THE NUMBER OF ELECTORS IS COMPILED 91 THOUSAND 166 PERSONS
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic
July 17 2007
According to the statement of NKR Police Department of passports
and visas, the colonel of the police Ararat Grigorian, in the ethnic
register of the NKR electors in connection with the coming presidential
elections on July 19, 2007, the total number of registered electors
is compiled 91660 persons.
IRAN: OIL EXPORTS TO IRAQ, ARMENIA TO START THIS YEAR, NEW PIPELINE SOON
Farhang-e Ashti, Tehran
17 Jul 07
Text of unattributed report headlined "Ne’matzadeh announced: Iran
to export fuel to Iraq and Armenia this year" published by Iranian
newspaper Farhang-e Ashti on 17 July.
The plan for the construction of an Iranian oil pipeline along three
directions with one million barrels per day capacity is now under
way. The pipeline will have a diameter of 42 inches and will carry
oil over an altitude of 2,500 metres above sea level.
According to an ISNA [Iranian Students News Agency] report, Mohammad
Reza Ne’matzadeh, the managing director of National Iranian Oil
Refining and Distribution Company [NIORDC], speaking at the second
Iran Transit Forum, said: "The Iranian oil pipeline will be located
along the shortest route from Bandar Neka [port of Neka] to Kharg
Island covering a distance of 1,000 km. It will link up with Bandar
Jask, covering a distance of 1,500 km and then proceed towards Bandar
Abbas. The duration scheduled for the completion of the project is
40 months and the implementation of the project will be overseen by
the National Iranian Oil Construction Engineering Company which is
affiliated to the Oil Ministry."
Mohammad Reza Ne’matzadeh outlined some of the other important
programmes involving oil refining and distribution in the future. These
include the construction of an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to
a refinery in Tabriz and the shipment of crude oil to a refinery in
Armenia. He said: "With a view to construct a refinery, we are in
the process of conducting negotiations with a Russian company and it
is envisaged that, by building this pipeline from the Caspian Sea,
we will be able to provide the Tabriz refinery with the oil required
to meet Armenia’s needs."
The deputy oil minister announced NIORDC’s plans to provide fuel to
Iraq and Afghanistan and said: "We have reached an agreement in order
to provide Iraq with 5mln litres of fuel per day by utilizing local
transport and shipping companies and by using domestic production
and foreign imports [from] North and South. With a view of meeting
Afghanistan’s fuel needs, we are in the process of conducting
negotiations."
Referring to the extension of future programmes for carrying oil
from the Caspian sea region to the Iranian refineries, Mohammad Reza
Ne’matzadeh said: "We are in the process of expanding and enlarging
the port of Neka. It is scheduled that in the next three years,
by installing more pumps and carrying out drainage operations to
tackle sedimentation, oil tankers with a displacement capacity of
4,000 tonnes and … [ellipsis as received] will be able to anchor
within seven kilometres of this port."
Mr Ne’matzadeh went on to say: "Presently two pipelines, with a
diameter of 3 inches and 3.5 inches, respectively and a capacity of
500,000 barrels are being used to carry oil from the port of Neka to
the refinery in Tehran."
The deputy oil minister, referring to crude oil production capacity
in the Caspian Sea littoral states, said: "At this moment Russia,
producing 9.5m barrels of oil per day and exporting 6m barrels per
day, is the biggest oil exporter in this region. Kazakhstan, producing
1.3m barrels per day and exporting 1mln barrels per day; Azerbaijan,
producing 500,000 barrels per day and exporting 350,000 barrels per
day and Turkmenistan, with a production capacity of 200,000 barrels
per day and exporting 80,000 barrels per day, are among the other
oil-producing states in the region. At the moment, in the states of
the former Soviet Union and the present countries in the region the
volume of production in non-OPEC states is 23 per cent and it is
expected that this figure will rise to 28 per cent by the year 2015.
Except Iran, the littoral states of the Caspian Sea possess 80 per
cent of the oil in the form of proven reserves."
Referring to the shipment of crude oil from the littoral states of
the Mazandaran sea [Caspian sea] to Iran, Mohammad Reza Ne’matzadeh
said: "A pipeline from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Iran will carry
approximately 400,000 to 500,000 barrels oil per day. In the first
phase, Iran’s share of the oil shipped by the pipeline to Neka would
be approximately 63,000 tonnes and out of this about 500,000 barrels
would be delivered to Tehran and Tabriz. In the future, this delivery
would be carried out from Bandar Creek [Creek Port]."
The managing director of NIORDC concluded his remarks by referring
to the increase in the capacity of oil refineries, and said: "It
is expected that by the year 2012 the production capacity of oil
refineries will increase from 1.6m barrels per day to 3m barrels
per day.
KOSOVO – ‘AN EXAMPLE’ FOR NAGORNO-KARABAKH
The News – International, Pakistan
p?id=64991
July 19 2007
STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan: International recognition of Kosovo as an
independent state would give new impetus to the sovereignty claim
of Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh, a senior separatist said
on Tuesday.
Those opposing independence being granted to Serbia’s province
of Kosovo say it will set a legal precedent that could re-ignite
separatist disputes elsewhere, especially in the former Soviet Union,
scene of four unresolved "frozen conflicts."
"The Kosovo model of conflict settlement could be an example for the
resolution of other conflicts," Nagorno Karabakh’s separatist minister
Masis Mailyan told Reuters in an interview.
"If it (Kosovo) is recognised, then it is interesting to me in that
an unrecognised country has won recognition in spite of the opinion
of its former sovereign rulers."
"In this sense the Kosovo model is an interesting one for us. That
is to say, we could achieve recognition under a new scenario."
Russia is blocking a Western-backed proposal to set Kosovo on the
path to independence, citing the fact that Belgrade does not want to
relinquish sovereignty over its province.
Kosovo’s Albanian majority has warned that could force it into a
unilateral declaration of independence. If this happens, the United
States and some European states have indicated they may recognise
Kosovo as a sovereign state.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s fight to split from Azerbaijan was the bloodiest of
the former Soviet Union’s separatist wars, with about 35,000 people
killed and over a million forced to flee their homes. The ethnic
Armenian majority drove out Azerbaijan’s forces and now runs its
own affairs with support from neighbouring Armenia, but no state has
recognised the region’s independence. Mailyan said Nagorno-Karabakh
would keep pursuing a negotiated settlement with Azerbaijan in the
hope that would lead to international recognition.
Peace talks lasting more than 15 years have failed to make
significant progress. But he said recognition for Kosovo would
encourage Nagorno-Karabakh to pursue a second track, to lobby foreign
states and international organisations to grant it recognition with
or without Azerbaijan’s consent.
Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, separatists in Georgia’s
South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions, and in Moldova’s breakaway
Transdniestria, are also seeking international recognition and say
they are following developments in Kosovo with interest.
ARMENIAN TROOPS IN IRAQ AGAIN ROTATED
By Hovannes Shoghikian and Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
July 18 2007
Armenia sent 46 non-combat troops to Iraq on Wednesday in a regular
rotation of its small military contingent that joined the U.S.-led
occupation force there more than two years ago.
The army truck drivers, demining experts, medics and other military
personnel will replace the same number of their comrades who have
completed their six month tour of duty in Iraq and will be flown back
to Yerevan later this month. The Armenian contingent is part of a
Polish-led multinational division deployed in mainly Shia-populated
areas south of Baghdad.
"What your detachment is doing is a continuation of a fight for
survival that characterizes the modern history of the Armenian people,"
Colonel-General Seyran Ohanian, chief of the Armenian army’s General
Staff, told the departing troops during a farewell ceremony.
"Your mission demonstrates that Armenia can not only defend itself
but contribute to global security."
Ohanian went on to compare Armenian soldiers’ service in Iraq and
Kosovo with Armenian "feats" during the continuing military conflict
with Azerbaijan. "Your battalion has successfully performed its tasks
in Iraq and Kosovo, and I believe that, if necessary, we can do so
in other conflict zones as well," he said, referring to the special
army unit that provides troops to the first-ever Armenian military
missions abroad.
The head of the Armenian Defense Ministry’s foreign relations
department, Major-General Mikael Melkonian, announced in May that
Yerevan is considering increasing the number of its peace-keeping
troops in Kosovo and joining the NATO-led military mission in
Afghanistan. He said it is currently discussing the issue with the
governments of Britain and Greece.
Ohanian also did not rule out the possibility of an Armenian deployment
in Afghanistan and a troop increase in Kosovo. "The Defense Ministry
has made no such decision yet," he told reporters.
Earlier this year, the U.S. military donated a mobile field hospital to
the Armenian peacekeeping battalion. The then U.S. charge d’affaires
in Yerevan, Anthony Godfrey, said during its inauguration in February
that the assistance is meant to facilitate "future Armenian military
deployments with coalition or NATO forces" in various conflict zones
and Afghanistan in particular.
On Tuesday, the government of Germany, a major contributor to the NATO
force in Afghanistan, similarly donated nine tons of medical equipment
to the Armenian military. A senior Defense Ministry official said the
"humanitarian assistance" will enable Armenia to deploy and fully
equip another military hospital "in field conditions."
BALCONY CRUMBLED
A1+
[01:43 pm] 16 July, 2007
On July 15, at 3:10 p.m., a balcony crumbled at Ayeratsia Street,
Yerevan.
In the result Karine Arakelian, 1960, and Hrachik Kachikian, 1993,
were taken to hospital with bodily injuries of different degrees.
Doctors state their conditions are of average seriousness.
ACCIDENT
On July 15, at 9:10 p.m., a "Mercedes" car with state number 45 TO
005 ran into a tree and then into an electric pillar. In a result
the driver of the car Vardan Hovhannisian, 1966, and the passengers
Hamlet Tutkhalian, 1966, Rafik Tutkhalian, 2000, Narine Hovhannisian,
1975, and David Hovhannisian, 1998, died.
Arpine Tutkhalian, 1977, and Angela Hovhannisian, 1996, were taken
to the Gyumri hospital after Gyulbenkian.
Doctors say their states are grave.
TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY CONDEMNS THE ILLEGAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH.
arminfo
2007-07-17 12:40:00
The The Turkish Foreign Ministry publicized a report in Ankara on 17
July condemning the illegal presidential election in the Azerbaijani
occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh scheduled for 19 July.
The document stated, "As it was known, after an illegal constitutional
referendum held in Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh territories occupied
by Armenia on 10 December 2006, the so- called presidential election
are planned to be held in the area on 19 July 2007." The report says
that the illegal election are considered in Ankara to be a component
of efforts and unilateral steps intended to legalize the situation
in Nagorno-Karabakh which does not correspond to the standards of
the international law, as well as to violate the decisions made by
the UN Security Council and OSCE.
The report emphasizes that during the period when talks on the
settlement of Armenian- Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are
in progress within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, holding
the so-called presidential election in occupied Azerbaijani Nagorno-
Karabakh should be viewed as a challenge to the peace process. In this
connection, the Turkish Foreign Ministry, condemning the election as
another effort to break political unity, sovereignty, and territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan, believes them to be incompetent from the
standpoint of the international law and does not recognize the results
of the election.
To recall, Turkey had broken the diplomatic relations with Armenia
more than 10 years ago and continues the republic’s blockade. It
would be difficult to expect another response from Ankara to the
forthcoming election in NKR in this situation.
RA GOVERNMENT TO CONTINUE BENEFICIAL COOPERATION WITH ARMENIAN OFFICE OF UN HIGH COMMISSIONER RESPONSIBLE FOR ISSUES OF REFUGEES
Noyan Tapan
Jul 16, 2007
YEREVAN, JULY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Considerable measures have been taken in
the direction of solving various issues concerning refugees, including
provision of flats, as well as the defence of their rights and their
social protection. This statement was made by Bushra Halepota, the
representative of the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees
in Armenia during the meeting with Serge Sargsian, the RA Prime
Minister, which was held on July 13. She was pleased to mention
the fact that Armenia has joined the corresponding international
convention concerning refugees, adopted the RA Law on Refugees still
in 1999 and currently, it is cooperating with the Armenian Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and envisages to adopt this
law after a new editing, which is already envisaged by the program
of the RA Government.
Bushra Halepota introduced all the measures taken by the Armenian
office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and its envisaged
programs to the RA Prime Minister, expecting to continue the deep
cooperation and assistance with the RA Government in the near future.
According to the information provided to Noyan Tapan by the Information
and Public Relations Department of the RA government, Serge Sargsian
appreciated the interested cooperation and assistance provided for
the RA government by the Armenian office of the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees so far in the direction of solving the problems of
refugees. The Prime Minister made assertions that the RA government
will continue to cooperate with the Armenian office with the same
productiveness, trying to solve the problems of unprovided groups,
including the various and numerous problems of refugees as much
as possible.
NA SPEAKER RECALLS CHINESE SAYINGS
A1+
[04:14 pm] 13 July, 2007
The National Assembly will not consider the bills banning Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan for the second
time. He told a Chinese tale in connection with the bills related
to RFE/RL.
The reporters asked the NA speaker to comment on the Republican,
Prosperous Armenia and ARF Dashnaktsutyun parties’ stance. To remind,
the parties did not vote for the bills "On Television and Radio" and
"State Duties," and the bills were not adopted.
Tigran Torosyan told the story of twelve friends who thought the other
eleven should settle the matter. For the news reporters, the speaker
says it does not mean that the members of parliament who were present
were for the closure of Radio Liberty, and the others who were absent
were against.
As for the delay of the July 14 conference of the Republican Party
Tigran Torosyan recalled another Chinese saying, "It is no use looking
for a black cat in the dark room, especially when the cat is not in
the room."
According to the NA Speaker it was technically impossible to hold
a conference in summer. Therefore the conference was delayed till
fall. Besides, there were issues that needed extra reflection.
The Republican Party will nominate its candidate, said Mr
Torosyan. He preferred to name the candidate after the Republicans’
conference. "This is a special order and I don’t want to break
the order."
In answer to A1+’s question whether the All-Armenian Party will name
Levon Ter-Petrosyan for presidency, Tigran Torosyan said, "You had
better ask Levon Ter-Petrosyan and no one else."
NUMBER OF VIVACELL (ARMENIA) SUBSCRIBERS EXCEEDS 1MLN IN JUNE 2007
ARKA
Jul 12 2007
YEREVAN, July 12. /ARKA/. As of June 2007, the number of subscribers
of VivaCell mobile operator exceeded 1mln, said "K-Telecom" Chairman
of the Board of Directors Pierre Fattouch during the press-conference
dedicated to the second anniversary of VivaCell.
"During two years of operation in Armenia, the number of VivaCell
subscribers exceeded 1mln. It speaks about the growth of trust towards
the company," he said.
Fattouch promised that VivaCell will maintain its leading positions
and continue development. He informed that the Company intends to
extend the list of services, and provide the innovated services by
more obtainable tariffs.
"K-Telecom" Company with VivaCell trademark is one of the two mobile
operators in Armenia. It has been operating on the Armenian market
since July 1, 2005. Its main owner is Lebanese investment structure
Fattouch Group.
At the end of 2006, the subscriber base of the second mobile operator
in Armenia "ArmenTel" CJSC made 452ths. The Russian company "VympelCom"
(BeeLine brand) holds 100% of shares.
BAKO SAHAKYAN, NAGORNO KARABAKH’S PRESIDENT’S CANDIDATE, HAS COLLECTED THE LARGEST AMOUNT OF FUNDS FOR HIS PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN.
arminfo
2007-07-11 08:38:00
All the candidates for the president of Nagorno Karabakh have opened
their pre-election funds in "Artsakhbank", with the exception of
Armen Abgarian.
As ArmInfo correspondent in Stepanakert informs, 6mln AMD have
been accumulated to the funds of the candidate for president Bako
Saakyan (this is the maximum allowed amount) and 1mln AMD-to
Masis Mayilian. The amounts in the other candidates’ funds are
far less. According to Sergey Nassibyan, Chair of the Central
Electoral Commission of Nagorno Karabakh, election campaign passes
normally. Registration of observers and journalists is still in
underway. Representatives of deputy corps and human rights protection
organizations from a range of post-Soviet territory and from Europe
are expected to arrive as international observers.