Author: Toneyan Mark

CEC REGISTERS 23 LOCAL AND 5 INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS TO OBSERVE PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS: Armenia’s Central
Election Commission (CEC) has registered so far 23
local non-governmental organizations for monitoring of
the February 19 presidential election which will
deploy overall about 8,000 observers in all 1,923
polling stations across the country.
Tatevik Ohanian, a press officer for the CEC, said
it has registered also five international election
observation missions-the OSCE/ODIHR that has deployed
40 long-term observers and will bring also 260
short-term observers, the PACE mission (43 observers),
also observation missions from the CIS, CIS
Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly. She said it is not yet clear how many
observers the latter three organizations will send
here.
She said the CEC has decided to invite as election
observers ambassadors of the OSCE member countries in
Armenia, other foreign ambassadors seated in Yerevan,
the chief of the OSCE Yerevan Office, the special
representative of the Council of Europe in Armenia,
the head of the International IDEA Armenia Office, the
head of the International Foundation of Electoral
Systems (IFES) and members of the CEC of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Last year’s parliamentary elections were monitored
by 13,125 observers from 53 local organizations and
670 international observers.

LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S SUPPORTERS CONVINCED THAT THEIR CANDIDATE WILL WIN IN VERY FIRST TOUR

Noyan Tapan
Feb 1, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, NOYAN TAPAN. "Our candidate will win in one
tour. Even if all parties in the world support Serge Sargsian, he
will not be able to win, as his general level does not approach even
the level of Levon Ter-Petrosian’s driver," Alexander Arzumanian,
the head of the preelection headquarters of presidential candidate
Levon Ter-Petrosian stated at the February 1 press conference. In
his words, the opposition will not permit falsifications and firmly
intends to defend its votes.

A. Arzumanian said that nearly 150 supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosian
have been already brought to the Police, pressure is exerted upon
representatives of his preelection headquarters. In particular, today
a court sitting is being held against four members of Ter-Petrosian’s
headquarters in Talin, who are accused of hooliganism.

He said that the machinery of state, the law enforcement bodies,
media under authorities’ control and first of all the TV companies
work on reproduction of the current regime. A. Arzumanian has a great
number of citizens’ applications addressed to presidential candidate,
Prime Minister Serge Sargsian, in which citizens ask to assist them
in solving these or those social or domestic problems. Arzumanian
said that the number of these applications exceeds 10 thousand,
the most part of them is given a positive solution. All these
statements are studied by the general department of the government,
which is immediately connected with the work of the Prime Minister’s
preelection headquarters. The National-Liberal Party of Armenia
is a mediator in providing Serge Sargsian’s headquarters with such
applications. The party carries out an active agitation in favor of
the Prime Minister. Arzumanian characterized the created mechanism as a
"mechanism of giving state bribes."

The second big violation registered by Ter-Petrosian’s preelection
headquarters is the fact that state officials, yard authorities,
thieves in law, who have assumed responsibility for ensuring votes
in favor of Sargsian, give out forms to citizens. As the head of
Ter-Petrosian’s headquarters affirmed, the total number of these forms
is nearly 15 thousand, and the citizens are to enter their personal
data in them.

Arzumanian said that he is going to present the facts on these
violations to the missions of OSCE/ODIHR and PACE.

"ZAMAN" WONDERS IF TER-PETROSIAN’S RETURN MAY BECOME A NEW OPPORTUNITY
By H. Chaqrian

AZG Armenian Daily
01/02/2008

Armenia-Turkey

Although the political situation in Turkey is strained and
new connections between governmental structures and terrorist
organizations are revealed again and again, the Turkish press goes on
paying attention to the political processes in Armenia and especially
the presidential elections. Sooth to say, this is not caused by the
mass media’s urge to keep the society informed, but rather by the
interests of the ruling political powers in Turkey.

It is not secret that Turkey considers the issue of its relations
with Armenia a national priority, which implies the existence of an
official stance on the processes in Armenia. This is why the central
newspapers thoroughly illustrate the pre-election campaign and attempt
influencing it with their analytical articles.

"Zaman" newspaper, being published also in Azerbaijan, is the most
interested in the events in Armenia, and that is the reason why
its publications so frequently appear in the daily bulletins of the
Armenian Studies Institute, Ankara.

Here we represent the latest "Zaman" article on the presidential
elections in Armenia, published in the aforementioned bulletin.

EVENTS DEDICATED TO 29th ANNIVERSARY OF IRI REVOLUTION TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Jan 31, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. "29 years ago, on February 1,
Imam Khomeini, with the support of the Iranian people, was able to
implement the most popular revolution of the world and to bring down
the most powerful dictatorial regime in the region." Reza Atufi,
the Cultural Adviser of the Embassy of Iran in Armenia, said about
this at the January 31 press conference.

In his words, events dedicated to the 29th anniversary of the
revolution in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) will be organized
in Iran, as well as in 138 countries of the world on February
1-10. "Ten-day dawn" is the most important ten-day period for the
people of Iran, because it is the nation that rose against the
dictatorship and today enjoys the results of the revolution and the
reforms," said R. Atufi. According to him, many national minorities
live in Iran, including Iranian Armenians, who greatly contributed
to the revolution and the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

R. Atufi said that many events including film and theatrical festivals
will be organized in Iran in the first ten-day of February. Artists,
theatrical groups of different countries including Yerevan Chamber
Theater will also take part in the events.

Events dedicated to the Iranian revolution will be held also in
Yerevan: in particular, an exhibition of Iranian books and handworks
will be opened in the Museum of People’s Art, an event of Persian
poetry will be held in the Blue Mosque and launching of Persian books
translated into Armenian will be organized in the Union of Writers
of Armenia.

OSKANIAN AND PACE OBSERVERS DISCUSS ELECTION CAMPAIGN

PanARMENIAN.Net
31.01.2008 18:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received
head of the PACE observation mission, Mr John Prescott to discuss
preparation for the presidential election due on February 19.

The delegation members shared impressions of their meetings with
Armenian officials and NGO representatives.

For his part, Minister Oskanian voiced hope that international
observers will fix progress which will promote democracy development
in Armenia, the RA MFA press office reported.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT UNDERLINES IMPORTANCE OF TRADE RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA
By M. Alkhazashvili

The Messenger
Jan 31 2008
Georgia

Outgoing Armenian President Robert Kocharyan underlined the importance
of economic links with Russia while meeting with Russian State Duma
Chairman Boris Gryzlov on January 29.

"According to experts, the commodity turnover between Armenia and
Russia can reach USD 1 billion and will drive relations to a new
level," Gryzlov said in the meeting, according to the news agency
PanArmenian.net.

165 INVENTION PATENTS AND 11 UTILITY MODEL PATENTS GRANTED BY RA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AGENCY IN 2007

Noyan Tapan
Jan 29, 2008

YEREVAN, JANUARY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. Bids for 122 inventions and 16
utility models, including 132 bids by Armenian citizens and 6 bids by
foreign ones, were submitted to the RA Intellectual Property Agency
in 2007. According to the Information and PR Unit of the RA Ministry
of Trade and Economic Development, the agency made preliminary expert
examination of inventions and utility models based on 126 bids and
took a decision on official publication of the bids. 165 patents for
inventions and 11 patents for utility models were granted.

3 international bids were sent from the agency to the World
Intellectual Property Organization’s International Bureau, bringing
the total number of bids from Armenia to 49. In 2006, national
applicants presented 2 bids for invention by the procedure of the
Eurasian Patent Convention. The total number of bids sent to the
Eurasian Patent Office made 13. The total number of patents received
under the Eurasian Patent Convention makes 2,899 in Armenia.

1,410 bids for trademark registration by the national procedure were
received in 2007. Preliminary expert examination was made based on
1,400 bids for trademarks.

In 2007, the agency discussed and registered 93 agreements on cession
of licence rights, including 76 agreements on trademark cession,
14 on licensing the use of trademarks, one agreement on cession
of an invention patent, and 2 agreements on granting an ordinary
patent licence.

CANDIDATE FROM "DASHNAKTSUTIUN" BELIEVES THAT ARMENIA HAS UNUSED RESERVES TO PROVIDE ITS SECURITY

Mediamax
January 30, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian presidential candidate, Vice-Speaker of
the parliament and the Member of "Dashnaktsutiun" party Bureau Vahan
Hovhannissian stated in Yerevan today that he considers righteous
Yerevan’s choice of the "multi-layered" model of security provision.

Mediamax reports that Vahan Hovhannissian said this today during the
meeting with journalists in the Information Center on NATO in Yerevan.

The Information Center on NATO sent out invitations to all the 9
presidential candidates with a proposal to publicly present their
approaches to the issues of security provision in Armenia.

Vahan Hovhannissian noted that Armenia has the opportunities to deepen
the cooperation with Russia, within the framework of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), as well as NATO. The presidential
candidate noted that Armenia keeps to a constructive stance, trying
not to gamble on contradictions, but find common interests.

Vahan Hovhannissian noted that the absence of diplomatic relations
between Armenia and Turkey undoubtedly influences the public perception
of NATO in Armenia. Besides, the presidential candidate noted that
"in the Soviet times we perceived NATO as a defender of the free
world, however, after the collapse of the USSR, when our eyes opened,
we realized that by no means all the member-states of the Alliance
are as free and democratic, as we considered them once".

TIGRAN TOROSYAN RECEIVED BORIS GRIZLOV

Panorama.am
18:31 28/01/2008

Today Tigran Torosyan, the president of the National Assembly received
Boris Grizlov, the president of Russian State Duma. The information is
provided by the public relations department of the assembly. Arevik
Petrosyan, the deputy president, Nikolay Pavlov, Russian ambassador
in Armenia, Armen Smbatyan, Armenian ambassador in Russia were also
present at the meeting.

Tigran Torosyan, expressed his gratefulness of receiving his colleague
in Armenia, and he said that hopefully Armenian-Russian relations
would match with the new perspectives and new conditions.

Torosyan highly evaluated the co operation with international
organizations, and mentioned that there a good deal of unused
opportunities to be used.

Particularly it was proposed to improve the works of CIS countries
inter-parliamentary congress.

According to Torosyan, Armenian-Russian inter-parliamentary
relationship should be improved and it should cover
scientific-cultural, educational and economic spheres. Tigran Torosyan
said that after the past parliamentary and the forthcoming presidential
elections in both countries, their relationship should be even more
strengthened.

Boris Grizlov said that Russian-Armenian inter-parliamentary relations
should be strengthened by new co operations. He highly evaluated the
works of inter-parliamentary co operation congress and added that
they are going to discuss "20 anniversary of earthquake" questions
in the next meeting of the congress.

Grizlov said that Russian businessmen make huge investments in Armenia.

LOS LONELY BOYS, TANKIAN COMING TO TOWN

Edmonton Journal
Jan 29 2008
Canada

EDMONTON – Grammy winners Los Lonely Boys will perform in Edmonton
on April 1.

The American trio, known for their Texican-style rock ‘n’ roll, are
scheduled to play at the Myer Horowitz Theatre on the University of
Alberta campus.

Los Lonely Boys broke onto the music scene in 2004 with their
self-titled debut. The following year, the group’s single Heaven won
the Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal.

The band is now touring with a second album, Sacred, a fusion of
electric blues and Texas roots featuring soulful grooves, searing
six-string licks and Latin beats.

Tickets to the show are $29.50 plus service charges and go on sale
Friday through all Ticketmaster outlets

In other concert news, hard-rocker Serj Tankian is coming to town
in March.

The Armenian-American musician is best known as the lead vocalist,
keyboardist and rhythm guitarist of the alternative metal band
System of a Down. The group won a Grammy in 2006 for best hard rock
performance for B.Y.O.B.

Tankian has just released his debut solo album, Elect the Dead. He is
slated to appear March 16 at the Edmonton Event Centre with special
guests Fair To Midland.

Tickets are $29.50 plus service charges for the all-ages show and go
on sale Friday through Ticketmaster.