Author: Nadirian Emma

Day.Az, Azerbaijan
May 28 2009

Azeri official comments on president’s "harsh" statement on Karabakh

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest "harsh and at the same
time frank" statement on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict settlement was
a message both to Armenia and the international mediators whose
activity satisfies neither the Baku government nor the Azerbaijani
public, a senior official from the Azerbaijani presidential
administration, Fuad Axundov, has said.

In an interview with Russian Interfax news agency, published on the
Baku-based Day.az website on 30 May, Axundov said that the president’s
statement made it clear that it was impossible to make Baku agree to
concessions in the issue of Nagornyy Karabakh’s status by putting
pressure on it.

Axundov said that President Aliyev had also sent a message to the EU
when he said that "not a single project, or a question, or an
initiative – no matter who stands behind it – can be implemented in
the region without Azerbaijan’s involvement or without considering its
national interests".

"The president purposefully raises the issue in such a forthright and
blunt manner in order to show that the patience of the public and the
country’s leadership has been stretched," Day.az quoted Axundov as
saying. "There is another important signal – all the attempts to
involve Yerevan into regional projects, which are actively lobbied by
some western countries and organizations, are doomed to failure unless
there is progress in the settlement of the conflict. This point made
by the head of state is first of all meant for the EU which naively
believes that it can involve Armenia into multilateral regional
projects within the framework of the Eastern Partnership programme."

In an address made on the occasion of Republic Day on 27 May,
President Ilham Aliyev said that the agenda of the talks with Armenia
included "the return of all occupied lands to Azerbaijan and the
return of all displaced persons to their native lands", Baku-based APA
news agency reported on 28 May. "There are no mechanisms to separate
Nagornyy Karabakh from Azerbaijan on the negotiating table and there
can be none," APA quoted Aliyev as saying. The Azerbaijani president
also said that the only reason the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict has not
been resolved yet is "Armenia’s unconstructive position and its
tactics aimed at artificially delaying the negotiations process", APA
said.

Election for the Council of Elders are underway in Yerevan

2009-05-31 10:05:00

ArmInfo. Election for the Council of Elders of Yerevan are underway in
the capital of Armenia.

The voting began at 8:00 AM and will last till 8:00 PM. Total of 439
election precincts are functioning. Six political parties stand in
elections: RPA, "Prosperous Armenia" party, "Orinats Yerkir" party,
ARFD, People’s party, Labour Socialist party, as well as one unit – the
Armenian National Congress.

The election are held on a proportional system, that is, on party
lists. The Council of Elders will consist of 65 members. The first
candidate for Yerevan Elders in the list of the party, which received
the majority of votes, automatically becomes Yerevan Mayor. About 30
local monitoring organizations, as well as the delegation of CE
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will monitor the course of
voting.

Prosperous Armenia candidate expects the elections for the Yerevan City
Council to be a step forward

armradio.am
31.05.2009 13:48

Harutyun Kushkyan, who heads the candidate list of the Prosperous
Armenia Party, cast his vote at polling station #10/29.

During an interview with reporters Mr. Kushkyan voiced hope that the
elections would be conducted peacefully. `I’m assured that these
elections will be a step forward and will fair, which is very important
for all of us.’

Harityun Kushkyan will spend the rest of the day at the party
headquarters and will follow the election process.

CEC data: 29,36% of voters took part in election as of 2:00 PM

2009-05-31 14:21:00

ArmInfo. According to CEC data, 226 487 people or 29,36% of the Yerevan
residents, being entitled to vote, took part in the election for the
Council of Elders of Yerevan as of 2:00 PM.

To recall, total number of voters, according to the Police data, makes
up 771 477. Total of 439 election precincts are functioning. Six
political parties and one bloc stand in the election. The election are
held on a proportional system, that is, on party lists. The Council of
Elders will consist of 65 members. The first candidate for Yerevan
Elders in the list of the party, which received the majority of votes,
automatically becomes Yerevan Mayor. About 30 local monitoring
organizations, as well as the delegation of CE Congress of Local and
Regional Authorities will monitor the course of voting.

THE NEXT RALLY OF THE OPPOSITION ON 1 JUNE

ArmInfo
2009-05-29 20:17:00

ArmInfo. The next rally of the opposition will be held on 1 June,
at 6:30 PM, near the Matenadaran, coordinator of Armenian National
Congress Levon Zurabyan said at today’s rally of the opposition. He
also added the rally will be held to present the results of the
elections.

He also said that representatives of PACE delegation expressed their
concern regarding preparation and holding of the election champaign
in Yerevan. They also wanted to meet vice-premier Armen Gevorkyan
and head of Central Electoral Committee Garegin Azaryan. He said that
this is evidence of readiness of the authorities to rig the elections.

FLEMING SERITSLEV: WE ARE DISPOSED TO VICTORY IN UPCOMING MATCHES

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
29.05.2009 17:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On June 5 and 9, the Armenian youth team will play
2 qualifying matches for Europe 2011 championship. During the first
match scheduled for June 5, the Armenian young players will play an
away match with the Swiss young team. On June 9, they will host the
Turkish national team. Armenian team’s chief coach Flemming Serritslev
finds players to be well prepared for competition.

"Unlike Armenia, Turkey has a wide choice of football players. Having
held brilliant victory last year, we demonstrated our ability of
competing with them. We have young promising players, as well as good
half-backs, so we’re facing a hard choice. I hope such choice will
in future extend to goalkeepers, fullbacks and forwards. Anyway I
find our team very competitive."

"Switzerland and Turkey have higher ratings in FIFA list and are
very serious rivals for us. The coming matches are going to be very
difficult. Almost all Swiss players represent top-class teams. As to
the Turkish team, it has already defeated Ireland 0:3 in a recent away
match. But I always encourage our players to be proud of representing
a national team, as that obliges them to be more responsible. There
have been practically no changes in the Turkish team in comparison
with last year. As to our team which last year defeated Turkey 2:1,
only two of its players will participate in the coming match. Anyway,
I promise we’ll do our best to achieve positive outcome," the Dutch
coach said.

CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA REGISTERS NEW BRANCH OF ARSAKHBANK – NAIRI

ARKA
May 29, 2009

YEREVAN, May 29. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) registered
a new branch of Arsakhbank closed joint stock company – Nairi. The
respective decision was made by the CBA Chairman Artur Javadyan on
May 27 2009.

Artsakhbank cjsc was founded on the basis of Sberbank under a decree
of the President of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in December 1995. It
received a license from the CBA on October 31 1996.

The bank’s assets had amounted to 37bln Drams by the end of March 2009
with total capital at 5.8bln Drams; net profit of the bank was 2.7bln
Drams in January-March 2009. The bank had 16 branches as of March 31.
($1=370.89Drams).

AMBASSADOR OF BENIN HANDS CREDENTIALS TO THE PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA

armradio.am
27.05.2009 13:16

The newly appointed Ambassador of Benin to Armenia, Vissinto Ayi
d’Almeida (seat in Moscow), presented his credentials to President
Serzh Sargsyan.

Congratulating the diplomat on assuming office, President Sargsyan
voiced hope that the accreditation of the first Ambassador of Benin
in Armenia would contribute to the development of relations between
the two countries.

The parties attached importance to the cooperation between Armenia
and Benin within different international organizations.

FM DAVUTOGLU SAYS AZERBAIJAN’S STABILITY HIGHLY IMPORTANT FOR TURKEY

Hurriyet
May 26 2009
Turkey

BAKU – Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Tuesday
Azerbaijan’s stability, well-being, future and territorial integrity
is highly important for Turkey.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart
Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku, Davutoglu said that a strong Azerbaijan
implies a strong Turkey.

"Our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters should know that, just as in
the past, Turkey will be on the side of Azerbaijan in the future,"
Davutoglu said.

"Our message to regional actors, including Armenia, is very clear. The
region must be free of occupations and tensions," Davutoglu noted.

The issue of Upper Karabakh, a region under Armenian occupation, must
be resolved as soon as possible within the framework of Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity, Davutoglu stressed.

"Relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan are excellent. Turkey
and Azerbaijan are not merely friends and neighbors. They are also
strategic partners," Davutoglu said.

Minister Mammadyarov, for his part, said that Davutoglu and he
discussed bilateral issues.

"Our relations are excellent and we are confident that such relations
will develop further," Mammadyarov said.

"During our talks today, we discussed issues such as Karabakh, energy,
economy, culture and cooperation in other fields. The trade volume
between Turkey and Azerbaijan is worth more than $2 billion but we
are not satisfied with this number," Mammadyarov said.

Davutoglu also met with the Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade
on Tuesday. Davutoglu’s meeting with Rasizade was closed to the press.

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST OBAMA’S BROKEN PROMISES ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

tration-over-obama%e2%80%99s-broken-promises/
26th , 2009

LOS ANGELES-In keeping with efforts to remind President Obama of
his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide and to express the
community’s disappointment over his broken promises a demonstration
is scheduled for Wednesday, May 27 to coincide with his visit to
Beverly Hills.

The demonstration will take place from 3:00 to 6 p.m. at the Beverly
Hilton Hotel, 9876 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

Join the Armenian Youth Federation and the "Shant" Student Association
in expressing the community’s profound disappointment in President
Obama for not keeping his campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian
Genocide.

"We are not here to label the President as a Genocide denier, but
rather to raise our voices and our concerns regarding his broken
promises," said Arek Santikian, a spokesperson for the AYF. "We also
want the president to realize how dissapointed the community is with
his ill-advised cut in foreign aid to Armenia."

"Obama has been a long time friend of the Armenian people, but his
recent actions are showing us that politics in Washington, DC are
more important to him than voicing his true convictions. This is
truly disappointing," Santikian added.