrey only stated that other candidates besides Hoagland
are not considered. The Charge d’Affaires also said that two months
without an ambassador does not affect the quality of the work of the
embassy because a significant team works at the embassy and a person
does not decide everything.

MINISTER OF SO-CALLED NAGORNO GARABAGH REPUBLIC RECEIVED IN GREECE OFFICIALLY
Azeri Press Agency
Nov 9 2006
The Foreign Minister of so-called Nagorno Garabagh Republic Georgi
Petrosyan visited Greece to participate in the ceremony held on the
occasion of 10th anniversary recognition of Armenian Genocide by
Greek Parliament, APA reports quoting to Regnum agency.
Greece Parliament vie-speaker Georgios Surlas received him together
with Vaan Ovannisian, the deputy chairman of Armenian parliament.
They thanked Greek Parliament for recognition of Armenian genocide
happened in1996. Surlas stressed that Ottoman Empire pursued policy on
ethnic cleansing of Armenians and Greeks. The sides also touched on the
Nagorno Garabagh problem and expand of Armenian-Greece relations. The
chief of Foreign Ministry Press and Information Policy Department
Tahir Taghizadeh said that Azerbaijani embassy will investigate the
case and appropriate measures will be taken.

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email [email protected]
Internet
PRESS RELEASE
November 8, 2006
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
HASTERT’S FALL PAVES WAY FOR PELOSI SPEAKERSHIP
— ANCA Endorsed Candidates Win Big in Senate and House Elections
WASHINGTON, DC – The Democratic takeover of the House of
Representatives yesterday ended Speaker Hastert’s Congressional
reign, opening the door to the Speakership of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-
CA), a twenty year supporter of Armenian American issues, including
Armenian Genocide recognition, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).
Rep. Pelosi issued a statement last week pledging support for
Armenian Genocide legislation during the 110th Congress.
With the Senate majority too close to call, the victory of New
Jersey Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), returns him to the Senate,
where he has distinguished himself by blocking the appointment of
Armenian Genocide denier Richard Hoagland as U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia.
“We are tremendously proud of the vital and energetic role that
Armenian Americans played this election season – a watershed
transition of Congressional power that holds great meaning for our
community’s legislative agenda,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram
Hamparian. “On the House side, we certainly welcome the fall from
power of Dennis Hastert – who, as Speaker, prevented a bipartisan
majority of his colleagues from voting for U.S. recognition of the
Armenian Genocide – and his expected replacement by Nancy Pelosi,
who has a strong record in support of Armenian American issues. On
the Senate side, even as we await the final outcome, we are very
gratified by the victory in New Jersey of Senator Bob Menendez –
our top electoral priority this election season. Inspired by his
principled stand against the Hoagland nomination, Armenian
Americans throughout the Garden State – led by the ANC of New
Jersey – truly came through for the Menendez campaign, delivering
volunteers, campaign contributions, and, most importantly, tens of
thousands of votes in support of his electoral victory,” added
Hamparian.
ANCA endorsed candidates won overwhelmingly in the House, with 184
of 198 endorsed candidates securing decisive wins and three races
still too close to call. Of the 159 members of the Congressional
Armenian Caucus, 140 members won re-election, including
Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and
Joe Knollenberg (R-MI). Amongst those who lost their re-election
bid was Armenian American Congressman John Sweeney (R-NY), who,
with the support of ANC-NY, battled in one of the tightest races in
the country. Armenian American Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) won
her reelection bid with 71% of the vote.
In the Senate, 13 of 15 ANCA endorsed candidates won their election
bids, with the Virginia Senate race featuring Sen. George Allen (R-
VA) and Democrat Jim Webb still too close to call. Winners
included Armenian Genocide Resolution lead sponsor John Ensign (R-
NV), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and House members Ben Cardin and
Sherrod Brown who won Senate seats in Maryland and Ohio,
respectively. Pennsylvania Senator, Rick Santorum (R-PA), lead
cosponsor of the Caucasus Railroad Bypass bill, lost his Senate
reelection bid to Democrat Ed Casey. Perennial opponent of Armenian
American concerns, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd won his re-
election bid as well.

MORE MONEY RELEASED TO CULTURE
Panorama.am
17:08 07/11/06
Some 62.4 million drams more money will be released from the state
budget to culture in 2007 as compared to 2006 recording 12.4% rise and
totaling 9 billion 770 million drams, Pavel Safaryan, deputy minister
of finance and economy said. Similar to other sectors, rise in salary
is expected in 2007 making up 36.3 thousand drams in average salary
against 30 thousand this year.
Big sums will be allocated to 16 libraries and National Library
totaling 177 million drams. Money will also be released to Garni,
Zvartnots museums which will have night illumination. Some 945 million
drams will be allocated to reconstruction and another 715 million to
recovery of cultural monuments.

ONE OF LEADERS OF “ONE JAVAKHK” VAHAGN CHAKHALYAN DISPROVES ALL ACCUSATIONS AGAINST HIM
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Nov 6 2006
YEREVAN. November 6. /ARKA/. “All the accusations against me do
not correspond to the reality,” one of the leaders of “One Javakhk”
democratic alliance Vahagn Chakhalyan reported at a press conference
Thursday. “The accusations against me are false,” he said.
Chakhalyan pointed out that he has not violated the current Armenian
legislation. However, he has a hard time explaining what induced the
country’s authorities to take him into custody.
Chakhalyan was released from custody on October 31, 2006. Previously,
on October 2006, three Armenian MPs Tatul Manaseryan, Grigor Harutunyan
and Hmayak Hovhannisyan submitted a petition to the court of appeal
for criminal cases for changing the measures against Chakhalyan. They
vouched for Chakhalyan that he will not hide himself from investigating
agencies and impede the prejudicial proceeding.
On October 13, the investigating agency of Armenia brought an
accusation against Vahagn Chakhalyan for crossing the frontier of the
Republic of Armenia without proper documents and permission.