Source: Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian
14 Sep 06
ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER READY FOR MEETING WITH AZERI COUNTERPART
Yerevan, 14 September: “The co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group are
seriously discussing the next meeting between the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers, but our position is clear – the
meetings should not turn into an end in itself,” Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan said while answering journalists’ questions
after the presentation of a book entitled “The Nagornyy Karabakh
problem – ways of settlement”.
“We are ready for the meeting at any time, but there is a need for a
favourable atmosphere in order to make progress. Azerbaijan keeps
making efforts to divert the international community’s attention from
the Minsk Group process. This is a fact,” the Armenian foreign
minister said.
“As is known, the United Nations, which earlier refused to put the
GUAM-initiated [Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova] issue of
frozen conflicts on its agenda, changed its decision literally
yesterday. The issue was put on the agenda with a majority of votes.
This is the situation when an attempt is made to divert attention
from the Minsk Group process,” the Armenian foreign minister said,
adding that the meeting between the foreign ministers will be in
question until it is clear in which direction the process develops at
the UN.
According to the minister, although Azerbaijan earlier accepted most
of the provisions of the document proposed by the Minsk Group,
including the referendum, self-determination and others, it is now
trying to “back off”. As a means of achieving this goal, Azerbaijan
has chosen, according to its own calculations, attempts to divert
attention from the Minsk Group process and refer the issue to the UN.
So it is necessary to assess the current situation and only after
that, can we determine our further steps, the Armenian foreign
minister said. The minister also expressed the opinion that according
to the results of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict settlement, there is
no need to change the strategy at the moment.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Observer, UK
First lady of Turkish finance
Guler Sabanci, head of Sabanci Holding, says the West has the wrong
perception about her country – women have always been highly regarded,
unlike in other countries she could mention. Helena Smith talks to
Turkey’s most famous female entrepreneur
Sunday September 17, 2006
The Observer
If Guler Sabanci didn’t exist you wouldn’t dare to invent her as a
realistic fictional character. It’s not just her wealth, which is
immense. Or that she is a free spirit in a part of the world that is
undeniably patriarchal. Or even that she presides over a
family-controlled business while, somehow, also being a vintner and
Europe’s newest, hottest, patron of the arts. It is that Guler
Sabanci is all these things in Turkey, a country more bound to
tradition than most. None of this is lost on the defiantly single,
staunchly progressive Sabanci.
As chair of Sabanci Holding, an industrial conglomerate whose
consolidated revenues last year amounted to $10.6bn, she is, at 51,
Turkey’s most feted female entrepreneur – and, by virtue of her impact
on finance and culture, probably its most powerful woman to date. But
if she embodies the Muslim nation’s myriad contradictions – as the
living incarnation of its founding secular principles – it appears to
leave her unfazed.
‘So, is it easy being a woman in business in Turkey?’ I ask. We are
in her office, on the 25th floor of Istanbul’s twin-tower Sabanci
centre, a place filled as much with eclectic art – from contemporary
to medieval Seljuk – as with the standard accoutrements of the modern
corporate world.
As she ponders the question, looking out across the sun-flecked waters
of the Bosphorus to Asia, Sabanci can’t help but smile. ‘No,’ she
booms, her gravelly voice as husky as Billie Holiday’s on a bad
day. Is it harder than in other countries? After all, she is also the
first woman ever to have sat on the board of Turkey’s influential
Businessmen’s Association. Companies the size of hers – employing
45,000 people – are the backbone of the Turkish economy.
Again, the answer is categorical: ‘I don’t think so. The west has the
wrong perception about Turkey itself. Since the [foundation of] the
[secular] Republic in 1923, professional women have always been highly
regarded in this country, whereas I remember going to England in the
early Eighties where women were not allowed to lunch in a famous
bankers’ club in the City.
‘All over the world there is a gender issue … but in business it is
less of a problem because you can be more specific and
result-orientated, and measure the results.’ Results, unsurprisingly,
are what Sabanci likes best.
Established by her grandfather, Haci Omer, in the 1940s, the company
started in the cotton mills of Adana in rural Anatolia. By the
mid-1960s, Haci Omer had not only relocated to Istanbul, Turkey’s
historic commercial capital but, aided by state subsidies and tax
exemptions, become the embodiment of rags-to-riches success.
Handpicked to lead the dynasty (‘I was the eldest grandchild of six
sons and I must have been three or four when my grandfather took me to
the factory’), Guler succeeded Sakip, her uncle, who as testimony to
the family’s standing in Turkey, was given a hero’s funeral when he
died in 2004.
By the time she got to the top, the group had become a collection of
66 companies with interests in areas as diverse as banking, food,
retailing, tyres, truck-making, textiles, energy, cement and
chemicals.
‘Sakip gave me a lot of moral support,’ she concedes, even if she also
came up the hard way. ‘I started off doing standard clerical work,
filling out forms in the purchasing department. Then I climbed, step
by step. There were times, at some levels, where people may have
hesitated, where they may have said “is she going to be able to handle
it?” But I did.’
Some worried that the business was spreading itself too thinly when
Sabanci took over. But, under her watch, earnings have soared, with
the company’s consolidated net income topping $514m last year. As the
empire has expanded – it has operations in 12 countries, including a
chemicals plant in the UK – so, too, has its city-sized roll-call of
employees, with the group’s staff increasing by nearly a third last
year.
Around 3,500 personnel currently work abroad, where the conglomerate
has an array of joint ventures with foreign companies including French
supermarket chain Carrefour, Japanese car maker Toyota, and Germany’s
HeidelbergCement.
‘Our London office is our base for international trade,’ she
says. ‘It’s just opposite Madame Tussauds. They’re very nice
neighbours, very quiet, although I must say they do have a lot of
visitors.’
If Sabanci is that rare thing in Turkey – a very public woman who is
very publicly witty – she has also gained a deserved reputation for
pluck in a field where few women, anywhere, have dared to venture.
As head of Sabanci’s tyre division – a post she held for 14 years and
one which earned her the nickname ‘rubber queen’- she aggressively
broadened the division’s horizons, forging links with US company
DuPont and other global corporate partners.
And as the driving force behind the conglomerate’s 50/50 joint venture
strategy of the 1990s, it is Sabanci who, more than anyone else, has
been credited with expanding the group’s operations overseas, into
Latin America and Europe.
Despite the fluctuations in the country’s economy, no other Turkish
company has thrived, or expanded, so far away from the Middle East.
The stabilising effect of Turkey’s European Union accession process –
of which she is one of the most ardent advocates – has undoubtedly
helped. But so, too, has Sabanci’s management style. A firm believer
in delegation and teamwork – iconoclastic notions in a nation with
such a staid corporate culture – one of the first things she did
having taken the helm was to call all her executives to a US-style
‘search conference’ to discuss future trends and strategies.
‘It was an event where we looked 10 years ahead,’ she said. And what
did the company’s, and Turkey’s, future look like in 2015? ‘At
Sabanci,’ she says matter-of-factly, ‘our vision is to triple our
revenues to $30bn,’ partly through differentiation – ‘the future of
business’ – and through investing in the energy sector, which Turkey’s
conservative government has pledged to privatise.
‘But I cannot have a 10-year vision for Turkey without [thinking
about] Europe. In 10 years’ time, Turkey will be a very attractive
market. Per capita income, which is $5,000 today, will be close to
$12,500 – you’re talking about a serious economy.’ So is she saying
that in 10 years’ time Turkey will be an asset to the EU? ‘Yes, by
then its population will be around 90 million, and it’ll be a very
young population that will bring a great dynamism to Europe.’
And yet, she hastens to add, the journey in many ways will be more
important than the destination. ‘In 10 years’ time we expect Turkey to
have the right to decide to be, or not to be, a member of Europe,
which of course means doing all the right things along the road. I say
that because in 10 years’ time, we don’t know what Europe will be
either.’
To spend a day with Guler Sabanci is to witness not only her role in
Turkey’s corporate world, but the considerable effect she has on its
social and cultural life. On a single day I saw her conduct business,
inaugurate an 18th-century fountain – the first of many she has
promised to renovate in Istanbul – and launch a new wine festival,
made purely ‘for the pleasure of drinking’.
Beyond the boardroom, most of Sabanci’s energies are focused on
education and art. Since 1974, the conglomerate has poured some $1.1bn
into a charitable foundation – the largest in Turkey and one of the
biggest in the world.
Recently, funds have been injected into Sabanci University, which she
founded in 1999. Today, it is widely viewed as Turkey’s most liberal
higher education institution, teaching taboo subjects such as the
Armenian genocide. Last year, to the delight of Turks – including the
Islamic-rooted government – she introduced the country to Picasso,
arranging an historic exhibition of his works (not least his
nudes). More than 250,000 people visited the newly renovated Sakip
Sabanci Museum to see the show.
‘This country made me rich, so it’s my duty to give back,’ she tells
me. ‘I wear two hats. The one is business and increasing my
shareholders’ value; the other is social responsibility. I believe in
the goodness of people, of trying to be a good person.’
Said by most, such words might sound trite. But after a day with Guler
Sabanci, it is difficult not to believe that she means every word she
says.
The CV
Name Guler Sabanci
Born 1955, Adana, Turkey
Education Bosphorus University (business administration); Harvard
University advanced management program
Career 1978, joined Sabanci group’s tyre manufacturing company, Lassa;
1985, general manager of Kordsa, the group’s tyre cord manufacturing
and trading company; May 2004, chair of Sabanci Holding and head of
the philanthropic Sabanci Foundation
Hobbies Visiting art fairs and collecting art, especially ceramics
from the Ottoman Seljuk period; making wine

Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
September 16, 2006 Saturday
Final Edition
The world according to Harper: A rookie prime minister who is
learning foreign policy on the fly has a big week ahead of him on the
global stage
by Mike Blanchfield, Ottawa Citizen; CanWest News Service
OTTAWA – Stephen Harper had intended to spend his first hours over
the Atlantic Ocean as Canada’s new prime minister squirrelled away in
the front of his government Airbus with his briefing books, prepping
for meetings with Britain’s Tony Blair, and his first major summit,
the Group of Eight in Russia.
But, as he soon found out, a troubled world does not allow its
leaders such luxuries.
Just before Harper’s plane took off, Israeli bombs tore up the runway
of Beirut International Airport, and a new war was breaking out in
the Middle East — something Harper could not ignore.
Harper soon found himself in a familiar pose of travelling prime
ministers: commenting on a world gone wrong to the journalists at the
back of his plane. He voiced unwavering support for Israel in its
quest to rescue two of its soldiers, kidnapped days earlier along the
Lebanese-Israeli border by the Hezbollah terrorist group. Harper said
Israel had a right to defend itself, and that it had shown a
“measured response” in its attack on Lebanon.
For many, Canada’s 22nd prime minister had redefined his country’s
position towards the intractable Middle East conflict by showing
clear support for one side over the other. Harper was, quite
literally, making foreign policy on the fly.
For all his efforts to focus his agenda on five domestic priorities,
Harper was forced to face a sixth, one that comes with the job of
being prime minister: defining Canada’s role in the world.
AWAITING A GRAND GLOBAL VISION
So far, Harper has offered no grand sweeping vision of Canadian
foreign policy. There have been clues and fragments: the military
mission in Afghanistan and the need to support our allies in the war
on terrorism, especially the U.S.; the need to strengthen that
relationship with Washington after years of tension under the
Liberals and his unequivocal support of Israel in the Middle East.
Along the way, he has lashed out at Iran, snubbed China, and
recognized the Armenian genocide thus angering NATO-ally Turkey. His
government was also one of the first western countries to cut aid to
the Palestinian Authority after the stunning election victory of
Hamas in January.
Overall, this has made Jews and Americans, in particular, quite fond
of Harper, while Arabs, Muslims and peace-loving, war-loathing
Quebecers who kicked the Conservative party’s tires during the last
federal election are getting their backs up.
Former Liberal foreign affairs minister John Manley — who was an
outspoken U.S. supporter when he held the portfolio at the time of
the 9/11 attacks — says Harper has hurt himself in Quebec because of
his foreign policy shift on the Middle East.
Manley said he was pleasantly surprised by how well Harper’s rookie
minority government had been performing — until the Middle East
reared its head.
“When you venture into foreign policy shifts, you want to be really,
really sure that you understand how you got to where we were,” says
Manley. “It wasn’t a Liberal policy on the Middle East. It was a
Canadian policy, and the policy that I was responsible for as foreign
minister was in every significant respect the same that it was when
Joe Clark was the foreign minister for Brian Mulroney.”
Manley says Harper has broken the most important rule of Canadian
foreign policy: don’t get too close to the U.S. and don’t get too far
away from the U.S.
“That’s unpopular with a lot of Canadians, especially unpopular in
Quebec where (the Conservatives) hoped to get their majority. I think
the war is unpopular in Quebec. All wars have been unpopular in
Quebec,” says Manley.
“On the Middle East and Canada-U.S. relations, they kind of plunged
in with gut reactions before really fully understanding what the
delicate balances were.”
But changing the way Canada operates in the world is not a bad thing,
according to some experts. How you do it, though, is important.
“We’re missing a policy,” says Fen Hampson, director of the Norman
Patterson School of International Affairs at Ottawa’s Carleton
University.
“A policy … that sets clear goals and strategies, has conceptual
underpinnings that explain why we’re doing certain things.”
Hampson says Harper’s take on the world could best be defined as
“high-principled multilateralism” because of the close ties he is
fostering with the U.S. through fighting the war on terror in
Afghanistan.
Hampson gives Harper an A for his management of Canada-U.S.
relations, resuscitating them after the rampant anti-Americanism of
the Liberals under Jean Chretien and Paul Martin effectively silenced
Ottawa’s voice in Washington.
But pumping money into the military and making speeches about how
Canada stands with its No. 1 ally and neighbour fighting terrorism in
Afghanistan does nothing to address other issues, such as how he
views the massive economies of China and India, or what Canada really
thinks of the United Nations these days, let alone navigating the
political minefield of the Middle East.
“For the rest of the world: C minus,” Hampson says. “He has to look
at his other subjects…. He’s still got a lot of homework to do.”
MAJOR SPEECH AT THE UN
That work continues next week when Harper is to give his first major
speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Later in the week, he
will host Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Ottawa. During his short
televised address this week on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11
attacks, Harper indicated he supports the UN, reminding Canadians
their troops are serving on a NATO mission in Afghanistan under the
authority of the world body.
But Harper has given no indication he wants Canada to be a major
player in UN reform, and he’s not one to go around spouting the
“responsibility to protect” doctrine that Martin was so passionate
about, especially when it came to helping the war-ravaged people of
Sudan’s Darfur region.
Some say Harper has also given short shrift to the epic humanitarian
disaster in Darfur.
“Paul Martin took on personally the role of moving Canada into the
dossier of Darfur,” says Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire, the retired
general who headed the UN’s ill-fated mission to Rwanda that was
powerless to stop the 1994 genocide there.
In Darfur, a three-year-old conflict that has displaced up to two
million people and claimed at least 200,000 lives, Canada committed
about 100 armoured personnel carriers as part of a commitment of
about $210,000, a pledge that includes $40,000 Harper added in May.
But Dallaire says that since taking power in February, Harper has
dropped the ball on Darfur, silencing Canada as a major international
player.
Allan Rock, Canada’s ambassador to the UN and an active Darfur
advocate, has moved on. And Harper sacked the Darfur advisory team
Martin had created that included Dallaire, fellow Senator Mobina
Jaffer and former UN ambassador Robert Fowler.
“Unceremoniously, sometime in February we were simply dumped by the
current government, no thank you, no nothing, just we don’t need you
anymore,” says Dallaire, an author and advocate for Africa.
Harper has also managed to snub and anger the world’s fastest growing
economy — China — first by accusing them of fostering economic
espionage in Canada, and then by ignoring them. As of last week, the
Chinese Embassy in Ottawa was still waiting for their first meeting
with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.
China is not used to being treated that way. Chretien made building
economic ties with Beijing a cornerstone of his foreign policy,
something Martin carried on. The Liberals were accused of doing this
at the expense of human rights.
But Harper has swung the pendulum back the other way — too far, says
Hampson.
Harper has also managed to alienate Canadian Arabs and Muslims with
his vocal support of the Israeli military’s attack on Lebanon in an
attempt to crush the Hezbollah militia.
A recent poll commissioned by the National Council on Canada-Arab
Relations found that one-third of those surveyed believe Harper
favours Israelis over Arabs. The same poll, done by SES Research,
also found that 54 per cent said they would consider changing their
vote in the next election based on the government’s policy towards
the Middle East.
Says SES president Nik Nanos: “It quite well may be that foreign
policy may play a significant role in the dynamic of the next federal
election.”

Asia Pulse
September 14, 2006 Thursday 11:02 AM EST
IRAN TO TRANSFER GAS TO ARMENIA SOON: SPEAKER
Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said on Tuesday that the first
gas pipeline to transfer gas from Iran to Armenia is scheduled to
become operational in the coming months.
A report released by Majlis Media Department said that the speaker
made the remark while speaking to reporters at a joint press
conference with his Armenian counterpart Tigran Torossian.
Addressing reporters, Haddad-Adel said that the progress of the gas
project is supervised by the presidents of Iran and Armenia.
Haddad-Adel said that feasibility studies on the second gas pipeline
is currently underway.
He referred to projects on transfer of energy, development and port
of industrial machinery as strategies aiming to boost trade exchanges
between the two states and urged that tourism and investment by
private sector should also be facilitated.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the speaker said that establishment of
relations with the Central Asian states and Caucasia has been on the
agenda of Iran’s foreign policy over the past 15 years.
“Meanwhile, Iran-Armenia ties have been quite favorable on account of
the good bonds between Iranian Muslims and Armenian minority,” he
said.
Turning to the history of the presence of Armenians in Iran, he said
that they contribute to the construction and development of Iran
along with their Muslim countrymen.
For his part, the chairman of Armenia’s National Assembly pointed to
Iran’s nuclear issue and the relevant developments in the region and
said, “All countries should benefit from equal conditions to access
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. No country should abuse its
facilities to restrict other states.” Torossian stated that the terms
and conditions of international treaties should be implemented
equally for all world countries.
Besides, he referred to Iran-Armenia commonalties and called for
expansion of cooperation between the two states.

RusData Dialine – Russian Press Digest
September 14, 2006 Thursday
Hate crime suspect turned out to be a police academy student
by Oleg Rubnikovich
The 18-year-old suspect in the racially motivated killing of an
Armenian teenager in the Moscow metro in April was a police academy
cadet, prosecutors said Wednesday. Nikita Senyukov was arrested
Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of Vigen Abramyants,
17, on the platform of Pushkinskaya metro station on April 22. “He
was a fourth-year student of a police academy under the Moscow
police,” said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the office of the
chief Moscow prosecutor.
Petrenko said Senyukov had admitted to the crime but said he acted in
self-defense after Abramyants attacked him. She said Senyukov would
be charged with murder later this week. If convicted, he faces up to
15 years in prison.
The police academy’s head, Alexei Bezyazychny, said Wednesday that
Senyukov had dropped out of the academy shortly before his arrest. He
said that Senyukov’s father is a retired senior officer from the
Interior Ministry.
Some media reports on Wednesday linked Senyukov to a group of Moscow
students accused of bombing the Cherkizovsky outdoor market in
August, killing 12 people and wounding more than 50 others.
Investigators believe the attack was motivated by hatred for natives
of the Caucasus and Asian countries who trade at the market. Four men
have been detained in connection with the attack. Petrenko, however,
denied any link between the market bombing and the metro attack.

Associated Press Worldstream
September 14, 2006 Thursday 8:16 PM GMT
Armenian authorities arrest 2 suspects in killing of top tax official
Authorities in Armenia have detained two suspects accused of
involvement in the killing of a senior Armenian tax official,
officials said Thursday.
Shagen Ovasepian, head of the operations department of the State Tax
Service, was killed by a bomb that exploded as he was getting into
his car in the Armenian capital on Sept. 6.
Prosecutor General’s office spokeswoman Sona Truzian said Thursday
that the two suspects were detained late Wednesday. She said they
were Armenian citizens, but refused to name them while the probe was
ongoing.
Erkir-media television said citing sources in the prosecutor’s office
that both suspects were officials of the State Tax Service.
Organized crime is widespread in this poor, former Soviet republic,
and gang-related killings are common.
Armenian politics are also tense and occasionally violent. In 1999,
gunmen burst into parliament and killed the prime minister,
parliament speaker and six other officials and lawmakers.

Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian
16 Sep 06
ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER DENIES MEETING WITH AZERI COUNTERPART IN NEW YORK
Yerevan, 16 September: No meeting is planned between the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministries in the near future, Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan told journalists after the annual meeting of
Armenian ambassadors today.
He said that new separate meetings between the ministers and the
[OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs will probably be held. The Azerbaijani
news agency Trend quoted the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry as saying
that a meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers is
planned to be held within the framework of the UN General Assembly
session in New York on 25-26 September.
The Armenian minister confirmed that he is planning to visit New
York. “I will go to New York on 24 September. I will make a speech on
25 September. I plan numerous bilateral meetings in New York. A
meeting with the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group is also planned.
But no meeting is planned with [Azerbaijani Foreign Minister] Elmar
Mammadyarov,” Oskanyan said.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 16, 2006 Saturday
NAGORNO-KARABAKH REPUBLIC READY TO DISCUSS KARABAKH PROBLEM IN ANY
FORMATS AND AT ANY INSTANCES
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is ready to discuss the Karabakh
problem in any formats and at any instances, NKR Foreign Minister
Georgy Petrossyan said today after the annual meeting of Armenian
ambassadors to foreign countries.
Concerning GUAM’s initiative for discussing the problem of “frozen
conflicts” at the UN General Assembly, Petrossyan said that the world
is developing: the Karabakh conflict settlement is a hard problem and
can be discussed at any instances. Asked about the possibility of
transfer of the Karabakh peace process from the OSCE to the UN,
Petrossyan said that Karabakh is getting ready for own role in any
format.
Asked if Karabakh is satisfied with how Armenia presents its position
at the peace talks, Petrossyan said that in its time Karabakh was a
military party to the conflict and now as a result of the talks
Armenia has paved the way for it to become a political party. This is
the biggest result of the talks.
Asked about the meeting of ambassadors, Petrossyan said that it was
fruitful. The sides spoke more about problems than about
achievements. He said that in early Sept they in Karabakh also held a
similar meeting.

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan, in Armenian
15 Sep 06
PRESIDENT URGES ARMENIAN DIPLOMATS ABROAD TO BE MORE ACTIVE
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has received representatives of
the Armenian diplomatic corps who are attending the annual conference
of ambassadors in Yerevan.
Noting the importance of such meetings, the president said that they
make it possible to specify the current development of Armenia’s
foreign relations.
[Passage omitted: the president awarded the Armenian ambassadors to
China and Germany for their contribution to Armenia’s foreign policy]
Kocharyan said that the diplomatic corps should take more active
steps to promote the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy. The
president also noted the importance of expanding external economic
ties. At the same time, he said that not all Armenian diplomats
abroad are making full use of the potential of economic cooperation.
Touching on the Armenia-Diaspora forum that will be held in Yerevan
in the next few days, Kocharyan said that a number of important
issues have been put on its agenda and their solution will facilitate
the systematization of work in the future.

Armenian newspaper 168 Zham, Yerevan, in Armenian
16 Sep 06 p 2
ARMENIAN NATIONALIST PARTY MAY BACK FOREIGN MINISTER’S PRESIDENTIAL
AMBITIONS
Text of Arman Galoyan’s report by Armenian newspaper 168 Zham on 16
September headlined “Oskanyan has started his election campaign”
There are rumours about Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan possibly
running for the presidency. The speech made by Oskanyan at the
meeting of the supreme council of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation – Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD] surprised everybody by its Dashnak
contents. Overall, the foreign minister is currently dealing mainly
with his election campaign rather than Armenia’s foreign policy
problems.
After the meeting of the ARFD supreme council, a representative of
the party, Armen Rustamyan, said that the ARFD will take part in the
forthcoming presidential election with its own candidate, which has
not been decided yet. Rustamyan said that everything will be decided
at the next meeting of the party’s supreme council after the
parliamentary election. That’s to say it cannot be ruled out that if
the ARFD does not gain the expected number of votes, it will sharply
change its position. But Rustamyan said that they are not going to
support Vardan Oskanyan, [Defence Minister] Serzh Sarkisyan or
somebody else. The Dashnaks rule out support for Oskanyan because he
is not a member of the party. But this does not mean that Oskanyan
will always remain non-partisan. Moreover, judging from Oskanyan’s
speech at the meeting of the ARFD supreme council and his attitude
towards the party, it is quite possible that he may join the ARFD
rather than the Prosperous Armenia Party. Asked about possible
support for Oskanyan in the presidential election if he joins the
ARFD, Rustamyan replied that the party’s supreme council will solve
this issue and that Oskanyan has not applied for membership yet. He
added that nothing can be ruled out in politics.
Vardan Oskanyan said that he is not going to join any party and does
not want to comment on his possible presidential ambitions.
In any case, the minister and the representative of the ARFD denied
the rumours about Oskanyan possibly running in the presidential
election. But at the same time, they said that nothing can be ruled
out in politics and everything will be clear after the parliamentary
election in 2007.