Author: Zakarian Garnik

EU TO WATCH PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA

Panorama.am
17:40 24/07/06

Peter Semneby, EU special represenative in South Caucasus, said at
the Armenian ministry of foreign affairs that EU expects free and
fair elections during 2007 parliamentary elections in Armenia. He
refused to comment what EU actions will be if the elections turn down
their expectations. EU rep reminded about Armenia’s commitments in
this regard. He also would not comment on the last elections and the
constitutional referendum in Armenia, saying that the international
observers have already expressed their opinion. EU rep warned that they
will be watchful to the opinions and recommendations of international
observers saying these recommendations will be part of discussions
with the Armenian leadership./Panorama.am/

AZERBAIJAN’S UNWILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT THE MINSK GROUP’S SUGGESTIONS
SHOWS THAT ARMENIA MUST BE INTERESTED IN THE NEGOTIATIONS

Yerevan, July 22. ArmInfo. The leader of the Republican Party of
Armenia, Prime Minister Andranik Margarian once again affirmed
his adherence to the course assumed in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
settlement.

On a party meeting Mr. Margarian stated that he will strive for
the recognition of the right of the Armenian people of Karabakh for
self-determination, for insuring the security of the borders and of the
people. He added that compulsory terms of the conflict’s settlement
are the following: the Republics of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh
must have a common border, Armenia’s borders must not be changed and
Karabakh itself must be a subject of the negotiation process.

Commenting on the recently published suggestions by the OSCE Minsk
Group, the Prime Minister said that the terns about withdrawing
Armenian forces and dislocating peacemaking forces in Karabakh in
exchange of a referendum could be accepted, hadn’t Azerbaijan always
rejected these terns and threatened with military aggression. Mr.
Margarian also noted that the armistice is preserved on the frontier
for already 12 years and thanked the Minsk Group for its contribution.

Andranik Margarian said that the possibility of ceding Azerbaijan
certain territories can be considered only in context with a number
of cessations from Azerbaijan. First of all Armenia demands holding
a referendum on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and providing the
Republics of Armenia and Karabakh a common border. He expressed hope
that the President of Armenia will never give consent to one-side
cessations.

Kiro Manoyan: The situation in the Middle East has overshadowed the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict

ArmRadio.am
21.07.2006 17:03

"The situation in the Middle East has overshadowed the resolution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," said Kiro Manoyan, Head of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau’s Hay Dat and Political
Affairs Office.

In his opinion, the Karabakh conflict cannot be settled in 2006. The
Co-Chairs are still anticipating an agreement on the principles and
not the final resolution of the issue.

The situation in the Middle Eeast and Turkey’s will to invade Northern
Iran can cause a new balance of powers in our region.

Member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Kiro Manoyan predicts
that the Middle East conflict will come to an end in a few months.

"However, it is not the end, the civil war is more dangerous,"
Kiro Manoyan said, adding that the struggle between the two wings of
Islam – Shias and Sunis – may bring to a civil war. In his opinion,
in this case the Armenian community will have to get involved. Kiro
Manoyan considers that the relations between Iran and Armenia are
indispensable, and in case sanctions are executed against Iran,
Armenia will have to violate these.

How did Israel manage to attack Lebanon? According to Kiro Manoyan,
the reason for Israel’s courage was the weakness of the Lebanese state.

SURVEY: EX-SPEAKER OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT MOST POPULAR POLITICAL FIGURE OF ARMENIA

Arka News Agency, Armenia
July 21 2006

YEREVAN, July 21. /ARKA/. Ex-Speaker of the RA National Assembly,
leader of "Orinats Yerkir" party Arthur Baghdasaryan is the most
popular political figure of Armenia, according to the Internet
survey held by the "Election Systems" Armenian center among 10thsd
respondents.

The survey, held between June 20 and July 20, shows that Baghdasaryan’s
popularity rating makes 27%, reducing by 2 points, against his previous
rating, as of May 20 – June 20 with participation of 9812 people.

The second comes President of the ALM Media-Holding, Chairman of
the National Party Tigran Karapetyan, who has 26% sympathy of the
respondents (earlier – 28%).

Leader of Heritage oppositional party, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs
Raffi Hovhannisyan is the third, with his 16% rating (1% slide).

Prime Minister of Armenia Andranik Margaryan, leader of coalition
Republican Party of Armenia holds his stabile 4th place (earlier 13%
respondents sympathized him).

Leader of National Democratic party, oppositional deputy of the RA
National Assembly Shavarsh Kocharyan is the fifth among the leaders,
with his 6% (2% rating growth).

Following 5 leaders, comes Gagik Tsarukyan, big businessman and
Chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia (5% like a
moth ago), and Aram Sargsyan, leader of Republic oppositional party,
ex-Prime Minister of Armenia is the 7th, according to the survey (1%
– again without any change).

During the survey none of the respondents voted for the RA Defense
Minister Serge Sargsyan, Vice- Speaker of the National Assembly Vahan
Hovhannisyan, head of Justice oppositional parliamentary faction
Stepan Demirchyan, Secretary of the same faction Viktor Dallakyan,
deputy Arshak Sadoyan, leader of National Unity Artashes Geghamyan, as
well as for leader of the United Labor Party faction Gurgen Arsenyan,
Chairman of the Liberal-Progressive party Hovhannes Hovhannisyan and
leader of "New Times" party Aram Karapetyan. S.P.-0–

Azeri Journalist Asks Armenian People Pardon

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.07.2006 15:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Luiza Poghosyan did not call the Genocide a myth. She
merely wanted to say that the myth is the conviction that the Genocide
not being recognized by Turks hampers us in developing relations
with Turkey. This is stated by a letter of Azeri participant of South
Caucasus Alternative Alekper Aliyev, received by PanARMENIAN.Net. As
we reported earlier, Aliyev has somehow distorted the text of the
statement of editor of web-site Luiza Poghosyan
at a six-sided meeting of citizens and NGOs of Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Nagorno Karabakh, Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, held in Yerevan
July 8-13.

Aliyev interpreted her words as, "The myth on genocide, we are
stuffed with, has become a complex for the Armenian society and made
it sick. We raise our children in hatred towards Turks. In this case
Turks for us are Turkey and Azerbaijan. We are told we won a war,
however, actually our entire region lost, specifically we lost. No
development is observed, nothing good is taking place. How long can
this hatred propaganda last? We cannot work for the future, constantly
thinking retrospectively."

"It turned out that I misunderstood Luiza’s first sentence. Luiza
Poghosyan was saying a totally different thing. I exacted it from my
friends, who participated in that meeting. I ask Armenian people’s
and my friend’s pardon!" Alekper Aliyev writes.

BOARD OF RA CENTRAL BANK DECIDES TO CANCEL
REGISTRATION OF 88 ISSUERS AT ARMENIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

AZG Armenian Daily #135, 20/07/2006

According to the press service of RA central Bank, the Board of
RA Central Bank took the decision not to object the cancel of the
registration of 88 other issuers under review at the Armenian Stock
Exchange. The same decision was taken for other nine CJSCs last
month. Thus, from the shares registered at the stock exchange of about
190 issuers, not less than 100 are left at present. The experts state
that these steps of RA CB are conditioned by the May 25,2006, decision
of RA CB. According to this decision, the existence of independent
capital of AMD 500 million is a compulsory criteria for the status of
an issuer to pass the listing at the stock exchange for the OJSCs. The
rest of the companies with less amount of capital may preserve their
registration. Earlier, the compulsory limit for an OJSC to pass the
registration was AMD 5 million. The experts state that such decision
of CB is the first positive step for the development of the organized
market of securities after RA CB received the legal right to carry out
the function of the financial regulator. According to the experts,
it’s senseless to make the issuers under review exist at the market
fictitiously, as hardly any company may "boast" about its popularity,
by the existence of the principles for corporate management and the
minority defence system. The experts state that there are many pocket
but totally non-transparent companies that do not need to attract the
capital from the stock exchange, do not want to be open and aren’t
interested in the foreign investors. According to the experts, after
"cleansing" the organized market of the securities, the most leading
and organized companies will remain in the market. At present there
are 190 OJSCs included in the listing of the Armenian Stock Exchange
and not more than 40 of them will remain at the market of securities.

Armenian Public Support for Karabakh Compromise ‘Pointless Now’

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
July 14 2006

By Anna Saghabalian

The Armenian government will not to seek domestic popular support
for a compromise solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict favored by
international mediators until it is accepted by Azerbaijan, Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian indicated on Friday.

In their recent statements that disclosed the essence of the proposed
peace deal, the French, Russian and U.S. co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group urged the presidents of Armenia to display the necessary
"political will" and prepare their publics for mutual painful
concessions on Karabakh.

"We think the parties would be well-served at this point by allowing
their publics to engage in a robust discussion of the many viewpoints
on those issues," read their statement issued on June 22. "We are
confident that neither society wants renewed conflict, and we urge
the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to work with their publics and
to work with each other to formulate an agreement on core principles
that both find acceptable."

But according to Oskanian, initiating a public debate in Armenia
will be pointless unless Azerbaijan accepts the Minsk Group plan as
a basis for further negotiations. "I am not making and will not make
any attempts to convince anyone, and especially our people, that the
provisions of that document must be accepted, because the Azerbaijani
side has yet to accept it," he told reporters.

Official Yerevan has said that it finds the framework peace accord,
which calls for a referendum of self-determination in Karabakh, largely
acceptable to the Armenian side. The Azerbaijani leadership appears
to be less supportive of the proposed formula, with President Ilham
Aliev repeatedly stating that Baku will never agree to Karabakh’s
independence or reunification with Armenia.

ARFD DISAPPROVES BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR NAGORNO KARABAKH
SETTLEMENT ELABORATED BY OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS

AZG Daily #130, 07/13/2006

OPINION

ARF Dashnaktsiutiun party disapproves the basic principles for Nagorno
Karabakh settlement suggested by the OSCE MG Co-Chairs. Kiro Manoyan,
Chairman of ARF" Dashnaktsiutiun party, said this at "Hayeli" club.

He said that the positive part in the suggestion of the OSCE MG
is the point on holding referendum for the status of NKR. This
means that Azerbaijan will have to get accustomed to the idea that
Nagorno Karabakh will have a status and they will stop talking of
any autonomy. But the party doesn’t like the fact that from the very
beginning of the negotiations both the Armenian and NKR authorities
treated the regions under the control of NKR Armed forces as "something
they have to give back." Agreeing for the referendum, the Armenian side
doesn’t make any big concession. At the same time, he said that they
could have preserved the territories. Manoyan stated that his party
is mostly concerned about the stability in the country and that’s why
they are going to declare their position to everyone. He added that
Matthew Bryza, OSCE MG Co-Chair, made his statement, trying to change
the impression from his meeting with Speaker of Azeri Parliament and
Azeri Foreign Minister in Washington. Manoyan stated that Bryza didn’t
properly estimate the situation and interfered with spheres that are
out of the OSCE plenipotentiaries, particularly, the Armenian-Turkish
relations and the democratic processes in Armenia. That’s why his
statements had negative effect, he said.

Manoyan’s opponent, Hmayak Hovhannesian, member of RA Parliament,
stated that the tactics of Armenia in the negotiations was always
based on the intolerance of Azerbaijan to any concessions and that
was quite a successful one. But the Armenian side always stated about
its readiness to make concessions, that’s why they demand more from
Armenia. Besides, the Armenian society, as compared with the Azeri one,
is prepared for the concessions, as it feels the negative impact of
the unsettled conflict, he said.

The parties also touched upon the recent statement of Sabina Fraizer,
representative of the International Crisis Group, who said that the
situation around the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement is close
to a critical one. Manoyan said one shouldn’t impart much importance
to the statements of such NGOs. While Hovhannesian said that the
importance of such statements shouldn’t be underestimated, as ICG
is closely connected to the US State Department. He added that the
US State Department tries to find out what the public opinion is on
probable impacts of certain consequences of this or that settlement
plans through such statements.

By Gohar Gevorgian

U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS FRANK MERMOUD VISITS ARMENIA

Panorama.am
15:27 12/07/06

Frank Mermoud, U.S. Special Representative for Commercial and Business
Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, is visiting Armenia July
11-13. During his visit, Mr. Mermoud met with representatives of the
American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia, other business representatives
and Armenian government officials regarding economic, commercial
and business issues. Mr. Mermoud discussed ways to further increase
U.S. investment in Armenia and noted positive cooperation between the
United States and Armenia in the economic sector. He also encouraged
all Armenians to continue to fight against corruption and to work to
increase transparency as a means of promoting economic growth.

Frank Mermoud has served as Special Representative for Commercial
and Business Affairs since June 3, 2002.

Mr. Mermoud is responsible for managing U.S.

commercial and business affairs programs, developing strategic advocacy
assistance for U.S. businesses, and integrating business perspectives
into U.S. foreign policy. He possesses significant private sector and
government experience, having served in such positions as Co-Founder
of SageMetrics Corporation, Executive Vice President of International
and Corporate Affairs and a member of the Board of Directors for Aegis
Communications, Director of Legislative Affairs at the Department
of State, and Congressional Liaison Officer for the United States
Information Agency. /EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA/

GRAND MASTER KAREN ASRIAN TAKES PART IN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT STARTED IN CHINA

TAIYUAN, JULY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. Karen Asrian from Yerevan is among
the participants of the international tournament which has started
on July 10 in the city of Taiyuan, China. 11 famous grand masters
from Cuba, China, Russian Federation and Georgia also take part in
the tournament. Each participant will play 11 games by the circular
contest rules.