SERZH SARGSYAN PARTICIPATES IN OPENING CEREMONY OF TOYOTA-YEREVAN CAR SALON AND MAINTENANCE CENTER
Noyan Tapan
June 23, 2009
YEREVAN, JUNE 23, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Serzh Sargsyan, on June
23, took part in the opening ceremony of the Toyota-Yerevan car
salon and maintenance center. As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA
President’s Press Office, S. Sargsyan walked about the car salon,
talked to company representatives about Toyota-Yerevan’s activity.
ACCORDING TO VARDAN AIVAZIAN, IT IS NECESSARY TO "ASSUME A POSITION" BEFOREHAND IN ORDER TO COMPETITIVE IN CASE OF POSSIBLE OPENING OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDER
Noyan Tapan
June 23, 2009
YEREVAN, JUNE 23, NOYAN TAPAN. A work entitled "The Trade and
Economic Problems of Reopening the Roads between Armenia and Turkey"
was presented at the ARF Kristopor Mikaelian Center on June 23. The
representatives of the National Assembly factions and the economists
present at the discussion considered the ARF Bureau’s initiative as
a praisworthy and valuable one.
Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Issues, member of
the Republican Party of Armenia Vardan Aivazian said that naturally,
the Armenian-Turkish border will open sooner or later, and taking
into account the fact that Turkey uses instruments for promotion and
regulation of its economy and exports, the executive and legislative
power of Armenia and its economic entities "should assume a position
both in the good and bad sense in order to be competitive".
According to him, when joining the World Trade Organization, the two
countries assumed different obligations, including the one on customs
duties: Turkey may establish a customs duty of up to 50% for some
goods, whereas Armenia may establish a 15% customs duty at the maximum.
In the words of the same committee’s deputy chairman, member of
"Prosperous Armenia" faction Vardan Bostanjian, the Armenian economy is
quite vulnerable: for example, the domestic market is not protected
despite the existence of the respective laws. Besides, Armenia’s
imports exceed more than four-fold its exports, which shows that
"the country is not inclined to boost production".
In the opinion of economist Andranik Tevanian, regardless of
whether Armenia’s legislation will be improved or not, in case of
the possible opening of the border, the country’s economy will be
seriously jeopardized as it has a monopolistic and oligarchic nature
and is based on "the persons united with the authorities".
ARMENIA GOES TO NATO
WPS Agency
What the Papers Say Weekly Review (Russia)
June 22, 2009 Monday
Russia
RUSSIA’S BUMBLING POLICY TOWARD ARMENIA WILL COST IT DEARLY, AND SOON;
Is Russia about to lose Armenia, its last genuine ally in the Caucasus,
to NATO?
Alarm bells are ringing in the Caucasus. Russia’s inept policy and
proficiency of the United States may cost Russia its last reliable
partner in the region, Armenia.
Joint statement of the foreign ministers of Switzerland, Armenia, and
Turkey proclaimed normalization of bilateral relations between Yerevan
and Ankara. It was an absolute impossibility until recently. Relations
between these two countries have been strained ever since the tragic
events of the early 20th century. Moreover, Turkey wholeheartedly
and actively backed Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia.
Russia’s lackadaisical and incoherent policy toward its faithful
ally compelled the Armenians to start looking for other ways out
of the siege. Neither was Yerevan entirely blind to the fact that
uncertainty with the status of Nagorno-Karabakh suited Moscow
to the hilt. In fact, the unsolved problem of Nagorno-Karabakh
was the only thing that shackled Armenia to the zone of Russian
influence. Assuring Armenia of its support, Russia blithely signed a
strategic partnership agreement with Azerbaijan – a document with a
clear emphasis on military-technical cooperation (!). Moreover, Russia
kept saying that it did not regard the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh
with its unclear status even remotely resembling the so called Kosovo
Precedent. It was Moscow’s way of saying that it was not going to
recognize Nagorno-Karabakh. A member of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization, Armenia was plainly told by Russia that the CSTO
couldn’t and wouldn’t help Armenia with its domestic and external
problems. In a word, Russia did everything to make sure that Armenia
would grow increasingly more and more disillusioned with the alliance.
Opening of the border with Turkey will enormously benefit Armenia. Its
participation in the Euro-Asian transport corridor via the southern
part of the Caucasus to Turkey will secure air traffic to and from
the rest of the world. (As matters stand, Azerbaijan and Turkey are in
the position to suspend air traffic to and from Armenia literally any
moment.) Also importantly, Armenia will be able to expect the problem
of Nagorno-Karabakh and its status to be at least suspended. A NATO
member, Turkey wields considerable clout with Azerbaijan.
All this progress was made after US President Barack Obama’s recent
visit to Ankara. It means that the Armenia and Turkey owe their
dialogue to Obama. In the meantime, Armenia will go for a genuine and
serious rapprochement with Turkey only with serious military-political
guarantees from Washington. With something like a promise of membership
in NATO. Georgia nearby will be happy. This turn of events will rid
Tbilisi of a Moscow’s partner nearby.
Besieged on all sides, Armenia is getting friendly promises from its
recent adversaries. Turkey, a NATO country undeniably encouraged by
the United States, is elbowing its way into the Russian sphere of
influence. In order to leave Russia without its last genuine ally in
the Caucasus.
IRAN TO RECEIVE $250M IN ELECTRICITY FOR ARMENIA RAIL LINK
Moj News Agency
June 22, 2009 Monday
Iran
Tehran is shouldering the majority of the cost incurred in building
the 470-kilometre line and is seeking funding from the Work bank and
Asian Development Bank. However Armenia has agreed to pay its share
of the cost by supplying Iran with electricity. No further details of
the arrangement are currently available. Tehran hopes to complete the
line by 2014. The railway will run 470km from the city of Sevan in
northern Armenia to the border with Iran. A 60km spur into northwest
Iran will connect the cross-border line to the existing Iranian rail
network. Iran has reached several similar bilateral rail deals with
another of its neighbors in recent months, agreeing in March to build
a cross-border rail link with Azerbaijan. 2009/06/22
IRANIAN LEADERS MAY REMOVE SUPREME RELIGIOUS LEADER
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.06.2009 16:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iranian leadership considers possibility of replacing
the country’s Supreme Religious Leader Ali Khamenei, NEWSru Israel
quotes Al-Arabiya TV channel as saying. A key figure in such situation
is former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who is considered
a politician with moderate views. Rafsanjani simultaneously heads two
influential bodies, Expediency Discernment Council, an intermediary
body between Parliament and Guardian Council, and Assembly of
Experts. The latter is authorized to replace the country’s Supreme
Religious Leader.
Al-Arabiya TV Channel’s Web site quotes a highly reputable source (one
of the sacred towns of Shias) as saying that Rafsanjani, the Expert
Assembly and Guardians Council have agreed on removing Khamenei from
power. In the meantime, they have no intention to appoint a successor,
at least for the time being. Instead, it is planned to establish a
joint supreme government.
Rafsanjani probably enlisted the support of Ayatollah Al-Sistani,
one of the most influential Shiah leaders. Khamenei’s removal will
be inevitably followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s resignation.
Rafsanjani has not made public statement after elections in which
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared as official winner. In a conflict
with the country’s President a day before elections, Rafsanjani
accused him of corruption and demanded Khamenei’s intervention, but
the latter was restricted by Ahmadinejad’s languid criticism. Faeze
Rafsanjani, the elder daughter of Expert Assembly’s Head, participates
in demonstrations held by Mir Hossein’s co-thinkers. One Saturday,
she and four other relatives of Rafsanjanis were arrested during one
of demonstrations in Tehran. Yesterday evening, they were released.
POLICE USES TEAR GAS TO HALT OPPOSITION PROTESTS
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.06.2009 20:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Riot police cracked down anew on demonstrators in
Iran’s capital on Monday hours after the feared Revolutionary Guard
threatened to crush any further post-election protests. A witness
described an "air of sadness" marked by people wailing prayers into
the night, the AP reported.
Security forces used tear gas and fired live bullets in the air
to break up a group of about 200 protesters paying tribute to a
young woman whose apparent shooting death was captured on video and
circulated around the world, witnesses said.
The show of force came as the country’s highest electoral authority,
the Guardian Council, acknowledged some irregularities in 50 districts
– including more votes being cast than registered voters. But the
council insisted the result of the June 12 presidential election was
not affected.
The Guards’ threat of "revolutionary confrontation" if the protests
persist was another signal the regime is taking a zero-tolerance
approach to Iran’s worst civil unrest since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered opposition supporters
on Friday to halt their marches and respect the election outcome,
saying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won a resounding victory.
Iran says at least 17 protesters have died in a week of unrest,
including at least 10 killed in confrontations the day after Khamenei’s
speech Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has alleged
widespread and systematic fraud, issued his own challenge Sunday,
telling supporters: "The country belongs to you … Protesting against
lies and fraud is your right."
Press TV, Iran
June 21 2009
Iran’s Qara Kelisa to exhibit Armenian art
Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:11:01 GMT
Iran’s West-Azarbaijan Province is to hold an exhibition at Qara
Kelisa, presenting artifacts created by the country’s Armenian
artists.
The event, to be held from July 22 to 26, 2009, will display various
forms of handicrafts and artistic creations on the theme of ‘church’.
Organized by the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism office in
West-Azarbaijan Province, the exhibition will commemorate the
martyrdom of one of the apostles of Jesus, Saint Thaddeus, who
constructed Qara Kelisa (Black Church) in 68 CE.
Every year scores of Armenians, Assyrians and Catholics from Iran and
other countries visit the church to commemorate the martyrdom of Saint
Thaddeus and his followers.
Perched on a mountain ridge south of the city of Maku, Qara Kelisa is
one of the oldest and most notable surviving Christian monuments of
Iran and carries great significance for the country’s Armenian
Orthodox community.
Armenians believe the church is the world’s first church and was
constructed by Saint Thaddeus, after he traveled to Armenia, then part
of the Persian Empire, to preach the teachings of Christ.
Qara Kelisa has been registered as the ninth Iranian
historical-cultural heritage site on the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage List.
TE/HGH
WEEKLY REVIEW OF CURRENCY MARKET
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
20.06.2009 11:11 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On June 15-19, situation on currency market was
as follows: banks bought USD 46.416.047 at an exchange rate of AMD
366.81 per 1 US Dollar and sold USD 46.498.729 at an exchange rate
of AMD 368.62 per 1 US Dollar.
In the same period, NASDAQ OMX carried out sale-purchase transactions
in the amount of USD 9.080.000 (exchange rate: AMD 366.53 per 1
US Dollar.
On June 8-14, the volume of bank credits (in Armenian Drams and US
Dollars) comprised USD 14.4 million, RA Central Bank’s press service
reports.
PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA VISITS THE BRITISH EMBASSY ON THE NATIONAL DAY OF UK
amradio.am
19.06.2009 12:30
The President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, visited the Embassy of the
United Kingdom in Armenia on the occasion of the National Day of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – the Birthday
of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II.
The President congratulated the staff of the Embassy. During the
conversation the parties discussed the perspectives of development
of the Armenian-British relations and emphasized the necessity of
intensifying the cooperation in the field of economy. Reference was
made to a number of regional issues.
RECKLESS IDEALISM
by Daniel Larison
American Conservative Magazine
8/reckless-idealism/
June 18 2009
It was only a matter of time before Michael Gerson would begin
weeping green tears and telling us how immoral Obama’s restrained
response was. As one might expect, we are supposed to believe that
it is a problem that Obama’s foreign policy is similar to that of
the elder Bush, who was, for all of his many flaws and mistakes,
probably one of the most successful foreign policy Presidents of
the last half-century. We cannot really blame Gerson for persisting
in his obsessions, since he has to find some way to make the record
of the President he served and enabled for years look like something
other than the catastrophic failure that it was. In this case, mocking
Bush’s more accomplished father is what he feels compelled to do.
It has become conventional to deride the elder Bush’s 1991 speech in
Kiev warning against Ukrainian independence, but looking back over
the last twenty years, especially in the Balkans and the Caucasus,
there is something to be said for having warned against "suicidal
nationalism." Given the ethnic heterogeneity in Ukraine and the
fiercely anti-Russian nature of Ukrainian nationalism, the region has
been fortunate that the potential for continued political fracturing
that the principle of self-determination possesses has not been
realized there. The pity is that Bush did not do more to warn the
peoples of Yugoslavia against the same thing a year earlier.
Self-determination is one of those things that sounds lovely in
principle, but which has caused a great deal of human suffering
around the world. It is, of course, the corrupt idol of Wilsonian
idealism, before which Gerson prostrates himself daily. It was this
principle that shattered the Austrian empire and broke it up into
easily digestible bits, creating a power vacuum in central Europe
that major powers were only too happy to fill soon thereafter,
and it was this principle that plunged the Balkans into a decade
of hell. Not that it gets much attention, but it was also the
principle that sparked the Eritrean-Ethiopian war that has cost
both countries thousands upon thousands of lives and wrecked their
political cultures ever since. When great multinational states break
up, it has rarely been a peaceful process. If Bush erred in 1991,
which is very debatable, he wisely erred on the side of caution to
prevent conflagrations from consuming the ex-Soviet republics. At
the time Bush was speaking, Azeris and Armenians were still fighting
over Karabakh, and Yugoslavia was beginning to come apart. It would
have been dangerous and, of course, harmful to relations with Moscow
to cheer on separatist movements.
Having said all that, the relevant comparison with Iran from the
administration of the first Bush is not the speech in Kiev, but Bush’s
utterly irresponsible call for Iraqi Shi’ites to rise up against
Hussein when he had no intention of aiding them. Not getting more
deeply involved in Iraq was wise, but urging people to risk their lives
when you have no intention of providing anything but empty rhetorical
support is a gross error. Let’s be clear: Gerson wants Obama to incite
the protesters and urge them to seek "freedom," which in practice
will mean provoking them to greater and greater confrontation with
the government and ensuring that the crackdown against them will be
even more bloody and cruel than it has been so far. Their blood will
flow so that Gerson’s bleeding heart can rest easy.