Author: Vardanian Garo

US ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS’ JOINT STATEMENT

AZG Armenian Daily
21/03/2008

Post-election

Several leading Armenian organizations of US call to the Armenian state
and people confronting political crisis for solidarity. The Armenian
Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian
General Benevolent Union, US dioceses of Armenian Apostolic Church and
Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia expressed their concern
over March 1 disorders and condolences to the families of the victims.

The Armenian organizations of the United States call all the sides to
work peacefully in the framework of political and legal structures of
the Republic of Armenia in order to overcome controversy and recover
Armenia’s natural political environment as soon as possible, They at
the same time underlined that Armenian-Americans will always support
the Armenian state, its prosperity and development.

KOSOVO FACES RISK OF PARTITION, SAY EXPERTS

Peninsula On-line
March 19 2008
Qatar

BRUSSELS ~U A month after declaring independence from Serbia, Kosovo
is in danger of partition a respected think-tank warned yesterday in
a new report, urging the EU and NATO to act before it is too late.

The warning came a day after a Ukrainian police officer was killed
and more than 150 people were injured in pitched battles between
international security forces and Serbs in Mitrovica, an ethnically
divided north Kosovo town.

"There is a real risk… that partition will harden at the Ibar River
in the north, and Kosovo will become another frozen conflict," like the
breakaway regions of Abkhazia or Nagorno-Karabakh, the International
Crisis Group said in its report.

It urged more countries to "recognise and embrace the new state"
Japan became yesterday one of almost 30 countries to have done so
and the European Union and NATO to "be more proactive and coordinate
their operations."

On the board of the Brussels-based think-tank are many former premiers
and foreign ministers, and one of its chairmen emeritus is Martti
Ahtisaari, the UN envoy whose blueprint Kosovo is using to guide its
independence drive.

"While Serbia has a strategy to divide Kosovo, the international
community does not have a clearly defined and coordinated response,"
the report said.

It described the UN and KFOR forces move to storm Mitrovica’s court
house on Monday as "more an ad hoc reaction to provocation than part
of a carefully choreographed plan."

"Legitimate questions have arisen as to whether its timing, tactics
and potential consequences were fully considered in advance."

The Crisis Group urged the EU and United States to encourage more
countries to recognise Kosovo’s independence, declared on February
17, and to provide immediate financial aid and capacity-building
assistance.

"The EU, UN and NATO should agree on a common, comprehensive strategy
for the Serb north of Kosovo," the report said, adding that they
should reject Belgrade’s efforts to set up parallel institutions in
Albanian Serb areas.

Ethnic Albanians make up most of the population of Kosovo, which Serbs
consider a cradle of their civilisation. Kosovo has been UN-run since
1999 when NATO bombed Belgrade to end a crackdown on Albanian rebels.

A UN policeman was died of injuries suffered in rioting by Serbs,
police said as NATO tried to restore calm after the worst violence
since Kosovo’s independence declaration.

More than 150 people were wounded Monday in the ethnically divided
northern Kosovo town during clashes between the UN police and NATO-led
Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeepers on the one side and Serbs opposed
to Kosovo’s independence declaration.

Sixty-three of them were members of the United Nations’ international
police force in Kosovo, hurt when demonstrators pelted them with
stones and at least one grenade and possibly even shot at them. The
rest were Serbs.

The rioting erupted after police conducted a pre-dawn raid in order
to dislodge a group of Serb protesters who had been holed up inside
two UN-run courts in Mitrovica since Friday.

DASH TO ARAGATS: THE CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION OFFERS MILITARY AID TO ARMENIA
by Victor Litovkin

DEFENSE and SECURITY
March 19, 2008 Wednesday
Russia

SECRETARIAT OF THE CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION
DENIES CONNECTION BETWEEN THE SITUATION IN THE CAUCASUS AND EXERCISE
BORDER’2008; Azerbaijan is upset by the forthcoming Border’2008.

Skirmishes on the border between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh,
emergency rule in the capital of Armenia in the wake of the
presidential election, tension in the relations between Baku and
Yerevan on the one hand and between Tbilisi and Moscow on the other –
all of that indicates that the situation in the Caucasus is anything
but tranquil. The command exercise Border’2008 the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization planned on the slopes of Mountain Aragats
50 kilometers from Yerevan, will probably make things all the more
difficult to handle. The exercise is to take place on the territory of
Armavir, which is the name of the marshal Bagramjan Training Center,
in July and September this year.

Denying the apparent

The Secretariat and United Headquarters of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization deny parallels or connection with the situation
in the Caucasus. "We warned Baku in October 2007 and said the exercise
was not planned against any third country," General Secretary Nikolai
Bordyuzha said. "The legend of the exercise does not stand for any
major movement of troops or military hardware."

Traditional as it is for a command post exercise, the Border’2008
legend cannot help making certain countries of the region wary. A
sovereign state designated "N" and its ally make preparations for an
aggression about to be launched by another sovereign state designated
"X." At first sight, the legend is quite logical and should surprise
no one. Baku in the meantime is prone to threatening Yerevan at the
highest possible level whether or not the upper echelons of the CIS
Collective Security Treaty Organization choose to recognize it.

Border with an Armenian accent

Colonel Ishkhan Matevosjan, Senior Deputy Chief of the Operational
Directorate of the Armenian General Staff, said the Border’2008
legend included several phases. Phase one will be centered around
preparations of Armenian state structures for an aggression.

The legend assumes that the president of Armenia issues an order
to initiate preparations to repel an aggression on March 12-14. The
Security Council and Cabinet meet to work out the decision to appeal
to the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization. Once the plea
for aid is received, the Council of Defense Ministers and United
Headquarters of the international organization evaluate the situation
and the arrangement of forces and decide to take diplomatic and
political efforts to put an end to the aggression and have foreign
troops withdrawn from Armenia and, simultaneously, to aid Armenia
with military hardware and contingents. It will constitute the second
phase of the exercise.

Phases three and four of the exercise involve joint defense. tactical
exercise with live-fire elements constituting phases three and four
will involve almost 4,000 servicemen and civilians of the Armenian
Defense Ministry. The nucleus of the fighting group will include
motorized infantry, tanks, artillery pieces, communications units,
scouts, and units with jammers. Air defense complexes and aircraft
(fighters and ground-strafers) will be deployed. On the other hand,
neither firing at air craft nor air strikes as such are planned.

Sources from the United Headquarters point out that it is going to be
a defense operation and nothing else. "The CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization does not plan to attack anyone," to quote Major
General Sergei Chuvakin of the United Headquarters. "Our organization
is purely defensive, you know."

It is only Russian and Armenian servicemen that will participate in
the exercise as such, but all other countries of the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization will be present as well (3-5 observers
each).

Even non-members may get an invitation to observe the exercise.

Matevosjan said that all military attaches accredited in Yerevan would
be present at the exercise as guests. This decision has already been
made by Armenian leadership.

Cumbersome circumstances

There are questions nobody from the Secretariat or the United
Headquarters would answer. As a matter of fact, however, answers to
these questions will be searched all the same. For example, what if
Baku and Tbilisi (the capitals known for their somewhat skeptical
attitude towards the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization)
deny permits to military planes of the Organization to fly across
the Azerbaijani and Georgian airspace? Not even the planes carrying
servicemen, just the ones with observers in them? Representatives of
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, and Uzbekistan.

Like Kaliningrad for Russia, Armenia is an enclave for the CIS
Collective Security Treaty Organization, an enclave surrounded with
not particularly amiable states like Turkey and Azerbaijan.

"Have no fears on that score," an anonymous source in the Secretariat
said. "For starters, the observers will board ordinary passenger
flights, and nobody is going to cancel regular Minsk-Yerevan or
Astana-Yerevan flights because of them. Secondly, the exercise will
last three months and all these ill-wishers will get fed up with
keeping tabs on who flew where. No point in doing so, you know…"

All right, this is simply going to be an exercise. A relatively
small one. But what if push comes to shove and Armenia really finds
itself in need of allies’ aide in the form of military hardware and
personnel? What then? "Remember how it was in the Great Patriotic
War," one of the experts commented. "The way to the Caucasus from
the north was out of bounds. This state of affairs left the Iranian
airspace only where we had troops…" Russian diplomats claim that
the southern neighbor is prepared to come to Russia’s help in this
case. On the other hand, other routes must exist as well. In theory,
one may imagine a breakthrough to Armenia from other directions.

>From our folders:

The 102nd Russian Military Base in Gyumri (former Leninakan, Armenia),
includes three motorized infantry regiments (i.e. 330 BMP-1 and BMP-2
infantry fighting vehicles), one armored battalion (74 T-72 tanks),
an artillery regiment (70 pieces), a division of S-300V air defense
complexes, and eighteen MIG-29 fighters. These and other units total
3,170 servicemen.

PER CAPITA COFFEE CONSUMPTION LAST YEAR WAS 1.4 KG

ARMENPRESS
March 19, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS: Almost 11,000 tons of coffee were
imported to Armenia last year. Seyran Iritsian, head of a marketing
department at the ministry of agriculture, said about 4,500 tons of
coffee were consumed domestically and the rest was sold to Georgia,
Ukraine and Russia.

According to the National Statistical Service, Armenian importers
brought last year almost 254 tons of tea that was processed and packed
by 11 local companies. One ton was exported and the rest were consumed
by Armenians.

On average per capita coffee consumption last year was 1.4 kg and
that of tea -about 100 gram.

RUSSIA’S DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER ARRIVING IN ARMENIA

armradio.am
18.03.2008 11:11

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Secretary of State Grigory Karasin
will arrive in Armenia today, Press and Information Department of RA
Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed.

During the visit Grigory Karasin is expected to meet with RA president
Robert Kocharyan, Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan, Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian and Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham Gharibjanyan.

NUCLEAR POWER, SECURITY ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED IN ARMENIA’S NAS

ARKA
March 18, 2008

YEREVAN, March 18. /ARKA/. A round-table discussion is to be held in
Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on problems of development
of nuclear power and security on March 19.

The main objective is to discuss the book of Gerd Rosencranz "Nuclear
Power: Myths and Legends", the Press Service of the NAS reported.

Participants of the event will be able to express their views on
the problems suggested in the book in terms of international trends,
strategy of development of nuclear power in Armenia, as well as to
discuss environmental risks and security matters.

Among participants of the event are expected to be the author of the
book himself, Director of Heinrich Bolle Foundation in South Caucasus
Walter Kaufman, First Deputy Minister of Environment of Armenia Simon
Papian, expert Suren Azatian, academician Yury Chilingarian, Director
of CANDLE project Vasily Tsakanov, academician Eduard Chubarian, the
head of State Inspectorate on Nuclear Safety of Environment Ministry
Ashot Martirosian.

International and non-government organizations are also to participate
in the discussion.

The event is held by Heinrich Bolle Foundation together with "Ecolur"
information NGO with assistance of Aremnian National Academy of
Sciences.

VARDAN OSKANYAN: "I AM ANXIOUS ABOUT AZERBAIJAN’S REFUSAL TO FOLLOW REGULATIONS FIXED IN THE NEGOTIATED DOCUMENT"

Today
itics/43793.html
March 18 2008
Azerbaijan

The resolution of the UN General Assembly on Karabakh may undermine
the Karabakh conflict resolution process.

The due announcement was made by Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan.

"If Azerbaijan continues to insist on the regulations, fixed in the
resolution, the process will be destroyed, not because Armenia will
withdraw from the negotiations, but because there will be no contact
points. We can announce to Azerbaijan that we do not see the contact
points and if Azerbaijan wants to persuade the Karabakh authorities,
it will have to speak with them", Oskanyan noted.

He said the document proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on
the conflict settlement has nothing in common with the regulations
of the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly.

The Armenian Foreign Minister reminded that this situation is similar
to that in 1996 when the Minsk process was undermined by announcements
of the OSCE chairman-in-office during the Lisbon summit. He said at
that time Azerbaijan insisted on holding negotiation process on basis
of this announcement, however, it further understood the absurdity
of this demand.

"I am anxious about Azerbaijan’s refusal to follow regulations fixed
in the negotiated document. I do hope Azerbaijan will understand
the impossibility of settling the problem by such resolutions",
Oskanyan noted.

Politicians’ positions on vote on Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan in UN General Assembly – Survey

Azeri Press Agency
March 17 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku. Elnur Mammadli -APA. OSCE MG activity serves to frozen the
conflict, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Chairman of Azerbaijan Popular Front
Party told APA.

To him, if Azerbaijan wants to solve the conflict, it should refuse
the mediation of OSCE MG and appeal to UN Security Council to impose
a sanction against Armenia.

"Azerbaijan should direct economical power for the strengthening
of army building. Azerbaijan should liberate its lands by means
of force. Azerbaijan should raise its voice on Iran, demonstrating
political hypocrisy. Double policy of Poland and Romania should be
exposed," he said.

"Umid" Party Chairman Igbal Agazadeh stated that stopping activity of
OSCE MG was outside of Azerbaijan’s competence. To him, Azerbaijan
should pursue different policy for the prevention of neutralism
of co-chairs.

"Unfortunately, they did not prevent neutralism," he said.

Voting against the resolution on Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan
shows that these countries think about the independence of Nagorno
Karabakh. They can declare the independence of Nagorno Karabakh
without us," said Lale Shovkat , National Unity Movement leader. To
her, it is very few that 39 from 192 UN member countries vote for the
resolution. Azerbaijan Democratic Party Chairman Sardar Jalaloglu
considers that Azerbaijan should stop the activity of OSCE MG." he
said.

MP Eldar Ibrahimov, member of Azerbaijani delegation to OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly stated that the positions of Russia and France
had been known before.

"I regret for the position of the US. This is the fact that OSCE
member countries are against Azerbaijan. There is no need to continue
the activity of OSCE MG. They protected Armenia voting against the
resolution," he said.

Political Scientist Ilgar Mammadov considers that if OSCE member
countries could prevent adoption of the resolution.

"They did not prevent the adoption of the resolution and this is
one of the means of pressures against Armenia. This is a new effort
for the diplomacy and political combination principle is in favor
of Azerbaijan," he said. Mammadov stated that there was no need to
stop the activity of OSCE MG. To him, composition of OSCE MG can be
changed if there will be any pressure against Azerbaijan.

UN RESOLUTION: INDIA ‘UPSET’ BAKU

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.03.2008 14:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The Azerbaijani Embassy had been carrying out
strenuous work to dissuade India from voting against the resolution
on Nagorno Karabakh, or, at least, abstain, Azeri Ambassador to India
Tamerlan Karayev said.

"However, this country did not lend an ear to our arguments," he said.

"We were cherishing plans for cooperation.

Unfortunately, India spoiled everything. Presently, the Azerbaijani
Embassy in Delhi is waiting for MFA instructions. Afterwards, the
official position of Baku will be brought to notion of the Indian
side," he said.

"This move upset us and it will certainly affect the Azerbaijani-Indian
relations," he said, 1news.az reports.

On 14 March, with 39 votes in favor, 7 against and 100 abstentions
the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Nagorno Karabakh, in
which Azerbaijan called for the immediate, complete and unconditional
withdrawal of Armenian forces "from all the occupied territories of
the Republic of Azerbaijan."

In favor: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei
Darussalam, Cambodia, Colombia, Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia, Georgia,
Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Moldova,
Morocco, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Turkey, Tuvalu, Uganda,
Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

Against: Angola, Armenia, France, India, Russian Federation, United
States, Vanuatu.

SERZH SARKISIAN STATED THAT IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA "UNEXPECTED CHANGES" WILL TAKE PLACE
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Mediamax
March 12, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Prime Minister, Armenian President-Elect Serzh
Sarkisian stated today that in the composition of the new government,
"unexpected changes" will take place.

Mediamax reports that, speaking at the meeting with students of
Armenian State University of Economics, Serzh Sarkisian stated that
the new government of Armenia "will be acceptable for the people".

The President-Elect admitted that he has not yet determined as to
the candidature of the next Prime Minister of Armenia.

"The formation of a new government will be my first serious step at
the position of the President, and I will prove it to the society that
I remain adherent to my pre-election pledges and will be consequent
in their realization", Serzh Sarkisian stated.