Armenian leader, EU envoy discuss cooperation, Karabakh
Mediamax news agency
24 Jul 06
Yerevan, 24 July: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today received
the special representative of the European Union for the South
Caucasus, Peter Semneby, a source in the press service of the Armenian
president has said.
The two men discussed issues concerning the coordination and approval
of Armenia’s action plan within the framework of the European
Neighbourhood Policy.
Kocharyan and Semneby also exchanged views on the settlement of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and regional development.

Obituaries: ROBERT MARDIAN
The Independent – United Kingdom; Jul 24, 2006
Rupert Cornwell
Robert Mardian was among the most intriguing minor actors in the
Watergate scandal – a high Justice Department and Nixon campaign
official who was convicted for his part in the scandal, only to have
the sentence overturned on appeal. He led the administration’s pursuit
of alleged subversives and trouble-makers. But he was also briefly
rumoured to have been “Deep Throat”, the secret source who helped
bring about the resignation of the 36th US President. The son of an
Armenian immigrant from what was then the Ottoman empire, Mardian was
a member of the large Californian contingent in and around the Nixon
administration. He cut his political teeth on Barry Gold-water’s
presidential campaign in 1964, and worked on Ronald Reagan’s first
campaign for governor, before helping Richard Nixon in his victorious
1968 bid. In 1970 he was appointed Assistant Attorney General, and
the following year headed the federal government’s prosecution of
Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the Pentagon Papers.
In 1972 he was appointed a lawyer and “co-ordinator” for Nixon’s
re-election committee, the infamous “Creep” (Committee to Re-elect
the President) which was behind the break-in attempt on 17 June
1972 at the Democrats’ national offices in the Watergate building
in Washington. Despite his enthusiasm at the Justice Department for
bugging and surveillance operations, Mardian insisted he knew nothing
of the incident. That did not prevent his indictment.
Mardian was in California preparing for a fund-raising dinner
when he learnt that the five burglars had been arrested at the
Watergate complex. Prosecutors contended that on the orders of John
Mitchell, Creep’s director, Mardian telephoned G. Gordon Liddy,
one of the burglars, telling him to contact the Attorney General,
Richard Kleindienst, to have the leader of the group, James McCord,
released from custody before his identity was discovered.
Thus Mardian became one of the “Watergate Seven” to be indicted on
1 March 1974, almost five months before Nixon resigned. It was an
eminent group, including Bob Haldeman and John Erlichman, the two
Californians and top Nixon aides who formed a so-called “Prussian
Guard” at the White House, as well as Mitchell and Charles Colson,
the head of the secret White House plumbers’ unit.
Charged with obstruction of justice, Mardian faced a possible five
years in prison and a $5,000 fine. All along he maintained he had
done nothing wrong. But in January 1975 he was convicted on one count
of conspiracy to hinder the Watergate investigation. In 1976 however
his conviction was quashed. The technical ground was that he should
have been tried separately because his lawyer fell ill during the
trial. But the appeals judges also noted that the evidence against
him was not as strong as that facing his co-defendants.
Robert Charles Mardian, lawyer: born Pasadena, California23 October
1923’Assistant Attorney General 1970-72′ married 1946 Dorothy Denniss
(three sons)’ died San Clemente, California 17 July 2006.

Azeri pundit calls for suspending western pipeline to resolve Karabakh
Yeni Musavat, Baku
24 Jul 06
Excerpt from Cavid Turan’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat
on 24 July headlined “The Qabala radar station and Baku-Ceyhan should
be closed” and subheaded “Vafa Quluzada says that this should be
done to liberate Karabakh and call the enemy by its name” and also
subheaded “Leyla Aliyeva says that the reason why Armenia is not
called an aggressor is related to historic factors”
Efforts are being made again to make the Azerbaijani and Armenian
leaders meet after another round of unproductive peace talks. It
causes concern that the co-chairmen are now focusing on persuading
Azerbaijan to make concessions to satisfy Armenia.
[Passage omitted: UN resolutions on Armenia’s withdrawal from Azeri
lands]
Political analyst Vafa Quluzada believes that the reason why the
international community does not call Armenia by its name [of an
aggressor] should not be related to the foreign policy flaw of the
Azerbaijani government.
“They will not recognize Armenia as an aggressor no matter what Baku
does,” Quluzada said. He mentioned the support of the entire West for
Israel in the Middle East crisis and added that the West sometimes
speaks about human rights abuses and “excessive violence”.
“Azerbaijan is a small country. The West does not want to spoil
relations with Russia because of this small country. We should
remember that the West is interested in Azerbaijan as a strategic
place only. Our country will be of no importance to the West after
it sucks dry our oil and gas,” Quluzada said.
He said another reason why Armenia is not properly dealt with is
religion. The enemy is Christian and therefore supported.
“On the other hand, Russia incited Armenia to fight us. Thus, Russia’s
being part of the Christian world gives Armenia another advantage.”
The political analyst believes that Azerbaijan must be capable
of influencing the West. “Azerbaijan must establish a mighty and
professional army and set specific terms to the enemy. It should
declare that it will suspend the Ba ku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline if
the Azerbaijani territories are not liberated. Maybe then, the West
will force Armenia to implement the UN resolutions. If we become a
developed country, we can close down Russia’s Qabala radar station
[in northwestern Azerbaijan] and suspend oil supplies to the West
to have the enemy labelled as an aggressor and withdrawn from our
territories. But Azerbaijan must have capabilities to do it. We must
spend oil money to develop the non-oil sector so that we can dictate
our position in future.”
[Passage omitted: another less-known political analyst on Karabakh]

Armenia’s GDP up by 11.8 per cent in first six months of 2006
Mediamax news agency
20 Jul 06
Yerevan, 20 July: The growth in Armenia’s GDP accounted for 11.8 per
cent in January-June 2006 compared with the same period of 2005.
The State Statistics Committee of Armenia told Mediamax today that the
volume of GDP totalled 809bn drams [1.94bn dollars] in January-June
2006.
The volume of industrial output in Armenia totalled 301bn [722m
dollars] in January-June 2006 compared with the same period of 2005
and fell by 1 per cent.

ARMENTEL WILL BE DIVIDED
The Russian company Sistema Holding and the international consortium
including the Indian VTEL Holdings and Knightsbridge Associates will
share 90 percent of shares of Armentel, reports the news agency ARKA,
adding that a famous Armenian businessman represents the consortium.
The source, who is aware of the transfer of shares, informed that the
fixed-line telephone network will be bought by the Russian company,
whereas the Indian-Armenian consortium will buy the mobile network.
Sistema did not affirm or deny this news.

EU RELUCTANT TO THINK ARMENIAN ELECTION WILL BE UNFAIR
Lragir.am
24 July 06
Peter Semneby, EU special representative to the South Caucasus, who
is visiting Yerevan, was rather rough with regard to the upcoming
Armenian parliamentary election in a news conference on July 24.
Semneby said a free and fair election will determine the quality of
relations between Armenia and the EU. The special representative of
the European Union announced that the Armenian individual partnership
program of the New Neighborhood Policy and the parliamentary election
are interdependent. The parliamentary election was one of the four
questions Semneby discussed with the Armenian leadership. The first
three are the Individual Partnership Program, Karabakh and Armenia’s
relations with its neighbors. However, during the news conference
Semneby dwelled on the individual partnership and the parliamentary
election.
Meanwhile, Vardan Oskanyan announced in the news conference that
the IPP is almost complete, and Finland chairing the EU will soon
decide the time of signing this document. Vardan Oskanyan assures
that Finland plans to sign the IPPs with the three South Caucasian
states until the end of its chairmanship. Peter Semneby who spoke
after Vardan Oskanyan immediately announced that he wants to connect
dividual partnership and the Armenian parliamentary election because
the IPP assumes fair and free elections compliant with the European
standards as a prime goal of Armenia.
Peter Semneby said the upcoming election will have vital importance
for EU-Armenia relations and emphasized that every election must be
compliant with their standards. By the way, in speaking about Armenia
he said the upcoming Azerbaijani election, but then he apologized
and added that elections must be fair and free in all the countries
of the South Caucasus.
Peter Semneby declined to say what consequences an incompliant election
would have for Armenia. He said he expected free and fair elections,
therefore he declined to make hypothetical speeches about sanctions
in case the elections are not free and fair. After all, Peter
Semneby said, Armenia assumed an obligation to conduct elections
in compliance with European standards. It is notable that after
Vardan Oskanyan answered a question about a different topic Semneby
carried on the topic of elections and said that the European Union
will be following the evaluation of international observers to the
parliamentary election. Semneby said after the election the EU will
build up relations with Armenia on the basis of evaluation given by
the observers.

ARMENIA EXPECTS BRYZA TO…
Lragir.am
24 July 06
Official Yerevan does not expect anything from Mathew Bryza’s visit to
the region, or whatever it expects, it expects for Azerbaijan. In a
press conference July 24 in Yerevan Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
announced that official Yerevan expects a change of the standpoint
of Azerbaijan from Bryza’s visit.
“Our expectation from Mathew Bryza’s visit is that he will persuade the
Azerbaijani side to return to the table of negotiations to continue
the talks on the basis of a document. As you know, Armenia expressed
its standpoint on this document clearly. Simply Azerbaijan is having
problems, if Azerbaijan agrees to return to these principles, it will
be an opportunity to start a new stage of negotiations and achieve
progress,” says Vardan Oskanyan.
“I think and I have stated for a number of times that it’s a pity to
miss such an opportunity because this will be the third after the
common state and Key West. Because, you know, these documents are
not born in a week, these are the result of lasting negotiations;
if Azerbaijan refuses again, I think the situation will become highly
complicated,” announced the foreign minister of Armenia.
He mentions that at best Bryza can come up with proposals on “minor
changes” into the existing proposal. Vardan Oskanyan thinks it is
possible. Meanwhile, the Armenian side considers proposals on new
approaches towards the proposal impossible.

MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE: OPEN PROJECT WITH SECRET CANDIDATES
Lragir.am
24 July 06
The Stakeholders Committee of the Millennium Challenge Armenia met
July 24 to present current developments of public involvement in the
Millennium Challenge Account to the society. However, there was little
to tell.
The most interesting thing about this meeting. Although the members
of the Stakeholders Committee Levon Barseghyan and Nazelee Vardanyan
announced that the meetings of the committee are open for everyone,
they declined to give the names of the three candidates of chief
executive of the committee chosen out of 5 and out of 48 nominees,
whose data were extended to the MCC in the United States. According to
Levon Barseghyan, publication of names would create additional risks
of corruption. In other words, the candidates have already resorted
to or tried to resort to nepotism.
The speakers announced that they work openly, however the project does
not provide funds for dissemination, therefore there are shortcomings
in this sphere. The Institute of Open Society promises to help and
organize discussions in the regions, especially that according to
the members of the MCA Stakeholders Committee awareness is especially
low in rural areas.
The other components of the project are not perfect. The bylaws of
the Stakeholders Committee were not adopted, the local councils were
not set up. Only the managing board of the MCA project was set up,
which will be accountable to the Stakeholders Committee. By the way,
the 5 representatives of the civil society included in the managing
board can veto every decision. “Hence, the importance of cooperation
between NGOs is emphasized once again,” said Nazelee Vardanyan,
who is a member of the stakeholders committee and the managing board.
And Levon Barseghyan says it is not right that the project will be
monitored by the deputy director. About 5 million dollars was allocated
for the monitoring. Levon Barseghyan believes that there must be
independent and competent monitoring, and is worried that otherwise
over 180 million dollars foreseen for building will be dissipated.

ALREADY ORCHARDS BURN IN KARABAKH
Lragir.am
24 July 06
They have not seen such fires in Karabakh for ages. Wheat fields burn
or are set to fire every year, but this year’s rates are too high. The
reporter of the Lragir in Karabakh says wheat fields are burnt every
day. Experts say the reasons are both objective and subjective. First,
this summer is extremely hot and dry. They say, however, that this
summer they failed to make sufficient efforts to prevent fires.
Perhaps, the most realistic observation was made by the OSCE monitoring
group. Despite the claims of Azerbaijan, the observers said there
are no cases of arson. However, they said a more dangerous thing –
the Armenian side including the Karabakh side fail to make sufficient
efforts to prevent and extinguish fires. It means someone failed to
carry out their duties and save the country from fire. The damage is
great. Besides the wheat fields, orchards burnt as well. The reporter
of the Lragir saw the burnt orchards. If one fails to fulfill their
duties, they are punished, but not in our country where an official
is assessed by connections rather than performance.

EUROWAGEN COMPANY PLANS TO INCREASE VOLKSWAGEN SALES IN ARMENIA
Yerevan, July 24. ArmInfo. Volkswagen’s dealer in Armenia, Eurowagen,
is planning to increase Volkswagen sales in Armenia this year,
says the head of the communication cooperation department Mikayel
Minassyan. He did not give specific figures.
He said that last year the sales exceeded plans – 100 cars. 60-70% of
them were Premium, Touareg, Passat, Golf – all with 2-year guarantee.
At the same time, the “Armenian mentality” prefers second-hand
luxurious Mersedes E, BMW 5 or 7, TOYOTA to new smaller economy cars
for the same $12,000-17,000.
This year Eurowagen has delivered just 10 second-hand 6-month guarantee
cars worth $6,000-15,000. In cooperation with Armeconom and Anelik
banks the company provides cars on an instalment basis. In Anelik Bank
the prepayment is 20%, the interest 15% a year, the credit period 4
years. Minassyan says that because of climatic conditions the company
imports into Armenia only 20-22 of 87 possible Volkswagen models.
He says that today Eurowagen is building a new office. 80% of
exterior and 20% of interior is ready. The company has spent $1.6
mln on the project from its profits. The building will be opened by
Mar 5 2007. Besides, the company has built its own wharehouse for
storing 14,000 original spare parts and accessories. Now there are
5,000 spare parts stored there.
Minassyan says that in the future Eurowagen will start producing
spare parts and cars on its own.
Minassyan says that cars in Armenia are gradually becoming not only
a means of transportation but a cult and lifestyle which is proved
by the abundance of tuning companies.
Eurowagen has been working in Armenia since Mar 2004. It was selected
by Volkswagen from among 10 applicants. According to the contract,
Volkswagen should provide cars ad German now-how, Eurowagen –
maintenance building and show-room.
The National Statistical Service of Armenia reports that in Jan-May
2006 car trade in Armenia totalled 27 bln AMD ($60 mln) out of the
total trade worth 349.8 bln AMD ($779.9 mln).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress