Author: Tavakalian Edgar

President Serzh Sargsyan visits Yerablur
30.12.2009 18:30

Karen Ghazaryan
`Radiolur’

Today President Serzh Sargsyan visited Yerablur to honor the memory of
heroes who sacrificed their lives for their Fatherland’s freedom.
Presidnet Sargsyan was accompanied by Speaker of the National Assembly
Hovik Abrahamyan, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Minister of Defense
Seyran Ohanyan, members of Government, MP and other officials.

`It’s thanks to their blood that we managed to shape our victory,’
Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan told reporters.

`I would like to extend words of gratitude and sympathy to their
families and friends and stress that the Armenian Government will keep
the issue of care for them in the spotlight. As leadership of the
Armed Forces, we’ll do our best to complete the work of our fellow
soldiers. Our primary task is to maintain peace, and we undertake to
ensure it in 2010,’ the Defense Minister said.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Director
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I TAKES PART IN THE CHRISTMAS
AND NEW YEAR’S CELEBRATIONS AT THE BIRD’S NEST ORPHANAGE

On Friday, 25 December 2009, His Holiness Aram I joined the students,
personnel and sisters at the Bird’s Nest Orphanage in their celebration of
the New Year and Christmas.

His Holiness met with the children who welcomed him with their songs, dances
and recital of poems. He talked to them and shared gifts. Later, His
Holiness Aram I met with the personnel of the Institution and the sisters of
the Order of St.Gayane and discussed how to improve the quality of life of
the children, who were either orphaned or children from broken homes.

The following day, the director of information of the Catholicosate, the
Very Rev Krikor Chiftjian, met representatives of Armenian Social
organizations and individuals who had financially contributed to the upkeep
of Institution. He thanked them on the children’s behalf and urged them to
continue their support and make the Nest their home.

##
View the photos here:
tos/Photos421.htm
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

ARMENIA, UAE HOLD CONSULTATIONS

news.am
Dec 25 2009
Armenia

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and of the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) held their first-ever consultations.

The press service of the RA Foreign Office told NEWS.am that the
Armenian delegation was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Arman
Kirakosyan, and the UAE delegation by First Assistant Foreign Minister
Tariq Al Haydan.

The sides held two-stage consultations. At the first stage the sides
discussed political, regional and international problems. Issues of
trade, economic, education and cultural cooperation were discussed
at the second stage.

The sides discussed the settlement of regional problems. After
exchanging views on the Middle East problems, the sides stressed the
need for a peaceful settlement. The UAE Assistant Foreign Minister
outlined the positions of his state and of the entire Arab world.

The UAE delegation held meetings with RA Vice-Premier, Minister of
Territorial Administration Armen Gevorgyan, RA Minister of Economy
Nerses Yeritsyan, and RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

AZERBAIJAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS APPEAL TO EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Trend
Dec 25 2009
Azerbaijan

The Parliament of Azerbaijan adopted an appeal to the European
Parliament. The paper says that Azerbaijan continues democratic
state-building, respects human rights.

In mid-December, the European Parliament adopted a statement, which
contains criticism over the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan.

The paper expresses concerns over the deterioration in the freedom
of speech.

"Like many countries passing the way of democratic development, there
are some problems in Azerbaijan. The regrettable fact is that the
entire world community knows which country is the occupier and which
is under occupation. Despite this, Azerbaijan, as a state choosing
path of democratic development, has always given preference to the
settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict peacefully. Given all this,
we protest against the European Parliament statement criticizing the
human rights situation in Azerbaijan, and we hope that taking into
account the interest of Azerbaijan in more strengthening relations
with Europe, the European Union will not allow such kind of statements
with regard to Azerbaijan in future," the document says.

ARMENIA TO SEEK $100 MILLION RUSSIAN LOAN TO BOOST DIAMOND CUTTING INDUSTRY

ARKA
December 25, 2009
Yerevan

YEREVAN, December 25, /ARKA/. Speaking at a final news conference
this year Armenian prime minister Tigran Sarkisian said today Armenia
will seek a $100 million Russian loan to boost the diamond cutting
industry. He said the government has sent a relevant application to
Russian partners.

Sarkisian said the allocation of the loan depends on the success of
the talks with Russian Alrosa, one of the biggest diamond producers
in the world. He said the burden to repay the loan will be on
private companies, whose representatives are negotiating the loan
with Russians.

According to the prime minister, Armenia will not seek other loans
from Russia next year. The prime minister said 35 billion Drams of the
$500 million Russian loan received earlier this year, were directed
to the rehabilitation of the earthquake zone, 90 billion Drams were
allocated to the Central Bank, small and medium-sized enterprises,
to stimulate export, tourism development and creation of new jobs.

Another 54 billion Drams are in the Central Bank’s stabilization fund.

ARFD DEPUTY: WE DO NOT HAVE CLEVER POLITICAL FIGURES, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE A SAD CONDITION IN ARMENIA

NOYAN TAPAN
December 25, 2009
Yerevan

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 25, NOYAN TAPAN. RA NA ARFD faction member Armen
Rustamian, at a December 25 press conference, commenting upon RA NA
Speaker Hovik Abrahamian’s public statement made the day before that
"one need not to be very clever to be engaged in politics" mentioned:
"If one should act in politics with that logic as unfortunately they
act now, really one need not to be with brains for it. Our problem
is just lack of clever political figures, that is why we have a sad
condition now."

According to A. Rustamian, the political elite in Armenia still need
to be formed. "However, the reality in our country is the following:
we have plutocracy in Armenia, that is, money brings power, power
brings more money. That is the situation, and, certainly, one need to
be rather clever today: earning money is not so easy, yes, one should
be able to reach proper oligarchic level under the circumstances,"
the ARFD figure said.

GOVERNING LEADERS WILL PUT INTO ACTION THEIR ENTIRE ARSENAL IN PASHINYAN’S ELECTIONS, SAYS ANC SPOKESPERSON

Tert.am
11:45 ~U 25.12.09

"I even see great personal revengefulness, pettiness, malice… and
I don’t have another explanation, because the governing leaders’
demeanour doesn’t isn’t subject to any political logic whatsoever,
and sufficient explanations can only be found within the limits of
criminal… views," said Armenian National Congress (ANC) spokesperson
Davit Shahnazaryan, speaking on governing leaders’ behaviour toward
political prisoner Nikol Pashinyan.

Shahnazaryan has no doubt that ruling leaders will do everything
possible and put into place "their entire arsenal of falsifications,
blackmail and violence" during Nikol Pashinyan’s electoral process,
though he notes that they themselves will invest all of their efforts
as well.

Turning his attention to the halt in rallies, the ANC representative
said that they have taken this break into consideration quite rightly
so, adding that this interval will come to an end and a busy period
will begin.

ALEXANDER ISKANDARYAN: ARMENIA HAS MADE ENOUGH GESTURES
Anna Nazaryan

"Radiolur"
24.12.2009 16:42

"April 24 is the deadline for ratification of the Armenian-Turkish
protocols, and if the Turkish Parliament fails to ratify the protocols
by then, it will suffer great losses," political scientist Alexander
Iskandaryan told a press conference today.

The words of either Armenian or Turkish officials are not the Words of
Moses, and they should not be accepted as a dogma. According to him,
politicians make statements in order to influence the process. These
are rather signals.

Baku’s anxiety is understandable, because it is confident that the
establishment of relations between Yerevan and Ankara will make
Armenia stronger. According to Alexander Iskandaryan, this is the
reason why Turkish journalists were saying Turkey expects certain
gestures from Armenia.

"I think Armenia has made enough gestures starting from Maindorf and
ending with Athens. I follow the events, sometimes I visit Turkey and
I think that on this level Armenia has given the maximum it could have
given, and it’s not going to give more," Alexander Iskandaryan said.

The political scientist considers that Azerbaijan will hardly manage
to stop the process of Armenian-Turkish normalization. "Turkey seems
ready to pay the price. However, there may be developments inside
Turkey, as a result of which the authorities will either not be able
to ratify the protocols or will consider that the loss may be too big."

In any case, it is obvious that the Armenian-Turkish process has been
stalled because of the Karabakh issue.

TURKMENISTAN LOOKS EASTWARD
Aleksandr Shustov

en.fondsk.ru
22.12.2009
Eurasia

The launch of a new gas pipe on December 14 to connect Turkmenistan
and China became one of the key moments in a geopolitical game aimed
to win new routes of exporting Central Asian oil and gas resources.

The launching ceremony for the gas pipe took place at the Samandep
field in Turkmenistan and was attended by Presidents Gurbanguly
Berdimuhamedov, Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan) and Nursultan Nazarbayev
(Kazakhstan). The new gas pipe will be the first route to deliver
the Turkmen gas (up to 40 bln cubic meters per year) to external
markets bypassing Russia. Until recently Russia has purchased the
lion’s share of Turkmen gas but now it plans to buy four times less.

The new pipe is expected to supply to China 150 million cubic meters of
gas, but it will reach full capacity by 2012. It will pump gas mainly
from the gas fields located on the left bank of the Amu Darya River,
while the lacking amounts of gas will be taken from the Bagtyyarlyk
gas-rich territory on contract basis. The pipeline is about 7 km long,
with 184,5 km being on the Turkmen soil, and 490 km, 1300 km and 4500
km in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China respectively.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, thanks to their geographical location,
have become important transit countries in the project. And since the
deal was reached for 30 years, countries of Central Asia and China
are now guaranteed with developed gas transit infrastructure.

Notably, the Kazakh leg of the pipeline was launched before the
whole pipeline was commissioned. On December 12 Chinese President
Hu Jintao and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev attended
a solemn ceremony of the Kazakhstan-China gas pipe. According to
Kazakh sources, it will not only supply the Turkmen gas to China
but will also improve gas supplies in the Zhambyl, South-Kazakh
and Alma-Ata regions. In August 2007 KazMunaiGazom and the Chinese
National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a $6.7 bln deal to build
the Kazakh leg of the pipeline. The opening of this section stressed
Kazakhstan`s key role as a transit country.

The launch of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline took place amid a
gas row between Russia and Turkmenistan caused by an incident at the
Central Asia-Center gas pipe this April- which yet has not settled
because of the price for the Turkmen gas. Under the contract, it should
be $375 per 1,000 cubic meters (to meet a European level). But amid a
drop in demand and gas prices in Europe, Gazprom found it non-lucrative
to purchase gas at such low tariffs and thus had to ask Turkmenistan
to lower prices as well. In response Ashkhabad demanded that Moscow
observed all terms of the contract, and thus the conflict broke
out. Neither President Medvedev nor Berdymuhamedov managed to settle
the differences during their meetings in Moscow and Askhabad in autumn.

On November 24, the Vedomosti reported citing ‘resources in
Gazprom’ that in 2010-2012 Russia plans to buy four times less
gas from Turkmenistan. The newspaper provided the figures: in the
aforementioned period of time Gazprom will reduce the amounts twice:
from 66,1bln cubic meters in 2008 to 34 bln cubic meters in 2009-2011
ad 37.9 bln in 2012. Thus Turkmenistan will be able to sell no more
than 10.5 bln cubic meters of gas per year, which is four times less
than in 2007-2008. At the same time, Russia is going to buy more gas
from Uzbekistan- 14,5bln cubic meters by 2012. Thus, Uzbekistan will
outrun Turkmenistan that used to supply 80% of all Central Asian gas
to Russia.

Gazprom plans that in 2010 the price of the Turkmen gas will be the
lowest in the Caspian basin. A purchasing price for the Turkmen gas is
expected at $222 per 1000 cubic meters, and $230 and $244,5 for the
Kazakh and the Azeri gas. Gas from Uzbekistan will be the cheapest-
$220. Experts think this price will suit Turkmenistan because-allowing
for the transit-it will be about $300. But for Gazprom it is still
unprofitable to buy gas from Turkmenistan, and the only reason why
Russia has to do it is its intention not to leave gas which could be
used in alternative gas pipes, and first of all in the Nabucco project.

Turkmenistan plans to compensate losses in cooperation with Russia
with the help from Iran and China. Apart from the Chinese pipeline,
the republic plans to increase by three times exports to Iran through
boosting transit capacity of the existing Iranian gas route up to
14 bln cubic meters per year, and also by launching another gas
pipeline in December. In 2010 it is expected to supply to Iran 6 bln
cubic meters of gas, and the amounts might be twice as big in the
following years. In case Gazprom buys less gas from Turkmenistan,
Iran will become the second outlet (after China) for the Turkmen gas.

Regarding price policy, the Chinese gas pipeline will hardly replace
cooperation with Russia. Though Ashkhabad and Beijing have not yet
agreed on the final export price, some reports say it may be $100-130
per 1,000 cubic meters on the Turkmen-Uzbek border, which is at least
twice less than that offered by Gazprom. Obviously, as a monopolist
among the buyers, China may become for Turkmenistan as inconvenient
partner as once Gazprom was. In addition, three years are left until
the gas pipe reaches its full capacity in 2012, and during this period
of time the Turkmen budget will suffer serious losses.

The launch of the Chinese gas pipe may affect the implementation
of other projects competing in Turkmenistan- the Caspian gas
pipe and Nabucco. If Gazprom cuts purchase of the Turkmen gas,
the construction of the Caspian pipe will be unnecessary. Besides,
the Central Asia-Center gas pipeline, which has been used to deliver
gas from Turkmenistan, will remain underloaded. However, the West is
optimistic about Nabucco. Consortium members think a conflict between
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan over oil and gas fields in the Caspian
basin will be over which will allow to receive at least 10 bln cubic
meters of gas from Turkmenistan via the planned trans-Caspian pipe.

When Russia’s positions on the Central Asian energy market are
weakening, and Turkmenistan is running the risk of losing an outlet,
both sides are in search for a compromise. This is what the forthcoming
visit of President Medvedev to Ashkhabad in late December is all
about. The talks will definitely determine the future of Russia-Turkmen
energy cooperation.

TURKISH JOURNALISTS PROMISED TO VIEW ARMENIAN HISTORY DIFFERENTLY

Tert.am
17:57 ~U 21.12.09

During a December 17-20 visit to Armenia, 15 journalists from Turkey,
making a trip to Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, promised to
view Armenian history differently, said Turkologist Artak Shakaryan,
while speaking to journalists today.

The Turkish journalists laid wreaths at the Genocide Memorial, and,
as Shakaryan described, they respectfully directed their questions
to the Genocide Museum director for 1.5 hours. The Turkologist noted
that, unlike Azerbaijani visitors, the Turkish journalists, in speaking
about the Armenian Genocide, didn’t make aggressive remarks.