Author: Torosian Aram

EU PRESIDENCY ISSUES A STATEMENT ON THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

armradio.am
20.07.2009 15:53

The Swedish Presidency of the European Union has issued a statement
welcoming the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
in Moscow.

The statement reads:

"The Presidency of the European Union welcomes the meeting of the
Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow on 17 July, and
encourages both parties to continue and intensify their efforts
towards a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Presidency commends the tireless efforts of the Minsk Group
Co-Chairmen, consisting of France, the Russian Federation and the
United States, and extends to them its full support."

APA, Azerbaijan
July 18 2009

Bahar Muradova: `OSCE should force aggressor Armenia to fulfill
international norms and principles’

[ 18 Jul 2009 13:07 ]

Baku. Elbrus Seyfulayyev ` APA. Vice Speaker of the Azerbaijani
Parliament Bahar Muradova met with OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin
de Brichambaut. Muradova informed the OSCE official about the reforms
in Azerbaijan, the parliament’s activity, cooperation with the
international organizations towards the improvement of legislative
basis, APA reports.

Bahar Muradova emphasized that Azerbaijan is a leading country in the
region and underlined its role in the European energy security. She
said occupation of the Azerbaijani lands by Armenia, Armenia’s refusal
to fulfill resolutions of the international organizations.

OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut in return expressed
his satisfaction with the cooperation between OSCE and Azerbaijan and
added that the organization was interested in further expansion of
these relations.

ARMENIA SETS UP HQ TO PROBE TEHRAN-YEREVAN PLANE CRASH

Mediamax
July 15 2009
Armenia

Yerevan, 15 July: A special headquarters to probe into the causes of
the crash of the plane of an Iranian air company, Caspian Airlines,
which was carrying out a Tehran-Yerevan flight today, has been set
up at the General Department of Civic Aviation of Armenia [GDCAA],
the GDCAA’s secretary-general, Nelly Cherchinyan, told the Mediamax
news agency.

She said 153 passengers and 15 crew members were on board of the
plane. They all died according to preliminary reports. Cherchinyan
said that the plane had left Tehran at 1209 local time [0739 gmt]
and crashed 16 minutes later.

INTERNATIONAL ALERT HAS ADOPTED A DECISION TO CHANGE THE DATE OF REGULAR ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI FORUM

ArmInfo
2009-07-16 16:50:00

Arminfo. International peace-keeping organization International
Alert has adopted a decision to change the date of the forth
Armenian-Azerbaijani forum to be held in the first half of September,
project manager on EurAsia of International Alert Dessislava Rousanova
told Arminfo correspondent.

She also added they may possibly make changes in the agenda of the
forum. To note, earlier holding of the forum was scheduled at the
end of July.

FOR JOURNALISTS’ INFORMATION

Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Please be advised that the Office of Republic of Armenia Government
has launched ftp.gov.am website, meant to provide video and photo
information of official events taking place in the Government, as
well as video-recordings of "Publication" TV program.

MEMBERS OF IRANIAN NATIONAL YOUTH JUDO TEAM ON BOARD OF THE CRASHED TU-154 AIRCRAFT

ArmInfo
2009-07-15 16:13:00

ArmInfo. The members of the Iranian national youth judo team and two
coaches were on board of the crashed Tu-154 aircraft implementing
Tehran-Yerevan flight. As Iranian Press TV reported, the Iranian judo
team was arriving to Yerevan to be trained here for two days.

Allnewsweb.com
July 12 2009

Iran: Controversy plagues Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday acted to end
controversy over the disputed presidential elections and stated on
national television that the contests were clean, fair and marked the
start of a new era.However Mir Hossein Mousavi still mantains that the
new government is `illegitimate’, two weeks after he was defeated by
the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Iran’s disputed presidential
election. Mousavi continues to suggest that there was foul play at the
polling booths.

Meanwhile controversy regarding Ahmadinejad continues with rumours
circulating on Middle Eastern news outlets that he is of Jewish
ancestry. Allegedly Ahmadinejad’s family changed their name from
Saburjian to hide their Jewish ancestry. However scholars of Persian
Jewish culture have failed to see a connection between the name and
Judaism. `I am not aware of such a name existing in our community’
Noted Rabbi Amram Ben-Moshe `Perhaps this is in-fact a Christian
Armenian name and this is the family secret’.

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Radio Free Europe
July 9, 2009

Vacationing In Nagorno-Karabakh

With all the speculation about a potential peace deal on
Nagorno-Karabakh, the real savior of the disputed region might not be
the Minsk Group, but tourism.

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian berated Armenia’s travel
agencies on July 8 for sending thousands of Armenian holiday-makers to
Georgia and Turkey each summer.

At the meeting with representatives of over 20 local travel operators,
Sarkisian said they should now pay much greater attention to resorts
in Armenia and especially Karabakh.

A representative of Karabakh’s tourism development agency present at
the meeting offered the travel agents financial incentives to bring
more Armenian tourists to the disputed region.

He said the total cost of a five-day tour of Karabakh will now range
from 70,000 drams ($193) to 110,000 drams per person.

However, not all of the travel agents were convinced.

Some of the agents sounded incredulous about the offer, saying that
travel and accommodation costs are still very high in
Karabakh. "Unless we see that [price package] with our own eyes we
won’t send any tourists there," said Ruben Grigorian of the Rumea
travel agency.

But Sarkisian didn’t give up. "So you should be the first tourists,"
he said, before deciding that a group of travel agents will leave for
Karabakh next week to see the infrastructure and tariffs with their
own eyes.

— Armenian Service/Luke Allnutt

OSCE MEDIATOR SAYS REFERENDUM TO DECIDE KARABAKH STATUS

Mediamax
July 8 2009
Armenia

Yerevan, 8 July: The Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group,
Yuriy Merzlyakov, stated in Yerevan today that "Nagornyy Karabakh
population will define its future by means of voting".

Mediamax reports that the Russian mediator said this, commenting on
the recent statement of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, according
to which separation of Nagornyy Karabakh from Azerbaijan is impossible.

"I perceive these words of the Azerbaijani president as a hope that
as a result of the voting, the Nagornyy Karabakh population will speak
for remaining within the composition of Azerbaijan," Merzlyakov stated.

The co-chairs stated that during last two days in Yerevan they had
three rounds of talks with the minister of foreign affairs of Armenia
and a meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan. The mediators noted that
these meetings were "very constructive". The co-chairs expressed
hope that their meetings in Baku will also be successful and that
the Azerbaijani authorities will confirm consent to organize talks
between the two countries’ presidents in Moscow on 17 July.

French co-chairman Bernard Fassier stated that the meeting of the
Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Moscow will be the sixth one
over the past 13 months, and this is a bright evidence of the fact
that the negotiation process has stirred up. He expressed hope that
at the meeting in Moscow the sides will manage to fix progress,
marked at the meetings in Prague and in St Petersburg and open a
"new page in the process".

Answering the question about the connection between the processes of
Karabakh conflict settlement and normalization of Armenian-Turkish
relations, Bernard Fassier stated that "both processes are very complex
and there is hardly the need to combine those". At that, the diplomat
noted that "if in one of them there is significant progress marked,
the fact, of course, will have a positive effect on the other one".

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER EDUARD NALBANDIAN ON OFFICIAL VISIT IN ROMANIA

ACTmedia
July 10 2009

The foreign minister of Armenia, Eduard Nalbandian will make an
official visit in Bucharest on 10 July upon the invitation of his
Romanian counterpart, the Foreign Ministry informs.

During talks the two ministers will approach, besides aspects of
biltareal cooperation, topics of joint interest on the regional
and international agenda: cooperation in the Black Sea region,
Armenia’s relations with European and Euro-Atlantic structures,
by way of turning to account opportunities offered by the Black Sea
synergy and the Eastern Partnership and the prospects of settling the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The analysis of possibilities to consolidate
bilateral economic relations with accent laid on the intensification
of commercial exchanges and mutual investments held pride of place.

Besides talks with the Romanian foreign minister, the visit also
includes a meeting with Senate chairman Mircea Geoana. At the same
time the head of Armenian diplomacy will meet members of the Armenian
community in Romania. Diplomatic relations between the two countries
were established on 17 December 1991 and this is the sixth visit made
by an Armenian foreign minister in Bucharest. Starting with academic
year 2007-2008 State University "V.Brusov" in Yerevan has a course
of Romanian language, culture and civilization.