TURKISH PROSECUTOR GENERAL OFFICE RECOGNIZED DINK INNOCENT
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.06.2006 17:58 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Turkish Prosecutor General’s Office has decided
that there were no components of crime in the actions of Hrant Dink,
the editor of the Armenian-language weekly Agos and he should be
recognized innocent. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Turkey does
not agree with court verdict sentencing Dink to 6-month imprisonment
for articles in his newspaper that allegedly insult Turkish national
dignity. The Prosecutor General’s Office noted that according to the
Turkish Criminal Code, any critical opinion, if it does not contain
insulting, should not be penalized, reports RFE/RL.

AZERI PARLIAMENT CHAIR CONGRATULATED NEWLY-ELECTED ARMENIAN SPEAKER
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.06.2006 18:11 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan’s Milli Mejlis speaker Oktay Asadov
congratulated Tigran Torosyan on his election as Armenian NA
Speaker. Asadov’s message was read at the 27th plenary session of
the Parliamentary Assembly (PA) of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
Organization (BSECO) in Yerevan by BSECO PA Azeri delegation head Asaf
Gajiyev. The same day the presidency of the BSECO PA transferred from
Armenia to Azerbaijan: Armenian Speaker T. Torosyan handed presidency
symbol – wood hammer – to Gajiyev. The next plenary session of the
BSECO PA will be held in Baku November 22-23 and the Armenian party
is already invited to participate, reports Mediamax.

ALIYEV: “IT IS NECESSARY TO CARRY KARABAKH PEACEFUL RESOLUTION THROUGH”
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.06.2006 18:29 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “I am sure the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will be
settled within the framework of international norms and principles,”
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev told NBC TV channel. In his words,
terms of settlement of the Karabakh issue depend not only on
Baku. “Territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized by the
international community and all countries, except Armenia. We will
never agree to secession of NK, we will provide it widest autonomy
within territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev underscored.
“They advice our country not to think of settlement by force. We
believe that until there is an opportunity to settle the conflict
peacefully, it is necessary to carry that way through,” Aliyev said.

EUROCOMMISSION TO MAKE PUBLIC FIRST REPORT ON SOUTH CAUCASUS STATES BEFORE YEAREND
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.06.2006 18:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Before the end of this year the Eurocommission
will make public the first Report on South Caucasus states (Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia) within the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP),
reported Head of Sector Coordination Unit for European Neighborhood
Policy in the European Commission, Andreas Herdina. In his words,
implementation of the fifth plan of Neighborhood Policy events will
finish before the end of 2006.

OSCE MG HAS NEW PROPOSALS ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT, BAKU SAYS
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.06.2006 18:54 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan is not content with peace talks
over Nagorno Karabakh settlement, reported Head of the Public and
Political Section of Azeri President’s Administration Ali Hasanov,
when commenting on Armenian and Azeri Presidents’ latest meeting
in Bucharest. As of continuing the meetings between the Armenian
and Azeri leader, he noted that Presidents themselves decide this
matter. “If President Aliyev believes these meetings have no prospects,
Azerbaijan will consider other adequate measures,” Hasanov said.
In his words, the OSCE Minsk Group has new proposals over settlement
of the conflict. However, these are not made public and are being
analyzed by the parties.
“We are not content with today’s talks, as Armenia does not give up
its non-constructive stance.
International structures, as well as the OSCE MG are not going to
exert pressure upon it. This does not content us,” he underscored,
reports Trend.

AZERBAIJANI YOUTHS IGNORE 3+3 SEMINAR IN ARMENIA
Armenpress
Jun 08 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS: Representatives of youth organizations
from Azerbaijan ignored an invitation to come to Armenia and join
peers from the three Baltic nations and Georgia and Armenia for a
five-day seminar on ways to boost youth cooperation.
The seminar is part of a framework known as 3+3 (three Baltic and
three South Caucasian nations).
Around 30 young men and women from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia,
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh will discuss how to make youth cooperation
more effective. The seminar is organized by the Federation of Armenian
Youth Clubs.
Armenian deputy culture minister and a representative of the Council
of Europe office in Armenia were present at the opening.

RAMSAR CONVENTION DECLARES KHOR VIRAP WETLANDS SPECIAL RESERVE AREA
Armenpress
Jun 08 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS: The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands will
declare soon a wetland area near a mediaeval Khor Virap church in
the Armenian province of Ararat a special reserve area. The request
was initiated by Armenian ministry of nature protection.
In 1993 two first wetland areas in Armenia, the basin of Lake Sevan
and areas near lake Arpi were declared special reserve areas by the
Ramsar Convention. Two areas more, the Armash Lake and relict lakes
in Lori province will be included in the Ramsar List. The broad aim
of the Convention on Wetlands, adopted in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971 is
to halt the worldwide loss of wetlands and to conserve those that
remain through wise use and management.
The Convention was signed by representatives of eighteen nations at
a small Iranian town called Ramsar in 1971. There are now more than
135 Contracting Parties to the Convention who have designated more
than 1200 wetland sites throughout the world to the Ramsar List of
Wetlands of International Importance.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

UNDP CARRIES OUT PROJECTS TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY BUDGET
Armenpress
Jun 08 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS: Today five cost-sharing agreements were
signed with five municipalities of the Armenian Ijevan, Masis, Abovian,
Vedi and Dilijan towns. Besides, a Memorandum of Understanding has been
signed with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for
projects in the scope of UNDP Armenia Performance Budgeting project.
In addition, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) presented
the Performance Budgeting Manual.
The ceremony, held in UN House in Yerevan, was attended by
municipality teams, experts of the project, USAID representatives,
as well as representatives of the US Treasury Department, Armenia
Social Investment Fund, government and the media.
Consuelo Vidal, UN resident coordinator/UNDP resident representative,
said the goals of the project are to support further decentralization
in Armenia, strengthen the capacities of local self-governance
bodies, and facilitate accountable and measurable public expenditure
management. It assists in the implementation of performance budgeting
during community planning, monitoring, and evaluation processes
ensuring citizens’ participation in the whole process. This is new
to not only Armenia, but also to the region.
Performance budgeting enables the local population to be part of the
local planning and development process. Wide public participation takes
place during projects’ planning and implementation, enabling public
participation in local development processes, engaging citizens and
local governments in planning and prioritizing together, and making
local governments accountable for the use of their financial resources.
Since its inception in 2005, the Performance Budgeting Project
has generated much interest among local self-governance bodies in
Armenia. This new budgeting process covers the entire strategic
planning process, from situation analysis and assessment, to setting
priorities, objectives and targets, stating outputs and monitoring
indicators, and finally developing an output-based budget.
The Performance Budgeting Project promotes community-level active
citizen involvement in the local development process, accountability
and measurability of municipal services provided to the communities. In
this way, it supports participation and governance at the local level
and also encourages a culture of results.
The “Performance Budgeting in Local Government” training manual also
presented today is a product of a comprehensive and in-depth work
in the framework of the Performance Budgeting initiative supported
by UNDP. The manual presents experiences gained during training
courses, advisory meetings, and joint seminars and actual budgeting
processes conducted in the five pilot towns of Armenia (Ijevan, Masis,
Abovian, Vedi and Dilijan). It provides a detailed description of local
performance budgeting principles, framework, budgeting process phases,
and budget planning, execution, and oversight. It is designed to become
a step-by-step guide for other communities in Armenia and abroad.

OSKANIAN SAYS ARMENIA CONCERNED WITH RACIALLY MOTIVATED KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS IN RUSSIA
Armenpress
Jun 08 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS; Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian
said today authorities in Yerevan were seriously concerned over a
splash of killings of ethnic Armenians in Russia. Oskanian said to
a news conference that this issue was on the agenda and was being
raised on every opportune occasion.
He said Armenia offers its assistance to Russia to fight together
against xenophobia. “We would like to believe that the hate killings
are not aimed specifically at Armenians and these (the murders of
Armenians) were not part of a plan against Armenians,” he said,
adding that it is the Russian authorities who must take swift action
to prevent racially-motivated attacks and killings in their country.
Human rights activists accuse Russian law-enforcement agencies
and judiciary of covering up the racially motivated crimes or
even justifying the criminals, thus encouraging the recurrence of
aggressive xenophobia and extremism. According to a number of experts’
evaluations, today more than a half of the neo-Nazi organizations of
the world are in Russia.
They also say a considerable part of the contemporary Russian society
is contaminated by racist and xenophobic pathologies. Moreover,
there are grounds to assume that the neo-Nazi organizations are
backed by a whole system, including the Russian mass media, business
structures, law enforcement agencies and courts, as well as other
state institutions of Russia.

“ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO SETTLE THE CONFLICT IN PEACEFUL WAY WAS MISSED”
A1+
[03:44 pm] 08 June, 2006
“The window is open, we mustn’t exclude any development, hope dies
but last; we must anchor hope that we shall be able to come to an
agreement on the matters of principle,” RA Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian announced in today’s press release.
The latter didn’t exclude the possibility of meeting with his Azeri
counterpart at any moment but he didn’t go into details and didn’t
inform anything about that forthcoming meeting. “Every meeting is
held when there are new approaches and new offers,” noted Vartan
Oskanian and added that he didn’t see any ground for new offers
yet. He connected the efficiency of the Bucharest meeting with the
offer which is in the process of discussions and with the complication
of the matter. “Unfortunately we failed; the matter under question
was rather complicated. It was also put in front of the Presidents
in Rambouillet and it was again a failure. The new approaches were
not approved either.”
Yesterday the Azeri deputy informed the Armenian journalists that the
Armenian side refused to take the Armenian forces out of 6 regions
and turned down the offer to allocate the peace-keeping forces
instead though they had agreed beforehand. Asked the question by
“A1+” whether the announcement of the Azeri deputy was grounded and
whether the offer was finally turned down Mr. Oskanian answered, “Today
all the questions connected with the conflict settlement are put on
the table. Our foremost task is the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh
status. As for the elimination of the consequences it must be done
after the NKR recognition.”
By the way, if one-page document was put in front of the presidents
during the Paris meeting, it turned into two-page document in
Bucharest. Asked the question what the length of the document is
determined by Vartan Oskanian answered jokingly, “Not by the budget”
and then added that there were no many changes in the contents only
the length of the document changed.
As for Serge Sargsyan’s announcement that Azerbaijan is likely to lose
its chance to settle the conflict in peaceful way Oskanian answered
diplomatically, “After each negotiation we think that another chance
to settle the conflict in peaceful way was missed.”
Vartan Oskanian once more claimed that the NKR conflict has no military
solution; if it had it would have been settled long ago. The Armenian
side frequently announces about the necessity of peaceful negotiations.