Category: News

Aravot, Yerevan, in Armenian
10 Mar 04 p 3
Armenian aide lambasts Georgian way of fighting corruption
The Armenian president’s adviser, Bagrat Yesayan, who is engaged in
drawing up an anti-corruption policy, criticizes methods of fighting
corruption in Georgia.
[Aravot correspondent] One may fight corruption in the same way as
Armenia is doing it now, i.e. to plan and organize hearings; or in
the same way as Georgia is doing it: to institute proceedings and
arrest those officials whose abuses and bribery are evident. Why do
you prefer only the “Armenian” option for fighting corruption, i.e.
the organization of discussions?
[Bagrat Yesayan] First, there are not only two types of the fight
against corruption, there are many options. But there is a principle
accepted by the Council of Europe that the fight against corruption
should be comprehensive and include preventive measures,
investigation and punishment. I think that in Armenia, the fight
should mainly be comprehensive and should take place in these three
directions.
[Correspondent] Does it mean that you think that only the punitive
direction has been accepted in Georgia? A representative of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD] said that a
country cannot be built in such a way. Why?
[Yesayan] Because I think that by taking only punitive measures, we
shall miss the first two very important options for the fight.
Corruption is a public disease and if we fight only the consequences
of the disease without taking preventive measures, we shall not
achieve any success in that case. And not only Armenia understands
this, it is a long-standing practice accepted in European countries,
and the Council of Europe has established this in its 20 principles.
[Correspondent] Don’t you think that punishing people for corruption,
as is the case in Georgia, will be the best preventive measure for
officials?
[Yesayan] I don’t think so.
[Passage omitted: Various punitive measures in different countries,
including in the Soviet Union]
And I am sure that if Georgia follows the same direction, taking only
punitive measures, they will not be able to overcome bribery as the
system will not change, only people will be replaced.
[Correspondent] Doesn’t your approach contradict the position of
Dashnaktsutyun, which, as part of the authorities, named a number of
former officials during a meeting, accused them of abuses and
demanded that they should answer and be punished?
[Yesayan] No, there is no contradiction. This is the Dashnaks’
approach. I am not aware of the names named during the meeting as I
was not in Armenia at the time. I do not know the context of the
statement, but I suppose that they spoke about political
responsibility. Ask the party about this.
[Passage omitted: Yesayan speaks of his functions as a presidential
adviser]

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in English
10 Mar 04
Armenian leader calls for repair of roads with Georgia

YEREVAN
Today Armenian President Robert Kocharyan received in Yerevan Georgian
ambassador Nikoloz Nikolozishvili, who is finishing his diplomatic
mission in Yerevan and has already been appointed as the Georgian
president’s representative in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti
inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians.
At the meeting, Robert Kocharyan and the ambassador stated the
importance of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s official visit
to Armenia to start on 12 March, the presidential press service told
Mediamax today.
The sides also discussed the situation in the region of
Samtskhe-Javakheti. Nikolozishvili told the Armenian president that
he had already been to the region and considered his priority task to
pay more attention to socio-economic problems of its population.
In this respect, Robert Kocharyan stated the importance of repairing
the highway connecting Samtskhe-Javakheti with Armenia.

ANS TV, Baku, in Azeri
10 Mar 04
Mediators’ passivity may cause Karabakh deadlock – Azeri official
The passivity of the mediators in settling the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict may lead to deadlock in the talks, the Azerbaijani deputy
foreign minister and the president’s special representative for the
Karabakh conflict, Araz Azimov, has said.
The conflicting sides continue to stick to their previous positions,
he added. Azerbaijan is not going to give up on its principled
position. Azerbaijan is ready for compromises only within the
framework of international law, end quote.
Azimov said that Azerbaijan is ready to discuss the conflict
settlement and the status of Karabakh’s Armenian community on
condition that sovereignty and territorial integrity are preserved.
At the same time, he said that Azerbaijan has repeatedly put forward
proposals, but Armenia has rejected them. Azimov added that the last
proposal of this kind was a proposal that was discussed by the
European Parliament early this year and envisaged the opening of the
railway between Azerbaijan and Armenia in exchange for five of the
occupied [Azerbaijani] districts.
Azimov said that the Azerbaijani government was against politicizing
the Budapest incident between an Azerbaijani and an Armenian officer.
Azimov believes that the accusations against the Azerbaijani
serviceman of killing the Armenian officer will influence the talks.
He added that the Budapest incident should not have a direct impact
on the talks. This will depend on the sides’ wish to make use of this
issue. At the same time, Azimov said that unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia
has been trying to form a negative opinion about the incident by
making a fuss at the international level. In my opinion, it is
precisely Armenia that is trying to influence the conflict settlement
and is making use of this incident.

Trend news agency, Baku, in Russian
10 Mar 04
Azeri, Armenian ministers to meet OSCE mediators in late March –
Russian envoy
BAKU
Trend correspondent E. Huseynov: The Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign
ministers will meet the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group on the
Nagornyy Karabakh settlement in late March, the Russian ambassador to
Azerbaijan, Nikolay Ryabov, has told Trend news agency. He did not
name the venue for the meeting, but said that the discussions would be
held in a European country.
Ryabov also commented on a recent statement by the [Russian]
president’s special representative for the Nagornyy Karabakh
settlement [and first deputy foreign minister], Vyacheslav Trubnikov,
that the conflict had reached deadlock. “This was said somewhat
emotionally and hastily. The search for a mutually acceptable agenda
is under way,” Ryabov said. The forthcoming meeting of the foreign
ministers and the co-chairmen is to elaborate the agenda of a
peaceful settlement to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, he added.

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in Russian
10 Mar 04
Armenian leader urges nationwide fight against corruption

YEREVAN
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan expressed his regret today that
“the fight against corruption in our country is not nationwide”, the
Armenian president said at a meeting with Yerevan State University
students today, according to a Mediamax correspondent.
Kocharyan said that for an efficient fight against corruption, it is
necessary to regulate all the functions of the state. “For example,
in Armenia, four years ago, it was impossible to have a commercial
company registered without a bribe. Moreover, it took about a month.
Now it takes only two days to have a company registered and nobody
can dare to demand a bribe,” the Armenian president said.
Robert Kocharyan cited the energy system as another example, he said
that “it used to be one of the most corrupt spheres in Armenia”. “The
privatization of the Armenian grids has led to a considerable drop in
the level of corruption in this sector,” the president said.
“We have the necessary political will that enables us to reduce the
volume of corruption every year. The elimination of corruption
demands daily laborious efforts, and this is not a problem that can
be resolved very quickly by chanting big slogans,” Kocharyan said.

Space TV, Baku, in Azeri
10 Mar 04
Azeri officer suspected of killing Armenian to serve time at home –
lawyer

[Presenter] Ramil Safarov’s interpreter has finally spoken out and
informed the Azerbaijani public about the latest news. We present you
with a telephone conversation with the interpreter as follows:
[A female voice on the phone] He is in a normal state and is being
held in normal conditions. He is treated well by everyone.
[Passage omitted: Personal belongings can be sent to Safarov in
prison]
[Presenter] Lawyer Adil Ismayilov, who has returned after visiting
Safarov [who is suspected of killing an Armenian officer], says that
to all appearances, Safarov will serve a prison term in Baku.
[Correspondent over video of news conference] To recap, the incident
occurred at about 0500 [0100 gmt] on 19 February.
[Passage omitted: Reported details of incident]
Ismayilov did not answer a number of questions to preserve the
secrecy of an investigation. He only said that the incident had
occurred because of the Armenian officer’s unethical behaviour. As
for the future stages of the process, Ismayilov said that the trial
could have been held in Azerbaijan in accordance with a European
convention. But it is impossible to hold the trial in Azerbaijan as
most of the witnesses are in Budapest. The investigation is expected
to finish by the end of this month. As for the lawyer appointed by
the Azerbaijani side, Ismayilov said that the lawyer has already been
named. His name is Elcin Usubov, a member of the Board of Lawyers.
[Ismayilov] The Azerbaijani lawyer can meet Safarov and take part in
the investigation only with the prosecutor’s preliminary consent.
[Correspondent] Ismayilov believes that the key issue now is to prove
the reason for the incident. That’s why, it is necessary to furnish
the trial and Budapest television with facts about the Xocali tragedy
[1992 massacre of Azeris in Karabakh] and other Azerbaijani lands
under occupation because the Armenians have already started an active
propaganda campaign in this sphere. The Armenians have managed to
broadcast two programmes of this kind on Hungarian TV in the last 15
days. Ismayilov is confident that although Safarov will be sentenced
in Hungary, he will serve his prison term in Azerbaijan. This is not
our demand, but a requirement of international law.
Mircavad Rahimov and Rasad Bagirov, Space.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday
Armenia’s economic growth makes 139% in 2003
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
The Armenian economic growth made 13.9 percent in 2003, Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan said at a meeting with students of
universities at Yerevan State University on Wednesday. The industrial
production growth reached 18 percent, capital development — 40
percent and export — 34 percent, the president emphasised.
According to him foreign debts mostly for credits on easy terms
amounted to 40-44 percent of Armenia’s GDP that testifies to the
solvency of the country.
“The economic policy of the government should be aimed at the
improvement of the life quality in the republic,” Kocharyan remarked.
Educational reforms, particularly the transition to the two-stage
educational system are carried out so that the Armenian education
would be recognised in Europe, he pointed out.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday
Air bridge links Kaliningrad to Yerevan
By Vladimir Nuyakshev
KALININGRAD, March 10
Air flights have been resumed between Russia’s westernmost province
of Kaliningrad and the Armenian capital of Yerevan after they were
interrupted more than a year ago.
A Tu-134 aircraft will fly from Yerevan to Kaliningrad and back once
a week, the air traffic service of Kaliningrad’s Khrabrovo airport
reported on Wednesday.
Kaliningrad and Yerevan have restored the air connection in response
to requests by more than 7,000 Armenians residing in the Kaliningrad
region.

Associated Press
March 10 2004
One person killed, hundreds flooded as snow melts in Armenia

Melting snows and strong winds in Armenia flooded hundreds of homes
and caused one death, officials said Wednesday.
One man was killed in the city of Idzhevan because of a tree felled
by the strong winds that buffeted the Caucasus nation, the Emergency
Situations Ministry said. Hundreds of homes were flooded across the
country, and the harsh weather also affected the capital Yerevan.
Winds blew roofs off houses, downing power lines and starting forest
fires. Exact damage figures weren’t known.
The weather calmed by later Wednesday.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday
Zhukov to report on government structural reform
By Oksana Polishchuk, Natalya Slavina
MOSCOW
Russian Vice-Premier Alexander Zhukov will report on structural
changes in the federal bodies of executive power at the first cabinet
meeting on Thursday, March 11, the government information department
reports.
Russian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin will report on
the possibility of extending the Russian-Armenian inter-governmental
agreement on regulation of voluntary resettlement.
Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loshchinin will submit
his proposals on ratification by the State Duma of an agreement
signed by the Russian and Ukrainian governments that provides for
settling all claims concerning an air crash that occurred over the
Black Sea on October 4, 2001.
The cabinet will also discuss the presentation of state housing
certificates to the Ingush government. Ruslan Tsalikov, the deputy
head of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, will report on
this subject.
However, Russia’s new Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said that the
cabinet would focus on implementation of the presidential decree on
forming a new government line-up at its meeting on Thursday.
“This will actually be the sole issue that we intend to discuss with
the new government at tomorrow’s cabinet meeting,” Russian Prime
Minister Mikhail Fradkov told a news conference on Wednesday.
The Prime-Tass economic and financial news agency cited the prime
minister as saying that he was continuously studying the issue and
discussed the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin every day.
Fradkov emphasized that the process of forming a new government
marked the beginning of an administrative reform. He called for the
earliest solution of all organizational issues in order to preserve a
workable government and not to disrupt the budget process.
Fradkov reiterated once again that the idea of an administrative
reform should be regarded as part of efforts to make Russia more
competitive and ensure that prompt and needed decisions are passed.
Bureaucrats should model their actions according to a single concept
so as to avoid the duplication of functions and to single out
responsible bosses.
At the same time, Fradkov warned about the possibility of
inaccuracies in carrying out the government reform. “We are going to
remove these inaccuracies. The logic of this reform allows for
clarification as we proceed with the process,” Fradkov stressed.
The prime minister also promised to be open with the press.
Fradkov admitted at a news conference held at the Russian government
building on Wednesday that he never did that because he hadn’t faced
such a task before.
At the same time, Fradkov emphasized that the process of creating a
new government structure was, among many other things, aimed at
making it more open and transparent.
“It will make it possible to define the responsibilities of each
leader and to enable them to develop creative approach to their work.
We favour an open approach,” the Russian prime minister stressed.
Fradkov believes that society needed such actions for tracking down
the efficiency of government bureaucrats.