Author: Vasilian Manouk

RPA DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: MAIN ABETTORS OF MARCH 1 EVENTS NOT ARRESTED AS YET

arminfo
2008-06-02 13:29:00

ArmInfo. The main abettors of March 1 tragic events in Yerevan are
still on the loose, deputy Chairman of the Republican party of Armenia,
RA parliamentarian Galust Sahakyan said at today’s press-conference in
"Mirror" club. He said that February 19, 2008, presidential election
in Armenia have got a positive assessment of the world community in
general, and they met the democratic standards. Asked by ArmInfo why
the situation in the country "heated" up to the hilt and led to March
1 events, G. Sahakyan replied that the "abettors pushed the protest
electorate to such events". "The investigation will reveal these
abettors. I can only say that they are still on the loose. However, I
am sure that they will answer for what their deeds", G. Sahakyan said.

The parliamentarian also said that the temporary commission, being
formed in the National Assembly, on investigation of March 1 events,
will give answers to many questions the society is interested in.

"Moreover, representatives of the law machinery management will also
answer to the Commission", G. Sahakyan said.

A GIFT FROM HEAVEN

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on May 31, 2008
Armenia

`I would like to record over again that most of the problems enshrined
in PACE resolution have already been enshrined in the coalition
memorandum, which has been adopted long before the adoption of the
resolution. The conversation is mostly about the establishment of trust
towards the election processes, ensuring clearer guarantees of activity
for the parliamentary opposition, such as freedom of speech, free
press, more objective mechanisms for the activity of the TV companies,
etc.

These are the problems that were, from the beginning, included in the
agenda of the coalition. So we can’t say that the PACE resolution was a
gift from the heaven and that we don’t know what to do with it,’ Naira
Zohrabyan expressed such idea.

ARMENIA SHOULD REFRAIN FROM EXTREME POSITION TO SEPARATE NAGORNO-KARABAKH FROM AZERBAIJAN – DEPUTY MINISTER

Trend News Agency
May 29 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 May / Trend corr. S.Agayeva / Armenia should
refrain from its extreme position to separate Nagorno-Karabakh from
Azerbaijan, Araz Azimov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan,
stated to journalists on 29 may.

The next negotiations between the Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents,
which will be held in St.Petersburg in early June, is aimed to get
a clear picture of official Yerevan’s position regarding settlement
of the conflict.

"The further steps on regulation of the conflict depend on the
principles of the sides. If there will be differences in the positions,
then there is no sense to continue these negotiations," the Deputy
Foreign Minister said.

Azimov has confirmed the adherence of official Baku to settle
the conflict through peaceful means and within the framework of
international norms. " Baku is prepared to continue negotiations
within the framework of Prague process," Azimov said.

The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988
due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has
occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven neighboring Districts. Since 1992, these
territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time
the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
(Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

Czech News Agency
May 28, 2008 Wednesday 9:46 PM (Central European Time)

Kubis explains Slovak govt’s view of Armenian genocide to Babacan

Bratislava May 28 (CTK)

Slovak Foreign Minister Jan Kubis today explained to his Turkish
counterpart, Ali Babacan, the Slovak government’s position on the
massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire and assured him that
Bratislava does not want to politicise the issue.

The two ministers focused on it following the appreciation with which
Slovak Justice Minister Stefan Harabin’s position on the Armenian
genocide met in Armenia on Tuesday.

"I explained that the government’s position rests in the effort to
avoid politicising similar issues. I said it is up to historians, not
necessarily politicians, to assess history," Kubis told journalists
after meeting Babacan.

Ankara refuses to speak of genocide in connection with Armenians. It
says the death of about 1.5 million Armenians in 1915-17 was caused by
the war and famine.

The Slovak Justice Ministry has proposed, in its draft amendment to
the Penal Law, that the denial of any genocide, including Armenian, be
outlawed in Slovakia. At present only the denial of the Holocaust is
unlawful.

During Harabin’s ongoing visit to Yerevan, his efforts in this area
were appreciated by the head of the Armenian Church.

Kubis today said he will tell Harabin how sensitive the issue is in
Turkey.

He said he will tell Harabin that if he insisted on the planned
legislation concerning genocide, it could affect Slovak-Turkish
relations.

Babacan today said that Turkey had offered the Armenian government to
form a joint commission of experts to analyse the past events.

He said Ankara is ready to accept the result of such a debate of
scientists and come to terms with it, no matter what it is
like. However, it would not accept any accusations of Turkey, made
without reliable scientific evidence, he said.

rtj/mr

Safar Abiyev: Azerbaijan will make no compromises

armradio.am
30.05.2008 14:25

Azerbaijan’s Minister of Defense Safar Abiyev said that Azerbaijan will
not make any compromises in ensuring its territorial integrity. `If
Armenia continues denying peaceful settlement of the problem,
Azerbaijan will not agree with it and will release its lands. Armenia
should understand it forever,’ Azerbaijan’s Minister of Defense,
General-Colonel Safar Abiyev, said during his meeting with the
Commander of Defense Forces of Estonia, General-Lieutenant Ants
Laaneots, who is on visit to Baku.

Abiyev said that Armenia, which `presents obstacles to the peaceful
settlement of the conflict, does not fulfill requirements of the
Resolutions being adopted by the UN Security Council.’

OSCE/ODIHR: Insufficient regard for standards essential to democratic
elections devalued the overall election process in Armenia

2008-05-30 16:44:00

ArmInfo. Insufficient regard for standards essential to democratic
elections devalued the overall election process in Armenia, the OSCE
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in a
final report on the February 19 presidential election.

As ArmInfo was told by the press-service of ODIHR headquarters in
Warsaw, the document says: "While the 2008 presidential election mostly
met OSCE commitments and international standards in the pre-election
period and during voting hours, serious challenges to some commitments
did emerge, especially after election day. This displayed an
insufficient regard for standards essential to democratic elections and
devalued the overall election process. In particular, the vote count
demonstrated deficiencies of accountability and transparency, and
complaints and appeals procedures were not fully effective".

According to Ambassador Christian Strohal, Director of the ODIHR,
"there is a sound legal basis for holding democratic elections in
Armenia – the deficiencies noted in our report resulted primarily from
a lack of determination to apply existing laws and rules effectively
and impartially". "Improving Armenia’s electoral framework does not
require so much further technical or legal changes, but rather a
genuine commitment by the authorities at all levels, as well as all
other political stakeholders, to a democratic electoral process free of
undue State interference and in line with OSCE standards", Strohal
noted.

The report makes concrete recommendations on how to improve Armenia’s
election framework. These include measures to address the lack of
public confidence in the electoral process, to ensure that all citizens
are able to cast their votes free of coercion or intimidation, and to
establish a clear separation between State structures and the ruling
party.

Today.Az, Azerbaijan
May 27 2008

Russian expert: "By stressing its isolation, "Nagorno Karabakh
Republic" became trapped by the same processes that occur around other
unrecognized countries"

27 May 2008 [10:16] – Today.Az

"Today Nagorno Karabakh occupies special place among the unrecognized
countries", said Alexander Skakov, chief of department for problems
of near abroad of the Russian Strategic Researches Institute, taking
part in the international conference in the Nagorno Karabakh center.

"On the one hand, Nagorno Karabakh proved its political and economic
independence and flexibility. On the other hand, "Nagorno Karabakh
Republic" distances itself from other unrecognized countries and in
the result from Russia as well. Russia also does not strive for
involving Nagorno Karabakh into its orbit and does not intend to spoil
its positive relations with Azerbaijan.

Paradoxical situation emerged in the result-by stressing its
isolation, "Nagorno Karabakh Republic" became trapped by the processes
and pressure of the other unrecognized countries", said Skakov.

According to him, "the intention of Brussels and Washington to break
the status-quo, unfreeze the existent conflict, transform the system
of international relations, established in the South Caucasus, did not
bypass Nagorno Karabakh".

"Since the Moscow meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group in 1993, Nagorno
Karabakh had been a conflict party, a participant of the negotiation
process and remained that until autumn of 1997, despite the sharp
resistance of Baku. Nevertheless, a number of factors, including the
emerging internal crisis in Armenia, as well as Azerbaijan’s growing
prestige resulted in Minsk group’s refusal to hold talks with
participation of Khankendi under pretense of the urgent presidential
elections in "Nagorno Karabakh Republic".

"Nagorno Karabakh Republic" is right to insist on its full
participation as a conflict side in the negotiation process under the
auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group. Baku is against it", said the
Russian expert.

At the same time he noted that the said situation is unambiguous. "On
the one hand, the status of Nagorno Karabakh, as a conflict side, has
lowered, as the talks are held without its participation. On the other
hand, "Nagorno Karabakh Republic" gets an opportunity to block the
implementation of any peaceful plan without participation in the talks
and Armenia is free in its actions.

Anyway, the non-participation of "Nagorno Karabakh Republic" in the
negotiation process can not be considered logical, as the interests of
Yerevan and Khankendi are not the same, though close to each others",
said Alexander Skakov.

He said Russia distances itself from the search of ways of the
conflict resolution, shifting the responsibility to the conflicting
sides and other mediators. This reduces Russia’s influence in the
region, he thinks.

Speaking about possible renewal of hostilities in the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, he noted: "Most officials in Azerbaijan do not rule out
forced way of resolution in case there will not be any other peaceful
solutions. Nevertheless, the variant of Azerbaijan’s strengthening its
position in the international arena and isolation of Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh is the most important for Baku".

He noted that militaristic spirits are stronger among the military
leadership of Azerbaijan than among the political one. "Generals
develop plans of military revenge and start to believe in their
possibility. The most surprising is that in line with some sources,
the Azerbaijani military authorities also admit the variant of front
attack to the "Nagorno Karabakh Republic" for outlet to the Karabakh
defense, which seems quite unreal.

Anyway, the confidence about the possible revenge creates conditions
for initiation of large scale military actions in case of any
provocation. I admit that such militaristic spirits may also exist
among the Armenian servicemen. In particular, Armenian mass medias
admit that in case Yerevan and Khankendi are confident about
Azerbaijan’s readiness to war, they may undertake a warning attack. It
seems to me that both scripts are possible only in the result of a
large scale crisis in the whole region", said the Russian expert.

The current plans of the peaceful resolution of Nagorno Karabakh
conflict should be considered in the sense of their preparedness, he
considers. Yet, he says that all of them are unreal and face
insuperable obstacles in the current conditions.

"To overcome them requires either good will or peace-loving, which
both sides do not have, or unilateral steps from one of the parties,
demonstrating its good will, which is unreal so far. Today the only
chance for the peaceful resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict on the
long-term basis is a course for reconciliation of the peoples and
rejection of the forced resolution of the problem", said Skakov.

/Regnum/

URL:

ARMENIAN CEC SUBMITS 12 CASES ON VIOLATIONS OF ELECTION CODE DURING 18 FEBRUARY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TO PROSECUTOR GENERAL

arminfo
2008-05-26 20:42:00

ArmInfo. Central Electoral Commission of Armenia submitted 12 cases
on violations of the Election Code during 18 February presidential
election to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Head of Armenian CEC
Garegin Azaryan said in response to ArmInfo question.

On May 26 CEC passed the report of CEC on violations of the
Election Code during the presidential election by 7 votes ‘for’ and 1
‘abstention’ (representatives of Heritage Party at CEC Zoya Tadevosyan
– ArmInfo). By legislation, the report is to be made public at least
in 3 months after the official results of the election. The full text
of the CEC on the violations of the Election Code will be available
at the official website of the CEC later.

CLOSE COOPERATION WITH DIASPORA NECESSARY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH TECH IN KARABAKH

DeFacto Agency
May 26 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 26.05.08. DE FACTO. The issues referring to the current
situation and perspectives of development of Nagorno-Karabakh’s
informational sphere were discussed on May 24 in the course of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic President Bako Sahakian’s meeting with a
group of Armenian experts.

The Armenian experts arrived in Stepanakert within the frames of the
international conference entitled "The 20th Anniversary of Karabakh
Movement: Realities and Perspectives" held in Stepanakert on May
23-24, the Central Department of Information under the NKR President
reports. In the course of the meeting the parties underscored the
necessity of close cooperation between Artsakh and Diaspora in the
sphere of High Tech.

Besides, the interlocutors discussed a number of issues referring to
Artsakh’s internal and foreign policy.

The NKR FM Georgy Petrosian and other officials participated in
the meeting.

The Presbyterian Church of Scotland recognizes the Armenian Genocide

armradio.am
24.05.2008 12:00

A major step forward in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the
UK took place this week when the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church of Scotland passed a motion calling on the UK government to
recognize the Genocide, independent French correspondent Jean Eckian
informed Radiolur.

The Church follows the example of the Presbyterian Church of Wales
which called on the UK government to recognize the Genocide in 2006.

This is the result of an intense work by lobbyists Ara Krikorian, Edgar
Danielyan and Eilian Williams, whose activity was instrumental in
persuading the Church to take to this decision.

PM Gordon Brown belongs to the Presbyterian Church and will find it
hard to resist this declaration by his Church.