AT RA EMBASSY TO LEBANON HAS ORGANIZED DEPARTURE OF 150 ARMENIAN
CITIZENS FROM LEBANON
Yerevan, July 18. ArmInfo. RA Embassy to Lebanon has organized the
departure of about 150 Armenians and Armenian citizens from Lebanon.
RA Embassy to Lebanon informed about this. The departure took place
through the border with Syria.
“Mainly, we departed the people that should have normally left the
country, i.e. those who have no problems with documents,” the source
stated. Besides, RA Embassy makes the lists of the Armenians who
want to leave Lebanon. At the same time, the source stated that the
military actions didn’t reach the regions with the Armenian residents.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE OSCE MINKS GROUP TRIED TO EXERT PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESSURE, SAYS
OPPOSITION DEPUTY
Yerevan, July 18. ArmInfo. The statement by American Co-Chair
Matthew Bryza about Minsk Group resigning mediation between Armenia
and Azerbaijan was a mere attempt to exert psychological pressure
upon the conflict sides, says Vazgen Manukian, leader of the
‘National-Democratic Union’ party.
To the opinion of the party leader, Armenian politicians usually
exaggerate the influence of the OSCE Minks Group on the authorities
of Armenia and Azerbaijan. He said that there was only once in the
history when the international structures forced a state to cede
territories to another: Adolf Hitler was given the Sudet region of
Czechoslovakia so as to prevent the war, but nevertheless it broke out
a year after. He added that even if ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosian
had ceded the security zone territories, still Azerbaijan would not
stop claiming Karabakh for its own, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
line would still go round Armenia.
Vazgen Manukian admitted that the new suggestions by the Minsk Group
are more profitable for Armenia than the previous ones, about to be
signed by President Ter-Petrosian. He assured that in any case none of
the project could insure peace in Karabakh, as they do not provide for
the determination of the status of Nagorno Karabakh, the cornerstone
of the conflict. The new project contains another dangerous term –
return of Azeri refugees to Karabakh, which can promote new skirmish
among the population.

ARMENIAN REPORTERS CONCERNED WITH INTENSIFYING PRESSURE UPON THEM
Yerevan, July 18. ArmInfo. Armenian reporters concerned with
intensifying pressure upon them in connection with the coming
parliamentary elections.
The editors of a number of Armenian newspapers signed a statement,
which says that the pressure is exrted by persons who are interested
(or not interested) in publishing certain information about them.
Certain persons threatened reporters Edik Bagdasarian (because of
his article about ‘Thriving Armenia’ party) and Gagik Shamshian.

WHO STARTS WITH THE WHITES AND WHO WILL FINISH WITH THE BLACKS?
Lragir.am
19 July 06
The government keeps up with the opposition. If formerly there was
a profusion of presidential candidates from opposition (at least
3-5), the picture has changed before the presidential election 2008,
and the government will name more candidates than the opposition,
or an equal number. In fact, the notion of an opposition candidate is
relative, because most of them willy-nilly, mainly “nilly” represent
the interests of the government. At least, the government benefited
from the activities of opposition candidates in the election rather
than the opposition. But this is typically a Soviet thing, and it is
not worthwhile to spend time and space on it, although the web gives
almost unlimited possibilities.
The processes underway in the opposition camp are more interesting.
Currently, almost two years before the presidential election there are
already two presidential candidates from the opposition in Armenia,
who want to become the next president of the Republic. In addition,
both are ministers. If we count Davit Harutiunyan too, the candidates
are three, however the minister of justice has offered a bid for
political activity only. As for his ultimate goal, Davit Harutiunyan
has not even hinted at it.
So the society can follow the activities of Vardan Oskanyan and
Serge Sargsyan only, because they are alone from the government
who indirectly but frankly explained to the public why they fail to
fulfill their duties or why they fulfill their duties on the move.
Vardan Oskanyan says he is not thinking about it and focuses on his
work. But probably it is the habit of diplomats to say the opposite
thing. Vardan Oskanyan is thinking about presidency when he says he
is not thinking. The point is that the image of a candidate is built
on the following: not an almighty, or as it is accepted to says, a
“super minister”, who considers presidency his natural right, but a
minister who achieved everything with “hard work”, earning the sympathy
of the public. And Vardan Oskanyan’s likelihood to become president
was confirmed during his press conference on July 14, when the foreign
minister dwelled on the topic of internal political reforms.
The behavior of both candidates shows that it is more probable that
Vardan Oskanyan and Serge Sargsyan represent different power. If they
were the personages of the same director and screenplay, logically they
would build their tactics on not transgressing each others fields. If
Serge Sargsyan is the administrative-criminal option of heir of power,
he nonetheless needs public resource. After all, he needs at least
1 percent to change it into 51. Therefore, it would be to ingenuous
to think that Robert Kocharyan does not realize this and gave Vardan
Oskanyan the chance to gather points at the exense of Serge Sargsyan
by mistake. Robert Kocharyan realized what he was doing, otherwise
Oskanyan could have targeted at Andranik Margaryan. But since his
(which is the same as Robert Kocharyan’s) opponent is Serge Sargsyan,
the target must be the defense minister. And when Vardan Oskanyan
says he is not thinking about presidency and is busy doing his work,
it is self-evident that he hints at Serge Sargsyan, who is busy doing
everything that leads to presidency except his duties.
Besides, Vardan Oskanyan made several statements in his speech on July
14, which both hit the defense minister candidate and are pre-election
“self-advertisement”. It also became known from Oskanyan’s words that
the problem of heir of power has been withdrawn from the political
agenda of Armenia. The foreign minister announced that the country’s
objectives need to be formulated to decide which political force
can and must fulfill these objectives. Oskanyan revealed the charm
of this innocent statement at first sight in the continuation,
when he presented the objectives: economic and political reform,
Armenia-Diaspora relations. “Which political force can settle these
problems?” asked Vardan Oskanyan.
It is an interesting question, the answer to which is self-evident.
Speaking about reforms, Vardan Oskanyan announced that these will
strike the political and economic elite, and their implementation
requires courage. What does this mean? This means that a strong
government is required to implement them, which must have few
relations with this elite, whose economic and political interests are
endangered. Power in Armenia still belongs to Robert Kocharyan, and
Serge Sargsyan is up for seizing this power through the Republican
Party. And the public official who has the least relation with
this elite is Vardan Oskanyan. It is true that he can be accused
of allowing his son to drive the public car, but on the other hand,
it is possible that the minister does not have enough money to buy
a car for his son, in other words, maybe he works honestly.
It appears that having Robert Kocharyan’s protection and a presumption
of honesty instead of wealth, Vardan Oskanyan is the suitable
candidate, who will bravely carry out the reforms striking the
elite. As for relations with the Diaspora, the difference between
language thinking of Vardan Oskanyan and Serge Sargsyan would not
let the defense minister even a chance to succeed.
Although Serge Sargsyan must realize that Vardan Oskanyan set out
late but goes rather fast and is even leaving him behind. Oskanyan
did not even wait until the conference of the Republican Party and
hinted that now it is time to make the list of public priorities,
not the list of party leaders. The Republicans and Serge Sargsyan are
supposed to answer Vardan Oskanyan, in other words, Robert Kocharyan.
We should confess that they will have an answer, moreover, they have
no other way out if they have assumed chess as the starting point:
either you take an answering step or you surrender, and if necessity
arises, they can also answer in a list, and perhaps much depends on
what list the Republicans will present – priorities, names, events,
objects or proposals, or five in one.
HAKOB BADALYAN

OSKANYAN AND “SKINHEAD PRESS”
Lragir.am
19 July 06
Last week Vardan Oskanyan, the minister of foreign affairs of
Armenia, made an unprecedented statement about the internal political
developments in Armenia. It is not clear what made the foreign minister
take that step. For in Armenia they do not announce every day that
a political reform is necessary, which not only intends to upgrade
the country but also strikes the economic and political interests of
the elite.
Considering that Mr. Oskanyan emphasized for several times that
his words must be viewed from the point of view of international
developments, his words appear to be quite serious. We do not think
that someone perceived his words as a joke. It became clear from the
reaction of a number of opposition newspapers “washing the shores” of
Serge Sargsyan. These newspapers, which have been recently referred
to as “skinhead press” very typically, tried their hardest to hide
Vardan Oskanyan’s statements “terrible” for their boss.
Well, it is already good that they understood what Oskanyan said. It
is bad, however, that now they again failed to draw a conclusion for
themselves. And now, as it usually happens, they will say we did not
know how it happened. Oskanyan is perhaps happy that he could convey
the “challenge” to the “elite”. Reading his statements is useful for
the “elite”, the others understand everything perfectly.
They also undersand that the “skinhead press” serving the criminal
downplays street skinheads who threaten unbiased reporters. They can
also understand the fear of this press that it is also going to undergo
the second surge of reforms in Armenia. Go “reform-Oskanyan”! Skinheads
cannot stop you.

STOLEN CARS HEADING FOR ARMENIA, THIEVES WERE ARRESTED
Lragir.am
19 July 06
The Spanish police issued a press release on July 18 that the Spanish
law-enforcers arrested a gang which stole cars in this country
and sold them in Armenia. The press release ran that on July 13
the department of organized crime arrested 13 members of the gang,
including 11 citizens of Armenia. The names of the detainees are not
mentioned. Two of them are women. Their age is 24-54.
The police says the detainees did not have permanent jobs, they lived
in the areas of Gandia, Cullera and Denia in Valencia, Spain. The
police of Spain say the cars were mainly stolen in Madrid, in Valecia
and Alicante. They sometimes used force.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MATHEW BRYZA JULY 29
Lragir.am
19 July 06
On July 29 Mathew Bryza, the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group,
will arrive in Yerevan, reported the Public Affairs Section of the
U.S. Embassy to Armenia. Bryza will meet with Robert Kocharyan and
Vardan Oskanyan.

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK TO RAO EES
Lragir.am
19 July 06
The Public Services Regulatory Commission unaninimously decided July
19 to allow Midland Resources owning Electric Network of Armenia to
sell 100 percent of shares of the Electricity Distribution Networks of
Armenia to Interenergo, a company of Russian RAO EES. Samvel Arabajyan,
member of the Public Services Regulatory Commission told ARKA News
Agency that conditions connected with the Electricity Distribution
Networks of Armenia do not change, it is simply transferred from one
company to another. Anatoly Vagner, deputy executive director of Inter
RAO EES announced that the company will invest 7 million dollars in
the network within the upcoming month. The money will be directed
at modernization of equipment.

ANCA challenges Rep. Burton’s attack on Nagorno Karabakh
19.07.2006 15:38
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA
)responded on July 18 to a July 17th speech on the House floor by
Congressman Dan Burton that seriously misrepresented Nagorno Karabagh’s
history, status, and right to self-determination.
The Indiana legislator took to the House floor in an apparent attempt
to undermine the growing Congressional support for Nagorno Karabagh.
In a factually incorrect statement, he sought to call into question
Nagorno Karabagh’s right to self-determination.
In a three-page fact sheet sent to every Congressional office, the
ANCA challenged Congressman Burton’s inaccurate description of the
Nagorno Karabagh issue as well as the biased and counter-productive
advice he offered to his House colleagues.

Non-recognition of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic is a serious geopolitical threat
Yerkir.am
July 14, 2006
The recent developments around Karabagh settlement process made
it clear to those who deal with this issues that a one-sided and
exclusively political approach to it is unacceptable.
In the beginning the international community and several individual
states were viewing the conflict around the collective right to self
determination as merely an obstacle on the way to full realization of
the potential of the South Caucasus for communications and transit
thus transferring the confrontation between Karabagh and Azerbaijan
to the domain of territorial disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The international mediators’ unwillingness to call things by their
names is explained by this: this is why they are unwilling to see the
true causes of the conflict, to silence the true initiator of ethnic
cleansings and full scale military operations.
This results in a distortion of the problem and the conflict followed
by an equalization of the subject of aggression (Azerbaijan) and the
object of aggression (Nagorno Karabagh and Armenia) in terms of guilt
and level of responsibility. This results in an attempt to settle
the issue without the participation of the side that suffered because
of this aggression – Nagorno Karabagh and the Armenian refugees that
fled from the territory of the former Azerbaijani SSR.
The international mediators seem to believe the myth that the
“withdrawal of the Armenian troops” from the territories that appeared
under the control of Nagorno Karabagh as a result of the war launched
by Azerbaijan and the forced return of the Azeri displaced persons
can result in stable and sustainable peace in the region. It should be
noted that the Armenian refugees are never mentioned in this context.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s aggression against the people of Nagorno
Karabagh had not only territorial but also political and legal
consequences. Without taking these consequences into account it
is not possible to achieve a workable and realistic settlement of
the conflict.
The authors of two books – “The Karabagh Conflict: Refugees,
Territories, Security” (published in 2005) and “Azerbaijan against the
Karabagh People. The political-Legal Consequences of Aggression and
Their Impact on the Perspectives of Regional Security” (published in
2006) try to explain the unacceptability of ignoring the humanitarian
and political-legal aspects of the existing situation and their impact
on regional security.
Head of the research department of the Caucasus Media Institute
Sergey Minassian, international lawyer, expert of legal aspects of
the Karabagh conflict Mikhail Aghajanov and chairwoman of the Support
to General Governance NGO Eleonora Asatrian examine the issue on
several levels.
First direction: an attempt to present methods for reparation for
persons who suffered most in the course of the Karabagh conflict,
the Armenian refugees that fled from the former Azerbaijani SSR.
The present stage of the Karabagh conflict started with a humanitarian
crisis – the mass massacres of Armenians in Sumgait and Baku and
the ethnic cleansings of 1988-1991 when about 500 thousand Armenians
were driven out of the Azerbaijani SSR. Most of them still have an
undefined legal status and live in harsh socio-economic conditions.
The issue of protection of property rights of the Armenian population
that was driven out from the former Azerbaijani SSR is viewed as
a mechanism for implementation of Azerbaijan’s international legal
responsibility.
The authors speak not only about material compensation but also about
moral compensation: compensation for the lost Homeland which implies
restoration of the Armenian refugees’ right to live on the territory
of the former Azerbaijani SSR.
Since it is unrealistic to expect that the Republic of Azerbaijan
(which refused to declare itself as the legal successor of the
Azerbaijani SSR) would implement the above mentioned the authors
examine the possibility of Nagorno Karabagh Republic settling the
issue.
The authors believe that Nagorno Karabagh Republic is the only
legal successor of the Soviet Azerbaijan, therefore its sovereign
jurisdiction covers all territories outside the present borders of
Nagorno Karabagh Republic.
The research also examines issues of combatants, refugees, displaced
persons, etc. It is not a secret that some part of the population of
the above-mentioned territories was actively participating in military
actions and was often the initiator of aggression. Naturally, these
people cannot be viewed as refugees or displaced persons.
The authors also try to explain and show that Azerbaijan has exerted
direct domestic and external aggression in the course of the Karabagh
conflict. Domestic aggression was directed at it own citizens of
Armenian origin who were driven out of the country.
External aggression was directed against a new state, Nagorno Karabagh
Republic, that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The
research examines the dynamics of military-technical development
of the conflict, use of various weapons by Azerbaijan, particularly
against peaceful population of Nagorno Karabagh.
Special attention is paid to the increasing militarization of
Azerbaijan in the post-Soviet period which is a destabilizing factor
for regional security and the peaceful settlement of the Karabagh
conflict. At the same time, the perspectives for sustainable and
peaceful settlement of the Karabagh conflict are analyzed in the
context of the new system for regional security.
The authors believe that changes in the status quo can cause bigger
problems for regional security since the military balance around the
conflict in Karabagh can be characterized as a qualitative-quantitative
equality of the sides of confrontation whereby geopolitical factors
play a significant role together with merely technical criteria. Any
changes in this situation can lower the threshold for the possibility
of restarting military actions.
Considering the necessity for preservation of the stable status quo
that excludes the possibility of Azerbaijan’s accumulating resources
for resorting to aggression again, the author site the example of
Eastern Prussia when the international community decided to punish
the aggressor, the Nazi Germany. The latter was deprived of some
geographical, geopolitical platforms from where it
could have started aggression.
The best way out of the existing situation would be recognition
of Nagorno Karabagh Republic by Azerbaijan and the international
community.
Any other approach would block regional communication from the West to
the East which contains serious geopolitical threats for the peoples
of the South Caucasus.
In conclusion we should note that the books were published with
financial assistance from Digranuhi and Edmond Ruhinians and Support
to Total Quality Management NGO.
By Gayane MOVSESSIAN