Author: Tigranian Ani

HEAD OF THE ARMENIAN PRESIDENT’S ADMINISTRATION HAS A WORKING CONSULTATION ON THE ISSUES OF LAKE SEVAN

ARMENPRESS
July 1, 2009

YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS: Head of the Armenian President’s
Administration Karen Karapetian today had a working consultation
with the members of the Commission for the issues of Lake Sevan
established on the Armenian President’s decree as well as with the
heads of corresponding establishments. Presidential Press Office told
Armenpress that within the context of Sevan issues refer has also
been made to the amended variant of the charter of "Sevan" National
Park state non-trade organization which was presented by the Nature
Protection Minister Aram Harutyunian. A concerned discussion has
been launched during which proposals and remarks were sounded on the
management issues of the "Sevan" National Park and oversight functions.

The participants of the consultation considered it necessary to
make the issue of preservation of Sevan as a core subject in the
implemented works.

Head of the President’s administration stressed the importance of
involvement of all the sides concerned with the Sevan issues and the
coordinated activity. K. Karapetian considered the proper oversight
over the whole Sevan basin, discovery of the issues which gathered
during years and finding complex solutions to them as prior.

Head of the Commission for the Sevan Lake issues Vladimir Movsisian
presented brief information on the activity of the commission noting
that all the assignments given by the Armenian President are involved
in the working projects and put into execution.

ROADS OF AKHALKALAK UNDER REPAIR

Noyan Tapan
July 1, 2009

AKHALKALAK, JULY 1, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Great attention
has been paid to the appearance of Akhalkalak in recent years. The
asphalting and levelling of roads to various villages of the region and
the installation of night-time lamps in streets of the city is underway
with allocations provided by the regional administration and the state.

A-Info news agency was informed by Head of the Economy and
Infrastructure Development Service of the Akhalkalak Regional
Administration Vahan Batoyan that the reconstruction of regional
roads is funded from various sorces. 150 thousand laries for rural
roads’ levelling was allocated from the local budget. Another 250
thousand laries was received from the state budget for the purpose
of street asphalting in the city. The Minicipal Development Fund in
its turn provided 1.4 million laries for covering city streets with
asphalt. Another 85 thousand laris was provided from the local budget
for repairs of road sections in bad condition.

Reconstruction of the road from Akhalkalak to Turkey is envisaged this
year under the Millennium Challenge Program. This work has already
begun and is being done at a rapid pace, with the width of the road
being increased to 30 meters.

GUARDIAN COUNCIL CONFIRMS AHMADINEJAD VICTORY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
30.06.2009 12:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran’s top electoral body, the Guardian Council,
has confirmed the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the presidential
election after a partial recount, BBC reported.

News of the decision, which comes after a series of protests by the
opposition against what it says was a rigged ballot, was announced
by state TV. The 12-strong council is the most influential body in
Iran and is currently controlled by conservatives.

Some 17 people are thought to have died during opposition street
protests.

"The secretary of the Guardian Council in a letter to the interior
minister announced the final decision of the Council… and declares
the approval of the accuracy of the results of… the presidential
election," the state broadcaster said.

A partial recount of the election carried out on Monday showed no
irregularities in the vote, Iran’s English-language Press TV television
station added.

Mr Ahmadinejad was officially re-elected with 63% of the vote on 12
June. His main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has said the whole
election should be annulled and held again.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES MISSIONARY DEVOTEE TO ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
June 29, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS: President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
received today missionary devotee of Rome Pope Benedict 16th to
Armenia Claudio Gujerrotti (residence in Tbilisi).

Presidential press service told Armenpress that the devotee conveyed
the best wishes of Rome Pope to the Armenian president. During
the meeting, Serzh Sargsyan, welcoming the guest, said that being
missionary devotee of Rome Pope for many years, C. Gujerrotti
contributed his experience and knowledge to the development and
activation of relations between Armenia and Vatican.

Armenian president highly underscored the role of Vatican not only as
a spiritual center but as a defender of human rights and moral norms,
seeker of tolerance, mutual understanding and peace.

The leader of the country said that Armenia is greatly interested in
regional stability and security, peace and finds that the existing
issues must be regulated through dialogue and not by the usage of
force and builds all its activities stemming from that conviction.

The interlocutors also spoke about Armenia and Vatican relations,
referred to their further expansion.

"SUN" OPEN FESTIVAL OF ALPINISM TO BE HELD JULY 1-30 IN ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
June 29, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS: "Sun" open festival of alpinism will kick
off July 1 in Armenia for the first time and will last by end July, the
Head of the Tourism and Territorial Economic Development Department of
Armenian Economy Ministry Mekhak Apresian and the organizer of "Sun"
open festival of alpinism, head of the "Up The Rocks" club Mkhitar
Mkhitarian informed. According to them the festival of alpinism which
is widely spread in the world will combine young people from different
states in Armenia turning Armenia into a tourism center not only for
the tourists seeking for a beautiful nature and aged culture but also
the lovers of active and healthy rest. The key festival objectives
are to develop the alpinism in Armenia and with it foster the tourism
by involving the alpinism addicts. The festival will also give an
opportunity to watch the ascent of the professional alpinists and to
learn the main techniques of alpinism. At the end of the festival the
most active and interested young people will be involved in the "Up
The Rocks" club and have an opportunity to continue the trainings in
mastering in this sphere. Different alpinism places are involved in the
festival agenda. The group of alpinists of the festival will consist
of professionals from different states and the group of beginners –
from the local youth who will wish to join the camp.

The open festival is being organized by the Armenian Economy Ministry,
Armenian alpinism Federation and "Spitak" rescue center.

ARMENIAN EXPERT: ARMENIAN TELEVIEWER IS NOT PROTECTED

ArmInfo
2009-06-29 17:55:00

ArmInfo. Armenian televiewer is in unprotected state, the leader of
the organization ‘Union of experts’, Narek Malyan, said at today’s
press-conference and added this is connected with absence of the TV
air quality.

‘In Armenia TV channels and advertizing spenders have certain
arrangement and at present the whole TV air is built at rating of
a channel and taste of a advertizing spender, to the detriment of a
televiewer’, – Malyan said.

He criticized Armenian Public TV, but welcomed "Hayrenik"
TV. ‘Actually, at present the air of many Armenian TV channels is
anti-national and anti-pedagogical. We are going to direct the results
of the monitoring to the TV channels to be aware of their shortcomings
and errors to correct’, – the expert concluded.

AZERBAIJAN IS A SPECIAL COUNTRY I KNOW I CAN TRUST IN – INTERVIEW WITH ISRAELI PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES

Today.Az
53378.html
June 25 2009
Azerbaijan

Exclusive interview of European Desk of Trend News Agency with
President of the State of Israel Shimon Peres

Question: You are scheduled to visit Azerbaijan next week. What
documents will be signed during the visit? How do you estimate the
present and how do you see the future of bilateral relations between
Azerbaijan and Israel?

Answer: Well, there are many things in common. First of all, Azerbaijan
discovered the great wealth of gas and is head a cultural bust which is
quite impressive. People don’t know it, but Azerbaijan gave a right to
women to vote before the Swiss and before the Americans. Azerbaijan
has shown patience and respect to the place where the Jews, the
Muslims and the Christians can live together without hatred, without
fanaticism. So, for me it is a special country that I know I can
trust in and has cultural background. Oil you can buy, but culture
you have to create. And Azerbaijan created culture.

Azerbaijan is a small people. Azerbaijan and Israel have the same
problem. How can small people become greater in spite of their
size? You can become great irrespective of the size of your land if
you adopt modern science and technology.

President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliev provokes the highest
respect. I found him extremely humane, almost modest, educated, and
sophisticated. It’s a pleasure to talk with him. He showed interest
in these domains: agriculture, water, health, and high tech. We
discussed it.

Israel doesn’t almost have either land, or water, or gas, or
petrol. So, we have to hang in our brains, in our science and we
should share whatever we have, whatever Azerbaijan wants. The great
thing about Israel is that we are not dangerous. We are too small
to danger anybody. But on the other hand we are developed and we are
ready to share with our friends whatever we can offer in the domain
of development and science and so on. In that we can cooperate fully.

We have the culture, we have the will and the readiness. I also met
the father of the present president [of Azerbaijan]. I was impressed
of him very much. I have met him twice. He was the man of tradition
and intelligence.

I also know that Azerbaijan has problem around. Basically, the problems
stem from your neighbors. Because in politics you cannot choose your
neighbors, as in the family you cannot choose your parents. It is
a fact of life. Israel is totally for the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. We don’t think that one country can come and annex a part
of another land.

So, even before visiting the country (I have been there once) I have
a great deal of sympathy. And also historically a profound thing for
the way that Azerbaijan has handled the Jewish people. Many of them
have emigrated to Israel. They carry with them very warm feeling to
Azerbaijan. And they have a special flavor to your own society. So,
I think that there is a collection of reasons that makes one very
much interested in coming visit to your land.

Q: Do you expect expansion of diplomatic ties between the two
countries?

A: I hope you will have a full embassy in Israel. It gets needed. I
think more the cooperation goes up it is natural consequence of the
relationship. It is going to happen, because I hope that we shall
enrich our relations in this visit. There are many people coming
from Israel with this matter, accompanying us in this visit. We want
to establish better ties in the name of economy and in the name of
science. And then the embassies will be very necessary on both sides.

Q: You said that Israel supports territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. Israel has been taking constructive role in the regard to
resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Is
Israel prepared to more active involvement in the process of
settlement?

A: We are a small country. We are not a weighty power. We can
express our views and with our views we can contribute. But we are
not a wealthy power, when it comes to our views, our attitudes and
positions. I think else Azerbaijan would like very much to come
closer not only with Israel, but with Jewish life abroad, and even
in the United States of America. And we can do only what we can –
to support the integrity of Azerbaijan in all domains.

Q: Israel has recently expressed its intention to get Azerbaijani gas
that runs from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia. However, a pipeline
that will go from Turkey to Israel through the Mediterranean Sea is
needed in this respect. What volume of gas purchase is possible? And
what who will undertake the expenses?

A: The minister of infrastructure is coming with me. He handles that
issue and I would prefer him to answer this question, because he knows
more details of it. But the purpose of his coming is really to check
the real possibilities of connecting and bringing the Azerbaijani
gas to Israel.

ANCIENT ISLAND CHURCH HOSTS SYMPHONIC CONCERT

Anadolu Agency
June 26 2009
Turkey

VAN (A.A) – 26.06.2009 – The ancient island church of Akdamar on Lake
Van was the venue for a symphonic concert on Thursday as part of an
international culture festival.

Izmir State Symphonic Orchestra and State Opera singers performed a
special repertoire including songs in Turkish and English as well as
Kurdish and Armenian.

Akdamar is a 10th century church, constructed on small Akdamar islet
located 3 kilometers off coast in Lake Van. Built during the years
915-921 and commissioned by Vaspurakan King Gagik I, the cross-shaped
church underwent a renovation by the Turkish Government between
May 2005 and October 2006, and it was opened as a museum in March
2007. The renovation works costed some 2.6 million YTL.

ISRAEL READY TO RE-ESTABLISH TIES WITH IRAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.06.2009 18:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has
expressed his country’s willingness of re-establishing ties with
Iran as soon as ayatollah regime collapses in the country. If Iranian
people had been given the right to vote in open fair elections, they’d
have changed the country’s current leadership, Israeli official is
convinced. Israel has no conflict with Iran, he stressed.

In an interview to NBC TV channel, Iranian Foreign Ministry’s press
secretary Hassan Kashkaui touched upon Netanyahu’s yesterday’s
statement accusing the "Zionist regime" for attempts to destabilize
atmosphere through provoking unrest in Iranian society.

During "Meet the Press" program broadcast by NBC TV channel, Netanyahu
yesterday welcomed protesters for their brevity to "uncover the true
nature of their regime." Protecting Mir Hossein Moussavi’s co-thinkers,
he characterized their actions as "acts of incredible brevity". "Those
people went to the streets putting their lives at stake. As a men
believing in democracy, I can tell you that all this results from
the absence of democracy in Iran and explains to the world the true
nature of Iranian regime," Netanyahu said.

"In my opinion, what is going on now is a very deep and fundamental
process. Iranian people are expressing their desire for achieving
freedom," newsru.co.il quotes Israeli premier as saying.

ARMENIA HAS GOOD OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMY AND INTEGRATION IN POWER INDUSTRY: DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF GAZPROM OJSC

ArmInfo
2009-06-22 16:50:00

ArmInfo. Armenia has good opportunities for development of economy
and integration in the power industry, deputy Chairman of the Board of
Gazprom OJSC Valery Golubev said during the international conference
‘Armenia at the Crossroad of Communications’ organized by the Eurasian
Studies Institute in Tsakhkadzor.

According to him, the good opportunities are largely conditioned by
successful activity of ArmRusgazprom Company, due to which Armenia is
currently gasified by 92%, that is higher than in many CIS countries,
including Russia. V. Golubev recalled that due to the additional issue
of shares, the share of Gazprom in the capital of ArmRusgazprom CJSC
over the last several years was increased from 50 to 80%. Investments
were attracted in construction of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline and the
on-going upgrading of the 5th unit of Hrazdan TPP. Due to the projects
of ArmRusgazprom, it is scheduled to create a unified energy company
at Hrazdan TPP to become the biggest in Transcaucasus and able to
supply electric power to Georgia and Turkey.

At present, a feasibility study of construction of an oil refinery
in Armenia is also considered. First, it is scheduled to build a
terminal for transfer of oil products. ‘The example of cooperation
of Gazprom and ArmRusgazprom is the brightest and the most successful
one within the frames of the Armenian-Russian relations’, V. Golubev
said. To note, a meeting of the Board of Directors of ArmRusgazprom
will be held today, during which the results of 2008 will be summed
up. Moreover, the dividend policy, social issues and the prospects
of further development will be discussed.

Total investments of ArmRusgazprom CJSC in 2009 will make up 78,6 bln
drams against the scheduled 72 bln drams in 2008. 30,5 bln drams of
this amount fall on the 5th power unit of Hrazdan TPP ("Hrazdan-5").