UEFA CHIEF EXECUTIVE TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN APRIL 3
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2006 00:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ April 3-5 UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson
will visit Armenia, the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) told
PanARMENIAN.Net. The visit to Armenia will be held on the invitation of
FFA President Ruben Hayrapetyan. In Armenia Lars-Christer Olsson will
meet with republic leaders, FFA president, members of FFA Executive
Committee and Administration, will visit stadiums and some historical
and cultural sights of Armenia.

ONLY SERVICE CONTROLLING SANITARY STATE IN AKHALKALAK REGION LIQUIDATED
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 16 2006
AKHALKALAK, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Sanitary
Department of Akhalkalak liquidated by the Georgian Health Care
Ministry’s decree.
According to the “A-Info” agency, noy only 15 people became unemployed
as a result of the liquidation, but the sanitary state of the region
is also left out of control as the above-mentioned department was
the only service engaged in that issue.
Though the Ministry gave a sanitary department laboratory to the
Public Health Care Center, however, the laboratory doesn’t function
because of dischargments.
Factually, the possibilities to resist possible epidemic dangers in
the region became equal to zero.

GEORGIA’S NATO TEST
By Koba Liklikadze in Tbilisi
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), UK
March 16, 2006
The Tbilisi government wants Georgia to join NATO by 2008, but question
marks remain.
A visit by a NATO assessment team has left the country with
contradictory predictions about whether Georgia has a good prospect
of joining the North Atlantic alliance.
The NATO mission, which left on March 9, after four days of intensive
meetings, is due to deliver its verdict in mid-April as to whether
Georgia should be allowed to embark on NATO’s Membership Action Plan,
MAP, which would bring it one step closer to full membership.
The Georgian authorities are already announcing ahead of time that
the conclusion will be positive and that the country will become a
candidate for membership of the alliance by the end of the year.
In his New Year’s address, President Mikheil Saakashvili announced
that 2006 would be the “year of NATO in Georgia”, and stressed that
the country would enter NATO during his first presidential term,
which runs to the end of 2008.
Some influential voices in Washington are lobbying for Georgian
membership. Ambassador David Smith, chairman of the Georgia Forum in
the United States, has said that it would be in NATO’s interests to
welcome the country into its ranks.
He told Radio Liberty, “We, the 26 members of the alliance, have a
strong geopolitical reason to see friendly democratic countries to
the east of the Black Sea, including Georgia, as allies.”
Smith said it was significant that President George W Bush had chosen
Tbilisi to make a rallying call for freedom last May and that Georgian
troops were serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
According to opinion polls, 70 per cent of the Georgian population
supports the country’s entry into NATO. The government has been
enthusiastically promoting the idea.
“NATO entry will increase Georgia’s security guarantees, which is
essential for political stability, economic progress, to attract
investment, and for strengthening democratic institutions,” Minister
for European Integration Giorgy Baramidze told IWPR. “If Georgia is
a safe country with a secure economy, she will be able to restore
her geographic integrity by peaceful means more quickly.”
Georgia was the first country of the South Caucasus to sign an
Individual Partnership Action Plan or IPAP with NATO, in December
2004, soon to be followed by Azerbaijan and Armenia. Under an IPAP
a country chooses its own timelines and tasks, which it must fulfil
in order to move to the next stage of entry, the MAP.
Georgia has set itself the most ambitious plan, and has told NATO it
will implement it within two years. It has embarked on a big increase
in military spending, with the budgets for security ministries
increasing eight times in the last two years.
The NATO assessment mission which visited last September, found,
however, that “the glass was half empty”. As a result, the arrival
of the latest mission in early March was keenly awaited. The group
contains seven people who have spent a year meeting not only Georgian
officials, but also opposition parties, non-governmental organisations
and representatives of the independent media, and received exhaustive
information about events in the country.
The government was upbeat about the team’s visit. “This week will have
an important place in the NATO-Georgia history textbook, which our
children will read in the future,” said Deputy Defence Minister Mamuka
Kudava. “Important progress has been recorded in all directions. As
you know, the defence chapter is very important, this is one of the
most important chapters in the IPAP and our experts, and colleagues
from NATO have approved this document on the development of defence
reforms.”
Frank Boland, the head of the mission and chief of NATO’s department
for politics and defence planning, was more cautious.
“The process of overcoming the problems which have fallen to its lot,
is an extremely complicated one for any nation,” said Boland. “It
is important to acknowledge openly that its low economic level is
constraining the possibilities of the government of Georgia to carry
through many changes it would like to make. But in spite of these
limitations, we are genuinely struck by how much has changed, and
how much the Georgian authorities plan to change in the future. And
I am sure that the 26 members of NATO and Georgia will be entirely
in agreement on this.”
Big questions remain, however, not least the issue of the unresolved
conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. General Nikola Kolev, chief
of staff of the Bulgarian army, told Georgian journalists last year,
“The criteria are clear. Internal ethnic and religious conflicts have
to be resolved. The state ought to be stable.”
Several Georgian analysts are also sceptical about Georgia’s fitness to
join NATO. “This is to do both with the existence within the defence
and interior ministries of secret funds, and with military purchases
and endless reshuffles in the defence ministry, as a result of which,
officers who have been educated in military academies in the West,
leave the system,” said analyst Irakly Aladashvili.
“Military intelligence has been abolished, no kind of land forces
has been formed, the military academy has been abolished, and the
drain of professional officers continues,” said Shalva Tadumadze,
a military expert with the Rights and Justice organisation. “When
this lie of the ministry of defence is exposed, the country will find
itself in an awkward position.”
Tadumadze drew attention to the recent appointment of a man under
investigation for allegedly beating up a journalist as head of a
department of the National Guard.
“At present, the case is with the prosecutor’s office. And the
appointment of a criminal suspect to a position of responsibility
demonstrates just how true the Georgian authorities are to European
values,” he said.
Shalva Pichkhadze, who heads the non-governmental organisation Georgia
and NATO, said the Georgian government had made real progress in
military reform but it should be more realistic about the short
timescale it had set itself for joining NATO.
“The question of a country’s joining the 26 member NATO alliance is
decided by consensus,” said Pichkhadze. “In spite of the substantial
interest in Georgia, there are countries which have their doubts about
Georgia’s joining, particularly because of its unresolved military
conflicts. Consequently, the process of Georgia’s entry into NATO
could go on for years. And this could cause serious disappointment
amongst the public.”
Koba Liklikadze is a reporter with Radio Liberty in Tbilisi.

ARMENIAN PM APPOINTS GEVORK KOSTANYAN TO ARMENIAN DEPUTY JUSTICE MINISTER POST
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 15, 2006
YEREVAN, March 15. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan
appointed Gevork Kostanyan to the post of Armenian Deputy Justice
Minister on Tuesday, Government’s press service told ARKA News Agency.
Gevork Kostanyan was born in 1977 in Yerevan. He was graduated from
Yerevan State University in 1999 with legal expert diploma.
Kostanyan has been Armenian Justice Ministry’s Adviser on legal issues
over a period between 1995 and 1999.
After serving his national duty in Armenian army in 1999 to 2001,
he continued his work in Justice Ministry as the Minister Adviser
and later as Deputy Chief of Justice Ministry’s Staff.
>>From 2004 till his today’s appointment Kostanyan worked at
Justice Minister Adviser position. He is married and father of one,
non-partisan.

FIRST HEATING TECHNOLOGIES EXHIBITION IS TO OPEN IN YEREVAN ON MARCH 15, 2006
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 15, 2006
YEREVAN, March 15. /ARKA/. The first heating technologies exhibition is
to open in Yerevan on March 15, 2006, according to the press release
received Tuesday by ARKA News Agency from Government-affiliated
Renewable Energy Fund. Armenia heating companies, banks and
representatives of local self-governing bodies will take part in the
event aimed at informing the community about heating technologies
and establishing business ties between all participants of the
market – companies, banks, credit organizations, donors and city
authorities. These ties establishment will lay due groundwork for
establishing relations with Armenian and foreign potential investors
and customers, the press release says.
Armenian Renewable Energy Fund intends to provide credits to potential
heating suppliers through commercial banks and to modernize this area.
The exhibition is organized by the Fund as part of WB-financed program
focused on city heating as well as by the USAID.

“A1+” CANNOT RELEASE THE PREMISES
A1+
09:17 pm 16 March, 2006
“A1+” will not release the premises on Grigor Lusavorich 15 unless
the RA State Property Department offers an adequate version for the
release, and not only one room instead of 11 as it has already done,”
claims the director of “A1+” Mesrop Movsesian.
Tomorrow at any time after 12 the Compulsory Service representatives
can exile “A1+” from the premises rented for 15 years.
” It is strange to me that they are going to expel us without our
knowledge as we haven’t decided where to move and haven’t made any
preparations yet,” says Mr.
Movsesian stating the real reasons because of which “A1+” can’t release
the premises of the NAS on March 17. The release will be equal to the
cease of the activities of the Internet site”A1+”, the Media Agency
“A1+”, weekly newspaper “Ajb – Fe” and the net “Hamaspur” of the
independent regional TV companies.
We face different problems today, starting from the cabling
of the telephone net to the mounting of the expensive TV
equipments. Mr. Movsesian deems the Court resolution according to which
“A1+” must release the premises illegal. “We have got controversial
facts which have been ignored by the Court and I consider this
step another case of the violation of our rights” “A1+” has been
punctually fulfilling its renting liabilities for 15 years, it has
invested its own money for the building repair and the company has
paid the salaries of the guards and their energy fees.
“Before releasing the premises “A1+” must be compensated for its
investments,” says Mesrop Movsesian. By the way, he claims that “A1+”
already got tired of that bustle and they will willingly release the
premises in case of an adequate offer and money compensation. But the
NAS must leave the idea of exiling “A1” as long as there are other
tenants in the building. By the way, those are not “old dwellers,”
but newcomers who have recently moved to Grigor Lusavorich 15. Let’s
take the Union “Ergir” whose president decided to take away its poster
from the entrance this afternoon. “A1+” was also offered to leave the
second floor of the building where the company has no rooms. “The
second floor is free, they can take it,” says Mesrop Movsesian and
gets astonished that the NAS doesn’t know its tenants.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“INHERITANCE” OFFFICE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY
Panorama.am
14:32 16/03/06
“We have received no respond either from the chief Procurator or from
the Police or Prime Minister,” informed Panorama.am vice president of
“Jarangutyun” (Inheritance) party Vardan Khachatryan today. To remind,
recently they have addressed the chief Procurator of the Republic
as well as to the Head of Police in concern of their central office
being kept under lock and key.
“The road of hell is paved with good wishes,” cited the Bible
V. Khachatryan and continued, “No one is being appreciated by his words
but by his actions. In fact the central office of the party is kept
under lock at the moment. It is not serious to talk about Human Right
at the same time keeping the party’s central office and seal under lock
and key. And if the Procurators’ Office is an institution that works
objectively then it just has to come and open the door.”

2ND SESSION OF WORLD AZERBAIJANI CONGRESS OPENED IN BAKU
12:29 03/16/2006
On March 16 in Baku opens 2nd session of World Azerbaijani Congress. As
a REGNUM correspondent has been informed in the State Committee on
Relations with Azerbaijanis Abroad, around 600 delegates from 49
countries and 300 guests will participate in the Congress. They will
discuss current situation in the Azerbaijani Diaspora, new methods
of international community familiarization with modern situation
in Azerbaijan, strengthening of relations with other Diasporas. To
prepare the concept of the Azerbaijani Diaspora activity, participants
will discuss the organization of work group dedicated to development
of joint strategy development of the Azerbaijani and Turkish Diasporas.
On March 15, around 100 representatives from different countries,
including Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and other countries, met
the Alley of Shahids, where victims of Karabakh war and January 20
are buried.

ALIYEV: “IF WE SEE ARMENIA’S PARTICIPATION IN THE SETTLEMENT PROCESS IS OF IMITATIVE CHARACTER, WE WILL STOP TALKS”
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 16 2006
“Azerbaijani Army’s budget will exceed Armenia’s state budget in
a few years. Military expenditures allocated from the state budget
were increased by 70% last year and 100% this year,” President Ilham
Aliyev said in the World Azerbaijanis Congress II (APA).
Mr. Aliyev said that besides continuation of peaceful negotiations
for the settlement of the Nagorno Garabagh conflict, the army should
be reinforced.
“Azerbaijan has been living at cease-fire for 12 years, we have not
achieved peace yet. Peaceful talks are ongoing. But Armenia are
avoiding from this process in different forms. We are concerned
to continue negotiations. But if we see Armenia’s participation
in the settlement process is of imitative character and Yerevan is
not frank, we will stop negotiations. Azerbaijan wants the Nagorno
Garabagh conflict to be solved within international legal norms
which recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. The processes
have changed in favor of Azerbaijan recently and we will achieve
liberation of our lands”.

ILHAM ALIYEV NOT AGAINST NEIGHBOR RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA
Prime News Agency, Georgia
March 16 2006
Tbilisi, March 16 (Prime-News) – Release of Azerbaijani territories
occupied by Yerevan will assist improvement of neighbor relations
with Armenia, Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijani president, stated.
“We demand release of our lands from occupation, withdrawal of
Armenian troops from those territories, after that we will have
neighbor relations,” Aliyev stated during the meeting with Turkish
delegation, which arrived in Baku to participate in the second session
of all Azerbaijanians.