Author: Vanyan Gary

FM of Nagorno-Karabakh: Independence is supreme value for the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and we are not going to renounce it

2008-07-14 18:03:00

ArmInfo. Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has proclaimed and is building its
independence in full compliance with the international law and the
legislation of the USSR whose legal successor is the Russian
Federation, Foreign Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Georgy
Petrossyan said while commenting on the recent media reports that the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict might be resolved on the basis of the
principle of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of
the borders of a state as reflected in the declaration on friendship
and strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Russia.

History cannot be turned back. The attempts of the Azeri authorities to
reanimate the artificial Stalin-time borders are making things even
worse. In the late 1980s-the early 1990s the international community
recognized the results of the independence "referendum" in Azerbaijan,
where no single resident of Nagorno-Karabakh took part, but refused to
recognize the results of a similar referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh, held
before the "referendum" in Azerbaijan.

ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR TO KUWAIT: "AZERBAIJAN TAKES ADVANTAGE OF ISLAMIC SOLIDARITY FOR ITS PURPOSES"

Today.Az
July 11 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is using factor of Islamic solidarity for its direct
interests, said Armenian ambassador to Kuwait Vaagn Melikyan (residence
in Abu Dhabi) during the meeting with Muhammad Sabah Ali Salem Al
Sabah, vice premier and Kuwait Foreign Minister, in El-Kuwait.

According to the press service for the Armenian Foreign Ministry,
thus, the Armenian diplomat assessed adoption of the resolution of
the UN General Assembly on Nagorno Karabakh, initiated by Azerbaijan.

"Such unilateral resolutions do not help the peaceful resolution
of Nagorno Karabakh conflict and, on the contrary, may lead to
further deterioration of the situation and be used by Azerbaijan for
strengthening of its offensive position", said Melikyan.

In turn, Kuwait Foreign Minister confirmed the intention of his
country to see the peaceful resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict
by way of talks and on the basis of international law.

The sides also discussed organization of the first state visit of
the Armenian President to Kuwait.

30% complaints logded with Armenian ombudsman office in first six months, 2008

ARKA
July 11

The Office of Armenian Ombudsman received 1,768 complaints in the
first six months of 2008 which is by 30% more as compared with the
corresponding period last year.

Armenian Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan said 48 complaints were satisfied,
and 87 citizens got their rights reinstated.

129 complaints were addressed against the Police, 64 against courts,
47 against the Yerevan Mayor’s Office, 37 against the Ministry of
Labour and Social Issues and 32 against the Prosecutor’s Office.

"Given the fact that many complaints were submitted from a group of
people, most of all people complained of the Special Investigation
Service (300 complaints), followed by Mayor’s Office (255), the Police
(137), Prosecutor’s Office (100), and Ministry of Labour and Social
Affairs (66)," he said.

The Ombudsman also said that 575 written complaints were submitted
from Yerevan (390), Kotayk (32), Shirak (25), Gegharkounik (23), Lori
(22) and Armavir (19).

Turan news agency, Azerbaijan
July 8 2008

AZERI LEADER BRUSHES ASIDE FOREIGN PRESSURE, PLEDGES TO BACK NATIONAL
INTERESTS

Baku, 8 July: Azerbaijan is not in need of financial support and
recommendations of the international community. The government knows
well what it does and will not let interference in the internal
affairs of the country. This was the tenor of the address of
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the third conference of the
diplomatic representatives of the country on Monday [7 July].

The rhetoric and argumentation of Aliyev more and more remind us of
speeches of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The process of
construction is under way across the whole of the country, society is
in the period of spiritual upheaval and these all are Azerbaijan’s
reality.

Over the last three years the national economy has grown by 96 per
cent, the poverty rate has reduced from 49 to 16 per cent, a total of
650,000 jobs have been created over five years, he said. Further Ilham
Aliyev burst out with tirade which has little in common with
diplomacy: "Let those who say that ‘something is wrong in Azerbaijan’,
‘something is done badly’, ‘there are shortcomings’ look at a mirror
and their own countries," Aliyev said.

"I want to reiterate that our position on these issues has become
stricter and unambiguous after the second conference. We certainly
observe diplomatic rules and you ambassadors have to do so. If they do
not show proper respect towards you despite the fact that you are
diplomats, pay them back in their own coin. No-one has the right to
interfere in the domestic affairs of Azerbaijan, give us advice and
read lectures. We have not given anyone such a right and have not
assumed commitments before any country."

Having said this, he immediately acknowledged that Azerbaijan has
commitments to international organizations and it honours them.

"If our membership of these organizations is not advantageous for
someone, let them say this directly. What will happen if we are not in
international organizations? Azerbaijan will not die. When Azerbaijan
was in a heavy situation in 1993 before Heydar Aliyev’s accession to
power, who was our supporter? Azerbaijan has the right to decide how
to live and how to govern the country. If someone has malign
intentions against Azerbaijan, we shall fight against them in order to
protect our independent policy," Aliyev said.

Aliyev said that Azerbaijan cooperates with the EU and integrates into
Europe not for the reason that it expects something from the EU. "New
members of the EU get billions of dollars in aid. We do not need
it. Therefore, we conduct an independent policy both at home and in
the foreign policy, including the energy diplomacy," Aliyev said.

Being infuriated more and more, the president said that over the
country’s seven-year membership of this organization, the issue of
Azerbaijan was discussed eight times although other countries of the
CIS [the Commonwealth of Independent States], which had joined the
Council of Europe earlier, were not awarded such a bigger
attention. At the same time, Aliyev reproached the Council of Europe
for double standards. Azerbaijan is frequently subjected to ungrounded
attacks and criticism. It is necessary that a similar "hypocritical"
policy with regard to Azerbaijan remain in the past, said Aliyev,
adding that "not a single mechanism of pressure on Azerbaijan works".

Speaking about the Karabakh settlement, Aliyev confirmed Azerbaijan’s
readiness to grant a higher autonomy status to Nagornyy Karabakh. "No
bigger compromise is possible," Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan has established diplomatic relations with 160 states; 57
embassies, consulates and representative offices of international
organizations function in the country. A total of 56 diplomatic
representative offices of Azerbaijan, including 47 embassies, function
abroad.

COURT ASKED ABOUT THREATS AGAINST DINK

Turkish Daily News
July 9 2008
Turkey

ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

The court hearing the murder case of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink asked yet again for the Istanbul Police Department to
submit information that police had received about threats on the
victim’s life prior to his murder, in an interlocutory decision Monday.

If the police department did not send the information, legal action
would be started against the officials under an allegation of neglect
of duty, the court decision said. Dink had said before his murder
that he was threatened in Istanbul governor’s office by two people
who were allegedly intelligence officials.

The court also asked the Trabzon Police Department for the identities
of some code names that Erhan Tuncel, the suspected inciter of the
murder, who was alleged to be a former police informer, gave in his
testimony recently.

The court then accepted the demands of Tuncel and the Dink
family’s lawyers to listen to Engin Dinc and Ercan Demir, two police
intelligence officials in Trabzon, adding their names to the witness
list.

Trabzon is the Black Sea province that was the hometown of the
suspects.

Link with Santoro case?

The court also asked about the situation with the case file on Catholic
priest Andrea Santoro’s murder in Trabzon. The court demanded the
case file in order to examine whether the legal process in the case
was complete in the Supreme Court of Appeals. Santoro, 61, was shot
to death by a 16-year-old teenager in his church in Trabzon on Feb. 5,
2006. The teenager was sentenced to 18 years and nine months in prison,
but his lawyer appealed the decision.

The identities of those people who communicated with Tuncel over
e-mail, and Microsoft’s Internet service, MSN, addresses that other
suspects revealed in their petitions to the court, will be determined
as well. The court asked the Microsoft corporation’s Istanbul office
to identify the IP addresses of those people Tuncel contacted, and
the dates of the communications. The bank accounts of the suspects
and those of relatives of Ogun Samast, the murder suspect, will be
examined as well. The court also asked for the list of visitors and
for money inflow and outflow in the name of Yasin Hayal, a suspected
inciter, while he was incarcerated in BayrampaÅ~_a prison.

Trial of leaking images goes on

The trial of two police officers will continue today in Samsun on
charges that the two officers leaked video images of Hrant Dink’s
murder suspect Ogun Samast after he was arrested and of keeping the
suspect in the police department cafe in Samsun instead of in jail,
the independent news site BÄ°ANET reported.

However, the police officers that posed with Samast in front of a
calendar with a Turkish flag and a saying from Ataturk, the founder
of the Republic, on it have not been judged. The motion by the Dink
family’s lawyers to judge the officers was rejected by the court. The
court today will decide about giving the whole video records to the
family’s lawyers.

–Boundary_(ID_9Vjhe2sr+XArTrmFjQKEfg)–

ON THE THREATS OF THE POLITICAL SCLEROSIS
Armen Tsatouryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 08, 2008
Armenia

The old man has become unbearable

If we try to sum up the whole series of the threats, admonitions,
proposals and promises voiced by L. Ter-Petrosyan, we will see that
they are gradually becoming milder in tone on the one hand, and on
the other hand, the "extramural monologue" is acquiring more and more
serious contents.

Along with making threats and boastful statements, Ter-Petrosyan
also advances proposals and even pronounces words of laudation which,
however, start contradicting the previously-made statements. In the
recent period, Ter-Petrosyan has managed to deliver three speeches
during his rallies organized in Yerevan (June 20 and July 4) and
Gyumri (June 28). The ex-President has also managed to introduce his
own viewpoints through his Press Secretary.

Let’s try to represent the most important messages and proposals
addressed to the top figures of the Government and draw relevant
conclusions.

In the speech delivered on June 20, LTP threatened President Serge
Sargsyan with the European sanctions and proposed him to release his
co-thinkers, promising in return to address a request to the PACE
for not applying sanctions against Armenia.

Otherwise, the ex-President predicted the participation of half a
million people in the July 4 demonstration.

On July 4, forgetting about the fact of PACE’s not applying any
sanction against Armenia, as well as disregarding the absence of
the promised number of demonstrators, L. Ter-Petrosyan offered the
following "transaction" to President Serge Sargsyan: to rule out the
policy conducted by ex-President Robert Kocharyan and get rid of the
state figures who held different posts during his tenure.

Otherwise he threatened that during the August 1 demonstration he
would demand President Serge Sargsyan’s resignation and propose a
political slogan for holding extraordinary presidential elections.

It’s quite possible that not receiving any response to the transaction
and passing over his previously-made admonitions in silence,
Ter-Petrosyan will offer the new President the next – third bargain on
August 1: to dismiss some secondary officials or his personal driver,
otherwise threatening to question the legitimacy of closing "A1+"
TV channel.

Following the same logic in his June 20 and June 28 speeches, Mr.

Ter-Petrosyan made "strictly contradictory" assessments with regard
to incumbent Prime Minister T. Sargsyan and gave him "extremely
mysterious" admonitions.

On June 20, Ter-Petrosyan accused T. Sargsyan of deadly sins, saying
that the latter allegedly concealed the shadow circulation of 70-80
percent of the imported petroleum as well as his own participation in
the sale of the gold reserves while being the Chairman of the Central
Bank. He even insisted that the Prime Minister of Armenia is Armen
Gevorgyan and not Tigran Sargsyan.

As to the speech delivered in Gyumri on June 28, here the ex-President
seemed to have forgotten about his accusations concerning the shady
transaction of petroleum and the sale of gold and announced that
even though Tigran Sargsyan might pursue honest goals and be a good
economist, he would not be allowed to work and at the end, Prime
Minister Serge Sargsyan would lay whole the blame for the failures
on the incumbent Prime Minister.

Since Tigran Sargsyan’s name was not included in the list of the
"individuals subject to prompt release" (publicized by L.

Ter-Petrosyan on July 4) and no one has any doubt that the incumbent
Prime Minister is a "professional, and not a bad economist",
Ter-Petrosyan may pass on to the next step on August 1: to nominate
Prime Minister T.

Sargsyan for some award.

In this case, as well as in case of making a milder demands instead
of urging the resignation of the incumbent President, the dialogue
anticipated by Ter-Petrosyan will probably take place.

Summing up all this, we can state with satisfaction that ex-President
Ter-Petrosyan is gradually moderating his demands to the authorities.

However, along with this, we have to state with regret that having
lost the ability to perceive the reality, the ex-President often
makes statements on initiating activities which are beyond his power;
therefore, at the very next meeting he has to bury his promises
into oblivion.

He forces society to demonstrate an unserious attitude towards the
statesman who used to be the coutntry’s number 1 official. But
since respecting the reputation of such an individual derives
from the permanent interests of our state, we strongly recommend
Mr. Ter-Petrosyan to read his speeches at least once before making
the next statement, and consider the contents of the previously made
assessments and proposals.

Xinhua, China

Four new heritage sites added to UNESCO list

2008-07-07 12:31:29

QUEBEC CITY, Canada, July 6 (Xinhua) — UNESCO’s World Heritage
Committee Sunday added four new sites to its heritage list, including
Tulou, the unique residential architecture of Fujian Province in
southeastern China.

The remaining three sites inscribed Sunday afternoon local time by
the 21-member heritage committee which is currently meeting in Quebec
City, are a former slave hideout in Mauritius, an archeological site
in Saudi Arabia and monasteries in Iran.

Fujian Tulou comprises 46 earthen houses constructed between the
12th and 20th centuries. Each has several stories, built for entire
clans and sheltering up to 800 people.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, runaway slaves sought
shelter on the mountain of Le Morne, which juts out into the Indian
Ocean in south-west Mauritius, where they formed small
settlements. The mountain became a symbol of the slaves’ search for
freedom, as well as their suffering and sacrifice.

Al-Hijr, or Madain Salih, is the first Saudi Arabian site to be
added to the World Heritage List. As the largest conserved site of the
civilization of the Nabataeans south of Petra in Jordan, it features
over 100 tombs dating back from the 1st century BC to the1st century
AD.

The Armenian Monastic Ensembles in northeastern Iran were a major
hub for the dissemination of the Armenian culture into Azerbaijan and
Persia. The site comprises three monastic ensembles, with the oldest
edifice dating back to the 7th century.

The four new entries bring UNESCO’s World Heritage List to 855
sites in more than 140 countries around the world.

The World Heritage Committee’s annual meeting is scheduled to wrap
up on July 10.

Editor: An Lu

Armenian Central bank chairman to discuss banking prospects in Karabakh

YEREVAN, July 4. /ARKA/. Armenian Central Bank Chairman Artur Javadyan
will leave for Nagorno-Karabakh to take part in the visiting board
session of the Union of Banks of Armenia.

The Central Bank Press Service said the Board meeting discussion will
focus on expanding the spectrum of banking services. -0-

His Holiness Garegin II’s message on the Constitution Day

armradio.am
05.07.2008 12:11

His Holiness Garegin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, issued a congratulatory message on the occasion of the
Constitution Day. The message states:

`From the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin we bring out blessing and
congratulations to the whole Armenian nation on the occasion of the
Constitution Day.

We pray to God, asking to strengthen out will and aspiration to render
our devoted service to Motherland, committed to the provisions of the
Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, which guarantee a deserved,
fair and free life for our people. Let’s build the bright Armenian
future with hope and faith in God on the basis of constitutional
principles.

Let the Lord Almighty keep under his protection the Republic of Armenia
and our world-spread people, granting prosperity, new achievements and
all the best.’

President Sargsayn congratulates the nation on Constitution Day

armradio.am
05.07.2008 12:21

Dear compatriots,
I congratulate you on the occasion of the Constitution Day.

Adoption of the Constitution was a historical event in the life of any
country. The Constitution has played a huge role in the development of
Armenia, establishment and reinforcement of democracy, it has been and
remains an impetus and guide for development.

That is why today is a holiday in our country, the holiday of all
citizens and compatriots, all those people who realize bothe their
constitutional rights and freedoms and responsibilities.

Today our country and all of us have new challenges to resist, which is
possible only under the conditions of respect for Constitution and
laws.

Dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

The Construction Day is the holiday of all of us, because Constitution
is us, every of us. The power of the Mother Law rests on the will of
any of us, who are ready to defend the main law of the country and the
way of living acceptable for us.

Once again congratulating you on the Constitution Day, I wish all of us
will, consistency and resoluteness to realize our daring programs
targeted at the development of the country.