OSCE proposals basis for future talks – Armenian foreign minister
Arminfo
14 Jul 06
Yerevan, 14 July: The disclosure of the main principles by the
co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group was no surprise for the Armenian
side, Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan said during a news conference at the Mirror
Discussion Club today.
“Of course, we had information that the co-chairmen were discussing the
issue of disclosing the contents of the meeting in Vienna, however, no
information was given to us until recently,” the foreign minister said,
recalling that the interview of the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group, Matthew Bryza, followed the statement made by the co-chairmen.
“I consider that all this is good for us to start healthy discussions
in our society,” the minister pointed out. As for different and
frequent critical opinions about these principals, the minister said
that he treats them calmly. The minister said that he considered
as natural the existence of different opinions and people and forces
that are against the “principles”.
However, he noted that at the moment, he does not intend to persuade
anyone, especially the people, about the need to accept provisions
of the document. “In fact, the Azerbaijani side has not accepted
them yet. If this document was a completely ideal for us, I would
start persuading people regardless of whether Azerbaijan has accepted
it or not. But this is a document of compromises on which we have
already expressed our position. We consider that these principles
are comprehensive, well-thought out and have a correct combination
of mutual compromises. They can serve as a basis for us in future
negotiations. But the document is not perfect. So why should we
persuade our people? This is not that stage. We will enter that stage
when there is an agreement between two or three sides,” the Armenian
foreign minister said.
[Passage omitted: Oskanyan commented the visit to the region by the
US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza]

Romanian president wants to expand ties with Azerbaijan
Trend news agency, Baku
14 Jul 06
I am satisfied with the high level of political relations with
Azerbaijan, which was once again proved by Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev’s recent visit to Romania, Romanian President Traian Basescu
said in an exclusive interview with the Azerbaijani news agency Trend
on 14 July.
He said that Romania welcomes the beginning of negotiations between
the European Union and Azerbaijan on the Individual Action Plan, as
well as Azerbaijan’s participation in NATO’s Individual Partnership
Action Plan (IPAP).
“We recognize that economic relations between the two countries do not
correspond to the level of the two countries’ possibilities, and we
consider that the second session of the intergovernmental commission
on technical and scientific cooperation, which was held in Baku in
June, showed the importance of development in this sphere. During
my forthcoming visit to Azerbaijan this autumn, we will discuss the
end results of these efforts, and then we will see which of them
are practicable and deserve our further involvement,” Trend quoted
Basescu as saying.
The Romanian president also said that the Black Sea region is a
priority in Romania’s regional policy. He believes that this region
has considerable unused potential. The president stressed that the
security of this region is directly connected with the security of
the European and Euro-Atlantic area, especially taking into account
security and energy risks, he told Trend.
Basescu expressed his confidence that the Black Sea region is more
important to Romania and Azerbaijan, because it provides entrance to
the European and Euro-Atlantic area.
Speaking about the activities of GUAM [a regional alliance of Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova], the Romanian president said that he
welcomes the interest of GUAM countries in solving frozen conflicts
which are sources of instability in the region and threats on borders,
Trend reported. He also said that it is necessary to consider Romania’s
accession to GUAM as well.
The Romanian president also spoke about Azerbaijan’s role in the issue
of providing the energy security of Europe, including Romania. “The
energy security of Europe is a particularly important issue in the
context of the growing demand for new energy resources, and Romania,
as an oil and gas importing country, is interested in new sources
of imports and alternative transport routes,” he said. He stressed
that Romania is interested in developing energy cooperation with
Azerbaijan. Romania is analyzing the possibility of signing a bilateral
agreement with Azerbaijan, the president added.
Speaking about the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict,
the Romanian president said that Romania supports Azerbaijan’s
independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. He said that
there is no single and universal solution to frozen conflicts. The
conflicts in the Dniester region, Abkhazia and Nagornyy Karabakh
are different. Therefore, their solution also should be different,
Trend quoted Basescu as saying. “We consider that 2006 opens a
unique opportunity for solving the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, and
in this regard, I welcome the positive results of the meeting held
in Bucharest,” Basescu said while commenting on the recent meeting
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Bucharest.
He added that Romania supports the peaceful settlement of the conflict,
Trend quoted him as saying.

Review: Arts: Beauty and harmony: In today’s climate of cultural
conflict, the V&A’s spectacular new gallery of artefacts from all
across the Islamic world reveals less a clash of civilisations than a
refreshing union of east and west, discovers Jason Ell
The Guardian – United Kingdom; Jul 15, 2006
JASON ELLIOT
A transformation has occurred at the V&A. This week, after three
years of renovation and redesign, the new Jameel gallery of Islamic
art will open its doors to the public with a spectacular collection
of artefacts from across the Islamic world, many of which have never
before been seen on display.
The new gallery, dedicated to the memory of its Saudi benefactor,
Abdul Latif Jameel, is both timely and long overdue. Visitors to
the V&A’s former Middle Eastern display of Islamic art may recall
a confusingly structured and poorly lit collection of disparate
artefacts, overlooked by the sombre and greenish presence of a giant
carpet. This – the famous Ardabil carpet – was said to be one of the
finest Persian carpets in the world. However, it looked more like
something dredged from a pond.
All this has changed. A spectacularly reconfigured display of over
400 objects from the museum’s 10,000-piece Islamic collections,
sensitively interpreted by senior curator Tim Stanley, now looks set
to rival comparable collections around the world. The centrepiece
of the gallery is none other than the Ardabil carpet, rescued from
its former gloom and ingeniously displayed at floor level, as was
originally intended by its 16th-century makers.
Rebuilding the entire gallery around the 50-square-metre marvel
imposed multiple challenges on designers. The greatest of these was
to allow the carpet to be viewed horizontally, but to protect it
from undue levels of light and dust. The innovative solution has
been to surround it with an enclosure of non-reflective glass (be
careful – it’s almost invisible), free of structural supports. This
is made possible by a giant protective canopy above the glass walls,
fitted with fibre-optic lighting and suspended by steel cables from
the ceiling joists overhead. At long last, the delicate colours and
intricacy of the carpet’s pattern – created from a staggering 30m
hand-tied knots – may now be appreciated at close quarters.
The Ardabil carpet is also a reminder of the days when the appreciation
of things Islamic was less eclipsed by political issues. To William
Morris, who in 1893 petitioned for its purchase from a London dealer,
the “singular perfection” of the Ardabil carpet was an inspiration: “To
us pattern-designers,” he wrote, “Persia has become a holy land.” Other
designers, such as Owen Jones and William De Morgan – whose iridescent
tiles imitated techniques pioneered by Muslim artists a thousand years
earlier – were at the forefront of a European fascination with Islamic
design. Their enthusiasm encouraged the building of English country
homes based on Mogul architecture, pavilions in the oriental style,
and many a Turkish smoking-room and Moorish conservatory around
the capital.
The European attraction to Islamic art did not, of course, begin
in the 19th century. Throughout the middle ages, highly prized
specimens of Islamic craftsmanship entered the treasuries of churches
and aristocratic homes, both through trade and as booty. European
monarchs were crowned in robes woven in Sicily, one of the great
creative workshops of the Muslim artist; Fatimid rock crystal ewers
from north Africa were used to display Christian relics; and Turkish
and Persian rugs were favoured as royal wedding presents.
Fine examples of all these luxury goods are to be found in the
gallery. Others, such as the lustre ceramics produced in 15th-century
Spain and Italian inlaid metalwork called Veneto-Saracenic, testify to
a fertile exchange of artistic techniques between Muslim and Christian
cultures of the Mediterranean. In the eastern Islamic lands, too,
styles and technologies from China were taken up and developed by
Iranian artisans, whose ingenuity underpinned the art of the later
Mogul and Ottoman empires.
In today’s climate of cultural divisiveness, this sense of
interconnectedness is refreshing. It suggests for Islamic art a global
significance, and tells not so much of a clash of civilisations, but of
a resounding chorus. Islamic art is, after all, probably the world’s
greatest artistic success story. Soon after the earliest Islamic
conquests of the Middle East in the late seventh century, artists
drawing on the existing traditions of the region began to produce
art and architecture with its own distinctive personality. Easily
differentiated from its Greco-Roman and Hellenistic predecessors,
it spread through the burgeoning empire with extraordinary speed. The
universal appeal and adaptability of this new artistic mode allowed
its themes and principles to be taken up by artists from the Atlantic
coast to the Gobi desert, enriching thereby the vast and intervening
blocs of culture.
The Arab, Turkish, Persian and central Asian contributions to
Islamic art are all represented in the new V&A gallery, and there
are outstanding examples from each. Visitors can admire giant Qur’an
pages commissioned for Mamluk sultans, swollen with monumental
lines of exquisite calligraphy, or marvel at Timurid-era miniature
paintings composed with microscopic precision. There is a series of
large-scale 19th-century oil paintings from Iran (unseen for decades),
and a dramatic wall-sized display of glazed tilework from 14th-century
Uzbekistan. One of the tiles from a 14th-century tomb near Bokhara,
deeply incised with swirling shades of green and turquoise, has been
deliberately exposed to the visitor’s touch. The towering minbar, or
staired mosque-pulpit, dedicated to a 15th-century Egyptian sovereign,
is a masterpiece of geometric design in wood and ivory. And there is
a dazzling display of vibrant ceramics from the famous Turkish centre
of Iznik, including a large tilework chimney-piece dedicated to the
myth of the Seven Sleepers. All these treasures are reminders of
the high level of patronage afforded to the Muslim craftsman across
enormous expanses of time and territory.
Between all these stretches a broad spectrum of lesser but fascinating
treasures. These are dominated by fabrics and ceramics, but include
fine examples of astrolabes and compasses, inlaid candlesticks,
vases and ewers, ivory caskets, enamelled and gilt mosque lamps,
bookbindings, embroidered robes, stained glass, daggers and begging
bowls, as well as some rare and touching pieces such as the silken
vestment woven in Isfahan for an Armenian church, and a child’s
funerary kaftan from Turkey.
Despite the diverse styles of Islamic art, and the astonishing variety
of media in which the skill of the traditional Muslim artist has
been expressed, there are unifying factors that make it immediately
distinctive. All Islamic art aims for beauty based on coherence
and harmony. The saying of the Prophet Muhammad, “God is beautiful
and He loves beauty”, orients the artist’s aesthetic ideal; and the
Qur’anic emphasis on the fundamental goodness and significance of life
informs the goal of creating works of art that will reflect the order,
goodness and purpose of creation itself.
The expression of this vision relies on a distinct and threefold
visual structure, to which a series of panels in the gallery is
very usefully dedicated. The first of these is calligraphy: for the
faithful, the graceful ciphers of the Arabic script transmit the voice
of the Divine, and are the substance of revelation made visible. In
no other art form has the written word taken on such an exalted role;
sultans and peasants alike strove to learn its many styles, which
became disciplines in themselves, and around which an entire science
of numerological symbolism evolved. The second is geometric design,
brilliantly exploited in endless variations – intellectually enticing
and puzzling at the same time. The third panel offers examples of
idealised plant shapes drawn from the natural world: tendrils, vines,
buds and flowers, all alluding to the fecundity and abundance of
nature, and symbolically linked to the Qur’anic evocation of paradise
as a luxuriant garden.
At the simplest level, these elements comprise the fundamental
repertoire of the traditional artist; at a profounder level, they
celebrate the relationship between God, man and nature. They are to
some extent mutable – geometric patterns can form letters, and letters
can be used to create pictures – and are combined in almost infinite
and sophisticated variations of immense beauty. Great art, according
to Ruskin, “is that in which the hand, the head and the heart of man
go together”; it is precisely this insight that was so well understood
by the traditional Muslim artist, whose finest works simultaneously
appeal to the devotional, intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities of
the onlooker. The most refined expressions of this exacting discipline
– whether carved on to a paper-thin dried leaf or stretched across a
monumental facade – are thus transformed from objects of mere visual
delight into powerful focuses of spiritual contemplation.
Recent scholarship has also begun to delve into the Muslim artist’s
use of geometric principles in designs as diverse as the layout
of pages of the Qur’an to the structure of entire mosques. Behind
these lie aesthetic as well as symbolic considerations, reflecting a
reverence throughout Islamic cultures for the philosophical dimension
of mathematics, for numbers and the shapes derived from them. In
this sense, Islamic art extends a fascinating bridge between the
intellectual heritages of east and west, and throws light on the
Islamic role as a transmitter of classical learning into Europe
through the medium of Arab culture. Despite the “exotic” attraction
of many of the motifs and styles used in Islamic art, deeper study
reveals a more rational foundation, coherent and rigorously structured.
The enormous challenge of designing a gallery in which to order
meaningfully artefacts produced over a span of 1,000 years and three
continents has been diligently met. Roughly speaking, the Jameel
gallery is divided in half between artefacts with either a secular or
a religious function. This is a problematic but necessary dichotomy,
since the whole of Islam is underpinned by a theocentric vision,
wherein the worldly and spiritual are not so forcefully divided
as in other forms of belief. But the looseness of this separation
deliberately highlights a common misconception about Islamic art as
a whole. While it is true that art destined for an overtly religious
context rarely contains images of human forms, many of the items
on display prove that Islam’s doctrinal “ban” on graven imagery –
originally a Jewish tradition, absorbed into Islam in its earliest
years – was interpreted differently at different times, rather than
explicitly laid down in the Qur’an.
Along its length the gallery traces a historical line, with the
earliest exhibits nearest the entrance. Here, Roman capitals and
Sassanian vases from the pre-Islamic period suggest how Is lamic
artisans took up existing artistic prototypes and shaped them to the
evolving vision of the Muslim world.
One important characteristic of the gallery is the interpretive
support available to the visitor. There are interactive maps showing
the territorial extent of Islamic cultures; several videos expand
on themes of religious and courtly patronage; and poetry from the
Shahnameh of Ferdowsi can be heard alongside a display of inscribed
tiles. Attention is also drawn to the limitations of the term “Islamic
art” to describe the artistic output of such diverse cultures; and
the care that has gone into the displays themselves is immediately
obvious. Colour and light abound.
A critic might draw attention to the predominance of ceramics, or
to the lack of musical or scientific instruments – both pioneering
achievements of the Islamic Middle East. But the gallery does not
claim to be exhaustive, and has attempted not to acquire new material,
but to re-explore its existing holdings. It has put one of its most
generous donations to excellent use. It also demonstrates just how far
the western understanding of this complex artistic heritage has evolved
since the days of the museum’s earliest collectors. It will be the envy
of the museum’s other galleries and of collections internationally,
and, 150 years on, will amply fulfil the V&A’s original writ to bring
the splendour and richness of Islamic art to the greater world.
The new Jameel gallery opens at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
SW7, on July 20. Details: 020-7942 2000. Jason Elliot’s most recent
book is Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran (Picador).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian minister says all resources to be used in “fight against oil” –
agency
Regnum, Moscow
14 Jul 06
14 July: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has said that
Yerevan can match the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Kars
(Turkey) – Akhalkalaki (Georgia) – Tbilisi – Baku railway with
its internal resources, international resources and the resources
of the diaspora. He was commenting on the official launch of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in the context of isolating Armenia
from regional projects and on the prospects of construction of the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway again bypassing Armenia, or to
be more precise by passing the already existing Kars – Gyumri (Armenia)
– Tbilisi – Baku railway.
“We have carried out serious economic reforms. Our figures and
appearance are different from those of the countries of the region. But
this is the reform of the first generation. We should carry out the
reform of the second generation, in this case our achievements will
multiply.
“Today we are using 1-2 per cent of all the resources of the Armenian
diaspora. There is lack of trust. But new relations and the right
policy will bring about significant positive changes, large investment
and increased confidence.
“We are also conducting noticeable democratic reforms. A presidential
election is approaching. The incumbent president [Robert Kocharyan]
does not have the right to be elected for a third term. But there
are projects started by the president that need to be completed. Our
task is not to think about what political force will come to power,
but to build a policy for 10 years ahead. We
must take our county on a qualitatively new plane, and we have this
possibility. Armenia will become a reliable international partner,”
Vardan Oskanyan said. “In the fight against oil we must use our
resources,” he added.
As was already reported, the official inauguration ceremony for the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline took place in Turkey on 13 July.

Armenian nuclear plant halted temporarily – agency
Arminfo
14 Jul 06
Yerevan, 14 July: The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant [NCP] was
disconnected from the country’s energy system at 1023 local time
[0523 gmt] today, Gagik Markosyan, head of the NCP, has told an
Arminfo correspondent.
He said the plant had been halted because a false protection system
had started operating. There was no breach of nuclear or radiation
security, he stressed. He said that the plant would be again connected
to the country’s energy system tomorrow.
The NCP’s output went down to 1,458m kWh, i.e. by 4 per cent, over
the first six months of 2006. The plant is planned to be halted for
repairs and filling with nuclear fuel on 1 October 2006.

Armenian minister says OSCE “most efficient” Karabakh mediator
Arminfo
14 Jul 06
Yerevan, 14 July: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan considers
the OSCE Minsk Group to be the most efficient mission in the
settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Vardan Oskanyan told
a news conference at the Mirror discussion club today, commenting
at journalists’ request on Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan Afshar
Soleymani’s statement about “the inefficiency of the OSCE Minsk Group”
reported by the Azerbaijani media.
“Although the [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairmen have announced that they
have run out of imagination, I do not think this means that their
mediation mission has ended. I think that the Minsk Group remains
the most efficient mission and I am sure that it will continue its
active participation in the process,” the minister stressed.
As far as various proposals suggested outside the OSCE Minsk Group
are concerned, the Armenian foreign minister said that proposals, no
matter whether they were suggested by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
or Iran, needed to be listened to if they were interesting and could
be put on the negotiating table.
“But I think that there is no point speaking about Iran as the main
mediator now since the OSCE Minsk Group has not yet exhausted itself,”
Oskanyan said.

NATO exercise starts in Armenia – agency
Mediamax news agency
14 Jul 06
The Rescuer-2006 exercise of the US European Command started at the
Aviation Institute of the Armenian Defence Ministry today.
Over 300 officers from 11 countries – the USA, Armenia,
Albania, Austria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia,
Romania, Tajikistan and Ukraine – are taking part in the
exercise. Representatives of NATO, the International Committee of
the Red Cross and the National Guard of the US state of Kansas are
also involved in the exercise.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Armenian Defence Minister Serzh
Sarkisyan expressed his confidence that the Rescuer-2006 exercise
would be successful.
Rescuer-2006 is a command-and-staff exercise aimed at expanding
cooperation between partner countries, as well as organizing and
coordinating rescue work in case of natural and man-made disasters.
The exercise will continue until 24 July.

Armenian defence minister set to join ruling party – agency
Mediamax news agency
14 Jul 06
Yerevan, 14 July: Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said in Yerevan
today that he had applied for membership of the Republican Party of Armenia
(RPA).
The RPA is a member of the ruling coalition. The party’s chairman Andranik
Markaryan has been holding the post of Armenian prime minister since May 2000.
The deputy chairman of the party, Tigran Torosyan, was elected speaker
of the Armenian National Assembly in June.

Azeri opposition daily lambasts US mediator for Karabakh remarks
Yeni Musavat, Baku
14 Jul 06
An Azerbaijani opposition daily has criticized the new US mediator
for the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict for ignoring the public opinion in
Azerbaijan and insisting on a referendum on the breakaway region’s
legal status. The paper said that the US co-chairman of the OSCE
Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, was confident that the Azerbaijani
government could quell any public opposition to an agreement with
Armenia on holding a referendum in Nagornyy Karabakh. The following
is the text of Alya’s report in Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat
on 14 July entitled “Who should make Bryza silent?”:
[US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group] Matthew Bryza has again
spoken about a referendum in Adana [in Turkey]. A couple of hours
before the final completion of the USA’s useless project, i.e. the
opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, he gave
an interview to journalists to say that there was no other way to
settle the Karabakh problem and that the [Azerbaijani and Armenian]
presidents should persuade their peoples to agree to this idea
[referendum on Nagornyy Karabakh’s status].
It emerged that the new co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group is absolutely
indifferent to the public opinion outside the USA. This means that
Matthew Bryza could not care less about the negative attitude of the
Azerbaijani people towards the referendum. How else can one assess the
statements by Bryza who is obstinately insisting on the referendum
even after seeing the negative public reaction following his first
statement? Even if he had not noticed this negative reaction, he
should have guessed because of his official post that like other
world nations, the people of Azerbaijan will protest resolutely
against the proposal to cede their lands.
As it is out of the question that the new mediator, who joined the
Karabakh settlement process late but fervently, knows nothing about
such simple matters, his behaviour might also be explained by the
fact that he regards as insignificant both the public opinion in
Azerbaijan and our reaction to the issue.
Why? Is it because he is confident that the authorities can at
any time (for example, after [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev
consents to sign a peace agreement on holding a referendum) quell any
opposition, or does he consider that we are not strong and decisive
enough? In my view, we should now think more about this rather than
the international situation that can make a peace agreement possible
or impossible.
True, for the time being it is a decisive factor that Russia is not
interested in the resolution of the Karabakh problem. But there is
no guarantee that the situation will not change. Russia might one
day compromise Azerbaijan to its eternal rival as it compromised
Afghanistan and conceded Iraq to the USA after its international
position was shaken. The history has seen many events which once
seemed unlikely.
The matter has another unpleasant aspect – it is international factors
that have turned Karabakh into a subject of endless bargaining;
Ilham Aliyev was permitted to commit election fraud precisely as a
result of this bargaining; it
is this bargaining that holds back Azerbaijan’s development and
has doomed
us to live under the tyranny of a repressive and corrupt regime. We
have been onlookers of this bargaining for many years and we
have been feeling the growing damage of it with every cell of our
body. If we finally want to put an end to it, we should think about
eliminating the reasons behind this attitude rather than being
surprised at the occupying boldness and demonstrative disrespect
of Bush’s envoys. There is no need for tedious pondering and long
research. We simply must get rid of our status of onlookers, stop
bowing to officials from a district police officer to Ilham Aliyev,
and remove animal fear from our hearts.
Given our “qualities”, we should not be surprised at what is
happening. Do we not know that we are “a bit” weak in putting up
resistance? Those on the other shores of the ocean probably know this
better than we do. Maybe they hesitated at the beginning. But after
seeing that we show endurance to the most brutal election violence
and the worst methods of pillage, they have calmed down and began
to seek Ilham Aliyev’s consent only.
They were very anxious after the 2003 presidential election. They
arrived in Baku under the guise of experts of some international
organization and asked representatives of NGOs and of various layers
of society and politicians probing questions. They asked everyone:
“Do you think the election could lead to growing terrorist moods and
Islamic fundamentalism in Azerbaijan?” They tried to find out how
real was the danger of a civil war. I myself came across one of them
at one of those meetings. He insisted that I should tell him if a
civil war was possible in five or 10 years. In fact, his questions
made me laugh because just a month had passed since the 16 October
[2003 presidential election] events and I still remembered well what
part (percentage) of my dear Azerbaijani people could dare to fight.
I still remember it. The reason people like Steven Mann, Matthew
Bryza and others are coming to us demanding that we “concede Karabakh”
is that there were
few of us on that day. Those “brave boys” – “impartial” and
“honest” who
claimed that we were born to fight not them [referring to ANS TV
and radio] – dared to call us “violent” because there were few of
us on that day. But the situation has not changed yet.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian leader against defence minister’s plans to join ruling party – daily
Iravunk, Yerevan
12 Jul 06
Text of D. H.’s report by Armenian newspaper Iravunk on 12 July
headlined “He has not given his approval”
According to a source close to a newly-established pro-government
party [presumably, the Flourishing Armenia Party], immediately after
returning from Iran Armenian President Robert Kocharyan had a hard
talk with Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan who is going to join the
Republican Party [led by Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan] and even
occupy one of the top posts in the party.
Robert Kocharyan simply forbade Serzh Sarkisyan to join the Republican
Party explaining this by unfavourable geopolitical reaction to
such a step and saying that an alliance between Serzh Sarkisyan
and the Republican Party was not in line with the programmes of any
geopolitical centre connected with the future of Armenia [sentence
as given].
According to the same source, Kocharyan and Sarkisyan finally arranged
to discuss the problem after a G8 summit which will be held in St
Petersburg on 15-17 July.