Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 3 2006
The President of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Mehmed Ali
Talat: I expect official invitation from Azerbaijan
[ 03 Nov. 2006 13:09 ]
“We wish to improve fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus. The main target in our relations with
Azerbaijan is to establish cultural and social relations,” Mehmed
Ali Talat, the president of TRNC told the APA at the briefing held
for foreign media in Istanbul.
“We understand the problems of Azerbaijan, as we have analogous
problems. But despite all problems we are resolute to improve our
relations,” he said.
Mehmed Ali Talat said that he paid an official visit to Pakistan and
noted that he expects an official invitation from Azerbaijan. Mehmed
Ali Talat said the resolution of the UN Security Council concerning
TRNC is applied unconditionally, but Armenia does not fulfill the
resolutions of the same organization on the liberation of Azerbaijani
territories.
“I don’t like the word double standard. There are but more standards
here. Different standards are applied to both countries. Nagorno
Garabagh and Northern Cyprus should not be substituted. The occupation
of 20% of Azerbaijani territories is a terrible fact. The world
community is indifferent to it. The accession of Greek Cyprus, to
the European Union, is an important factor against us. The Greek do
not reach consensus. In this situation it comes into view why we are
facing manifold but not double standards,” he said. /APA/

Railway in Russia: Russia-Iran Railway Talks
Railway Market Magazine, Poland
Nov 3 2006
A high ranking Russian delegation headed by Vladimir Yakunin will be
in Tehran within 4-6 November to discuss restoring linkage between
the two countries’ railways.
Russian delegation would put forth the issue of re-linking the two
railway systems which has been cut following Azerbaijan-Armenia
conflict over Karabakh region, reports the agency.
The construction of a new Ghazvin-Rasht-Astara railway would be
necessary and Russia is intent on contributing to constructing and
modernizing Iran’s railway infrastructure.
Iranians and Russians are also to exchange views on ways and means
of providing security measures for Russian made locomotives and wagon.

OUTCOME OF SALE OF ARMENTEL IS NOT KNOWN TO MTS
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
The Russian MTS company does not possess any information on the
outcome of tender for 90 percent of shares of Armentel. The news
agency ARKA reports that the press secretary of MTS Kiril Aliavdin
stated this November 2. “There is no information yet, we are waiting
for the tender to end,” he said. Aliavdin declined to comment on
the opinions that MTS will probably win the tender and said they are
waiting for the outcome to be published.

RATE OF CRIME GOES UP BUT STATE OF NEIGHBORS COMFORTS US
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
The state of crime has been under control over the past 9 months in
the Republic of Armenia, stated Ararat Mahtesyan, the deputy chief of
the Police November 3. Meanwhile, this year 7529 crimes were reported
against 6724 in the first three quarters of 2005. The rate of crime
grew by 2.5 percent. And the rate of revealed crime totaled 81.5
percent against 84.8 percent last year.
The deputy chief of the Police says the crime rate of 2005 is equal
to that of 1983, the crime rate of this year is closer to that of
2004. However, the Police does not worry, the situation in Armenia
is much better. For instance, by the rate of crime per 100 thousand
people we are 4.4 times better than Georgia, 6.5 times better than
Belarus, 9 times better than Russia and Latvia, 4.7 times better than
Romania and 55 times better than Finland. Or presently an annual 2500
robberies have reported in Armenia, whereas 13-15 years ago the rate
of robberies mounted to 6000. Meanwhile, the rate of robberies over
the past months grew from 1775 in the first three quarters of 2005
to 2310. The rate of robbery, fraud, assault and murder and attempts
grew (from 52 to 74). The rate of rape went down by 9, the rate of
assaults by 7, the cases of misappropriation or dissipation by 44.
702 cases of drug crimes were revealed compared with 461 in the first
nine months of the previous year.
“The number of female convicts went down by 0.5 percent, but the cases
involving female offenders grew by 7.5 percent,” the Police reports.
Deputy Chief of the Police Ararat Mahtesyan said recently there
have been fewer publications on corruption in the Police. In this
respect, traffic wardens remain a painful issue for the Police. There
is another problem for the solution of which the Police asks for
everyone’s help. First, the citizens who witness offenses in broad
daylight refuse to give evidence, and deny that they have seen or
heard anything. “It is possible that the Police is also to blame,”
says Ararat Mahtesyan. Meanwhile, for the other vice, the shift of the
values of young people to the “criminal world, criminal approaches”
all of us, the whole society is to blame.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MISS ARMENIA 2006 WILL WORK AS A MODEL AND DO Ph.D
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
Miss Armenia 2006, Marina Vardanyan, 22 participated in Miss Europe
2006 in Kiev. Marina Vardanyan was among 12 beauties. And the
director of the Miss Armenia Agency Karen Aristakesyan says Miss
Belarus deserved to be the winner, but Miss France became Miss
Europe. Nevertheless, Marina got offers from model agencies. Besides,
Marina has an opportunity to take part in different fashion and
beauty contests. Marina Vardanyan graduated from the Department of
Russian Philology of Yerevan State University and is going to take a
post-graduate course.

ARMENIA FAILS TO COMPLY WITH INTERNATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
Armenia does not fully comply with the international requirements to
reach the European market. The news agency ARKA reports that this was
stated by the chief executive officer of the World Bank Yerevan
Office on November 3 in Yerevan. He says most legal and institutional
standards are based on the Soviet standards.
The representative of the World Bank emphasized that the agricultural
security of Armenia is greatly hindered by the transition from the
plan to market economy, which is not over yet. The representative of
the World Bank noticed that over the past decade Armenia has carried
out considerable reforms, which enabled it to become an exporting
country, however, the export markets are mainly the CIS countries.
The representative of the World Bank said most products do not comply
with the requirements of the EU and U.S. markets.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SCANDAL IN MOSCOW INVOLVING ARMENIAN GENERAL
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
The Russian web site Grani.ru published information with this
headline. The web site informs that a scandal occurred during the
meeting of the chiefs of army headquarters of the countries of
the Collective Security Pact Organization on November 2 in Moscow
involving the Colonel-General Michael Harutiunyan, the chief of the
headquarters of the armed forces of Armenia, who accused Tajikistan,
which is a member of the Collective Security Pact Organization but
“is setting up military alliance with a country which is a potential
foe of its ally under the Collective Security Pact.” He meant the
agreement on military cooperation signed by Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
One of the participants of the meeting said that Harutiunyan addressed
not only Dushanbey but also Moscow. “It is known to everyone that
Azerbaijan is Armenia’s potential foe, however, certain members of the
Collective Security Pact Organization allow for military cooperation
with Azerbaijan,” stated Michael Harutiunyan. The point is that
besides Tajikistan Russia has also set up military cooperation with
Azerbaijan, and according to Grani.ru, Harutiunyan made it clear that
Armenia disapproves this.

REGULARLY VISITED ARMENIA FOR THREE YEARS
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
On November 3, 2006 the name of a candidate of president for 2008
became known at the Pastark club, who is the first to confess his
likelihood to be nominated. It is the leader of the People’s Party
of Armenia and the president of ALM Holding Tigran Karapetyan. He
announced that one of the goals of his political party is to nominate a
president in 2008, and naturally it is going to be Tigran Karapetyan,
because he states that the members of the People’s Party cannot
imagine progress of the political party without him.
Tigran Karapetyan says he will be nominated not because he does not
consider Serge Sargsyan a worthy candidate of president but because he
has his own ideas, which determines his intention. Tigran Karapetyan
says there are no legislative bars. He says he is a citizen of Armenia
since 1994 and since 1999 he is a resident. In this case, it appears
that he does not comply with the provision of the Constitution that a
resident of Armenia in the past 10 years can be nominated. Meanwhile,
from 1999 to 2008 is 9 years.
But this is not a problem for Tigran Karapetyan. Of course, this does
not mean that Karapetyan is going to break the law, althogh there is
no need to doubt that he will do this too if this will make people
happy. But for the time being, Tigran Karapetyan’s confidence has
another, a more legal basis. He says he is a resident since 1999 but
for three years he regularly visited Armenia.
“If I am a resident, it means I was here all the time, I lived here.
But I can leave and come back, if I am a citizen of Armenia. So I have
the right to be nominated, and if someone thinks that I do not have the
right, they can go to court,” states the leader of the People’s Party.
Meanwhile, before 2008 he is likely to run for parliament in 2007,
especially that there are no legal, even theoretical bars. Tigran
Karapetyan says the parliamentary election in 2007 will differ from the
previous elections because today there is not one political party that
falsifies the outcome. “If formerly there were political parties, which
falsified the outcome, gave some of their votes to other political
parties, today no political party would agree to such deals, because
it has a problem, if it gives one percent to other political parties,
it may have serious problems in the parliament.
Everyone thinks for himself,” says Tigran Karapetyan.
And he will run for parliament alone, without alliances. And he
excludes alliances because he cannot see a force in Armenia, which
is committed to their idea – democracy based on people. Karapetyan
says in the parliamentary election the possibility of reproduction
of the present coalition majority will be great, but this does not
mean that the outcome of the election is already clear. Nevertheless,
the president of ALM Holding thinks that we will see fewer political
parties in the parliament after the election than now. And if someone
tries to misappropriate the votes of the People’s Party, Karapetich
says he will go to church and light a candle. Of course, he does not
say for the enjoyment of the misappropriators or the contrary.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HE DOES NOT GIVE ELECTION BRIBE, HE SHARES WHAT HE HAS
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
The leader of the People’s Party Tigran Karapetyan stated November
3 that the political sphere of Armenia is in a disorder. He made
this statement at the Pastark Club, where Tigran Karapetyan answered
the questions of news reporters. He says that for three years now he
has been prompting to the opposition to meet with people, whereas it
keeps to its traditional style. Tigran Karapetyan says people cannot
see the ideas the oppositionists like to discuss in their offices.
“They think that someone does not let them work. Do work,” says
Tigran Karapetyan. He works, for instance, and “people see and
help him, the People’s Party helps for four years.” The leader of
this political party says other political parties have adopted this
style of work. Perhaps, it is apparent in the case of the Bargavach
Hayastan Party, and it is interesting whether Tigran Karapetyan
considers Bargavach Hayastan an ally or an opponent.
“Neither ally nor rival. I have a positive approach because one of our
approaches is that we must share everything with people. If a political
party wants to act besides words, it is welcome. After all, I think,
the greatest political figure ever was Jesus Christ, who first gave
food then preached, healed then said his word,” says Tigran Karapetyan,
stating that a political unit must prove it has social direction and
show that he wants to come to power to solve the problems of people
not to rob people. And Tigran Karapetyan does not consider his own
way of solving social and cultural problems as election bribe.
“If you aid, if you are a benefactor or you work to have a good
reputation, it is not election bribe. Although some people may think
so because they do not do the same, they spare their money, and others
do, it is clear that they will not like it because this context may
arouse certain attitudes,” says the president of ALM Holding. He
says the election bribe is barter, when you give something and demand
something in return. “If it is so, it appears that if I lay a wreath
at Yerablur, I give election bribe to freedom fighters to win them
over. This is my life, I live for my beliefs, not for someone, I live
and I want to be useful to my people. This cannot be considered as
election bribe because we choose the most elderly people, the people
who, God forbid, may not be with us tomorrow, or who are sick and
confined to bed,” explains Tigran Karapetyan. Besides knowing what is
not election bribe, he knows what election bribe is. “It is what they
keep in their “hatchback” and distribute on the last day,” says the
head of ALM adding that others are accumulating today to distribute
on the last day. Karapetyan has been distributing for four years.

Armenia Fund USA, Inc.
152 Madison Ave, S-803
New York, NY 10016, U.S.A.
T/1-212-689-5307
F/1-212-689-5317
E-mail: [email protected]
Armenia Fund USA’s Agricultural Initiative
Creates Jobs in War-Torn Villages of Karabakh
NEW YORK, New York – 18 villages that make up the Mardakert region of
Nagorno-Karabakh are among the first communities to benefit from the opening
of an agricultural cooperative for subsistence farmers established this
summer within Armenia Fund USA’s Agricultural Initiative. The official
opening of the facilities was on September 23, 2006. About 900 farming
households will have access to badly needed mechanized services and
technical advice from US agricultural experts. This would represent a
significant portion of Mardakert’s population. The project, which is part of
the Regional Development of Nagorno-Karabakh, aims at combating rural
poverty by raising the average family income through improved agricultural
practices and technical assistance. More than this, 30 families are
currently benefiting from a pilot 3-year community development program
co-managed by Armenia Fund USA and Heifer International. The pilot program
will provide seeds, fertilizers, cows and technical assistance in animal
husbandry. Armenia Fund USA and its international affiliates are also
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Mardakert region.
Armenia Fund USA’s Regional Development Program, launched last year, is an
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