VAHRAM ATANESYAN: BRYZA’S PROPOSALS DO NOT CORRESPOND TO NK’S INTERESTS
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
June 27 2007
“The proposals made by the U. S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk group
for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement Matthew Bryza do not
correspond to the Nagorno Karabakh’s interests and completely reflect
Azerbaijan’s stand. In part, it concerns unconditional return of
the territories forming the NKR’s security belt”, the Chair of the
Nagorno Karabakh Permanent Committee for External Relations Vahram
Atanesyan stated in an interview with Regnum Information agency.
The deputy regarded the American mediator’s statements as an
attempt to put pressure on the conflict parties with all destructive
outcomes. “Nagorno Karabakh should participate in the talks on the
conflict settlement, and no document can be adopted without the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic leadership and people”, Vahram Atanesyan said.

RA FOREIGN MINISTER VARDAN OSKANYAN ON A WORKING VISIT TO GEORGIA
ArmRadio.am
28.06.2006 10:20
On the last day of his working visit to Georgia RA Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan will deliver a speech at the Georgian foundation
for strategic and international studies. His speech is dedicated
to regional policy issues. Last evening the Foreign Minister was
received by the President of Georgia Mikhail Sahakashvili. Vardan
Oskanyan met also hi Georgian opposite number.

CONFIRMATION HEARINGS FOR US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA NOMINEE RICHARD HOAGLAND TO BE HELD IN US SENATE
ArmRadio.am
28.06.2006 10:42
Confirmation hearings for US Ambassador to Armenia nominee
Richard Hoagland are expected today in Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. Armenian Organizations of America and Congressmen launching
pro-Armenian activity consider that John Evans is being recalled
ahead of time because of publicly recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

OSCE MISSION TO CARRY OUT MONITORING OF TEHCONTACT LINE IN THE DIRECTION OF AGHDAM
ArmRadio.am
28.06.2006 10:53
Today the OSCE Mission will carry out monitoring of the contact line
of Armed Forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the direction
of Aghdam.
To remind, on June 15 NKR Ministry of Defense had applied the Office
of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office with the
request to hold a crisis monitoring at the border with Azerbaijan to
assess the real situation with the objective to deny the imaginary
reports of the Azeri media on arsons on the territories under NKR
control.

A NUMBER OF CULTURAL AND SCIENCE FIGURES AWARDED RA PRESIDENTIAL PRIZES
ArmRadio.am
28.06.2006 14:56
The ceremony of handing RA Presidential Awards to a number of
representatives of arts and science, who were granted awards according
to President Robert Kocharyan’s decree dated April 15.
In 2005 in the sphere of development of Natural Sciences President’s
Award was granted to Hambartsum Khachatryan and Sergey Hayrapetyan
for the series of scientific articles on “New sorbents and carriers
for liquid chromatography.”
In the sphere of Technical Sciences and Information Technologies the
Award was granted to Stepan Lazarian for the “Expertise flow of clay
ground holes” monograph.
In the sphere of arts an Award was given to Felix Yeghiazaryan for
a series of portraits.
Varazdat Harutyunyan received the Award for the “Theory and History
of Armenian urban development and architecture” collection of articles.
In the medical sphere Mesrop Shatakhyan was awarded the prize.
In the sphere of development of Physics Prizes were Awarded to Felix
Aharonyan, Vardan Sahakyan and Ashot Akhperjanyan.
Laureates of the Prize in the sphere literature was Alexander Topchyan
for his “Even after Death” novel.
In the sphere of development of arts the Prize was awarded to Sergey
Sarinyan for his “Two centuries of Armenian literature” monograph.

85 MILLION DRAMS ON SPECIAL ACCOUNT OF RA FINANCE MINISTRY TO BE PROVIDED T0 FAMILIES OF KILLED IN AIR CRASH NEAR SOCHI
Yerevan, June 27. ArmInfo. Eighty-five million drams have been
accumulated on the special account of the Armenian Ministry of Finance
and Economy. This sum will be provided to the families of the killed
in the crash of Armavia airbus near Sochi. A relevant decision was
made Tuesday by the special commission headed by the Minister of
Territorial Administration Hovik Abrahamyan.
The Armenian Government press-service told ArmInfo, the family of each
killed citizen of Armenia will receive by 1 million AMD. In addition,
the commission resolved providing 2 million drams to two citizens of
Georgia, Armenians by origin. On the whole, 88.461 million drams have
been accumulated on the special account. A memorial for the victims
of the air crash will be built on the remaining 1.461 million drams.

LONE JEWISH MP CONFRONTS AHMADINEJAD ON HOLOCAUST BUT STRESSES LOYALTY TO IRAN
Ewen Macaskill, Simon Tisdall And Robert Tait Tehran
The Guardian – United Kingdom
Jun 28, 2006
Maurice Motamed has one of the loneliest jobs in the Middle East. When
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his controversial Holocaust statements,
the sole Jewish MP in Iran’s 290-member Majlis (parliament) felt he
had no option but to confront him.
“When our president spoke about the Holocaust, I considered it my duty
as a Jew to speak about this issue,” Mr Motamed said in his office
in Tehran. “The biggest disaster in human history is based on tens
of thousands of films and documents. I said these remarks are a big
insult to the whole Jewish society in Iran and the whole world.”
Mr Ahmadinejad, president of an overwhelmingly Muslim state, has not
apologised. But Mr Motamed said the president had since qualified
his statement by insisting that he had not denied the Holocaust and
was not an anti-semite.
Mr Motamed represents Iran’s 25,000-strong Jewish community, the
largest such group in the Middle East outside Israel. Since 1906
Iran’s constitution has guaranteed the Jewish community one seat in
the Majlis. The Armenian, Assyrian and Zoroastrian minorities together
hold a further four seats.
Although he took on Mr Ahmadinejad about the Holocaust, Mr Motamed
supports the president on other issues, including the standoff with
the US, Europe and Israel over the country’s nuclear programme. “I
am an Iranian first and a Jew second,” he said.
He acknowledged there were problems with being a Jew in Iran, as
there were for the country’s other minorities. But he said that Iran
was relatively tolerant. “There is no pressure on the synagogues,
no problems of desecration. I think the problem in Europe is worse
than here. There is a lot of anti-semitism in other countries.”
Most of his family, including his parents and sisters, left after
the 1979 revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power, as did
75,000 other Jews, heading mainly for Israel, the US and Europe. But
Mr Motamed, 61, an engineer, stayed. “I love my homeland.”
Jews have been living in Iran in large numbers since Cyrus the Great
freed them from slavery when he captured Babylon in 539BC. Members
of the Jewish community in Iran today, for the most part, keep a low
profile and many Iranians are unaware of their presence. Mr Motamed
said there were about 14,000 Jews in Tehran, which has 20 active
synagogues, 6,000 to 7,000 in Shiraz; 2,000 in Estafan and small
groups scattered throughout the rest of the country.
He confirmed that Jews and other minorities were excluded from
“sensitive” posts in the military and judiciary. And the authorities
refuse to allow Jewish schools to close on the sabbath. But Mr
Motamed said there had been improvements in other areas. Legislation
introduced three years ago overturned a judicial practice of awarding
more compensation to families of Muslim accident victims than to
those of Jews. And when he complained in the Majlis about a TV soap
regularly portraying rabbis as evil, he said the Speaker, Mehdi Karubi,
had expressed support.
Nasser Hadian-Jazy, associate professor of political science at
Tehran University and a childhood friend of the president, said Mr
Ahmadinejad was keen to put the Holocaust row behind him.
“I asked him, ‘Are you anti-Jew?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ I said, ‘Why
not go to a synagogue to express regret for what Iranians have done
to Jews?’ . . . He said, ‘I have another idea, a better idea.’
“He will do something to show he is not anti-Jewish. I hope he will
do it soon. He will make a gesture to the Jews in Iran and that has
implications for Jews elsewhere. What he will say is very important
and will remove the idea that he is anti-semite.”
Saeed Jalili, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and another close friend
of Mr Ahmadinejad, said the Jewish seat in the Majlis “tells you
that we have no problems with Judaism” but said he had not heard of
any planned gesture by Mr Ahmadinejad. “The Jewish community in this
country are very fairly treated . . . Of course, a symbolic gesture
is good and well, but we think that what we do is more than symbolic.”
Jewish MP Maurice Motamed with the parliamentary Speaker, Mehdi Karubi.

VEDANTA BUYS GOLD LICENCE TROUBLES
John Helmer
Mineweb.com
20-Jun-06 14:00
MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) — Sterlite Gold, a Canadian registered junior
miner, has been bought out by London-based Vedanta Resources in a
transaction that appears to have been negotiated while the Armenian
government decides whether to revoke the licence for Sterlite’s sole
gold-producing asset in Armenia.
The timing has proved to be controlling shareholder Anil Agarwal’s
lucky day; although just how lucky, or unlucky, Vedanta’s other
shareholders may regard themselves after this deal is not yet clear.
Sterlite’s controlling shareholder, with a 55% stake, is Twin Star
International (TSI), which is fully owned by Volcan Investments,
which in turn is controlled by Anil Agarwal. Thus, he appears to be
on the receiving end of the $34 million (C$37.68 million) Vedanta
agreed earlier this month to pay for its takeover of the TSI stake,
plus $27 million (C$30.8 million) for the other shares in Sterlite.
Vedanta is also controlled by Volcan, with about 54% of Vedanta’s
shares, and thus by Agarwal; his official title at Vedanta’s
headquarters, just off Berkeley Square in London, is Executive
Chairman.
In disclosing the buy-out of Sterlite, Vedanta’s statement of June 13
does not mention Agarwal. But it acknowledges the deal was “a related
party transaction under the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority
and an insider bid under Canadian securities laws.” To prepare a
valuation and supervise the deal, “a special committee of directors”
was appointed, “who are independent of Volcan”. In addition, Ernst &
Young “provided Vedanta with written confirmation that the terms of the
TSI acquisition and Sterlite Gold Offer are fair and reasonable as far
as the shareholders of Vedanta are concerned.” The other shareholders,
Vedanta must have meant, since it is obvious that Vedanta is paying
Agarwal handsomely to take the asset off his hands.
Little more than six months ago, Vedanta and Agarwal were at pains to
deny they were even thinking of trading Sterlite. The Finsbury public
relations firm of London, which represents Vedanta, told Mineweb at
the time: “Vedanta Resources PLC does not own Sterlite Gold. It is our
understanding this company is separately owned by Mr. Anil Agarwal,
and therefore it would not be appropriate for us to comment, as we
solely represent Vedanta.” Asked to say whether Vedanta would buy
out Agarwal’s stake in Sterlite, spokesman Alex Pettifer told Mineweb
“we have no comment to make on this.”
Now, according to Vedanta, the buyout represents a price of C$0.258
for each share of Sterlite Gold. This is a 20% premium on the 3-year
high achieved by the share of C$0.215. It is even more generous in
relation to the price of the share just before Agarwal’s sale, when
it was three times lower, at C$0.080.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the famous defender of dealmaking
proprieties, was engaged by Sterlite’s board to value the company:
it came up with a range of C$0.24 to C$0.275 per share.
Did PwC’s valuation, and Ernst & Young’s opinion, report that
Sterlite’s sole source of income, and principal asset, is facing
substantial new capital expenditure costs, and at the same time,
possible revocation of its mining licence?
The Armenian Minister of Nature Protection, Vardan Aivazyan, told
Mineweb, through a spokesman, that at the moment there are no stop-work
or ministry orders against Sterlite’s subsidiary, AGRC.
“The problem,” he said, “is that to continue profitable development
of the Zod deposit, AGRC is asking to build a new refinery close
to the deposit itself, on the shore of Sevan Lake. This violates
ecological restrictions.”
According to Vedanta’s corporate website, “the company aims to reduce
the impact of its activities on the environment wherever feasible.”
For the initial period after Sterlite took over in 1998, AGRC was
able to produce almost 100,000 troy ounces per annum, 330,000 oz.
over five years, from processing tailings accumulated during the Soviet
era. However, as the easy gold was extracted from the tailings stored
close to the refinery, it has proved prohibitively expensive to mine
ore at Zod (also known in Armenia as Sotk) and Meghradzor, and rail
it 268 kilometres to Ararat, in southern Armenia, for processing. In
calendar year 2005, output for AGRC fell to just 44,000 oz. For the
year, Sterlite reports that it gathered revenues of C$20.6 million,
and after meeting costs and paying taxes and royalties, was in the
red by C$12.5 million.
The two AGRC mines, Zod and Meghradzor, could produce about 120,000
oz. of gold per annum, according to a presentation of the transaction
issued by Vedanta last week. But an investment of $80 to $85 million
is now estimated by AGRC’s international consultants to build
a new refining plant close enough to the mine sites to restore
profitability. Just $11 million has been spent on the project to
date. According to Vedanta’s presentation, “the potential exists to
more than double” the mineable resource at Zod. Based on drilling
which is reportedly still ongoing at Zod, gold resources are currently
calculated at 2.1 million oz, according to JORC standards; more than
5 million oz by Russian criteria (C1 + C2).
Just how much lies under the ground has been a sore point for both
Sterlite’s AGRC and the Armenian government. Aivazyan confirmed to
Mineweb that, following a September 28 order last year, his ministry
authorized a review of operations at Zod and Meghradzor. Referring
to Sterlite’s licence for Zod, dated 7 June 2004, the report charged
violations of land allocation; uncertified laboratory work; improper
control of drill samples; and underground mining termed “illegal”.
The report also alleged that Sterlite had under-estimated gold
reserves at Zod “by more than 2 times”. Royalty payment calculations
have allegedly under-counted the amount of precious metal produced,
the report also claimed.
A legal representative of the company, Armen Ter-Tachatyan, told a
local press conference in Armenia recently that it would be impossible
for AGRC to hide either reserves, or current production, and it would
have no economic motive for doing so.
AGRC has filed suit in an Armenian court to challenge the ministry;
and according to Aivazyan’s spokesman, the dispute was resolved by
an out of court agreement on how to count reserves. But the minister
has now launched a fresh review, and that is currently under way,
his spokesman told Mineweb. If it finds violations, then the mining
licence could be withdrawn, he added.
Last December, following Mineweb and other reports in the Armenian
media, Sterlite issued a statement denying that “the Company is in
violation of various requirements in respect of its Armenian mining
operations. The Company wishes to state that it categorically denies
all such suggestions and statements. Many of the allegations cited
are based on unsubstantiated, inaccurate or outdated information.”
Sterlite went on to say that it “is currently in the process of
conducting studies to complete detailed open pit design, plant
engineering, metallurgical test work, and permitting with the aim
of expanding the present mining operations at Zod. These initiatives
are expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2006.”
Neither the Vedanta nor the Sterlite company websites currently
discloses an ongoing problem with the Armenian operations.
Agarwal and Vedanta were asked to say how they calculated the
asset value, ahead of Agarwal’s sale to Vedanta, in light of this
uncertainty. They were also asked to confirm whether the assessments
provided by PwC and Ernst & Young identified this uncertainty as a
factor in their valuation of the asset, or the price at which it is
now changing hands.
Agarwal replied through spokesman, Faeth Birch: “Vedanta is not aware
of any challenge to the license.” Without being specific about the
risks involved, she told Mineweb: “The valuations and assessments
performed were done by independent professionals and with financial
and legal advisers alongside, all of whom were fully cognizant of
the fact that this would be a related party transaction. In addition,
independent board sub committees were involved and the related party
was not a party to the valuation process and appropriate regulatory
processes were complied with. In any such valuation a wide variety of
matters are taken into account including risks and opportunities and
there is no reason as to why this transaction would be an exception.
Sterlite Gold offers good potential and hence the Group’s attraction
to it. “

ARMENIAN JUSTICE WALK BEGINS
By Connie Llanos, Special To The Daily News
LA Daily News
6/28/2006 12:00 AM
Marchers leave L.A. for Washington, D.C.
Nearly a century after the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians, the
descendants of those victims are finding new ways to heal old wounds.
Water coolers in hand and painful memories in their hearts, members
of the United Armenian Students kicked off their 3,000-mile Journey
for Humanity on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday. The
group, made up of Armenian college students, is marching 20 miles a
day until it reaches the nation’s capital in the hopes of educating
people about the Armenian genocide, as well as other atrocities
occurring throughout the world today.
“We have carried this pain for 91 years,” said Vahe Abovian, project
director for Journey for Humanity.
“We kept hearing `never again, never again,’ but it keeps happening,”
he said.
Abovian, 29, has taken a leave of absence from his job as deacon of
the Western Dioceses of the Armenian Church and has sent his wife and
two daughters to Armenia to reduce his expenses so he can afford his
five-month trip.
He feels compelled to make this sacrifice not only as an Armenian,
but as an ethical human being, he said.
“It is personal to me as an Armenian, but the issue of genocide is too
big to be trademarked as an Armenian or a Jewish issue,” Abovian said.
With the death toll in the Darfur region of the Sudan nearing 400,000,
Abovian stressed that recognition of genocides can lead to their
prevention in the future.
“The reasons for doing this are twofold,” Abovian said.
“We are trying to keep the memories of all genocide victims alive
and educating our society and we are demanding that no more crimes
against humanity happen,” he continued.
Richard Hovannisian, chairman of modern Armenian history at the
University of California, Los Angeles, said for many Armenians it is
the unresolved aspect of the genocide that causes the hurt to remain.
“It is 90 years after the fact, and the Turkish government will not
go on the record,” Hovannisian said.
Hovannisian also said that much of the drive behind the genocide
awareness movement stems from a belief that had the world paid
attention to the Armenian genocide, many other genocides could have
been prevented, including the Jewish Holocaust.
He added that youth involvement in the issue is important. “Their
idealistic streak should be encouraged,” Hovannisian said.
By Tuesday afternoon Glendale Community College student Albrik
Zohrabayan had marched 11 miles in 90-degree heat.
“I’m tired,” Zohrabayan said in a weakened voice. But he isn’t nervous
about his trip, despite the unknown territory and summer heat; he
only hopes people are open to the message he carries.
“We just hope they are going to support us. That’s all we care about.”

KARABAKH AND ARMENIA SURPRISE BABUKHANYAN
Lragir.am
28 June 06
There are controversies among the OSCE Minsk Group countries, stated
Haik Babukhanyan, Constitutional Right Union, June 28. He says the
publication of details of the negotiations for the settlement of the
conflict over Karabakh by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Mathew Bryza
is due to existing controversies. Announcing this, Haik Babukhanyan
expressed a new political line of the CRU. In fact, Babukhanyan
announced that only Russia is interested in keeping the status quo
in the region.
“We have difficulty in understanding why Armenia and Karabakh which
is under the influence of Armenia are so passive with regard to the
initiatives of the Russian party. In particular, you can see that
over the past two months Russia has announced that it is for keeping
the status quo and, in fact, expressed an official stance that these
states, which emerged after the dissolution of the USSR, also have
the right for self-determination. It was a big change in the stance of
Russia, which changes a lot in the process,” states Haik Babukhanyan.
He wonders why Karabakh does not participate in conferences of
unrecognized states, at least as an observer. Haik Babukhanyan cannot
understand this.