DROUGHT IS RETREATING
A1+
[01:32 pm] 30 June, 2006
The regional department of the Gegharqounik region of “ArmHydroMet”
informs that the rains of the last few days have restored the relative
humidity of the air which is necessary for the flora and the fauna.
Although the drought in the region had its negative impact on
agriculture, agronomists assess the precipitations as effective for
the crop and for preventing epidemics in cattle.
TV Company “Qyavar”, Gavar

ARMENIA WILL BE SPOKEN ABOUT IN 2007
Karine Asatryan
A1+
[01:43 pm] 30 June, 2006
The CoE building is already half-empty, although the PACE session is
bound to last till midday. The Azeris look forward to the session
about the protection of woods in order to speak about the alleged
fire in the forests in Karabakh.
Part of the PACE delegates is already interested in the agenda of the
autumn session. There was no issue directly referring to Armenia in
the current session.
Will there be any in the coming one? In answer to this question the
head of the RA delegation, NA President Tigran Torosyan answered that
there won’t be a discussion about the commitments of Armenia in autumn.
“There is one issue connected with Armenia which will be heard in
the 2007 January session. It is the application of the Constitutional
reforms in the RA legislation”, he said. Mr. Torosyan reminded that
the issue about the commitments of Armenia was heard in October
2004. “This shows that although there are problems to be solved,
Armenia has taken the right course in honoring the commitments”.
According to Mr. Torosyan, the issue about the commitments will be
heard in October 2007, “if there is nothing extraordinary during
the elections”.
Let us remind you that the reporters on the issues of honoring the
commitments will pay a visit to Armenia in autumn.

HAJIEVA WANTED TOROSYAN TO HELP HER
Karine Asatryan
A1+
[02:51 pm] 30 June, 2006
The Azeris do not understand that fires have no administrative
borderlines. According to member of the Armenian delegation Hermine
Naghdalyan, they speak about the fires in the territories near Karabakh
without realizing that people can’t burn the fields and forests which
feed them. According to Naghdalyan, this is done to distract attention
from the destruction of the Armenian monuments in Nakhijevan.
During the discussions of forest fires Tigran Torosyan addressed
the session too. He mentioned that he would not make a speech if it
weren’t for the request of Gyultekin Hajieva, member of the Azeri
delegation who asked him to help her include the issue of fires in
the PACE agenda. Mr. Torosyan is ready to help but only about the
issues of the agenda.
“Why don’t they say that three years ago the NKR authorities applied
to Azerbaijan asking them to create mechanisms with the help of OSCE
in order to solve suchlike problems? Fires are possible in summer when
grass is too dry. The Azeris show with their behavior that they don’t
care why there are fires, they don’t care about extinguishing them,
all they want is to make fuss”, Mr. Torosyan said. He also informed
the PACE delegates that OSCE has held monitoring in the region and
has found no traces of fire.
Naturally, Gyultekin Hajieva who made speech directly afterwards denied
the fact of monitoring saying that it was not for investigating the
fires but for the violation of the ceasefire. What is interesting
is that after a one-week hubbub over the issue the representative of
Azerbaijan said that she would not speak about it if it weren’t for
the speech of the Armenian delegates.
By the way, Pashaeva, another representative of the Azeri delegation
announced that official Yerevan supports the “separatists”, that
is, the residents of Karabakh. For example, Robert Kocharyan sends
congratulating messages to them, Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan
pays visit to Karabakh, etc.
According to her, the Minks group must continue its work, but the
behavior of the Armenian side is an obstacle for it. “If we ignore
all this, we will face an ecological disaster”, Pashaeva concluded.

THE REFERENDUM ISSUE IS STILL ACTUAL?
A1+
[04:05 pm] 30 June, 2006
The Committee controlling the lawfulness of the referendum is going
to apply to the European Court of Human Rights this year about
the rejection of applications referring to the referendum by the
Armenian courts. As the European Court does not accept cases about
law violations, the Committee has decided to play a little trick.
“Some people think it is late to speak about the
referendum. Nevertheless, this was how the authorities made
their violations common”, says Ruben Torosyan, coordinator of the
Committee. The Committee has finished the investigations and confirmed
once more that the voting has been carried out with mass violations
and fabrications, that is, the Referendum did not take place.
As the suit of the Committee was rejected by the Court of the
First Instance, it has applied to the Court of Cassation. Although
the latter announced the decisions of the Court of First Instance
illegal in January 2006, refused to consider the applications. The
Prosecutor’s Office and the RA Ombudsman failed to consider the
issue too. “Factually, the Court system did not consider any of the
applications. About 100 applications were rejected”, Ruben Torosyan
mentioned.
The coordinator of the Committee announced that they are not going
to stop the struggle.

“ZHAMANAK YEREVAN” WILL NOT VISIT THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
A1+
[04:16 pm] 30 June, 2006
The staff of the newspaper “Zhamanak Yerevan” has stopped the acts of
complaint opposite the Prosecutor’s Office which started a few days ago
when editor-in-chief of the newspaper Arman Babajanyan was arrested.
Tomorrow the newspaper staff will make a statement where they will
comment on their step and their future activity. They refused to
explaining anything today saying that everything till be clear after
tomorrow’s statement.

THE PRINCIPLES OFFERED ARE NOT REALISTIC
Karine Asatryan
A1+
[01:19 pm] 30 June, 2006
“We can’t claim that the negotiations within the framework of the Minks
group are over after the famous statement”, said Stepan Demirchyan, the
member of the Armenian delegation to PACE. He reminded about the last
part of the statement which says that “the co-chairs will be ready to
participate in the process again if the sides really decide to continue
the negotiations with political will which has been absent by now”.
At the same time Mr. Demirchyan does not consider the principles
stated by the co-chairs realistic, namely those about the removal
of the Armenian armed forces from the areas near Karabakh, about the
referendum in Karabakh in order to decide its status, etc.
“Karabakh must become a negotiating side. The settlement of the
conflict without the participation of Karabakh is not realistic”,
the leader of the “Justice” bloc mentioned. According to him, Armenia
should not have replaced Karabakh in the negotiation process. “Armenia
must be the guarantee of security for Karabakh, but we must not
replace them”.
Neither does Stepan Demirchyan consider the re-launching of war
realistic, despite the fact that one of the Azeri delegates, Pashaeva,
mentioned that war is probable if the OSCE Minsk group has no other
options. She promised to comment on the statement of the co-chairs
after consulting it with the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan.
By the way, asked the question if the CoE can have influence on the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict Mr. Demirchyan said, “I don’t think
so. The Minsk group has been engaged in the issue for quite a while.
I don’t think CoE will replace OSCE in this issue”.

LEVON MELIK-SHAHNAZARYAN: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMITTED NOT BY MUSLIMS BUT TURKS
PanARMENIAN.Net
29.06.2006 18:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Islam is really a great religion and like other
world religions it does not accept the term “genocide”, political
scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter,
when commenting on a statement of Turkish PM that there is no concept
of genocide in Islam. “However, being an experienced politician,
Erdogan deliberately shifts accents. Not Muslims, but Turks committed
the Armenian Genocide, and not Muslims, but Turks will have to answer
for those murderous deeds. Erdogan’s attempt to charge the whole Muslim
world for the Armenian Genocide is futile. The political scientist
reminded that Armenian remember well “how Muslims: Iranians and Arabs
saved the remaining populations of unprotected Armenian villages from
Turkish yataghans.”

OSKANIAN: “WE HOPE AZERBAIJANI WILL REALIZE THAT WE HAVE A CHANCE TO RESOLVE CONFLICT AND ACHIEVE LASTING PEACE”
Armenpress
Jun 30 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 30, ARMENPRESS: In an interview to Armenpress news
agency Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian commented on the
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ statement made June 22.
– The co-chairs in their statement say that “our approach has been a
modified one: we have not tried to solve all aspects of the conflict
in one phase.
Instead our principles seek to achieve a major degree of progress but
defer some very difficult issues to the future and envision further
negotiations.” What does this mean?
– The actual negotiating document on the principles that is on
the table today is all-encompassing. It covers all the principles
affecting the resolution of the conflict. It includes the core issue
of status of Nagorno Karabakh, territories, refugees, security issues,
peacekeeping and every other conceivable issue that is necessary in
order to arrive at a lasting resolution of the conflict. Only after
full agreement on all these basic principles would the parties, as the
actual negotiating text says, “in cooperation with the co-chairs of
the OSCE Minsk group to begin work on the elaboration of an agreement
on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.” In other words,
the agreement on principles will be comprehensive. The final agreement
may envision implementation over time.
– In their report, the co-chairs say “the principles include the
phased redeployment of Armenian troops from Azerbaijani territories
around Nagorno Karabakh, with special modalities for Kelbajar and
Lachin districts.” What are these special modalities?
– This formulation is indeed very broad, and for a reason. This
issue has two layers. One is the issue of Lachin, where the actual
negotiating text on principles provides clear language stating that
there will be “a corridor linking Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia.” For
Armenia, it’s very clear that this corridor must have the same status
as Nagorno Karabakh. The second layer is the issue of Kelbajar.
For Armenia, this also is clear: based on security concerns,
Kelbajar can be returned only after the referendum is conducted
and the final status of NK is determined. Azerbaijan’s position is
different on Kelbajar. That’s the disagreement that the co-chairs
are addressing in their statement. The co-chairs’ language in the
actual negotiating text, with regard to this issue, is generally in
line with our approach.
– The co-chairs say that there will be a referendum “to determine
the final legal status of Nagorno Karabakh,” but they don’t say who
will vote.
– The actual negotiating text on principles clearly specifies that
“the final legal status will be determined through a referendum by
the population of Nagorno Karabakh.”
– The co-chairs also say “certain interim arrangements for Nagorno
Karabakh would allow for interaction with providers of international
assistance.” What does this mean?
– This is only one element of a much more detailed section in the
actual negotiating text which addresses interim status for Nagorno
Karabakh. We think the co-chairs have emphasized international
engagement, because that’s a major problem for the people of
Nagorno Karabakh. Their current, unrecognized, de-facto status,
has not allowed them to benefit from the generosity of international
organizations. In the actual negotiating text, the provisions address
such rights as control over their political and economic viability
and security, upholding their personal privileges and freedoms, the
right to democratically elect officials to govern Nagorno Karabakh,
the authority to effectively legislate and administer the internal
affairs of Nagorno Karabakh.
– What is Armenia’s overall assessment of the content of the document
as it stands today?
– This not a perfect document. For anyone. However, there are enough
solid and balanced provisions, with the right trade-offs on the main
issues – status, territories and security – that we are prepared to
continue to negotiate on the basis of these principles. In today’s
context, Azerbaijan’s rhetoric about autonomy and desperate calls
for militarization surprise us. We have at hand a real opportunity to
resolve all issues, including the much-maligned issue of refugees. But
Azerbaijan must revert to real situations and real opportunities,
rather than illusory maximalist hopes. Today, we hope that Azerbaijan
will realize that we have a chance to resolve the conflict and achieve
a lasting peace.

ZVARTNOTS AIRPORT RESUMES 24-HOUR FLIGHTS HANDLING
Armenpress
Jun 30 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 30, ARMENPRESS: Armenia’s main Zvartnots airport resumes
from July 1 the 24 hour handling of flights that was reduced to late
evening and early morning hours since April 29 to allow a major repair
of its runway.
Gevorg Abrahamian, head of the airport’s press office, said the
3,850 meter-long runway underwent a complete repair concurrently with
replacement of its outdated infrastructure.

GAZPROM SETS EYES ON IRAN-ARMENIA PIPELINE
Armenpress
Jun 30 2006
MOSCOW, JUNE 30, ARMENPRESS: Russian Gazprom plans to buy an
Iran-Armenia pipeline currently under construction, RIA news agency
said quoting a deputy chairman of the Russian energy giant as saying
Friday.
“Indeed, we intend to acquire this gas pipeline,” Alexander Ryazanov
told an annual shareholders’ meeting.
He said the pipeline, with a projected annual capacity of 1.2 billion
cubic meters, would be commissioned in 2007. Ryazanov said putting
the new facility on stream would help provide more reliable supplies
of natural gas to Armenia, which presently receives its gas through
Georgia. “There are problems with the transit of gas to Armenia via
Georgia, as Georgia taps some of the gas,” he said.
Gazprom also said it would produce natural gas only under
contracts. “We will only meet the demand of partners who have signed
long-term deals. We will not produce gas until we have sold it,”
chief executive Alexei Miller told an annual shareholders meeting.
Miller said that demand was outstripping supply on the natural gas
market, which meant that the seller was free to choose partners and
the most favorable outlets, as well as cooperate exclusively under
long-term deals. He said Gazprom covered 25% of Europe’s natural-gas
needs, whereas its share was only 10% on Asian-Pacific markets.