Author: Nahapetian Samvel

SOARING TRADE BOOSTS RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN ECONOMIC TIES
By Emil Danielyan

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Oct 30 2007

Armenia’s trade with Russia has increased dramatically this year,
paralleling the growing Russian economic presence in the country,
which has sparked concerns about Armenia’s economic independence
and even national security. The almost 62% year-on-year rise in
Russian-Armenian trade registered in the first eight months of 2007
comes despite Russia’s continuing transport blockade of Georgia,
Armenia’s main commercial conduit to the outside world.

According to the most recent data posted by Armenia’s National
Statistical Service (NSS) on its website, , the volume
of bilateral trade totaled $404 million in January-August 2007, up
from $250 million registered during the same period last year. Much
of the gain resulted from an almost 100% surge in Armenian exports
to Russia, most of them alcoholic beverages and prepared foodstuffs.

Even so, Armenian imports of Russian commodities and goods (notably
natural gas) continued to account for most of the bilateral commercial
exchange, rising by 50% to about $280 million.

Consequently, Russia saw its share in Armenia’s external trade
grow from 13.1% to 15.2%, solidifying its status as the South
Caucasus state’s single largest trading partner. The NSS reported
similarly strong gains in Armenia’s trade with Georgia, Ukraine,
and Kazakhstan. As a result, the share of non-Baltic former Soviet
republics in its trade reached 32.6%, up from 28.4% recorded in
January-August 2006. The European Union, by comparison, accounted
for 38.2% of the January-August 2007 turnover.

Officials in Moscow and Yerevan have welcomed the growing commercial
ties between their countries, which they say will reach a new high of
$700 million in the full year 2007. Speaking after talks in Moscow on
September 25, the Russian and Armenian prime ministers said they would
try to ensure that Russian-Armenian trade hits $1 billion next year
(Armenian Public Television, September 25). Armenian Prime Minister
Serge Sarkisian instructed his ministers to closely work with their
Russian counterparts to meet this target (Statement by the Armenian
government, September 27). Nikolai Ryzhkov, a Russian lawmaker
co-chairing a Russian-Armenian inter-parliamentary commission, came
up with a more conservative estimate during a mid-October visit to
Yerevan, predicting bilateral trade will likely pass $1 billion mark
only in 2009 (Interfax, October 19).

Russia-Armenian trade is growing strongly despite Russia’s decision
in June 2006 to close its main border crossing with Georgia. Moscow
cited the need to conduct repairs on Russian border guard and customs
facilities. The move, whatever its real motives, hit hard Armenian
companies that heavily relied on the Upper Lars crossing in shipping
goods to Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Armenian
government officials and lawmakers have since been lobbying their
Russian counterparts to reopen Upper Lars. According the Armenian
ambassador in Moscow, Armen Smbatian, the Russians have promised to
do that some time in 2008 (RFE/RL Armenia Report, September 28).

Armenian exporters, meanwhile, appear to have quickly adapted to the
new situation through an even greater reliance on a rail-ferry link
between the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti and Ukraine’s Ilyichevsk.

A similar ferry service, designed to primarily cater to Armenia,
was launched in April 2007 between Poti and the Russian port of
Port-Kavkaz. However, the service has yet to become regular and
frequent enough to process substantial amounts of freight. Sarkisian
reportedly raised the issue with his Russian counterpart, Viktor
Zubkov, during their Moscow meeting.

Zubkov told journalists after the talks that Russian companies would
invest $1.5 billion in Armenia "in the near future." He gave no
details, saying only that much of those investments will be channeled
into the construction of an oil refinery in southeastern Armenia
that will process crude from neighboring Iran. The ambitious project
featured prominently during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s
October 22 visit to Armenia. Speaking at a joint news conference
with Ahmadinejad, Armenian President Robert Kocharian said Yerevan
and Tehran agreed to press ahead with the project’s implementation.

Another top Russian official, Transport Minister Igor Levitin, said
in Yerevan on September 14 that Russian investments in the Armenian
economy will reach a record-high level of $500 million in 2007 (Azg,
September 15). He did not specify whether the figure includes $430
million that the Russian telecommunications operator MTS paid to
purchase Armenia’s largest mobile phone network, VivaCell, from a
Lebanese-owned firm. The deal, officially announced in Yerevan on
September 14, came almost a year after the $500 million acquisition
of Armenia’s national telephone company and its wireless network by
another Russian telecom operator, Vimpelcom.

The Armenian government is believed to have played a key role in both
takeovers that left another sector of Armenia’s economy under Russian
ownership. It has also been instrumental in Russian control of the
Armenian energy sector. That control has become near total since the
signing of a controversial April 2006 agreement that enabled Armenia
to avoid a doubling of the price of Russian gas until January 2009
in return for handing over more energy assets to Russia. It was
officially confirmed on September 12 that those assets include the
entire Armenian section of an under-construction gas pipeline from
Iran (Haykakan Zhamanak, September 13). It will now be owned by the
Armenian national gas company in which Russia’s Gazprom conglomerate
has a controlling stake.

The tightening of Russia’s economic grip on Armenia is widely
attributed to Kocharian’s and his preferred successor Sarkisian’s
obvious desire to ensure the Kremlin’s continued support for their
regime. The two men, who single-handedly make all key decisions
affecting the nation, are poised to cede more industries to Russian
companies ahead of next spring’s Armenian presidential election.

Those include Armenia’s rail network and largest gold mining company.

LEADER OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ARMENIA: RA AUTHORITIES ONLY STIR UP INTEREST IN FIGURE OF FIRST PRESIDENT LEVON TER-PETROSYAN BY THEIR ACTIONS

arminfo
2007-10-29 11:41:00

ArmInfo. "By their reciprocal actions for activation of the first
President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the present authorities artificially
stir up interest of the protest electorate in his person", leader
of the oppositional Democratic party of Armenia Aram Sargsyan told
ArmInfo.

"Representatives of different branches of the power vertical should
resolve their relations by themselves, while, having no facts bout the
existing discrepancies, we can only talk about the present specific
situation.

Today’s wide protest electorate has to determine its attitude to the
presidential contenders, moreover, this will happen the next two
months. In any case, I would not dramatize the situation with the
first President’s activation", A. Sargsyan said.

Having emphasized that it is yet early to talk about consolidation
of the protest electorate, A. Sargsyan considers it unacceptable "to
make choice between the good and bad", therefore, the first president
cannot be considered an alternative to the present authorities. "When
the people compare the both camps, they will have to refuse of both
of them. If serious candidates and political forces appear on the
political arena with their programmes and an exact foreign political
orientation, the voters will have a choice. And if the election
campaign develops based on today’s negative backgrounds, I do not
rule out that the majority of the people will be disappointed and
will not go to the polls", A. Sargsyan forecasts.

Talking of possibility of consolidation of the protest electorate
around one central oppositional candidate, despite availability of
several ones, as it was during the previous 2003 presidential election,
the Democratic party leader expressed confidence that there are no
such backgrounds as yet. He added that the authorities themselves
should create conditions for holding normal election, where we see
no progresses so far.

DASHNAKTSUTIUN IS AGAINST RESTRICTION IN ACTIVITIES OF OSCE MONITORING MISSIONS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 26, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The ARF Dashnaktsutiun is against
restricting the activities of the OSCE monitoring missions and believes
that their staff should be expanded, so that observers can be present
at all the polling stations. In that case, as Hrayr Karapetian, the
Chairman of the ARF Dashnaktsutiun faction of the National Assembly,
mentioned during the parliamentary briefing held on October 26, they
will be able to judge about electoral violations on the bases of their
own observations and not on "what they have heard from here or there."

According to Hrayr Karapetian, the OSCE should take part in electoral
processes in the role of an independent observer and representatives
of one or at least two countries should not prevail in the monitoring
mission. In his words, the conclusion of the OSCE observers, with
which an opinion is created about the country in all the international
democratic structures, is important for Armenia.

It should be mentioned that according to the information provided by
the Radio Liberty, Russia has made a suggestion on restricting the
activities of the OSCE monitoring missions in electoral processes, and
the document has been signed by Armenia among former Soviet countries.

RA PRESIDENTS APPOINTS JUDGES

armradio.am
26.10.2007 14:35

According to RA President Robert Kocharyan’s decree of October 26,
Armen Babayan was appointed Judge of the First Instance Court of Avan
and Nor Nork communities, President’s Press Office informs.

Arshak Petrosyan was appointed Judge of the First Instance Court of
Kentron and Nork-Marash communities.

TO THE BENEFIT OF THE REGION AND SECURITY

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
Oct 23 2007
Armenia

According to MAHMOUD AHMADINEDJAD, President of the Islamic Republic
of Iran, "the existence of an independent, developed Armenia is to
the benefit of the region and regional security. We find that all
the countries of the region should live side by side, in a peaceful
and friendly atmosphere. I don’t think there is any problem that is
impossible to solve through negotiations. We are against the creation
of any tension in a sensitive region like ours. We are sure that the
most complex issues can be solved around the table of negotiations,
based on the principle of justice, and we do support the solution
of those problems. Iran is entirely using capacities to achieve the
peaceful settlement of all the problems in the region."

NALBANDIAN 18TH BEST IN THE WORLD

armradio.am
23.10.2007 13:42

Argentinean Armenian tennis player David Nalbandian ranks 18th in
the current list of best tennis players.

Winning a brilliant victory in the Madrid Masters international
tournament, Nalbandian resumes his leading positions in world tennis.

Let us remind that Nalbandian won 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 to end a run of four
straight defeats against Switzerland’s Federer, who he last beat in
the Masters Cup in Shanghai two years ago.

NEW ARMENIAN LAW TO FACILITATE PHONE TAPPING
By Ruzanna Khachatrian

Rdaio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 22 2007

Armenia’s parliament passed on Monday a controversial law that allows
law-enforcement authorities to wire-tap any telephone conversation
without a court authorization.

The Armenian government, which the drafted the law, says it is aimed
at making it easier for the police, the National Security Service
(NSS) as well as tax and customs bodies to combat and investigate
various crimes.

The opposition minority in the National Assembly insisted, however,
that the bill’s main purpose is to stifle dissent by facilitating
police surveillance of politicians, public figures and journalists
critical of the government. Lawmakers representing the opposition
Zharangutyun and Orinats Yerkir parties accused the authorities of
seeking to turn Armenia into a police state.

Their last-ditch attempts to scuttle the bill’s adoption proved
unsuccessful. The government-controlled parliament voted by 65 to 3,
with 8 abstentions, to pass it in the third and final reading.

"This parliament is worthy of such a law," Stepan Safarian, a
Zharangutyun deputy, declared after the vote.

The remark prompted a stern rebuke from speaker Tigran Torosian,
who accused Safarian of insulting fellow legislators.

The government measure, which also allows the authorities to read
private mail at will, was made possible by one of the Western-backed
amendments to Armenia’s constitution enacted in the November 2005
constitutional referendum. The Armenian constitution stipulated
until then that citizens’ privacy can not be breached without the
permission of local courts. It now allows phone tapping "in cases
specified by law."

Many opposition politicians and even journalists have long suspected
that their phones are illegally wire-tapped by the NSS, the Armenian
successor the Soviet KGB. It is not uncommon for them to avoid
discussing confidential matters by phone, a habit dating back to
Soviet times.

Genocide battleground

The Washington Times
October 19, 2007

Austin Bay – It’s an old phenomenon: When the dispossessed get clout,
the past becomes a battleground. Often the stakes in the present are
extraordinarily high.

An exemplary skirmish over very bad history is taking place in the
U.S. Congress – in this case, the World War I slaughter of Armenians
by Ottoman Turkey.

Whether or not the Ottomans’ mass deportation and murder of Armenians
in 1915 and 1916 reaches the formulaic, industrial magnitude of the
Nazis’ genocide or Josef Stalin’s decimation of Ukraine is a debating
point for lawyers and apologists. The Ottoman "Young Turk" government
took a systematic approach that stinks of classic tribal "ethnic
cleansing." The Ottomans disarmed Armenian soldiers and removed them
from the ranks of the Turkish army. Suspect loyalty and connivance
with the Orthodox Christian enemy, Russia, was the ostensible
rationale.

After confiscating Armenian guns, Ottoman knives appeared. Mobs
murdered Armenian intellectuals and leaders – killing communicators
silences a community. Then the deportations began, featuring long
marches where starvation and sunstroke killed as many as the attacks
of "thieves and raiders." One-and-a-half million Armenians (out of a
population of about 2.5 million) died in this directed chaos. Darfur
and the Congo are contemporary examples of this hideous technique.

World War I ended. After a bout of internal chaos and a war with
Greece, republican Turkey emerged from the Ottoman wreckage. Its
political architect, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, launched political and
cultural revolutions, creating a secular Turkey and with it a possible
Islamic bridge to modernity. Turkey adopted Latin script, a visual,
literary break with the Ottoman Empire and caliphate. It’s one reason
al Qaeda fanatics despise Ataturk more than they do George Bush.

Modern Turks can make a case they aren’t the Ottomans. Diaspora
Armenians, however, now have influence and a voice. The once
dispossessed have earned it. Armenians have had extraordinary
political and economic success in Western Europe and the United
States.

Only the heartless would dismiss their desire to recognize the great
wrong. Yet historical verification and vindication aren’t the only
goals – the U.S. House resolution backed by Armenian-Americans demands
punishment of the perpetrators.

The perpetrators, however, are long dead. The Turkish government thus
sees the resolution as a political attack on Turkey – one that could
open a Pandora’s box of land restitution issues.

At a less volatile moment one can imagine Congress passing the
nonbinding resolution. I would support it, particularly if it promoted
Turkish and Armenian reconciliation.

But find the less volatile moment. The Clinton administration judged
the year 2000 as too volatile to pass the House resolution. President
Clinton valued U.S.-Turkish relations, and the United States needed
access to Turkish airbases to enforce the U.N.-mandated northern
no-fly zone that helped protect Iraqi Kurds from Saddam. Mr. Clinton
got then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert to kill the resolution.

Those Turkish bases now supply and support U.S. troops in Iraq. No
matter one’s opinion on Iraq, antagonizing Turkey when it provides air
and logistical bases supporting U.S. troops actively deployed in a
combat zone is foolish and craven. A Turkish decision to shut down
these facilities would cut a major coalition supply line. U.S. troops
in Iraq would face increased risks.

This is reason enough to delay passing the resolution. There are
others. For two years, Turkey has threatened to invade northern Iraq
in order to destroy Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases. The Iraqi
government and Washington have both promised Turkey they will "act
against the PKK." Turkey says it is tired of waiting – and has an army
on the Iraqi border prepped for action.

Cynics suggest Turkey has been waiting for an opportunity to slip U.S.
calls for military restraint and launch a decisive attack to finish
off the PKK. The resolution provides Ankara with just this
opportunity. Conceivably, Washington could "trade" a deferred
resolution for a Turkish promise to restrict its operations in Iraq to
"hot pursuit" situations, special-forces actions and surveillance.
Diplomats on both sides might structure such a transparent but useful
give and take.

Note I said deferred resolution: 2015 may be as volatile as 2007.
Historical horrors like the Armenian genocide really don’t have
anniversaries or centennials, or at least they shouldn’t. They do
deserve recognition and remembrance as instructive history, but
recognition should not do damage to the present. The year 2015 – or
100 years after the Armenian massacre – strikes me as the perfect time
to pass the resolution.

Austin Bay is a nationally syndicated columnist.

Source: MMENTARY/110190014

"THERE ARE ALL PRECONDITIONS FOR EXPANDING COOPERATION BETWEEN YEERVAN
AND MARSEILLES," YERVAND ZAKHARIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. A cooperation agreement was signed
between the municipalities of Yerevan and Marseilles on October 19.
According to this agreement signed by Yervand Zakharian, the Mayor of
Yerevan, and Jean Klod Godin, the Mayor of Marseilles, economic,
educational, and cultural relations are envisaged to be developed
between the two cities. According to Yervand Zakharian, the cooperation
with Marseilles started yet in 1992 and at present, according to him,
there are all the prconditions for strengthening and expanding that
cooperation.

Yervand Zakharian stated that the trade circulation of Yerevan and
Marseilles made 53 million U.S. dollars in the first half of 2007,
whereas in 2006 it made 75 million dollars. According to the Mayor, the
volumes of the trade circulation have a serious tendency to increase
until the end of the year.

Jean Klod Godin, the Mayor of Marseilles, mentioned that irrespective
of the fact that a close cooperation has been established in different
spheres of the two cities, there are still a lot of unsolved issues: in
particular, unemployment among the young, increase in inequalities in
society, as well as management of natural resources. The Mayor of
Marseilles made assertions that the above-mentioned problems will be
jointly solved. He also mentioned that the economic cooperation between
the two cities should be promoted. For this purpose leaders of 50
French enterprises have arrived in Yerevan, who want to make
investments in Armenia.

Meetings are envisaged with the President of the Republic of Armenia,
the Speaker of the National Assembly, and Catholicos Karekin II within
the frameworks of the visit of the Mayor of Marseilles to Armenia.

Azerbaijan pretends to ‘example of tolerance’ title

2007-10-19 17:29:00
ArmInfo.

Azerbaijan pretends to the "example of tolerance" title. "Azerbaijan is
an example to the world in the religious and ethnic tolerance",
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a general
press-conference of UNESCO in Paris.

The minister cited the Baku conference "Dialogue between the West and
Islam" as a confirmation of his pretensions to the "example" title.
Moreover, the minister told about the reforms and special programmes
being implemented in Azerbaijan in the educational sphere.

Elmar Mammadyarov did not let slip the chance to claim again "about the
damage caused to Azerbaijan as a result of occupation of part of
territories by Armenia and emphasized necessity of drawing the UNESCO’s
attention to this fact". However, AR FM did not mention the Armenian
pogroms in Azerbaijan.