ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, HEAD OF REGIONAL COOPERATION BODY DISCUSS TIES

Arminfo
6 Jun 06

Yerevan, 6 June: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has received
Leonodas Chrysanthopoulos, the secretary-general of the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation.

The sides exchanged views on the development of the Black sea
region and discussed economic and security issues, in particular,
the presidential press service has told Arminfo. Kocharyan and
Chrysanthopoulos noted the importance of working out approaches that
enable strengthening cooperation in the region.

SOLDIER WOUNDED IN ARMENIAN TRUCE VIOLATION – AZERI REPORT

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
6 Jun 06

The Armenian armed forces have violated the cease-fire again. Azeri
Press news agency has reported that Azerbaijani positions came under
fire from the Armenian army positions in the occupied village of
Saricali in Agdam District last night. As a result, Azerbaijani soldier
Elmar Miriyev, who was drafted into the army from Davaci District
in April 2005, was wounded. The condition of the soldier, who was
immediately hospitalized, is serious at the moment. The Azerbaijani
Defence Ministry press service has also confirmed the report.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FIRST SEMINAR OF RETRAINING OF JUDGES ON ISSUES OF GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE LAW OPENS IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Jun 06 2006

YEREVAN, JUNE 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The first seminar of retraining of judges
on issues of general administrative law is being held on June 6-9 in
Yerevan. The seminar is held under the aegis of GTZ (German Technical
Company), by the instruction of the Federal Ministry of Cooperation
of Germany, with the sponsorship of RA Ministry of Justice and RA
Cassation Court. The subject of study at the seminar will be the bases
of administration, which form the bases of new RA Administrative Law,
the acting law “On Administrative Legal Proceedings,” as well as the
draft Code of Administrative Legal Proceedings. The judges will have
a possibility to discuss all painful issues cooperating with their
German colleagues, to study the work of this system in practice,
after which to apply it in Armenia. RA Minister of Justice David
Haroutiunian mentioned in his interview to journalists that the
establishment of the administrative justice is important on the way
of becoming a legal state. The system of administrative justice to be
created will solve arguments between the executive power of any level
and citizens, it is supposed that the system be put into operation
next year. RA Minister of Justice explained that in the citizen-power
arguments of administrative legal proceedings the sides are unequal
in difference to the civil legal proceedings, primordially the power
is stronger than citizens, and such legal proceedings are required
that will protect the interests of citizens.

ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN ANNOUNCE NO PROGRESS IN KARABAKH TALKS IN ROMANIA

AP Worldstream
Jun 06, 2006

The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia said Tuesday that
talks between their countries’ leaders had made no progress toward
a settlement of the dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, but
that they had instructions to continue negotiations.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliev discussed the long-standing conflict on the sidelines of a
Black Sea summit in Bucharest, Romania, on Sunday and Monday.

Representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, which is trying to broker a resolution of the 18-year-old
conflict, were also present.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian told state television that
the talks had been conducted “in a normal atmosphere, but they did
not succeed in registering progress and giving a positive impulse to
solving the problem of the Karabakh conflict.”

Still, he said that he and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov had orders to try to find points on which they could
bring the two countries’ positions closer.

Mammadyarov said that, in spite of the lack of a breakthrough, the
Aliev-Kocharian meeting had seen a “wide discussion” of the details
of a settlement.

“We decided to continue the process and, if necessary, to hold another
meeting at the level of foreign ministers,” Mammadyarov said.

Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan but populated mostly by ethnic
Armenians, who have run it and seven contiguous districts since an
uneasy 1994 cease-fire ended six years of full-scale war. There are
sporadic border clashes.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER MURDERS OF ARMENIANS IN RUSSIA TO RF FOREIGN MINISTRY

Yerevan, June 6. ArmInfo. The Foreign Ministry of Armenia expressed
concern over the murders of the Armenians of Russia to the Foreign
Ministry of the Russian Federation, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia
Gegham Gharibjanyan told journalists, Tuesday.

He said Arthur Sardaryan who was murdered in an electric train in
Moscow was the sixth Armenian killed because of ethnic hatred in
Moscow since the beginning of 2006. The deputy minister stressed
that the Armenian authorities are competent to protect the interests
of the citizens and the compatriots in Russia. The problem will be
discussed at the highest level during the upcoming meetings in Moscow,
G. Gharibjanyan said. We must prevent such incidents, he said.

At the same time, he called groundless the statements by certain
politicians that attacks of skinheads on Armenians are provoked by
the state structures of Russia. “All of you know that the prosecutor
general in Russia was dismissed, and I think the fight against such
phenomena will become a starting point in the activity of the new
prosecutor general of Russia,> he said.

G. Gharibjanyan said the aggravation of tension in the inter-ethnic
relations in connection with the flow of cheap man power is observed in
different points of the world, and it should not be connected with the
so-called Slavonic fundamentalism. As regards the arrest of Senator
Levon Chakhmakhchyan and the statement by certain politicians about
political hidden motives of the arrest, the deputy minister said:
“The Armenian-Russian relations are of strategic partnership nature,
and the declaration of the year 2006 the Year of Armenia in Russia
is an evidence of it. So these relations cannot be connected with
separate persons.”

BROTHERLY AZERIS AND TURKS UNITING IN PATHETIC FIGHT AGAINST COMMON ENEMY – ARMENIA

Yerevan, June 6. ArmInfo. Some 250 Azeri intellectuals, scientists
and artists from 31 countries as well as MPs from Turkey, Azerbaijan,
Latvia and Estonia, are holding a forum in the Turkish city of Antalia.

June 7 the Azeri-Turkish federation will demonstrate a film about
“Armenian terrorism.” The same day they will hold a conference to
consider join plan of action of the Azeri and Turkish diasporas. The
participants in the forum will watch a film “We Are 50 Million Strong
Nation” about the 2nd Congress of World Azeris. They will also consider
forming an Assembly of American-Azeri Associations which will involve
US based Turks and Azeris. June 9 the Congress of European Azeris
will meet to hear the report on its last year’s activities.

STEPHEN MANN LEAVES POSITION OF OSCE MG CO-CHAIRMAN FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

Yerevan, May 6. ArmInfo. Stephen Mann, the OSCE MG co-chairman for
the Karabakh conflict settlement form the USA, passes on to another
position in the USA State Department, Azerbaijan Mass Media informs.

According to Mann, it is a usual rotation. “Another co-chairman will
represent the USA in the OSCE MG”, Man said. At th same time, S. Mann
expressed his attitude concerning the June 5 meeting of the Presidents
of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Bucharest with participation of the OSCE
MG co-chairmen. He noted that the Presidents had held very interesting
discussions. “Within the next few days, the co-chairmen will discuss
the results of negotiations, will schedule the next steps and will
inform about it at the regular session of OSCE Constant Council”,
Mann said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN-SPEAKING LAWYERS IN JAVAKHETI DENIED LICENSES

Armenpress
Jun 07 2006

AKHALKALAKI, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian population of Akhalkalaki
and Ninotsminda regions in the southern Georgian province of Javakheti
has been unable since June 1 to hire Armenian-speaking lawyers to
defend their interests at courts.

The local A-Info news agency said the point is that the Association
of Georgian lawyers has refused to grant licenses to Armenian-speaking
lawyers in Javakheti on grounds that they do not speak Georgian.

The agency said this will drastically deteriorate the situation of
local Armenians, who will have to hire Georgian-speaking lawyers from
other regions and consequently pay much more for their services.

ARMENIAN LEADER CALLS FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION DESPITE CONFLICTS

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan
7 Jun 06

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has called for promoting
regional cooperation without waiting for the settlement of the
existing conflicts in an address to the 27th plenary session of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC)
which opened in Yerevan on 7 June.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are in the state of war and therefore economic
cooperation between the two countries is impossible, the head of
the Azerbaijani delegation to the PABSEC, Asaf Haciyev, said at a
press conference which followed the session. The Azerbaijani MP also
stressed that constant mutual insults and accusations will not lead
to the settlement of the conflict and called on the Armenian side to
do its best to resolve the problem.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WATER MONOPOLISTS WERE REVEALED

A1+
[04:12 pm] 07 June, 2006

The companies providing the residents of Armenia with drinking water
have different tariffs for one cubic meter of water. For example, the
company “Yerevan Water Pipeline” sells one cubic meter of water for
80 AMD, “Shirak Water Pipeline” – for 76 AMD and “Lori Water Pipeline”
– for 91 AMD.

Ashot Shahnazaryan, the head of the RA Economic Competition Protection
State Committee who was presiding over the usual session of the
Committee wondered how the tariff was formed. The representatives
of the companies providing people with water gave no answer to that
question.

The committee has carried out investigations and found out that the
above mentioned four companies are monopolists in their regions,
that’s to say, they do not have competitors. But the companies who
have cleared out the areas of their activity are facing a problem. A
number of villages have been left out of the planning and are not
provided with water by any company.

Each of the companies tries to explain away saying that they are not
in charge of these villages.

Nevertheless, all of them were asked to solve the problem as soon
as possible.