Author: Torosian Aram

ECHO Research representative: "freedom of expression in the Armenian media was possible"

February 19, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Sector Director of the British ECHO Research
Company Karen Prichard stated in an interview to Mediamax that "we
have an excellent methodology for global media analysis".

Karen Prichard said this, commenting on Mediamax’s request today on
the statements on the unreliability of the report, prepared by ECHO
Research following the results of the monitoring of Armenian media. In
particular, the President of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardian
stated on February 14:

"We repeatedly noted that the newspapers are freer from authority
pressures, than the electronic media, and one cannot compare these
two completely different types of press. This is the same thing as
to mix oranges with pears".

"Radio, TV and printed press are different – but they are all forms
of media. Our brief was to look at freedom of media and we reported
on what we found; i.e. that in our opinion a high degree of freedom
existed in the printed press, but that the TV appeared to be more
influenced by government. If we had looked at blog (electronic)
reporting I’m sure we would have found something different again. We
pointed out several times that 7 days (in fact only 5 for printed
press) was a short period for the study and was in fact a snapshot,
however the fact that the media were able to print certain highly
critical articles, despite the ‘self censorship’ that we hear
exists, indicated to us that freedom of expression in the media
was possible. We feel we have an excellent methodology for global
media analysis and are viewed as expert witnesses in the UK", Karen
Prichard stated.

International ECHO Research Company presented in Yerevan on February
8 the report on the results of the media monitoring in Armenia for
the first week of the pre-election campaign, which evidenced its
balanced coverage. European Foundation for Democracy, based in
Brussels, ordered the monitoring.

Karen Prichard noted at the presentation of the report that
"the TV-channels quite fairly distribute the broadcast time
among the candidates, and the press is quite diverse". Experts of
the International ECHO Research Company analyzed 743 TV-reports,
radio-reports and newspaper articles, published in Armenia within the
first week of the pre-election campaign, and came to the conclusion
that 630 items from 743 showed no evidence of reporting bias.

"We do not need others’ conclusions to form idea on the process of
the presidential elections", Spokesman of Levon Ter-Petrosian stated

February 19, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Spokesman of the staff of presidential candidate
Levon Ter-Petrosian Arman Musinian stated in Yerevan today that "we
do not need others’ conclusions to form idea on the process of the
presidential elections, since we have our own conclusions".

Arman Musinian said this, commenting today on Mediamax’s request on
the fact that the supporters of Ter-Petrosian will hold a rally in
Yerevan tomorrow at 15:00, not waiting for the preliminary report
of the International Observation Mission to be announced, which is
planned for 16:00.

According to Musinian, "fundamental for us are the conclusions of
the people, and not the observers".

Armenia electing President

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.02.2008 10:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The presidential election in Armenia kicked off at 8
a.m. today. 1923 polling stations opened throughout the republic. The
Central Electoral Committee will go on the air every three hours
during the day and every hour after midnight. The polling stations
will close at 8 p.m.

According to the RA Police, 2 328 320 voters may participate in the
elections. The Armenian Central Electoral Committee has registered
13 428 observers, including from 39 local and 6 international
organizations.

National Consent party leader Aram Harutyunyan, RA NA former speaker,
Orinats Yerkir party leader Artur Baghdassaryan, National Unity
party leader Artashes Geghamyan, ALM Holding president, chairman
of People~Rs Party of Armenia Tigran Karapetyan, chairman of the
National Democratic Union Vazgen Manukyan, RA NA vice speaker, ARF
Dashnaktsutyun Bureau member Vahan Hovhannisian, RA Prime Minister,
RPA chairman Serzh Sargsyan and Armenia~Rs first President Levon
Ter-Petrosyan will run for the post.

The preliminary results will be announced on February 20 no later
than 8 p.m. The final outcomes of the elections will come in 7 days.

As of 20:00 PM Armenian Police gave certificate ‘Form 9’ to 661 Armenian citizens

2008-02-19 21:16:00

ArmInfo. As of 20:00 PM Armenian Police gave certificate "Form 9"
to 661 Armenian citizens. To recall, citizens in case losing their
passport may vote on the basis of this certificate.

As the of Public Relations and Information Department of Armenian
Police Sayat Shirinyan said at his third press-conference today,
264 citizens restored their election rights on the basis of this
certificate given by the passport departments of the Armenian Police.

Earthtimes, UK
Feb 17 2008

Armenia’s first president calls for new foreign policy
Posted : Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:23:07 GMT
Author : DPA

Yerevan, Armenia – Armenia’s first president Levon Ter-Petrossian,
who is again campaigning for the executive, on Sunday called
radically new relations with neighbouring states the "firmest
safeguard for economic development" in the post-Soviet country. He
made the remarks during his first meeting with the press after a
decade out of politics Sunday and only days before elections on
Tuesday.

Landlocked Armenia, cradled high in the Caucasus Mountains, has been
forced to rely on a partnership with Russia and aid from Western
allies, facing blockades along two of its borders.

"We are blocked on all sides – the essential roads for Armenia out to
the world are through Azerbaijan and Turkey," Ter-Petrossian told
journalists on the last day of campaigning before Tuesday’s vote.

He stressed his foreign policy position had not changed from that he
advocated when he resigned over a severe backlash to his conciliatory
stand in peace talks over Azerbaijan’s ethnically- Armenian breakaway
region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ter-Petrossian apologized for leaving the power in the hands of
President Robert Kocharian and his favoured successor Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian, calling it "his gravest mistake" in a statement
typical of his campaign appearances.

At a rally in the capital Yerevan on Saturday, Ter-Petrossian drew a
crowd of about 25,000, but this number was easily topped Sunday at
Sarkisian’s final rally.

Sarkisian leads in polls with 50.7 per cent of the vote, just over
the 50-per-cent barrier needed to win in the first round of the
elections.

Analysts said Sunday that his lead could be challenged if more than
68 per cent of voters turn out for the vote, one of the most active
in the country’s since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Just minutes after Kosovo’s declaration of independence, which is
thought to aggravate tensions in the Azeri breakaway region, Ter-
Petrossian reiterated, "My position is for the fastest possible
resolution to the Karabakh conflict."

"The only political resolution is based on compromise and mutual
concessions," he stressed.

The longstanding disputes with Azerbaijan and Turkey, over its
refusal to recognize the 1915 genocide of Armenians under the Ottoman
Empire, have long been basic moments in the post-Soviet’s state’s
foreign policy that are pro-scribed.

Ter-Petrossian on Sunday accused the Armenian authorities of being
"committed to the status-quo" and "lacking the political will" for a
settlement with Nagarno-Karabakh especially because Kocharin and
Sarkisian hail from the region.

Despite his comments, Ter-Petrossian refused to elaborate on future
relations with Turkey, an issue that has complicated Turkey’s
relationship with the West and bid for European Union accession.

The tense situation in the region has been seen to push Armenia
closer to relations with Russia.

Ter-Petrosian, who has spoken in favour of NATO accession talks and
positively of US plans to deploy missile defence systems opposed by
Russia, expressed concern over Russia’s growing stake in the country.

"Maybe from an outside perspective Kocharian’s policies could be
viewed as introducing a sovereign, vassal relationship with Russia,"
he said.

But the presidential hopeful emphasized that there were no
pro-Western or pro-Russian candidates in the race.

He did not deny rumours that he allegedly met with the Russian
presidential frontrunner Dmitry Medvedev in a recent trip to Moscow a
week before the vote.

Abulfas Garayev: ‘We have no right to speak of visa-free regime with
Armenia’

2008-02-16 13:39:00

ArmInfo. ‘Azerbaijan is in condition of war with Armenia. That is why
we have no moral right to speak of visa-free regime and open borders’,
Minister of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan Abulfas Garayev told
Novosti-Azerbaijan when asked if the ministry applied to the Foreign
Ministry of Azerbaijan for facilitation of visa system with EU
member-countries like the Ukraine and Georgia did. ‘When the
Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict gets a political settlement, we will open
our borders. Now, we cannot speak of open borders for national security
reasons since they may take advantage of this,’ the minister said. He
also added that getting visas through tourist companies is normal and
accessible to everyone.

Baltic News Service
February 15, 2008 Friday 3:07 PM EET

THREE MEMBERS OF ESTONIAN PARLT TO OBSERVE ARMENIAN ELECTIONS

TALLINN Feb 15

Three members of the Estonian parliament will travel to Armenia to
observe the country’s presidential elections.

Paul-Eerik Rummo, head of the Estonian delegation to the
parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, Mart Nutt and Toivo Tootsen will be observing
the elections as representatives of OSCE.

There are nine candidates in the Armenian presidential elections.

Among others Prime Ministers Serzh Sarkisyan and the first Estonian
President Levon Ter-Petrosyan are running for the post.

AZERBAIJAN TRANSFERS INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS OVER TO KARABAKH CONFLICT

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.02.2008 16:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Under the ethnic origin of the ruling clan in
Baku, the Kurdish subject area is one of the most sensitive topics in
present-day Azerbaijan. It is not enough that representatives of the
above-mentioned clan occupy high posts in the Azeri government. The
fact is that the founder of the Nakhijevan clan, former chief of
the Azeri SSR National Security Committee Heydar Aliyev took part in
formation and training of Turkey’s number one enemy – the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party," says a statement issued by the NKR Foreign Ministry
as regards the Kurdish theme gambled by the Azeri authorities.

According to the NKR MFA, Turkey’s cool attitude toward Aliyev senior
is conditioned by this very fact.

"During a visit to Baku in January 2003, head of AKP party Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said that PKK cells were functioning in Azerbaijan. Erdogan’s
statement aroused indignation and then-Minister of National Security
Namik Abbasov had to issue a disclaimer," the statement says.

"In this context, the Azeri authorities’ attempts to disown the
Kurdish problem fit in the republic’s policy of solving a problem
‘at the expense of somebody else’. Azeri media repeatedly reports that
Kurds settle down in former Armenian villages of northern Karabakh.

"Azeri authorities and structures financed by them claimed presence
of Al Qaeda camps, nuclear weapon laboratories and nuclear waste
landfills in NKR. The Azeri delegation to PACE circulated a document
saying that Armenians used nuclear weapons during the 1991-94 war.

"Understanding the absurdity of making such statement on the state
level, Azerbaijan put forth Nizami Bahmanov, the so-called head of
Azeri community of Karabakh," NKR MFA said.

RGE Monitor, NY
Feb 14 2008

Latin America EconoMonitor
Armen Kouyoumdjian

Armen Kouyoumdjian graduated in 1970 from the Sorbonne in Paris where
he read Applied Statistics. In 1971, he joined the European Research
Department of Vickers da Costa & Co. Ltd, a London brokerage firm
(subsequently absorbed into Citicorp), and was promoted to European
Research manager in 1974.

In November 1976 he moved to the International Mexican Bank, a
London-established institution owned at that time by a number of
Mexican and international banks (now totally absorbed into the
Banamex-Accival /Citicorp Group), carrying out merchant banking
operations in Central and South America. His responsibilities as
Resident Economist and Assistant Managing Director included advising
the bank on Country Risk and developing new business opportunities.

In February 1991, he moved to Chile. Since that time he has advised
financial institutions, business corporations, and diplomatic
missions on Chilean & Latin American Country Risk, the Business
Environment and Financial Markets. He also writes for specialist
business publications in several countries, and his first book,
Perspectives Chili, in French, was published in Paris by Le Monde in
June 2002.

>From 1982 onwards, Armen Kouyoumdjian was European Chairman of the
Washington-based Association of Political Risk Analysts (APRA), and
subsequently set-up its European successor in London (the Association
for Political Risk Management), which was merged into the Society of
Business Economists in 1991.

Mr. Kouyoumdjian, who is fluent in English, French and Spanish, also
has a good working knowledge of spoken and written Arabic, and spoken
Armenian. He is a member of London’s International Institute for
Strategic Studies, Britain’s Institute of Directors,
the International Consulting Economists’ Association, and the Society
of Latin American Studies. He is Economic Adviser to the
Chilean-Mexican Integration Chamber in Santiago and has lectured on
Latin America at Chile’s Catholic University and the Navy’s Maritime
University.

E-mail address: [email protected]

/armen_kouyoumdjian

RUSSIA AND ARMENIA EXPAND ECONOMIC COOPERATION

SKRIN Market & Corporate News
February 12, 2008 Tuesday 03:31 PM GMT

A number of contracts have been signed during Russian Prime Minister
Viktor Zubkov’s visit to Yerevan, the Voice of Russia reported.

Notably, the two countries will set up a joint venture on extracting
uranium in Armenia. The country has joined the agreement on the
creation of an international uranium enrichment center on the Russian
territory. Russian companies will take part in the competition for
the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Armenia. It will be
the first foreign country to which Russia will deliver new passenger
middle-range Super-jet aircraft. An agreement has been reached on
Armenia’s deliveries of output necessary for the construction of
sport facilities in the Russian city of Sochi where the 2014 Winter
Olympic Games will be held.