Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
October 27, 2006 Friday
TURKEY WANTS TO GAIN A STRONG FOOTHOLD IN THE CAUCASUS;
The vice president of the parliamentary assembly of NATO thinks that
issue of the Gabalinskaya radar station may be raised when
development of Azerbaijan with NATO are developed
by Dzhasur Mamedov
CHAIR OF TURKISH DELEGATION TO THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF NATO
VAHID ERDEM SPEAKS ABOUT MILITARY COOPERATION WITH AZERBAIJAN;
Interview of Vahid Erdem, chair of Turkish delegation to the
parliamentary assembly of NATO.
Question: There is no agreement on military and strategic alliance
between Azerbaijan and Turkey now. What do you think is the reason
for this?
Erdem: Turkey and Azerbaijan are natural strategic allies. I believe
that very soon this fact will be reflected in a certain agreement.
Question: Which place in the military policy of Turkey is assigned to
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia?
Erdem: Relations of the West and Turkey with Azerbaijan and Georgia
are developing in a very positive aspect. Oil and gas reserves gain
additional strategic positions for Azerbaijan. Integration of both
countries into Euro-Atlantic structures has huge importance for
security and social and economic development of the South Caucasus.
It would be possible only to welcome development of similar processes
in Armenia. However, occupation of a territory of Azerbaijan by this
country and hostile attitude to Turkey hinder development of their
relations.
Question: It is known that on the territory of Azerbaijan there is a
military object of Russia, namely the Gabalinskaya radar station. To
which extent do you think existence of such an object hinders
integration of Azerbaijan into NATO?
Erdem: In the framework of Partnership for Peace agreement NATO also
has relations with Russia. Russia withdraws its bases from Georgia. I
think that at the current stage the Gabalinskaya radar station is not
an obstacle for development of relations between NATO and Azerbaijan.
When Azerbaijan gets integrated into NATO it may put this issue on
the agenda.
Question: Which assistance can Turkey provide to Azerbaijan if it
starts combat operations for the purpose of liberation of its land?
Erdem: I hope that there will be no need for combat operations for
liberation of occupied territories. Armenia is in isolation now.
Yerevan has good relations only with Iran and Russia. Openness of
Armenia to the West and its social and economic development will be
possible after normalization of relations with Turkey. Turkey is
prepared to provide comprehensive support to fraternal Azerbaijan for
removal of the occupation.
Question: Quite recently, Azerbaijan established Ministry of Defense
Industry. What do you think can cooperation of the two countries in
the defense sector be like?
Erdem: Turkey is developing defense industry establishing joint
ventures and consortiums in cooperation with the US and European
countries. Getting integrated into Europe Azerbaijan can pass this
path together with Turkey. In the future it will be able to establish
joint ventures with Turkey.
Source: Voenno-Promyshlenny Kuryer, No, 40, October 18-24, 2006, p. 3

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
October 27, 2006 Friday
MILITARY BUDGET OF AZERBAIJAN WILL CATCH UP WITH BUDGET OF ENTIRE
ARMENIA
President of Azerbaijan Ilkham Aliyev announced, “Our military budget
will catch up with the budget of entire Armenia and will exceed it in
the future. Naturally, this circumstance will play a key and
indispensable role in search for a just solution for the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict about Nagorno-Karabakh.” Aliyev
released this statement speaking at a meeting of the cabinet of
ministers dedicated to discussion of social and economic results of
the first nine months of 2006. According to Aliyev, the state pays
much attention to military development. He said, “Next year, our
military budget will exceed $1 billion. I set this task two years
ago. Then our military budget amounted to $150 million.”
Source: Kommersant, October 24, 2006, p. 9

National Assembly of Armenia
Oct 26 2006
Ambassador of Kingdom of Sweden at National Assembly

On October 25 the President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran
Torosyan received the newly appointed Ambassador of the Kingdom of
Sweden in Armenia Mr. Hans Gunnar Adén. The honorable consul of the
Kingdom of Sweden in Armenia Edit Khachatryan also attended the
meeting.
Mr. Hans Gunnar informed the President of the National Assembly about
the redistribution of political forces as a result of the September
elections noting, that four parties have formed a coalition. The
President of the Swedish Parliament was also newly elected. The
Ambassador noted that his appointment proves the intention of Sweden
to develop relations with Armenia. He also stressed the importance of
including Armenia in the New Neighbourhood Programme of the European
Union and expressed a hope that the Action Plan to be signed in
November will be implemented most efficiently and will launch new
opportunities of development for Armenia, contribute to the
strengthening of democracy and economic progress. The Ambassador of
the Kingdom of Sweden also touched upon the forthcoming general
elections noting that the elections themselves, as well as the
pre-electoral period are going to be at the center of attention of
Europe, and it is expected that Armenia will show political will in
order to provide elections complying with democratic standards. Mr.
Hans Gunnar Adén considers as the purpose of his mission the
deepening of Swedish-Armenian cooperation and the development of
inter-parliamentary relations.
The President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran Torosyan noted that
there are certain relations between the two countries, but the
inter-parliamentary relations are not sufficiently developed and are
still being established within the framework of cooperation through
international organizations. The two parties also stressed the
importance of the development of inter-party relations, which will in
its turn contribute to the strengthening of relations between the two
countries. Highlighting the importance of the success of the European
integration policy adopted by Armenia, the President of the National
Assembly informed the Ambassador about the ongoing parliamentary
debates on the Electoral Code. He noted that in elaborating the draft
of amendments to the Electoral Code, the National Assembly closely
cooperates with the experts of CE and OSCE, and that there are all
the bases for adopting the Electoral Code till the end of the year,
and thus creating good legislative grounds for holding the elections.
Anyway, only the law is not enough for holding the elections in
compliance with democratic standards, and the political forces have
to create a favorable atmosphere in the country in order to succeed.
Both parties stressed the importance of the observers’ participation
in the elections and the objectivity and impartiality of their
evaluations.
During the meeting the parties also touched upon the works of
complying the legislation with the Basic law after the constitutional
amendments, which comprise the human rights protection, judicial and
self-government systems. The President of the National Assembly
highlighted the importance of these legislative reforms from the view
of political, social and economic development and noted that during
the last 5-6 years Armenia has reached good indices of economic
development, and that the social and political changes of the coming
3-4 years have to target the strengthening of democracy, and thus to
contribute to the further economic development.
During the meeting other issues of mutual importance were also
discussed.

RIA OREANDA
Economic News
October 27, 2006 Friday
Board of Directors Approves Acquisition of Additional Shares in
Armrosgazprom
Moscow. OREANDA-NEWS. The Board of Directors of Gazprom approved
Gazproms acquisition of additional shares in ArmRosgazprom.
As a result, the share of Gazprom in ArmRosgazprom will grow from 45
to 58 per cent.
ArmRosgazproms major business line is natural gas supply to Armenias
internal market. In addition, ArmRosgazprom is engaged in natural gas
transmission, storage, processing, distribution and marketing, gas
transmission system and UGS facility upgrading and expansion in the
Republic of Armenia.
The Board of Directors also agreed on Gazprom (UK) Ltds acquisition
of shares in UrdanetaGazprom-1 S.A. and UrdanetaGazprom-2 S.A.
(Venezuela).

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 27 2006
SERGE SARGSYAN MET WITH NATO CONSULTATION GROUP
October 26 Secretary of the Security Council under RA President, RA
Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan met with the members of the NATO
international consultation group.
According to the information DE FACTO got at the RA MOD Press
Service, Slovenia’s Plenipotentiary FM Damian Bergant, Advisor to
Lithuania’s National Defense Minister James Gribovsky, the U. K. MOD
official John Drievinkievich, Baltic Defense College Senior
Scientific Worker Margus Colgan, Director of Latvia’s Foreign Affairs
Institute Atis Lejins and others are in the foreign delegation.
In the course of the meeting the representative of the U. K. noted
the consultation group approved all the provisions of the RA national
security strategy draft referring to the development of the state and
civil society. Touching on the security issues the delegation’s
members discussed the geopolitical situation in Armenia and stated
two of four neighbor states – Azerbaijan and Turkey had blockaded the
border with Armenia, while other vitally important ways passed via
Iran and Georgia, where the situation is complicated too. Speaking of
Armenia’s foreign political course the delegation’s members remarked
it was mainly conditioned by the two issues, which are very important
for any Armenian – Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenian Genocide in
Turkey. The guests stated under the circumstances Armenia had decided
to pursue a balanced policy.

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
October 27, 2006 Friday 5:34 PM EET
Russia’s Gazprom brd OKs increasing stake in ArmRosgazprom to 58%
Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom’s board of directors has
approved increasing the company’s stake in Armenia’s ArmRosgazprom to
58% from 45%, Gazprom said in a statement Friday.
Gazprom plans to purchase additional shares of ArmRosgazprom, the gas
giant said.
ArmRosgazprom, created in 1997, has a monopoly on imports and
distribution of Russian natural gas in Armenia. It also specializes
in transportation, storage, processing, distribution and sales of
gas, as well as in reconstruction and expansion of underground
storage facilities and gas transportation systems in Armenia.
At the present time Armenia’s Energy Minister owns a 45% stake in
ArmRosgazprom, while Russian natural gas producer Itera holds 10%.

Lragir, Armenia
Oct 27 2006
FOR THE FIRST TIME WE WILL SEE VERY IMPORTANT PROCESS IN THE
POLITICAL SPHERE

Aram Karapetyan, one of the leaders of the anti-criminal movement
stated October 26 that the movement is likely to hold hearings on the
economic monopolies in Armenia. Soon penitentiaries will appear
within the orbit of the practical interest of the anti-criminal
because there are worrying facts about their activities.
`I think there are several very important problems, which interest us
as well. Namely, we want to know about the situation in the
penitentiaries, there is information that many people are released on
orders. There is information that well-known criminals are released
early after forensic and psychological examinations,’ says Aram
Karapetyan.
Besides released criminals, the anti-criminal will also deal with the
criminals at large, of course, if it continues to consider Prime
Minister Andranik Margaryan as a criminal. Aram Karapetyan announces
that they will inquire about how many people the prime minister gave
gift guns and whom he gave. `We would like to know how many these
are. We ask the police to provide this information to us, and we also
want to know how many of these guns were used. If there are cases of
murder, shooting, how many of them, and if it is true that he gave
500 gift guns. If it is true that he gave a gift gun to an
adolescent,’ says Aram Karapetyan.
He assured that the anti-criminal movement continues its activity,
everyone takes part. The leader of the Nor Zhamanakner Party says
that soon we will hear about interests things in the political sphere
and for the first time we will see a very important process. `The
opposition has not pursued such a process so far.’ According to Aram
Karapetyan, these are public hearings, round-table meetings replacing
the tactics of rallies, where clear professional evaluations are
given to all the questions.

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
October 27, 2006 Friday
Russian VTB expects to bring stake in VTB Armenia to 100% in 2-3 mos
Russia’s state-owned Vneshtorgbank, or VTB, expects to close a deal
to increase its stake in VTB Armenia Bank to 100% from its current
70% plus one share over the next two or three months, VTB’s Senior
Vice President Vasily Titov told reporters Friday.
The remaining 30% minus one share stake currently belongs to Mikhail
Bagdasarov, the owner of Mika Armenia Trading Company.
The shareholders’ equity of VTB Armenia Bank currently amounts to the
equivalent of U.S. $24 million, VTB Armenia Bank CEO Alexander
Vartanov said.
The bank ranks second in Armenia in terms of the individual account
balances, Vartanov said. The bank accounts for 10% of total
individual account balances in Armenian banks, he added.
VTB Armenia Bank has 100 branches in the country.
At the present time VTB Group consists of three Russian banks,
including VTB, Vneshtorgbank Retail Services and Industrial and
Construction Bank, or Promstroibank; seven banks in Western Europe,
namely in the U.K., France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Cyprus and
Luxemburg; four banks in the CIS, namely, two in Ukraine, one each in
Armenia and Georgia; as well as two joint ventures in Angola and
Namibia.

Hayots Ashkar, Yerevan,
27 Oct 06, p 3
ARMENIAN NEWSPAPER SEES IRAN AS TRANSPORT ALTERNATIVE TO GEORGIA
Iran may be a solution to Armenia’s transport problems arising from
Russia’s blockade of Georgia, an Armenian newspaper has said. The
early commissioning of an Iran-Armenia gas pipeline has given Armenia
hope for more transport and energy options via Iran. Closer
cooperation with Iran would make Armenia’s positions stronger both in
talks on a Karabakh settlement and in relations with Georgia amid
Russian pressure on Yerevan to take a tougher stance. The following
is the text of an article by Sark’s Gevorkyan entitled “We need an
alternative and Iran maybe that alternative” and published in the
Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkar on 27 October:
Two events that have occurred recently, such as the recognition of
Iran’s right to uranium enrichment by the director-general of
International Atomic Energy Agency, Muhammad al-Baradi’i, and the
publication of the programme on armed forces withdrawal from Iraq,
indicate that the world community recognizes the fact that our
neighbour Iran may turn its force into an independent factor, and is
ready to take this reality into account. In such conditions, Armenia,
which has found itself in a difficult geopolitical situation because
of events around Georgia, may take the edge off the need to make a
choice between the northern and western directions of its policy by
giving a new quality to Armenian-Iranian strategic cooperation.
Putting an Iran-Armenia gas pipeline into operation a month earlier
than expected and the prospects for an Iran-Armenia-Georgia energy
corridor is additional proof of that.
It is not hard to notice that, as Armenia gains a serious energy
alternative, it should not be in a hurry to sell the Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline to a third party or transfer it into trust management.
Moreover, Armenia may also consider the construction of a second gas
pipeline towards Europe, which may seriously strengthen its positions
in terms of energy exports.
Let us try to understand what Armenia can gain from the further
deepening of cooperation with Iran in the context of new developments
in efforts to settle South Caucasus conflicts?
Those developments obviously suggest that each of the “projects”
being offered to Armenia – the western and the northern ones –
contains such possible dangers that this country is in fact facing
the problem of choosing the lesser of the two evils. Thus, until the
geopolitical status of Georgia is clarified and the process of
Karabakh talks reaches its climax, Armenia is simply deprived of an
opportunity to make “sharp movements”. But even after that the
obstacles between Russia and Georgia may increase the role of
southward communications via Azerbaijan for Russia. For Armenia this
is a deadlock in both cases at the Russian-Georgian and
Armenian-Azerbaijani borders. For this reason, the transfer of the
Russian southern transport corridor from Georgia to Azerbaijan augurs
badly for this country. But Armenia is also deprived of an
opportunity of making a choice between Georgia, which is turning into
a possible NATO base, and Russia. It turns out that Armenian-Russian
high-level talks, which are due to be held in Moscow, may discuss the
following options: either Armenia changes its policy towards Georgia
or Russia will have to consider using the Azerbaijan-Iran
communications system. We think that in such conditions Armenia needs
support from a third party, which also worries about the prospect of
foreign forces deploying not far from its borders. Moreover,
Armenia’s rapprochement with Iran would not damage Moscow’s efforts
to find a “black cat” in Armenian-Georgian relations as well as to
keep the Karabakh conflict settlement process in a deadlock. It is
obvious that by means of Armenian-Iranian cooperation we may balance
out the two mutually exclusive extremes we are facing in
Russian-Georgian relations and we may be able to talk to Georgia from
the positions of a country that has a specific transport alternative.
A further rapprochement with Iran will also allow Armenia feel more
confident in the context of the an accelerating Karabakh negotiation
process. The involvement of a third force will allow us to
counterbalance processes which may be at variance with our national
interests. The reason is evident as the Araz valley is also a
security zone for Iran, which would view any control of it by
international forces as a serious threat.
Thus, in the context of geopolitical processes taking place in our
region and the consequent isolation of Armenia, this country may
start consultations with Iran on all aspects of energy, communication
and military-technical cooperation and take it to a new quality
level.

Agence France Presse — English
October 27, 2006 Friday 4:44 PM GMT
Furore over Romania’s nominee for EU post
Paul Harrington
Romania’s candidate for a European Commission post fell under intense
scrutiny Friday, with the EU’s executive arm failing to endorse him
amid allegations of far-right leanings and links to the Soviet-era
secret police.
Diplomatic sources in Brussels said that the Commission’s president
Jose Manuel Barroso had rejected Varujan Vosganian’s candidature,
although a spokesman refused to be drawn on the question.
“Clearly there is a problem,” said one source.
Both the Romanian and the Bulgarian candidates met Thursday with
Barroso, but only Bulgaria’s European Integration Minister, Meglena
Kuneva, walked away with the president’s blessing to join his cabinet
in January.
Bulgaria and Romania are to join the EU at the beginning of the year,
and each member state is entitled to one commissioner’s post at the
EU’s executive branch.
Romanian Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said he supported liberal
senator Vosganian and dismissed doubts about his suitability as a
candidate.
“At the moment, normal procedures are under way in Brussels” to name
the next commissioner, Tariceanu told reporters in Bucharest.
Romanian President Traian Basescu also weighed into the controversy,
saying that Vosganian “does not have a dossier as an informer” to the
old Securitate secret police, despite claims by a former
Communist-era secret police official.
Vosganian himself echoed that he had “no link with the Securitate”,
dismissing the furore over his nomination as “speculation”.
Piling on the controversy, the Romanian daily Evenimentul Zilei
reported that Vosganian was currently a member of the extreme-right
group Rost, a charge the senator also denied.
“I have no link with the extreme right, it is an absurd accusation,”
he said.
However, Socialists at the European Parliament voiced concern about
Vosganian’s links with right-wing politics in the past as well as his
lack of EU experience.
“What is known is that he was very right-wing in politics and
financed by tycoons,” said Austrian Socialist euro-deputy Hannes
Swoboda said.
According to Swoboda, the 48-year-old economist and poet set up a
party in the 1990s called the Union of Right-wing Forces that was
bankrolled by a wealthy and controversial Romanian businessman Sorin
Vantu, who owns several television stations in Bucharest.
Vosganian, who hails from the Armenian minority and speaks fluent
English and French, had until now been spared by the Romanian press,
which usually thrives on “incendiary” revelations about politicians.
European Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger was bombarded
with questions on Vosganian at a daily press briefing where he
stonewalled with the line “consultations are ongoing and while they
are ongoing the Commission won’t pronounce on details”.
Asked why the Commission backed Bulgaria’s Kuneva as EU consumer
protection commissioner while remaining silent on the Romanian
candidate, he replied: “Some consultations take more time and some
consultations take less time”.
After Barroso names the two new commissioners, they will face
hearings before the European Parliament, which will then vote on
their nominations at a December 11-15 plenary session.
In October 2004, Barroso’s commission got off to a bumpy start when
Italy’s candidate for commissioner, Rocco Buttiglione, was forced to
withdraw due to opposition from the EU parliament over his views that
homosexuality is a sin and that women should stay home looking after
children.