Author: Virabian Jhanna

DESPITE WEAK JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND CORRUPTION, ARMENIA AGAIN RANKED AMONG MOST ECOOMICALLY FREE COUNTRIES

Noyan Tapan
Jan 15 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The regular classification "Index
of Economic Freedom" was published, according to which Armenia is
again among the world’s most economically free countries: it is in
28th place among 162 countries. Based on the opinion of the Wall
Street Journal of Heritage Foundation (US), Armenia is the most
economically free country among CIS countries and is in 15th place
out of 41 countries of the European region.

It is indicated that Armenia needs to increase protection of the right
of property, reduce corruption and strengthen the judicial system,
In the past few years, Armenia has been among the relatively free
countries in the world, surpassing even several EU countries in
this respect.

By the 2008 index, Georgia is in 32nd place, Turkey is in 74th place,
Azerbaijan is in 107th place and Russia is in 134th place.

The Index of Economic Freedom is calculated based on 50 variables which
include all aspects of the business environment in the given country.

CO-CHAIRS PRESENT THE RESULTS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS IN ARTSAKH

armradio.am
17.01.2008 15:17

On January 17 RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received the
OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Bernard Fassier, Matthew Bryza and Yuri
Merzlyakov.

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs informed the Foreign Minister about the
results of the negotiations with the leadership of Artsakh and shared
the impressions from the monitoring at the contact line of the armed
forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

Minister Oskanian and the Co-Chairs dwelt on the non-agreed questions
of the document on the bargaining table.

OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS LEAVE KHANKENDI FOR YEREVAN

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Jan 16 2008

The co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza (US), Bernard Fassier
(France) and Yury Merzlyakov (Russia) and personal representative
of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk ended their visit to
Khankendi and returned to Yerevan.

APA reports quoting Armenian media that in the framework of their
visit to Khankendi the co-chairs met head of separatist Nagorno
Karabakh regime Bako Saakyan and attended the monitoring in the
frontline. Depending on the discussions in Yerevan the co-chairs are
expected to visit Baku on January 18 again.

MATTHEW BRYZA: "OUR TASK IS TO FIND A COMPROMISE DURING THE NEGOTIATION PROCESS"

Today, Azerbaijan
Jan 16 2008

The US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza commented
on the negotiation process for Nagorno Garabagh conflict settlement.

"It is not possible to be a successful mediator without being
familiarized with the ideas and positions of the leaders of the
conflicting sides", he said in Khankendi.

Touching upon the New Year speech of President of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliyev, who ruled out the self-appointment of Nagorno Garabagh,
which makes agreement almost impossible, the US mediator said: "We
are aware of this position of Azerbaijan. Yet our task is to find a
compromise during the negotiation process".

He spoke for the necessity to support the personal representative
of the OSCE chairman-in-pffoce Andjey Kaspshik in the preservation
and strengthening of the ceasefire regime in the region of
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

URL:

BERNARD FASSIER: "IN CASE OF THE GARABAGH CONFLICT WE ARE DEALING WITH THE INTERNATIONAL LAW, A CONFLICT INSIDE AZERBAIJAN AND AN INTERSTATE CONFLICT"

Today, Azerbaijan
Jan 16 2008

French co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier said the
Kosovo and Nagorno Garabagh conflicts have little in common.

"We have already announced that the year of 2008 will be decisive in
the issue of Nagorno-Garabagh settlement and that there is a hope to
reach a breakthrough in the execution of basic principles".

The due statement was made by the French co-chairman of the OSCE
Minsk Group Bernard Fassier, who arrived in the so called "Nagorno
Garabagh Republic" in the framework of the regional visit of the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairmen following the meeting with the president of
the self-appointed "republic".

The French co-chairman noted that it is desirable to achieve the
breakthrough before elections in Armenia, which is not easy.

"Yet, it would be better to do it following the elections in Armenia
or in Azerbaijan. We consider that such possibility exists and we
intend to achieve definite results", the French mediator said.

According to him during the meeting with the president of the
so-called "Nagorno Garabagh Republic" the sides discussed prospects
of the settlement of Nagorno-Garabagh conflict, current situation in
Azerbaijan and relations between the countries of the region.

Speaking about the prospects of Garabagh’s involvement into the
negotiation process, Bernard Fassier noted that the said issue had
been discussed both in Yerevan and in Baku.

The French co-chairman said it is difficult to state whether Kosovo
may become a precedent for the settlement of other conflicts or not.

"The situation in Kosovo is quite different. We have mentioned this
in Yerevan, as well as in Baku and in Khankendi. Let’s take just some
of its aspects.

The Kosovo conflict is a conflict inside one country, while in case
of the Garabagh conflict we are dealing with the international law,
a conflict inside Azerbaijan and an interstate conflict. The situations
are quite different", Bernard Fassier announced.

URL:

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Jan 14 2008

Turkish leftist party remembers slain journalist Hrant Dink

The Turkish-Armenian journalist was killed on January 19 last year,
allegedly by a gunman linked to far right wing groups.

Güncelleme: 14:32 TSÝ 14 Ocak 2008 Pazartesi

ISTANBUL – The memory of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink
was commemorated at a cememony organised by the left wing Freedom and
Solidarity Party (ODP) in Istanbul on Sunday.

Dink’s widow Rakel thanked the participants for showing respect to
her husband, who was gunned down outside the office of the newspaper
Argos of which he was the editor on January 19 last year.

Ufuk Uras, ODP’s chairman and a parliamentary deputy for Istanbul,
said that the files on those accused of involvement in Dink’s murder
were being hidden in provinces they had been come to.

Uras said that an organised group was behind the murder.

ARMENIAN INSTITUTE "BIOTECHNOLOGY" COOPERATES WITH AZERBAIJANI PARTNER
UNDER NATO SPS PROGRAM

YEREVAN, JANUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. "Biotechnology" Scientific and
Research Institute CJSC of the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development is participating in the grant program on studies of
antibacterial and antiallergic properties of lactic-acid bacteria as
food additives under the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS)
program, in which the institute’s partners are scientific institutions
engaged in the same field in Russia, France, Bulgaria, Egypt and
Azerbaijan, NT correspondent was informed by Gayane Avetisova,
scientific secretary of "Biotechnology".

In her words, the three-year grant program was launched in October
2006. It allows "Biotechnology" to improve the antibacterial medication
synthesized at the institute by using information provided by the
scientific institutions cooperating with "Biotechnology" under the
indicated program. Based on this medication, the institute obtains
additives which are used in poultry-keeping and pig-breeding
enterprises of Armenia as preventive substance. Besides, these
additives are used as a preservative on the biological basis at
enterprises of food industry.

According to G. Avetisova, training of young scientists is done within
the framework of the program. 4 Armenian post-graduate students are
also undergoing training at 2-3 month courses in Bulgaria and France.

V. KAZIMIROV: SERIOUS GROUNDS FOR COMPROMISES CAN BE CREATED ONLY IN
CASE OF EXCLUSION OF DANGER OF NEW WAR

YEREVAN, JANUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. An international conference under the
title Wider Black Sea Region: Prospects of International and Regional
Security is being held on January 14-15 in Yerevan. The conference has
been organized by the group of Armenian international economic
researches. Experts from the U.S., Europe and regional countries,
Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey take part in the conference. Peter Semneby,
the Special Representative of the European Union (EU) for the South
Caucasus, made a greeting speech at the event. Matthew Bryza, the U.S.
Co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, will make a speech on January 15.

Vladimir Kazimirov, a former Russian Co-chairman, said in his speech
that the unsettled Nagorno Karabakh problem, the state of "neither war
nor peace" is a serious threat to the Black Sea region’s security and
stability.

According to him, among the conflict parties, for Armenians, the
priority is the NKR status, for Azeris the return of territories and
refugees, while the international community’s priority is not to permit
a new war. And there are many bases for it, two of which are peculiar
to the very conflict: the necessity to stop the bloodshed chain between
Azeris and Armenians and Baku’s voiced striving for war and revenge.
According to Kazimirov, official Baku’s bellicose statements and sowing
of hatred to Armenians, abrupt increase of the military budget,
double-faced attitude to incidents happening on the contact-line and
turning down any contacts with Armenians are worthy of not only
discussion, but also condemnation. Kazimirov said that the presidential
elections in Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia and the United States, as
well as the Kosovo problem exclude a real shift in the Nagorno Karabakh
settlement, but the international community and first of all OSCE
should use this "window" to oppose the above mentioned negative
phenomena.

V. Kazimirov said that OSCE should roughly counteract to everything,
which hampers its mission of peaceful settlement of the conflict, which
the organization has assumed with the consent of the conflict parties.
He affirmed that serious grounds can be created for compromises only
after excluding the danger of resuming military operations. For this
purpose, according to him, the parties should be suggested signing an
agreement on the lack of an alternative to the peaceful settlement.

According to V. Kazimirov, the Armenian party should be more full of
initiative. According to him, this also concerns Stepanakert, which de
facto has a possibility of becoming a negotiations party.

AZG Armenian Daily #007, 16/01/2008

Presidential Elections

VAZGEN MANOUKIAN’ELECTION OFFICE’S FORECAST OF COMING
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS AND SELF-DECEPTION OF LEVON
TER-PETROSIAN

"During the news conference on January 11 Levon
Ter-Petrosian said answering the question of reporters
that he will not break fences and beat the president
of the parliament hinting at the popular movement
against presidential election in 1996. The popular
movement of 1996 was the consequence of the
presidential election falsified by the ruling regime.
The people and the political forces participating in
the movement want to live in a democratic country and
stand up for their votes when the regime tampers their
votes.

When Levon Ter-Petrosian condemns the uprising in
1996, his strictures are not only against Vazgen
Manoukian but also a fair election to shape a
democratic government. The Constitutional Court shaped
in accordance with the Constitution establishing
autocracy did not accept that the election of 1996 was
rigged, like it later denied that the presidential
election of 2003 and the parliamentary election of
2007 were falsified. As to the percentages concocted
after the falsified elections of 1996, 1998, 2003,
which are ascribed to Vazgen Manoukian, Levon
Ter-Petrosian who manipulates them should admit that
the votes ascribed to father and son Demirchians in
1998 and 2003 are true. Besides, although he stated
that all the elections held after him were falsified,
he nevertheless congratulated Robert Kocharian in
1998.Finally, nobody doubts that Levon Ter-Petrosian’s
resignation in 1998 was the consequence of the
election of 1996. If the official results of the
election of 1996 had been true, and Levon
Ter-Petrosian had received the officially announced
number of votes, people would hardly have accepted his
resignation with silent agreement.

Vazgen Manoukian election office states that one of
the points of his election program is the adoption of
a new Constitution which will enable mechanisms to
prevent election fraud, ensure the independence of the
judicial power from the executive and prevalence of
justice over the will of the person at the top of
government. It will enable us to rid of the regime
holding on to power through the tradition of the
Constitution of 1995 and take the track for
development.

By Nana Petrosian, translated by K.A.

Unconfirmed Sources (satire)
hp?itemid=2816
Jan 13 2008

CONGRESS HAS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT TO DO THAN TO ANTAGONIZE TURKEY?

by Gunther Schnitzel

WASHINGTON — Global warming? Health care? The Iraq war? Iran?
Illegal immigration? Crumbling bridges and roads? Genocide in Africa?
Israel and Palestine problem? Treasury going broke? Nah, not
important, says our House of Representatives. Let’s antagonize one of
our few remaining allies since we have nothing else of any importance
to do.
So the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee approved a
resolution Wednesday calling the 1915 massacres of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks, genocide.and it now goes to the House floor, where
Democratic leaders say there will be a vote by mid-November.

– Turkey warned on Thursday that relations with its NATO ally the
United States would be harmed by a U.S. House committee’s approval of
the genocide resolution.

Here is some background about the issue:
In the late 19th century the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian minority,
numbering an estimated 2 million, was encouraged by exiled groups in
the United States, Geneva and in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, to
assert its nationalism. Repression by Ottoman irregulars, mainly
Kurds, led to the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in
eastern Anatolia in 1894-1896. Several thousand more were killed in
Constantinople in August 1896 after Armenian extremists seized the
Ottoman Bank to draw attention to their cause.

President Bush enthusiastically approved the resolution, " We gotta
show them foreigners who’s in charge around here," he smirked," Gotta
keep them stirred up and in line!"

Vice President Dick Cheney also congratulated the Foreign Affairs
Committee for their condemnation of Turkey.

" We’re getting a backlog of war stuff by Lockheed, Brown & Root,
Halliburton and other of our suppliers to the Defense Department."
Cheney said, "Congress doesn’t want us to use these planes, bombs,
tanks, ships and guns on Iran, so we got to use them somewhere.
Turkey looks good. If we can’t piss them off, how about China, or
Mexico? If I can continue to scoop up ‘no-bid’ contracts with the
Defense Department, my Halliburton’s stock price will continue to
increase over the next few years, and as I will no longer be Vice
President, I can exercise my stock options and be able to cash out
for a substantial profit!"

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