Author: Vardanian Garo

GEORGE BENSON GOES CLUBBING TO LISTEN TO ARMENIAN JAZZ

Aysor
Nov 12 2009
Armenia

A jazz guitar legend and singer George Benson shared his impressions
on his very first visit to Armenia. "I went to the Malkhas jazz club
and listened to a wonderful music. This is my fist visit to Armenia. I
am surrounded by friends here," he told journalists.

"I will perform today and you will listen not only to my guitar,
but to my songs, to."

The concert marks Perspectives of XXI Music Festival and is held under
the patronage of President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, with assistance
of the Ministry of Culture and Ameriabank. It will be held in a Sport
and Concert Center aft. Karen Demirchyan at 7 p.m.

EDUARD ABRAHAMYAN: OSCE MG FORMAT CHANGE UNREAL

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
13.11.2009 14:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Baku’s dream to see Turkey as Co-chair of the
OSCE Minsk Group is unrealizable, according to Eduard Abrahamyan,
the leader of National Neoconservative Movement.

"Change of the OSCE MG format depends not only on Azerbaijan but
on Armenia as well and Ankara understands it. That is why Turkish
authorities will try to resolve the Karabakh conflict in roundabout
ways, one of which implies normalization of relations with Armenia,"
he said.

ARTSAKH STATE UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY

armradio.am
13.11.2009 17:11

The Artsakh State University celebrates its 40th anniversary today. On
this occasion the President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Bako
Sahakyan, issued a congratulatory address:

"Dear friends,

The Alma Mater of Artsakh celebrates its 40th anniversary. It is a
holiday for our entire nation and the whole republic because during
all these years the university has been one of the most important
centers of preserving national identity. It stood at the origins of
the liberation struggle.

In 1992 as a result of implemented reforms the establishment was
given the status of university. This was not only of scientific
and educational, but also of political importance for our young
independent republic.

Nowadays, Artsakh State University as one of the key educational
establishments of our country is still playing a role in a hard
process of educating the younger generation and preparing cadres as
well as in a state building process.

In the current situation the university faces new and various
challenges that require persistent, purposeful and regular work
on a daily basis. It is important to deepen and enlarge ties with
universities in Armenia and other countries, use every single
opportunity to secure continuous development and improvement.

Our goal is to have a modern and competitive educational center meeting
international standards. The administration of the university with
the support of the state should do everything possible to achieve it.

I congratulate once again all the students, the alumni and the
university staff on the anniversary and wish good health, happiness
and all the best.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT VISITS KALININGRAD REGION OF RUSSIA

Noyan Tapan
Nov 11, 2009

KALININGRAD, NOVEMBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN. During his working visit
to Kaliningrad region (Russia), Armenian President Serzh Sagrsyan
accompanied by Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos went to the newly-built
Yantarny sport and cultural complex constructed by Armenian builders.

Then a meeting of the Armenian president and the governor of
Kaliningrad region took place, during which they discussed issues
related to the further extension of cooperation between Armenia and
Kaliningrad region and the projects to be implemented. S. Sargsyan
said that inter-regional cooperation is of great importance for
developing the Armenian-Russian strategic partnership.

The interlocutors expressed a hope that the agreements reached during
the visit of S. Sargsyan will produce visible results in the economic
life in the coming months.

S. Sargsyan was handed an Order of Honor – the highest award of
Kaliningrad region, the RA presidential press service reported.

S. Sargsyan and G. Boos attended the opening ceremony of the Armenian
cultural center built by efforts of the local Armenian community. A
lot of members of the Armenian community were present at the ceremony.

S. Sargsyan stated that the establishment of such a center in
Kaliningrad is a manifestation of the strong, centuries-old friendship
between Armenia and Russia. S. Sargsyan awarded a Movses Khorenatsi
medal to Armenia’s Honorary Consul in Kaliningrad region Yuri Kajoyan
for his significant contribution to the center’s construction, the
preservation of Armenian identity in Kaliningrad region, and the
development of Armenia-Diaspora links.

S. Sargsyan toured the newly-opened center and presented textbooks
and Armenian-language literature to it. He thanked the Kaliningrad
governor for his constant support and attentive attitude to the
Armenian community and for his assistance to the construction of
the cultural center. In the words of G. Boos, the Armenians have
a good reputation in the region and their daily work makes a great
contribution to the development of Kaliningrad region.

The Armenian delegation headed by S. Sargsyan and composed of
Secretary of the National Security Council Arthur Baghdasarian,
Minister of Diaspora Ms. Hranush Hakobian, Minister of Agriculture
Gerasim Alaverdian, and Mayor of Yerevan Gagik Beglarian will return
to Yerevan late November 11.

WATCHDOG OKS SALE OF BULGARIA’S TOP WATER BOTTLER DEVIN

Novinite.com
Nov 11 2009
Bulgaria

Bulgaria’s leading water bottling company Devin has a new owner –
global private equity fund Advent International. File photo Global
private equity fund Advent International has been given the green light
to buy about 75% of Bulgaria’s leading water bottling company Devin,
the anti-trust regulator said in statement on Wednesday.

The approval of the Commission for Protection of Competition will
make it possible for the deal to be finalized.

Advent International signed an agreement to buy about 75% of Bulgaria’s
leading water bottling company Devin, majority owned by Austria’s
Soravia Group, at the end of September.

The deal price is said to be around EUR 21 M to 22 M. Its final value
will be fixed between the signing of the contract and its conclusion.

The Austrian group holds 75.3% in the company while the rest of the
equity is traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. Once the deal is
concluded, Advent will launch a buyout of these shares.

Soravia acquired full control of Devin and distributor Devin Royal
in 2005 for an undisclosed sum.

The first sale deal to be completed in the Bulgarian water bottling
sector this year is expected to be the acquisition of Gorna Banya
company by Armenian major businessman Gagik Tsarukyan for EUR 25 M.

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email. [email protected]
Internet

PRESS RELEASE

November 11, 2009
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

McCAIN RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

— Action Highlights President Obama’s Reversal on
his Pledge to Properly Recognize this Crime

WASHINGTON, DC – The Republican Party’s 2008 Presidential nominee,
Arizona Senator John McCain, has publicly and properly recognized the
Armenian Genocide, breaking with his longstanding silence on this
human rights issue and, in the process, dramatically underscoring the
post-election retreat by his campaign opponent, President Barack
Obama, from his high-profile pledge to properly condemn and
commemorate this crime, reported the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA).

"I believe that genocide was committed against the Armenian people,
and I think there is ample documentation of that," Sen. McCain told
the Voice of America Georgian language service in an interview
focusing on the Caucasus as well as Armenia-Turkey relations.

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Sen. McCain issued two
statements to the Armenian American community, both falling short of
properly characterizing as genocide the Ottoman Turkish Government’s
deportation and annihilation of its Armenian community. "It is fair
to say that one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, the
brutal murder of as many as one and a half million Armenians under the
rule of the Ottoman Empire, has also been one of the most
neglected. The suffering endured by the Armenian people during that
period represented the prologue to what has come to be known as
humanity’s bloodiest century," stated Sen. McCain in a September 29,
2008, statement.

In sharp contrast, Senator Barack Obama, during his campaign, clearly
and repeatedly promised to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Once
elected, however, the President has thus far not only failed to honor
his pledge, but actively cooperated with Turkey to pressure Armenia
into accepting a "commission" that calls into question this crime
against humanity.

Senator McCain has, throughout his tenure in the Congress, largely
opposed or remained indifferent to an array of Armenian American
issues. As recently as the last session of Congress, Senator McCain
publicly opposed Congressional recognition of the Armenian
Genocide. In 1999, he voted against restricting U.S. aid to Azerbaijan
over its blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia
and Nagorno Karabagh. He voted against Senator Bob Dole’s Armenian
Genocide Resolution in 1990.

Contrary to the views of the majority of the Armenian American
community, Sen. McCain supports the controversial Turkey-Armenia
Protocols process.

RA POLICE DEPUTY CHIEF: NIKOL PASHINYAN COULD LEAVE ARMENIA ILLEGALLY

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.11.2009 16:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A certificate on permanent residence in Armenia
isn’t issued for Haykakan Zhamanak editor Nikol Pashinyan not without
reason, RA Police Deputy Chief Hovhannes Hunanyan said.

"Pashinyan’s supporters’ assurances about his presence in Armenia
during this period of time are doubtful," he said.

Asked to prove Pashinyan’s absence from Armenia, Hunanyan said,
"Although there is no exit seal in Pashinyan’s passport, the data
provided by law enforcement allow conclusion that he was beyond
Armenia during the period from 2008 to 2009," he said.

He also informed that certificate will not be issued former Minister
of Transport Eduard Madatyan either. Madatyan is wanted by police on
accusation of organization of attempt at some of Armenian leaders.

CAUCASUS’ FROZEN CONFLICTS NOT SO FROZEN, SOKOR SAYS
Author: Vladimir Sokor

NewEurope – neurope.eu
-frozen-conflicts-not-so-frozen-Sokor-says-/97375. php
Nov 9 2009

Many foreign experts are concerned today about how Kazakhstan is going
to work in 2010 as the OSCE chair. Astana has hosted an international
conference to discuss the mission Kazakhstan is going to take on in two
months. The range of questions discussed at the conference was broad:
regional security, energy, economy, and human rights. Among the foreign
speakers invited to the conference was an analyst from the Jamestown
Foundation, Vladimir Sokor. The speakers at the one-day conference
in Astana were representatives of a working group on preparation for
Kazakhstan’s OSCE chairmanship, formed by two American institutes –
CSIS and IND. IND is the Institute of New Democracy, Washington. CSIS
is the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also in
Washington. It is a US leading consulting and analytical institute
on foreign politics. Sokor is one of the analysts making the working
group. His speech was titled The Frozen Conflicts in OSCE Space. Next
year Kazakhstan will have to decide on a tangle of complex and knotty
problems connected with the well-known conflicts, including Georgia
and South Ossetia, Moldova, and Nagorno Karabach.

Sokor gave an exclusive interview to New Europe Correspondent in
Astana Kulpash Konyrova about the OSCE, conflicts in the Caucasus
and the Nabucco gas pipeline.

Mr. Sokor, at the very beginning of your speech you said that "the
expectations of Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship should not be too
high". Why do think so?

What I mean is that Kazakhstan will inherit not only the privileges
and powers, but also the deficiencies that have had place over the
entire period of OSCE operations. It is a known fact that over the
past 16 years OSCE has had failed to negotiate resolutions for some
conflicts in the OSCE space. Secondly, let us remember that the last
successful chairmanship of the OSCE was nine years ago, when Romania
held that post. Those countries that came after it did not deliver.

The evaluation given to them by the experts was just that –
disappointment. It is not a secret that some countries set just one
goal for themselves – to survive the 12 months of chairmanship. That
is why they kept to the following tactic: just not to make bad mistakes
and not to harm the organization itself. So, considering this difficult
legacy, I say that the expectations of Kazakhstan’s chairmanship
should not be too high. In my view, that task Kazakhstan is facing is
to try to improve the situation and to achieve better results from
the earlier decisions on conflict resolution. For example, today we
all see that the well-known Medvedev-Sarkozy plan on the Georgia –
Ossetia conflict is not being fulfilled.

Can you once again name and characterize those frozen conflicts that
Kazakhstan should pay attention to in the future?

First of all, the experts are no longer using the term "frozen
conflict" as "frozen" means that nobody is dealing with it. The term
that is used now is "protracted conflicts". Second, it should be noted
that many of the conflicts that I will talk about below had started
as internal, but since the 1990s, they have mutated and grown into
international conflicts. The most sensitive issues that Kazakhstan
will have to address include Afghanistan, Georgia and Ossetia,
Nagorno-Karabach, Crimea, Moldova, and the Balkans, where the latest
developments have shown the signs that the conflict may erupt with a
new force again. As far as the characteristics of the conflicts are
concerned, the most urgent and sensitive issue today is territorial
integrity and recognition of international borders. Thus, in 2008,
Russia demanded that the territorial integrity of Georgia should
be respected. However, it does not recognize its unity. Instead,
it recognizes two new states (South Ossetia and Abkhazia – note by
NE) that made part of Georgia before. As is known, no OSCE country,
including your Kazakhstan, has recognized these states. The problem of
territorial integrity lies in the core of another Caucasus conflict,
Nagorno-Karabach. In my speech at the conference I noted that some
progress could be seen on this conflict, thanks, on one side, to the
internal policy of the country (the Azerbaijan government), and to
the initiative of the new US Administration, on the other side. The
White House has made an attempt to resolve this conflict quickly. Its
essence was to open the border between Turkey and Armenia. And the US
has succeeded in breaking the first barrier, as Turkey has agreed to
make this step. However, we should remember that the opening of the
borders between Turkey and Armenia was linked, according to the earlier
agreements reached on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabach conflict,
to the withdrawal of the Armenian troops from Nagorno-Karabach. So
for Kazakhstan, as the OSCE chairman next year, it is important to
note that these two processes – the opening of the borders and the
withdrawal of the Armenian troops from Nagorno Karabach – should
be simultaneous.

Going back to the theme of the Caucasus, I cannot but ask about
the Nabucco project. It is not a secret that this project causes
disagreements on different levels between the West and Russia.

The Nabucco gas pipeline is just a part of an ambitious EU project The
Southern Corridor that also includes several other new pipelines. On
the whole, the proposed capacity of the Southern Corridor is designed
to deliver 80 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe per year. The
project relies on the gas from Central Asia. This is why the main
political goal of the European Union today is to provide a direct
access to Europe for the Central Asian resources, bypassing Russia,
through the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. But what are the capabilities
of the Central Asian countries? Let’s start from Kazakhstan. From a
conversation with the Kazakh officials from the Ministry of Energy I
have understood that the Republic currently has no spare volumes of
gas to join this project. The main hopes are placed on the promising
reserves of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

However, the inclusion of that same Turkmenistan in the Nabucco
project is presently under a question mark, as this gas pipeline
is designed mainly for gas from Azerbaijan, Iraq, and Egypt. And it
has very little room for the Central Asian gas. If the European Union
offers to that same Turkmenistan the annual volumes of 5 billion cubic
meters of gas in Nabucco (the designed annual capacity of Nabucco is
30 to 31 billion cubic meters), it will make no sense for Turkmenistan
to spoil its relationship with Russia for such a small volume. That
is why the Southern Corridor is proposed, to make it beneficial for
the Central Asian republics to go by this route.

But why cook a hare before catching him… Nabucco is not even
built yet…

The European Union has now noticeably intensified its efforts on this
project and has started concrete actions.

HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN: "THE ALLIED RELATIONS WITH THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION WILL BE ONE OF THE PRIOR DIRECTIONS OF ARMENIA’S FOREIGN POLICY"

National Assembly
Nov 6 2009
Armenia

On November 5 President of the National Assembly Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan
received Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian
Federation to Armenia Mr. Vyacheslav Kovalenko.

Welcoming the guest the President of the National Assembly expressed
hope that thanks to Ambassador Kovalenko’s work it would be possible
to raise the cooperation of the two countries to a new higher level.

Mr. Abrahamyan noted that the allied relations of the Republic of
Armenia and the Russian Federation will be one of the prior directions
of Armenia’s foreign policy. In that context he also highlighted the
high level of the political contacts between the two countries, the
formed wide legal-contractual field, mutually beneficial cooperation
in trade-economic, humanitarian, military-technical and other spheres.

The interlocutors highlighted the activity of the inter-governmental
commission and inter-parliamentary committee on cooperation. They
agreed that those committees are important instruments of bilateral
cooperation, and its potential should be fully used for the benefit
of the prosperity of the peoples of Armenia and Russia.

During the meeting the sides also discussed a wide scope of issues
of regional security.

TERRY DAVIDSON: THE NORMALIZATION OF TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS WILL ALSO HAVE AN INFLUENCE ON THE SOLUTION TO NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT

news.az
Nov 6 2009
Azerbaijan

Terry Davidson Public Relations Officer of the U.S. Embassy in
Azerbaijan Terry Davidson, who is visiting Ganja, met with head of
the executive power Eldar Azizov and rector of Agriculture Academy
Mirdamed Sadigov.

The diplomat visited American corner in Ganja Central Library and
Community Information Center. Terry Davidson held a press conference
in the center. He said the White House and the Department of State
attaches great importance to the partnership with Azerbaijan.

"The US and Azerbaijan are cooperating in three main spheres. One
of them is security cooperation. As you know we are living in a very
dangerous world. We are trying to make the world less dangerous with
cooperation. The second sphere is the cooperation with Azerbaijan in
the field of oil and gas. We want Azerbaijan to be a stronger, more
independent and sovereign state in the sphere of energy supply and
do our best for this. Moreover, we support Azerbaijan in the field
of democratization," he said.

The diplomat said they understand the difficulties, which Azerbaijan
has been facing for 20 years.

"The US is also cooperating with the Armenian President and trying to
find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno Karabakh problem. As you know,
the protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia caused some concern.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the normalization
of the relations between these two countries. We consider that the
normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations will not have a negative
influence on the region, on the contrary, the normalization of these
relations will have an influence on the solution to the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict," he said.