GEORGIA WORLD LEADER IN MILITARIZATION?

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.12.2006 18:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgia has actually become the world leader in
militarization, said Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of general staff of
the Russian armed forces at the meeting with the military attaches
of foreign states in Moscow. "Georgia’s defense budget is constantly
growing. It increased 1.5 times this year," Baluyevsky said adding that
recently Georgia has been actively purchasing armament and military
equipment from the other states, including the NATO member states.

"The equipment of soviet (Russian) production is sold everywhere
without certificate and this causes illegal circulation of armament,"
he underscored. He also added that delivery of armament and military
equipment to a conflicting region contradicts with the international
commitments undertaken by the states selling equipment to Georgia,
reports RBC.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARF MEMBER DOWNPLAYS INTERNATIONAL REACTION TO KARABAKH REFERENDUM

Armenpress
Dec 13 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS: Vahan Hovhanesian from the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation drew a clear difference between
the constitutional referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh on December 10 and
referenda in some other post-Soviet unrecognized republics, saying
the people of Nagorno-Karabakh voted for building a sovereign and
independent sate while others voted for joining others (Russia).

Speaking to a group of journalists today Hovhanesian said the
referendum in Karabakh will further regulate relationships between
different branches of power. Hovhanesian downplayed the negative
reaction of some international organizations which said they would
not recognize the legal validity of the December 10 referendum. But
Hovhanesian said this reaction has no significance to the people
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

He said the ARF had helped a monitoring team to travel to Karabakh
to watch the referendum as ‘their opinion means to us more than what
Terry Davis (secretary General of the Council of Europe) says."

Preliminary results show the referendum passed with the support
of almost 99 percent of the 78,389 Karabakh voters taking part –
a staggeringly positive result that did not come as a surprise for
most residents and observers.

The 142-article document describes the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as
"a sovereign, democratic legal and social state." It establishes a
broad range of generally defined rights, from the direct election
of the country’s president, parliament and local governments, to the
presumption of innocence and freedom of assembly, speech, and religion.

"I am confident that the adopted document will reinforce
Nagorno-Karabakh statehood and deepen democratization processes going
on here," Arkady Ghukasian, the Karabakh president, told reporters
in the Karabakh capital after the vote.

ARF MEMBER CALLS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF INSTITUTIONALIZED NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

Armenpress
Dec 13 2006

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS: A senior member of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) commended today an extensive team
of experts for developing a high quality national security strategy
draft paper.

The official, Vahan Hovhanesian, who is also deputy parliament
chairman, said the team had made use of related international
experience and received assurances of competent people from other
countries that it was in line with all accepted criteria.

The deputy parliament speaker was talking to a group of students. He
said, despite the successful work, the document lacks any mechanism
how it should be applied. "The ARF believes that an institutionalized
national security council should be established, which we do not
have. There is a national security council (under the president)
but it is not operational. The executive power solves only short-term
issues and lacks any vision of future. We have to have a special body
to tackle this issue because to put it on the government would not
be sensible," he said.

Presenting the draft strategy to local academics in November Armenian
defense minister Serzh Sarkisian said the document would serve as a
guideline for various caliber government officials to express their
opinions about the issue, but he added the it would not be binding
for political parties and nongovernmental organizations, which "
will be able to have their own opinions on any issue."

OSCE CIO’S STATEMENT DISREGARDS HISTORICAL EVENT FOR NKR PEOPLE

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.12.2006 15:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The statement by OSCE Chairman-in-Office Karel
De Gucht is an open disregard for an event carrying historical
importance for the people of Karabakh – the constitutional referendum,
RA President’s Spokesman Victor Soghomonyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter. In his words, such attitude can undermine the trust in
the OSCE and the Minsk Group. "The best thing they could do is to
keep silent. We are forced to state that comments of the kind do not
promote the peaceful settlement process.

The NKR citizens have made their choice in favor of freedom
and independence, as it was 15 years ago, during the previous
referendum. The choice that doesn’t need to be recognized by a European
official," he underscored.

EU DOESN’T RECOGNIZE REFERENDUM OUTCOMES IN NAGORNO KARABAKH

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.12.2006 15:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Union is aware that a "constitutional
referendum" has taken place in Nagorno Karabakh on 10 December
2006. The EU recalls that it does not recognize the independence
of Nagorno Karabakh. It recognizes neither the "referendum" nor its
outcome, says the EU statement.

"The EU reiterates its firm support to the OSCE Minsk Group and
its Co-Chairmen, and their efforts towards a settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The EU considers that conducting such a
"referendum", thus pre-empting the outcome of the ongoing negotiations,
did not contribute to constructive efforts at peaceful conflict
resolution. It calls on all parties to the conflict to intensify
their efforts to find a negotiated solution to the conflict," the
document says.

SEFILYAN IS TREATED AS A FUTURE OFFICIAL

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 13 2006

Information leaks from different places, including the National
Security Service that Jirair Sefilyan, who was arrested on December
9, will be deported. Armen Aghayan, a member of the Civic Action for
Defense of Liberated Territories, stated December 13 at the Friday Club
that deportation is possible but they are making efforts to prevent it.

"In other words, I want to say that this fuss is not needed, whatever
was necessary to prevent Jirair Sefilyan’s deportation, we made every
effort, and I suppose that this was one of the reasons why he was not
deported, but it is possible that they had planned this from the very
beginning," Armen Aghayan says. He says Sefilyan does not have problems
in Lebanon despite the information in some media. Simply his Lebanese
passport has expired, and he does not have an Armenian passport,
and he may have trouble going to Lebanon via other countries. Armen
Aghayan also announces that Sefilyan’s lawyer tried to use the
circumstance that Jirair Sefilyan’s wife is the assistant of the
Lebanese ambassador, and Sefilyan is a member of a diplomat’s family
and is protected by the convention on diplomatic immunity.

According to Armen Aghayan, this was an extreme step, and the lawyer
resorte to it to prevent deportation. In reality, Sefilyan is not
related to all this, he says, adding that Jirair Sefilyan was a citizen
of Armenia even when everyone in Armenia was citizen of the USSR.

"Jirair Sefilyan has lived in Armenia for 16 years, and for most of the
time he was an officer of the Armenian army. When we were citizens of
the USSR, he was a citizen of Armenia in Beirut, because as a young
man he solved the problem of security of the Armenian quarter of
Beirut. Therefore, it is funny that he is not a citizen of Armenia,"
says Armen Aghayan. He says he does not know if the scenario of
deportation of Vahagn Chakhalyan will be applied to Jirair Sefilyan.

"It is possible that they are drafting a similar scenario, fully
or partly similar. Naturally we must be watchful and prevent this
scenario and have Jirair Sefilyan released as soon as possible,"
Armen Aghayan says. As to the present state of Jirair Sefilyan and
the treatment at the isolation ward of the National Security Service,
Armen Aghayan says they get information through the lawyer. The
information they have got so far are not worrying.

"They treat Jirair Sefilyan as a future high-ranking official of
Armenia. They are very correct, as they know it is quite possible
that tomorrow Jirair Sefilyan may have a higher position than all
the officers of the National Security Service together," Armen
Aghayan says. He says, however, that they tried to humiliate Jirair
Sefilyan at the time of the arrest when he was having dinner with
his schoolmate, the director of Vivacell Ralf Yeirikyan. They put
handcuffs to Yeirikyan but he was released in a few minutes.

"There is much of a show in this process. You know that there were
interrogations and searching. Our apartment was also searched, and
I assure you that the National Security was not looking for anything
particular in our apartment. They came to have a good time," says Armen
Aghayan. According to him, the government was trying to show that they
had exposed a very important case, and wanted to use it for propaganda.

U.S. CONGRESSMEN WELCOME REFERENDUM IN NKR

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.12.2006 15:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Co-Chairmen of the Congressional Armenian Caucus,
Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), were joined today
by Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and George Radanovich (R-CA)
in congratulating the citizens of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
(Artsakh) on overwhelmingly approving a pro-independence constitution
in a popular referendum held on December 10th, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA)

In a December 11th letter to Artsakh President Arkady Ghoukasian,
the two Caucus leaders welcomed the adoption of the first-ever
constitution as a key milestone in Nagorno Karabakh’s political and
democratic progress

Commenting on the referendum, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) stated,
"I congratulate the people of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
for reaffirming their commitment to freedom, peace, economic
development, and regional stability by democratically adopting a new
constitution. By establishing a market economy, holding free and
fair elections, and promoting human rights, the people of Nagorno
Karabagh have shown that they deserve an independent state free from
the oppressive Azerbaijani regime."

GEORGIA BANS RUSSIAN MILITARY TRANSPORT FLYOVERS

Kommersant, Russia
Dec 12 2006

At the end of last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded
that Georgia "immediately stop its sabotage of the Agreement on the
Organization of Transit of Military Cargo and Personal across Georgian
Territory" and again accused Tbilisi of inflaming tensions in bilateral
relations. Kommersant has learned that Tbilisi responded today. Georgia
is demanding that the Russian Ministry of Defense pay its debt for
the servicing of military planes when the fly over Georgian territory.

At the end of last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded
that Georgia "immediately stop its sabotage of the Agreement on the
Organization of Transit of Military Cargo and Personal across Georgian
Territory" and again accused Tbilisi of inflaming tensions in bilateral
relations. Kommersant has learned that Tbilisi responded today. Georgia
is demanding that the Russian Ministry of Defense pay its debt for
the servicing of military planes when the fly over Georgian territory.

Mikhail Kamynin, a spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said
that the ministry was referring to "Georgia’s ignoring the request
for the fulfillment of planes flights by Russian planes between
December 8 and 22" to the Russian military base in the Armenian city
of Gyumri. Although the appropriate request was sent in a timely
manner to Tbilisi, according to Kamynin, it was "simply left without
reply." Moscow took that as an "intentional attempt to impede not
only normal functioning of the base at Gyumri," but the withdrawal of
Russian of Russian forces from Georgia as well. On Saturday, Georgian
Ambassador to Russia Irakly Chubinishvili was summoned to the Russian
Foreign Ministry, where he was informed of the Russian position.

At the Georgian Foreign Ministry, the Kommersant correspondent
was told that a response to the Russian statement would be made on
Monday. The Georgian Ministry of Defense told Kommersant that that
ministry "is not sabotaging Russian military planes" since servicing of
planes flying over Georgian territory is carried out by the civilian
Gruzaeronavigatsia."

An employee of Gruzaeronavigatsia who wished to remain anonymous said
that Russia owes Gruzaeronavigatsia a significant sum of money for
servicing its military aircraft. The source refused to name the exact
sum, but noted that "if the Russian side prohibited air flyovers from
Georgia to Russia on the pretext of mythic debts for the servicing of
nonexistent Georgian air companies, the Georgian side would also have
the right to rise the question of covering the debt of the Russian
Defense Ministry in relation to Gruzaeronavigatsia. For service of
flyovers across the territory of Georgia."

NKR MFA SURPRISED AT REACTION OF EUROPEAN INTERNATIONAL STRUCTURES ON REFERENDUM

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.12.2006 17:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The NKR Foreign Ministry is surprised at the reaction
of European international structures on the referendum and by their
statements attempted to question the possibility of Nagorno Karabakh
people’s being in the legal field, says the NKR MFA statement.

"The referendum is a new stage on the way to consolidation of
democratic principles and is called to convey an impulse to the
development of new and liberal principles of state administration. In
this light the attempts of the European structures seem odd. The
Ministry is convinced that the adoption of the Constitution cannot
hamper the efforts of the international mediators to peacefully settle
the Karabakh conflict," the document says.

HOVANISYAN ADVISES NERSISYANTS TO ADVISE OTHERS

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 13 2006

Vahram Nersisyants, economic adviser to Robert Kocharyan, had advised
the ARF to come out from the coalition and attend to problems which
are closer to socialism. Today Vahan Hovanisyan, member of the ARF
Bureau, told our reporter, "He had better advise the institution
which pays him a salary."

Vahan Hovanisyan also stated that as a classic socialist party, the
ARF often votes for liberal laws in a coalition with liberal parties,
because "in a poor country socialism often leads to bolshevism,
which is unacceptable." At the same time, Vahan Hovanisyan assures
that the rightist partners of the leftist ARF Dashnaktsutyun often
vote for social laws, "In Armenia the classic right-left division
does not work."

Vahan Hovanisyan confessed that "very often you shut an eye on
something, you notice something but prefer not to discuss it in
the media," but this is for the sake of security of the country and
internal stability as its continuation, "which cannot be endangered."