Author: Zargarian Hambik

NABUCCO TO DEPRIVE ARMENIA OF LAST CHANCE TO PARTICIPATE IN REGIONAL ENERGY PROJECTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.02.2008 17:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Nabucco project can be realized at the expense of
Iranian gas. Talks promise success.

Once, Iran wanted to export gas via Armenia but Russia did not allow
Armenia to become a transit country. Now Turkey is aspired to occupy
our place. At that time Russia feared to lose control over gas export
from East to West. Now, it has nothing to lose, since the pipe will
stretch through unfriendly countries. Russia can change its stance
and speak of the Iran-Armenia as an alternative to Nabucco," Habet
Madoyan, expert of Mitk analytical center, said in an interview with
PanARMENIAN.Net.

"In case Nabucco is put into operation we will not have much to
expect. Two gas pipelines for the same source will be unreal and
unprofitable. Nabucco will deprive Armenia of the last chance to
participate in regional energy projects," he said.

ARMENIANS FELICITATE ANNIVERSARY OF ISLAMIC REVOLUTION

Tehran Times
Feb 12 2008
Iran

Armenians residing in Arak, capital of Markazi Province, by issuing a
statement, felicitated the 29th anniversary of the Islamic revolution
victory to the supreme leader, president, officials, and the nation.

The statement, a copy of which was sent to the IRNA Bureau in Arak,
said, "Conspiracies, plots and sanctions of the U.S. and usurper
Israeli regime against Iran will never stop Iranians’ firm intention
and determination on their final goal, which is to remove cruelty
from the world."

In conclusion, the statement said, "Armenians in Arak, like other
Armenians in different parts of the country, will continue their
struggle to establish peace and tranquility in the world and to
exalt Iran."

VAZGEN MANUKIAN BELIEVES THAT ARMENIA’S MEMBERSHIP IN NATO WILL NOT LEAD TO STRENGTHENING OF THE REPUBLIC’S SECURITY
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Mediamax
February 12, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Presidential candidate, Leader of
National-Democratic Union (NDU) Vazgen Manukian stated today that
Armenia’s membership in NATO will not lead to strengthening of the
republic’s security.

Mediamax reports that Vazgen Manukian said this today during the
meeting with the journalists in the Information Center on NATO in
Yerevan. The Information Center on NATO sent out invitations to all
the 9 presidential candidates with a proposal to publicly present
their approaches to the issues of Armenia’s security provision.

According to Manukian, considering the prospects of Armenia’s
membership in NATO, one "should take into account all the pluses
and minuses".

Among the "minuses" the presidential candidate noted the aggravation
of Armenia’s relations with Iran and Russia, which will be the result
of the entry to NATO. At the same time, the NDU Leader stated, it is
not ruled out that in 10 years the situation in the world will change
to such extent that the issue of Armenia’s membership in NATO will
have a completely different form".

Talking about the relations of Armenia with Russia, Vazgen Manukian
stated, that he is for their development. "However, I am absolutely
against relations, in which Armenia will be a toy in the hands of
Russia, or its "advanced post"", presidential candidate stated.

RA CEC: INFORMATION FLOW ON ELECTION OUTCOMES WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.02.2008 18:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Central Electoral Committee has launched
an updated version of its web site "The modification
included a simplified search, which allows to receive information about
the electoral register, constituencies, etc. The new program will bloc
inaccurate data on the number of ballot papers that the server receives
from district electoral committees, CEC chairman Garegin Azaryan said.

Information flow on the election outcomes will be available online,
he added.

For his part, spokesman for Heritage faction Stepan Safaryan said that
possibility of unification of the Armenian opposition, which implies
rejection of nomination, is not ruled out. The February 9 deadline was
important for political forces which nominated their own candidates.

He described unification of Artur Baghdassaryan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan
as most likely. As to Heritage’s position, he said that the party will
support those forces which will unite. "We will issue a statement on
February 12," he said, IA Regnum reports.

Meanwhile, the Armenian police informed that Artur Baghdassaryan’s
life is not in jeopardy.

The Constitutional Court proceeded to consideration of Levon
Ter-Petrosyan’s appeal urging to recognize the "obstacles to his
election campaign as insuperable," elections2008.am reports.

VARDAN KODJOYAN CHAMPION OF "MOSCOW OPEN 2008"

Panorama.am
11/02/2008

Armenian Grand Master Vardan Kodjoyan presenting Armenia in "Moscow
Open 2008" international competition became a champion in the second
group. The 18 years old Grand Master managed to show perfect results-
8.5 scores from 9 possible. Russian Grand Master Oleg Orlov is in the
second place with 8 scores. The best triple is completed by Sergey
Koroschenko with 7.5 scores.

Note that Kodjoyan lost only 0.5 scores in the competition in the
last ninth part. In the ninth part he met with his compatriot Tigran
Gasparyan.

Artyom Timofev became the champion of the first group.

He has 7.5 scores on his account. Alexandr Riazantsev is in the second
and Sergey Volkov in the third place.

Armenian champion, Grand Master Karen Asryan has 6 scores and occupies
the middle places of the competition.

Slovenian International Master, champion of Europe Anna Muzchuk became
the champion in the women’s competition. Ukrainian Anna Ushenin comes
after the champion. The triple is completed by Ukrainian Nathalia
Zhukov. Armenian Grand Master Elina Danielyan completes the best ten
with her 6.5 scores.

Note: "Moscow Open" international competition takes place since
2005. The competition started on 2 February, and finished yesterday.

Interfax, Russia
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 8, 2008 Friday 9:31 PM MSK

Ter-Petrosian goes to court over election campaign "obstacles"

YEREVAN Feb 8

Former Armenian President Levon Ter- Petrosian, who is running in the
current election, has filed a suit with the Constitutional Court
complaining about what he called "obstacles" as a result of which "it
is becoming impossible" for him to seek the office of president, the
court said on Friday.

For three months running, the Hailur (Armenian News) program on
Armenian Public Television has been showing footage criticizing Ter-
Petrosian, thereby violating the Election Code and the law on
television and radio, a report by the court cited the ex-president as
saying in his court documents.

Ter-Petrosian, the first president of post-Soviet Armenia, also
complained that he had been given inconvenient television campaign
time that, among other things, prevented him from responding to the
Hailur footage.

"The plaintiff asks the Constitutional Court to declare the obstacles
that have arisen before L. Ter-Petrosian insurmountable," the report
said.

The court expects to hear the suit on Monday.

The constitution prescribes putting off a presidential election for
two weeks if a candidate comes up against campaign obstacles that are
formally declared insurmountable. If the obstacles are not removed
within these two weeks, a new election is to be held on the 40th day
after the two-week period.

Meanwhile, Ter-Petrosian’s campaign office issued a statement
claiming that a Hailur issue aired on Friday had deliberately
misinterpreted Ter-Petrosian’s suit as a way of withdrawing his
candidacy.

"We state officially that Levon Ter-Petrosian, far from having any
intention to stop his fight against the gangster regime, will pursue
this mission with redoubled energy and carry it to a victorious end,"
the office said in a press release.

"All statements to [the contrary] are aimed at misleading the public
and their authors will be prosecuted," it warned.

Day.az, Azerbaijan
Feb 8 2008

British Council denies link to map showing Azeri region as part of
Armenia

The editorial office of Day.az has received a statement by Andy
Williams, director of the British Council’s Baku office, who says
that the map of Armenia which includes Azerbaijan’s occupied
territories was posted on the British Council website by someone from
outside. The statement reads:

"The British Council was made aware of this incident yesterday
morning. My staff responded promptly and action was taken within an
hour to remove the offending map.

"We are now in the process of investigating how this map was posted
onto a British Council website. I can state categorically that this
was not placed on the website with the British Council’s permission
or knowledge. It is our belief that this was an illegal and malicious
act by someone from outside the British Council. As a result we are
reviewing the security of our web pages with immediate effect.

"The British Council has been operating in Azerbaijan for 15 years
now to develop warm and friendly relations between the peoples of
Azerbaijan and Great Britain. I hope that this incident will not sour
those relations.

"I would like to repeat: the UK government recognizes the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan and Nagornyy Karabakh as a part of it."

ARMY OF LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S SUPPORTERS GROWS MORE AND MORE, ARAM
MANUKIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, NOYAN TAPAN. "In the recent period a great number
of members of pro-governmental parties, as well as people from
headquarters of other presidential candidates join L. Ter-Petrosian’s
headquarters, and soon the members of the Bargavach Hayastan party will
also join us." Aram Manukian, a member of the Armenian National
Movement (ANM) party Board, stated at the February 6 press conference.

Touching upon the possible unification of RA presidential candidate
Artur Baghdasarian and L. Ter-Petrosian, A. Manukian said that it would
be a right step. However, in his words, if even this unification does
not happen, L. Ter-Petrosian will win all the same. According to him,
the sympathy for the first Armenian President is in "resonance" with
the authorities’ antipathy. "If even we do nothing, Serge Sargsian has
two enemies, his brother Sashik and Robert Kocharian. The latter should
be more unbiassed and not express an opinion of the candidates. While
R. Kocharian’s statements do harm to the very S. Sargsian," A. Manukian
emphasized.

He expressed confidence that the national movement will contribute to
reduction of the number of people rigging the elections, as they also
wish a peaceful power shift. Mentioning that the army of Levon
Ter-Petrosian’s supporters grows more and more, A. Manukian said:
"Don’t think that the National Security, the Internal Affairs, the
parliament, and the Ministers support S. Sargsian. That pyramid is
destroyed quickly, as we will have an absolutely different situation in
some days." He also added that the people "will learn pleasant news"
until February 9.

According to the member of the ANM Board, in case L. Ter-Petrosian
comes to power they are not going to retribute somebody: only those who
have problems with the law will be called for criminal liability. "I am
covinced that very soon you will learn information about a number of
non-disclosed cases, including the accident of the A-320 plane," A.
Manukian said.

Levon Ter-Petrosian stated that `the obstacles, which arose, make his
further participation in the electoral processes impossible’

February 8, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian presidential candidate, Ex-President Levon
Ter-Petrosian turned to the Constitutional Court with a request to
recognize as `insuperable the obstacles, which arose on the way of his
participation in the elections of February 19′.

As Mediamax was told in the press service of the Constitutional Court,
the reference reads that `the obstacles, which arose, make the further
participation of Ter-Petrosian in the electoral processes impossible
for reasons not depending on him’.

Among such reasons the Ex-President, in particular, notes `the gross
violations of the Electoral Code, realized by the Public TV of Armenia
(PTVA), `Haylur’ news program of PTVA by means of mass agitation
programs in the course of three months’.

Levon Ter-Petrosian also noted that the time, provided by PTVA to the
presidential candidates for pre-election campaign `is very inconvenient
for the TV audience and does not give any opportunity to soften the
agitation of `Haylur”.

As the reference notes, the pre-election staff of Ter-Petrosian
`unsuccessfully took up all the possible measures, provided for by the
electoral legislation, to prevent violations of the law against the
candidate or to eliminate their consequences’.

`For the first time during elections in our country one of the
candidates found himself in a situation, when for reasons, not
depending on him, he cannot carry out a campaign on equal conditions
with other candidates and overcome the consequences of an unprecedented
state agitation and participate in the processes, established by the
electoral legislation’, the reference of the candidate reads.

The Constitutional Court concluded in accordance with the order,
established by the law, the preliminary examination of the reference
and took the case to consideration.

The CC session on the issue will take place on February 11 at 11:00.

Ex-President of Armenia `does not intend to stop the struggle against
the kleptocratic regime’

February 8, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Ex-President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian `does
not intend to stop the struggle against the kleptocratic regime and
will take the mission started to its victorious end’, the statement of
his pre-election staff, spread today, reads.

Mediamax reports that Levon Ter-Petrosian’s staff refuted the rumors,
according to which it is possible that the Ex-President will leave the
pre-election campaign.

`Such statements aim at misleading the society, and the authors of
those statements will be called to account according to the law’, the
statement reads.