Author: Navasardian Karapet

WB regrets that there is only one participant in tender for right of
transfer of ‘Armenian Railway’ under concession control

2007-12-14 14:22:00

ArmInfo. The World Bank regrets that there is only participant in a
tender for the right of transfer of the "Armenian Railway" under
concession control, regional vice President of the World Bank for the
countries of Europe and Central Asia Shigeo Katsu told journalists
today.

He said that the tender process itself was well organized by the
Armenian government. However, "we expected that a greater number of
participants would be involved in the tender and, so, the competition
would be higher. Today, there is only one participant and that is a
pity", the WB’s representative said. Along with it, he said that the
tender winner will be determined by the Armenian government, while the
Bank pays attention to the quality of services and fulfillment of the
concessioner’s liabilities. "We have nothing against the "Russian
Railways" and do not pay attention to the national belonging", S.,
Katsu said. In this transaction, the Bank is a consultant of Armenia’s
government.

To recall, after withdrawal of the RITES Indian Company from the
tender, the "Russian Railways" CJSC has become the only participant.
The results of the tender, announced on October 15, 2007, will be
declared in January, 2008. BY RA government’s decision, the "Armenian
Railway" is passed under concession control for a period of 30 years
with a right of prolongation for 20 years more. The concessioner has to
pay $10 mln as an initial payment and invest $170 mln to the company’s
upgrading, repair, acquisition of a movable equipment and development
of the infrastructure. Upon results, 2006, the Company’s net profit
grew by 32,7% to 422 mln drams (about $1,2 mln).

ALBANIA WON’T BE FIRST COUNTRY TO RECOGNIZE KOSOVO’S UNILATERAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.12.2007 13:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Albania will not be the first country to recognize
Kosovo’s possible unilateral declaration of independence, because our
position, our policy, is in compliance with that of the international
community," Albanian President Bamir Topi said.

If no other solution is found, meaning there is no common solution
approved by all international bodies involved, then the last resort
will be unilateral recognition, which will be beneficial to the
stability of the Balkans, according to him.

"I believe that up until now – and I believe it will be the case in
the future – Albania has played its moderating role, which has been
a stabilizing role as well, which will also help its foreign affairs
policies. Albania believes, and Albanian institutions also believe,
that if after the 100-day long period there is no solution, then we
will be in favor of the implementation of the Ahtissari plan," he said.

"I think the stability of the region depends very much on the good
relations that have been built up among the neighboring countries
in the Balkans. Secondly, Albania has done everything in favor of
this and the solution of Kosovo will contribute a great deal to
long-term stability. I do not believe that there will be insecurity
in the Balkans. The integration of the three Adriatic member countries
Albania, Croatia and Macedonia into NATO will contribute a great deal
to long-term stability in the region… I believe the solution of
the Kosovo issue will psychologically release Serbia and will move
it towards Euro-Atlantic integration," he resumed, Euronews reports.

NO ACCUMULATION OF ARMENIAN CARGOES AT ILYICHOVSK

armradio.am
13.12.2007 17:15

There is no accumulation of Armenian cargoes at the Ukrainian port
of Ilyichovsk. Head of the Cargo Transportation Department of the
"Armenian Railway" CJSC Hakob Khrimyan told Armenpress that today there
are only 54 carriages with Armenian cargoes at Ilyichovsk port. Both
ferries that headed for Batumi over the past days transported carriages
with Armenian cargoes.

According to Hakob Khrimyan, ahead of the New Year cargoes usually
amass at both Ilyichovsk and Batumi, since in this period Georgia
exports a large quantity of citrus fruits to Ukraine.

WHAT TACTICS WILL THE CANDIDATES CHOOSE?

Hayots Ashkharh
Dec 13 2007
Armenia

In our view the upcoming pre-election campaign promises to be not
only a debate between the personal qualities and political teams,
but also the collision of advocacy tactics.

The previous activity of the candidates, as well as their recent
speeches and announcements provide an opportunity to outline the
principal tactic schemes, that is going to be the guideline of most
of them.

a) Tactics of practical – working campaign.

Similar campaign is usually typical of either a President that has
once been elected, or the acting Prime Minister.

The summery of the already implemented work, the reason of the
belated promises, the indication of fresh gains – these are the main
peculiarities of the before mentioned advocacy tactics.

That is why in our view this is the tactics Prime Minister Serge
Sargsyan is guided by.

b) Front attack – savior’s tactics.

This method of campaign is typical of the revolutionary opposition
headed by L. Ter-Petrosyan, who considers baseless accusation and
heating up the pre-election atmosphere to be their pledge of success.

Similar tactics, which will partially be chosen by many other
candidates as well, is mainly aimed at gathering protestant electorate
around populist announcements.

c) A method of tour campaign.

It is aimed at politicizing the existing interest or nostalgia towards
the charismatic leader. The campaign conducted by Karen Demirchyan
in 1998 is a classical example of similar tactics. The same tactics
Stepan Demirchyan tried to conduct in 2003.

The "Clean" method of tour campaign won’t be raffled this time.

But some elements will be noticed in Artashes Geghamyan’s, Arthur
Baghdasaryan’s and Vahan Hovhannisyan’s arsenal.

d) Tactics of shifting the campaign into the plane of theoretical
philosophic issues.

In our view Vazgen Manukyan will mainly be guided by this method with
his rich fund of theoretical knowledge, as well as Aram Harutyunyan
and Arman Melikyan.

Because most of the presidential candidates are from the pro-opposition
camp, (to some extent) due to the activation of the before mentioned
tactics, by the efforts of the leader of Armenian Pan National
Movement, the pre-election campaign will turn into an anti-campaign
against the pro-governmental candidate. In such circumstances only
Serge Sargsyan and Vahan Hovhannisyan can provide a quiet campaign
without any concussions, but Levon Ter-Petrosyan will do his utmost
to aggravate the situation.

But the aggravation of the situation will be dangerous for Levon
Ter-Petrosyan as well. Not only because the overwhelming majority of
the people hates the ex-President and Armenian Pan National Movement,
but also because most of the voters don’t link the change of the
situation with the change of the authorities.

It is first of all conditioned by the strengthening of the process
of forming layers of society, due to which the specific gravity of
those who prefer the reformative-evolutionary way of changing the
situation to the revolutionary and radical methods, have grown. This
means the aggravation of the situation and the intentions to start
front attack can push the majority of the protestant electorate
towards the candidates representing the so called third pole.

Anyway it is evident that literate tactics will provide the
victory of the pro-governmental candidate, no matter what tactics
the pro-opposition candidates will apply – and by the way at the
first stage.

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN: WE MUST NOT BASE ON A THIRD PARTY IN ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS

arminfo
2007-12-08 17:32:00

ArmInfo. "We must not base on a third party in Armenian- Turkish
relations, we have no right to repeat the mistake of the end of the
19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries", the first Armenian
president Levon Ter- Petrosyan said at the mass rally of his supporters
at Azatutyun Square, Yerevan, Saturday.

According to him, the Armenians must free themselves from old
complexes, overcome victim’s psychology peculiar to them. Otherwise,
it’s impossible to become a modern nation. He said that the
present authorities have found a new method of "knocking down" the
ex-president, accusing the latter for pro-Turkish orientation. "The
accusations that I didn’t raise the issue of international recognition
of the Armenian Genocide, do not reflect the reality, to put it
mildly. It’s another thing that unlike Robert Kocharian, I think
it untimely to make the problem a cornerstone of Armenia’s foreign
policy. This has nothing to do with our Diaspora at all. The sons
of the Armenians spread all over the world who are lawful taxpayers,
have full right to raise the genocide recognition issue in front of
their governments.

In the relations with Turkey Armenia must proceed from the reality
that we think the events of 1915 to be genocide and Turkey still
doesn’t. Moreover, I don’t doubt that Turkey will recognize the
Armenian Genocide sooner or later, but it will become possible only
in the atmosphere of normal and good neighborly relations between
the two countries", Levon Ter-Petrosyan said.

Speaking about the present Armenian authorities’ policy in the
sphere of Armenian-Turkish relations, the ex-president said that
the intervention of the country’s leadership into the contacts
between Turkey and the EU is wrong. "Why do we intervene into
issues, on the solution of which we are not able to have any serious
influence? Well, it is quite obvious that the EU is slowing down the
speed of cooperation, as it is not ready to accept Turkey.

And when the EU is ready for that, it will easily put aside all the
"buts" including the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian authority’s
challenge is not the impeding of Turkey’s joining the EU. On the
contrary, it was necessary to call Brussels not to use Armenian card
in determination of its relations with Turkey", Levon Ter-Petrosyan
summed up.

AZERI MP DOES EXCLUDE THE WAR BETWEEN ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

armradio.am
07.12.2007 18:03

The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not excluded, Fisr
Vice-Speaker of the Azerrbiajni Parliament Ziafat Askerov declared
today, Novosti-Azerbaijan reports.

Askerov noted that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict will be solved.

"The solution of the issue is a matter of time. Azerbaijan can
resolve the issue at any moment using other means. It is the right
of Azerbaijan and no one can tell us anything," the Vice-Speaker noted.

Askerov said "Azerbaijan has the right to resolve the issue in any way,
using the UN Statute." "But currently Azerbaijan prefers the peaceful
solution. Azerbaijan has enough potential to resolve the conflict in
a military way," he added.

ABRAM BAKHCHAGULIAN: THERE WILL BE NO SURPRISES WITH REGARD TO REGISTRATION OF RA CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR PRESIDENCY

Noyan Tapan
Dec 7, 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, NOYAN TAPAN. There will be no surprises with
regard to the registration of the nine citizens, who have submitted
documents to the RA Central Electoral Commission for the nomination
of candidates at the RA presidential elections to be held on February
19, 2008. This opinion was expressed by Abram Bakhchagulian, the
Secretary of the RA Central Electoral Commission, during the meeting
with journalists held on December 7.

According to him, the official deadline defined for candidates
for being registered lies between December 31 and January 20, the
registration will start after the New Year holidays.

In response to the questions of journalists, Abram Bakhchagulian
mentioned that the ammendments adopted by the RA Electoral Code
"tend to improve the electoral bureaucratism and the electoral
process." He mentioned that special patterns will be applied in
all the electoral stations for those, who have poor eyesight or who
are blind. The above-mentioned patterns were partly applied in the
parliamentary elections held in May 2007. The Secretary of the Central
Electoral Commission stated that when introducing draft amendments
in the Electoral Code, the 70% of the 65 suggestions made by the OSCE
monitoring mission as a result of the conclusion of the parliamentary
elections has been taken into consideration.

Abram Bakhchagulian also stated that the Central Electoral Commission
will make public the list of the international organizations to
be invited for the purpose of implementing a short-term monitoring
mission at the RA presidential elections in one of the forthcoming
sittings. As regards long-term monitoring missions, according to
Abram Bakhchagulian, the Central Electoral Commission has received no
claim as yet. The Secreatry of the Central Electoral Commission also
declared that the RA Commission has neither received an invitation
to conduct a monitoring mission in the special presidential elections
of Georgia to be held on January 5.

Panorama.am

16:27 07/12/2007

ARMENIAN ELECTRIC NETWORKS: 1.35 BILLION DRAMS TO BE SPENT

The Public Services Regulatory Committee approved today 36 projects of
the Armenian Electric Networks company costing 1.35 billion Armenia
drams, VAT excluded. The projects must be implemented by the end of
this year.

Abgar Budaghyan, investment department head of the committee, said
that the company submitted 52 projects for approval costing 2.336
billion drams. The projects mainly relate to recovery of distribution
networks, enlargement of the company due to new customers as well as
reconstruction of the administrative buildings of the company.

RAO `EES Rossii’ is 100 percent owner of the Armenian Electric Network
closed joint stock company. The shares were acquired by Interenergo
company in 2006 on $73 million.

Source: Panorama.am

LINGUAPHONE AUDITORIUM OF GERMAN LANGUAGE OPENS IN LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY

Noyan Tapan
Dec 5, 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN. A linguaphone auditorium of the
German language opened in the Valeri Brusov Yerevan State Linguistic
University on December 4 by the participation of Levon Mkrtchian,
the RA Minister of Education and Science, and Andrea Viktorin,
the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to
the Republic of Armenia. Suren Zolian, the Rector of the higher
education institution, stated that due to the auditorium opened by
the assistance of Dr. Schtol, the head of the "Festo" machine-tool
enterprise and a German benefactor, and due to the 15 computers and
auditory tecniques, the teaching of the language and the overcoming
of articulatory difficulties will become easier.

After the opening ceremony of the auditorium the students and lecturers
of the faculty of the German language met with the Ambassador and
the Minister.

In the words of Rector Suren Zolian, Andrea Viktorin has a
large experience of a pedagogue and a lecturer. According to him,
irrespective of the fact that the Ambassador has lately been appointed
on that post, the latter has already managed to study the spreading
and teaching degree of the German language in Armenia.

Levon Mkrtchian, the Minister of Education and Science, mentioned
that at present the number of those studying the German language
has greatly reduced in schools of general education on account of
the English language. The Minister mentioned that it is necessary
to preserve that proportionality and to promote the teaching of the
German, French and other foreign languages.

The Ambassador made assertions that the training of specialists of
eastern languages is an important task as "they are bridges between
countries." The German diplomat is sure that both in Armenia and in
Germany the possible scanty means should be directed at the teaching
and development of the German language. The Ambassador mentioned that
a separate examination should be orginized in the higher education
institution for receiving a diploma of the German language. Andrea
Viktorin mentioned that the work of a teacher is very difficult in
such a turning period. The Ambassador stated that the government of
Germany has allocated three scholarships for Armenia in 2008, due to
which students will pass their practice in Bundestag.

ROBERT KOCHARIAN: "ANM BETRAYED THE KARABAKH MOVEMENT, IT IS READY TO FORGET ABOUT THE GENOCIDE AND MAKE ARMENIA AN ADJUNCT OF TURKEY"

Mediamax
December 6, 2007

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian President Robert Kocharian stated that
he knowingly did not give political assessment to the activity of
the ex-ruling party Armenian National Movement (ANM) and to the
former authorities.

Mediamax reports that the Armenian President said this, answering
the questions of the readers of "Golos Armenii" newspaper.

"I really avoided giving such assessments, but I made my stance
clear: I did not want to continue the Soviet tradition, when each new
leader started from the criticism of the former leader. I believed
that it was necessary to demonstrate the result, and the people,
seeing the difference itself, would give an assessment. There was no
persecution for the ANM figures. Otherwise, half of them would be in
prison till now for large thefts. Vano Siradeghian [Ex-Minister of
Internal Affairs] is in investigation for organization of murders. I
avoided this topic for 9 years, until Levon Ter-Petrosian himself
and the ANM provoked these discussions", Robert Kocharian stated.

"Today I say it openly, that the ANM abused the confidence of the
people. ANM collapsed the country’s economy, turning Armenia into one
of the poorest countries of the world. ANM came to power on the wave
of the Karabakh movement and betrayed it. ANM is devoid of national
ideology, it is ready to forget about the Genocide and make Armenia
an adjunct of Turkey. By the way, I am not saying anything new. All
this has been stated for hundreds of times, I just avoided these
assessments. Of course, this does not concern everyone – sometimes
professionals, who tried to do something to improve the matters,
were appointed to various positions", Armenian President stated.