New Coop Agreememt Between Armenia & Moscow Region To Be Signed Soon

NEW AGREEMEMT ON COOPERATION BETWEEN ARMENIA AND MOSCOW REGION TO BE
SIGNED SOON

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, NOYAN TAPAN. A delegation headed by Boris
Gromov, the governor of the Moscow region (Russia), will soon arrive
in Armenia with the aim of signing an agreement on economic
cooperation between Armenia and the Moscow region. Ludmila Molchanova,
Deputy Chairwoman of the Committee for Small and Medium Business
Development of the Moscow region, said at the “Cooperation 2005”
Armenian-Russian business meeting that the agreement has already been
sent to the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is in the process of
adjustment. It was noted that the first agreement on cooperation
between the Armenian government and the Moscow region was signed as
far back as 1997.

According to L. Molchanova, the Moscow region has been a serious trade
and economic partner for Armenia. For instance, in 2004, the trade
turnover grew more than fourfold over 2000. The Moscow region is the
largest in Russia in terms of its population. In 2004, direct
investments of over 1 bln USD were made in the region, while its trade
turnover made 6.8 bln USD.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

There Are Positive Tendencies & Dangers in NK Process – Opp

ACCORDING TO SHAVARSH KOCHARIAN, THERE ARE BOTH POSITIVE TENDENCIES
AND DANGERS IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, NOYAN TAPAN. There is some progress in the
process of Karabakh settlement but there are also dangers. Shavarsh
Kocharian, a member of the Armenian delegation in PACE, declared this
at the September 15 press conference. He participated in the sitting
of PACE ad hoc commission on the issue of Karabakh held on September
12 in Paris. According to him, though the Karabakh settlement model
isn’t declassified it is rather visible.

Kocharian mentioned that in spite of commission’s limited mandate, the
discussion held in Paris was very representative. According to him,
one of its reasons is that there is certain tendency to involve wider
circles into the discussion of the above-mentioned model of Karabakh
settlement. At the same time, according to Shavarsh Kocharian, at the
meeting it was mentioned that against the efforts of the Azeri party,
the settlement process will be only within the framework of the OSCE
Minsk Group. As regards other structures, they can only promote the
process. In particular, the Council of Europe can control the
fulfilment of obligations assumed by Armenia and Azerbaijan, which
includes peaceful settlement of the conflict, creation of an
atmosphere of trust between the two peoples and so on.

It was exactly mentioned during the discussions that it’s possible to
solve the problem only by joint application of principles of
territorial integrity and nations’ right of self-determination. And
the territorial integrity refers to areas beyond Nagorno Karabakh
territory and the right of nations’self-determination to the territory
of Nagorno Karabakh.

According to Kocharian, another important question was that Karabakh
can’t be an enclave, i.e. it must have a connection with Armenia.

It was also indirectly mentioned that it is supposed to create such
conditions so that direct contacts between Armenian and Azeri troops
will be excluded, i.e. implementation of peaceful mission by some
separatist forces.

Touching upon the possible dangers, Shavarsh Kocharian mentioned that
the variant proposed can be estimated as a package solution as it
contains an answer to a number of questions, including issue of
status, while it’s supposed that it will be implemented stage by
stage. According to it, the territories under NKR’s control must be
returned, after which Azeri refugees must return to NKR, then a
referendum must be again held, which will decide if Karabakh will join
Armenia, will be independent or will remain within Azerbaijan’s staff.
According to Kocharian, though nothing is said about terms, return of
refugees suppose some period of time, during which the Armenian party
loses its most serious advantage – controlled territories. As Denis
Samut, representative of LINKS British NGO, mentioned in his speech,
these territories are guarantees of security for Karabakh and can be
used as an argument during the negotiations.

Shavarsh Kocharian emphasized that the return of the territories
immediately violates the military-political balance formed and in
consideration of Azerbaijan’s bellicose appeals and increase in the
military budget, it creates a serious danger for Karabakh.

Hamlet Gasparian: On NKR and 60th UN GA session agenda items

HAMLET GASPARIAN: ISSUE OF “AZERBAIJAN’S OCCUPIED TERRITORIES” CAN
SPONTANEOUSLY PASS TO UN GA 60th SESSION BUT AZERBAIJAN CAN’T INSIST
ON THIS CLAUSE

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the UN protocol,
among other issues not discussed at the UN General Assembly’s 59th
session, the issue “The situation in Azerbaijan’s occupied
territories” will also spontaneously pass to the 60th session but
Azerbaijan can take no step insisting on this clause as this will
contradict the agreement on this issue formerly achieved between the
parties. Hamlet Gasparian, RA Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson,
declared this commenting upon the transfer of the above-mentioned
issue to the agenda of UN General Assembly’s 60th session at the
request of mass media.

“Armenia’s approach to this issue hasn’t changed: if Azerbaijan raises
any question in the UN, Armenia will come out of the negotiations on
Nagorno Karabakh settlement and Baku will have to continue the
negotiations directly with Stepanakert,” Hamlet Gasparian emphasized.

Conference on 1600th Anniversary of Alphabet and Dual Orthographies

“THIS CONFERENCE WOULD BE DEDICATED TO PROBLEMS OF TEACHING ARMENIAN
LANGUAGE,” ART CRITIC HENRIK HOVHANNISIAN STATES

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Participants of the conference
dedicated to the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the Armenian
letters started on September 13 at the RA National Academy of Science,
among a numer of problems of the Armenian language and Armenian
studies, expressed opinions concerning unification of two
orthographies as well.

Azat Yeghiazarian, the Director of the RA NAS Literature Institute,
finds that the issue of the two orthographies shouldn’t be made
political. According to him, this issue was present still early in the
19th century, and the insistings that the Eastern Armenian is a
language obliged by Bolsheviks, are baseless. A.Yeghiazarian mentioned
that at present, 90% of the Eastern Armenians speaks and writes by the
new orthography, and a huge literature has been created by that
orthography during decades. “If even it’s a bad orthography, we used
to it, and one may not make a revolution at once,” the Director of the
Literature Institute stated.

Richard Hovhannisian, a professor, historian of the California
University of Los Angeles expressed almost the same opinion concerning
the issue. According to him, it isn’t bad to return the classic
orthography, but we shouldn’t hurry. “All those should be done
gradually, as a strict passing to the classic orthography may obstacle
development of science and culture,” R.Hovhannisian mentioned.

According to the estimation of Henrik Hovhannisian, a Art Studies’
Doctor, “the Armenian language is in extremely poor state: everywhere,
every day and every moment language mistakes are made.” According to
him, in these conditions, one should think only of teaching literate
Armenian. “Before anniversaries, sittings and conferences one should
think what bases has teaching of the Armenian language in our
education system and in what state it is,” H.Hovhannisian mentioned,
adding that this conference would by dedicated not to the 16th
anniversary of the invention of the Armenian letters but to problems
of teaching the Armenian language.

Arnold Shvetsov to Stage “Madam Snow-Storm” Tale By Grimm Brothers

ARNOLD SHVETSOV TO STAGE “MADAM SNOW-STORM” TALE BY GRIMM BROTHERS AT
THEATER OF YOUNG SPECTATOR

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Each festival is a great
theatrical holiday and it is something like a birth of a child,”
Arnold Shvetsov, American actor and producer, mentioned. He arrived in
Armenia to participate in the “Armmono” third international
Shakespeare festival of monoperformances held in Yerevan. “The most
important about this festival is that a great number of youths come to
watch the performances and it means that theatrical work and theater
take an important place in this country,” the American art worker is
convinced.

The actor mentioned that in the US actors or producers make their name
on their own and they look like “lonely wolves.” And Russian theaters
are mainly repertoire, i.e. actors and producers grow and make their
name together there: according to Shvetsov, this have its positive and
negative sides.

Hakob Ghazanchian, Director of “Armmono” festival, informed that
immediately after the end of the festival Arnold Shvetsov will stage
the “Madam Snow-storm” tale by Grimm brothers at the Theater of Young
Spectator. The same performance was staged by Shvetsov 3 years ago at
Moscow Nikolay Gogol Theater.

Arnold Shvetsov, a Russian by origin, graduated from Moscow State Art
and Theater Institute, studied at the class of Maria Knebel, a famous
producer, Stanislavski’s pupil. At present Shvetsov lives and works at
the theater-laboratory of New York 78th street. In 2005 he staged
Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” there.

Tonight Arnold Shvetsov will present the Yerevan spectator the “Clown
for Fortinbras Suite” monoperformance staged by him.

Turkey in denial

Fresno Bee
Sept 15 2005
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian <[email protected]>
X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 — ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

Turkey in denial
Bid to join European Union entangled in genocide dispute.

(Updated Thursday, September 15, 2005, 5:55 AM)

For nearly a century debate has roiled over what the Turkish
government and most Turks call a human tragedy brought on by the
chaos of World War I and what most of the world – including The Bee –
call the Armenian genocide.

Now the issue has become enmeshed in Turkey’s faltering effort to
join the European Union. How the conflict turns out is important –
for Turkish-Armenian relations and for the future of Turkey, a
country that straddles Europe and the Middle East.

Turkish officialdom has always denied that forces of the collapsing
Ottoman Empire sought to exterminate Turkish Armenians starting in
1915, when ethnic Armenians say the Turks killed as many as 1.5
million Armenians over eight years. Turkish officials agree that
hundreds of thousands of Armenians died, but say that disease, famine
and exposure, as well as fighting caused by Armenian guerrilla raids
against retreating Turkish troops, were the primary causes.

There matters stood until last spring, when Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan invited foreign scholars to study Ottoman
archives to determine what really happened.

That encouraging gesture has had little hopeful result. Scholars have
run afoul of Turkish officials and military leaders, who forced
cancellation of a conference. An ethnic Armenian publisher has been
accused of defaming Turkey by calling himself “an Armenian of
Turkey,” and a prominent Turkish novelist faces a similar charge for
saying in an interview that Turks killed 1million Armenians and, more
recently, 30,000 Turkish Kurds in a guerrilla war, and that “no one
but me dares to talk about it.”

The timing of these charges – just weeks before negotiations are to
begin on Turkey’s application to join the EU – has raised suspicion,
and charges that some nationalist elements, already angered by
growing European opposition to Turkish EU membership, are trying to
sabotage the process. The criminal charges fly in the face of
extensive changes in Turkish law, including abolition of the death
penalty and ending a ban on speaking Kurdish, to satisfy EU
requirements for membership. France opposes Turkey joining, and if
the Christian Democrats win Germany’s election, another prominent
negative voice would be added.

What’s at stake goes well beyond the Armenian issue, coming as
millions of Europeans – even in such liberal bastions as the
Netherlands – are rethinking their traditional welcome to immigrants.
And Muslims rank highest in this reassessment.

Turkey, with an overwhelmingly Muslim population but a staunchly
secular political system, is seen by many as a bridge between the
Christian West and the Muslim East. But as Europe’s welcome mat is
pulled away, many Turks resent what they regard as rising religious
and cultural bigotry among Europeans.

Although it’s hard to envision Turkey’s secular leaders rejecting the
West and embracing Islamic tradition, the roadblocks in the path of
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation raise again the question of whether
Turkey and Europe can ever share a common home.

There’s a simple solution, though it would by no means be easy:
Turkey should simply recognize and acknowledge the past. That would
both smooth Turkey’s path toward EU membership, and begin to right a
historic wrong.

Armenian president, US envoy discuss constitutional reforms, NK

Armenian president, US envoy discuss constitutional reforms, Karabakh

Arminfo
15 Sep 05

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today received the US ambassador
to Armenia, John Evans.

The ambassador thanked the Armenian government and people for
humanitarian aid to the USA to overcome the consequences of Hurricane
Katrina.

The two parties touched on the process of constitutional reforms in
Armenia. Speaking on the issue, Evans said that it opens new
opportunities for Armenia’s development. They also discussed the
Karabakh settlement process.

Three-Year Program on Coop Between Yerevan and Saint Petersburg TBD

THREE-YEAR PROGRAM ON COOPERATION BETWEEN YEREVAN AND SAINT PETERSBURG
TO BE DEVELOPED

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. A joint working group of Yerevan
and Saint Petersburg Mayor’s Offices will be set up with the aim of
developing a program on cooperation between the two cities in the next
three years. An agreement on this was reached between Saint Petersburg
Governor Valentina Matviyenko and Yerevan Mayor Ervand Zakharian at
the September 14 meeting in Yerevan.

According to V. Matviyenko, not only a historical basis but also an
economic potential and mutual interest exist for extending the
cooperation between Russia and Armenia, as well as Yerevan and Saint
Petersburg. She said that first of all, the volumes of commodity
turnover between Armenia and Saint Petersburg should
increase. Although this index grew by 15% in 2004 over the previous
year and made around 9 mln USD, it is still quite low. V. Matviyenko
also stated that they have achieved an agreement with E. Zakharian to
build a Saint Petersburg House in Yerevan and a Yerevan House in Saint
Petersburg.

During the one-day visit, the businessmen included in the Russian
delegation will meet with Armenian businessmen to discuss
opportunities for making investments and founding joint ventures.

“Armenia Expo – 2005” International Exhibition Opens in Yerevan

“ARMENIA EXPO – 2005” INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OPENS IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. About 180 companies from 15
countries including Russia, the Ukraine, Moldova, Iran, Romania,
Czechia, Germany, China and Canada, participate in the “Armenia expo
2005” international commercial-industrial exhibition opened in
Yerevan, on September 14. As Karen Chshmaritian, the Minister of RA
Trade and Economy Development mentioned at the opening of the
exhibition, among the exhibitions held after Armenia’s becoming
independent, “Armenia Expo – 2005” is the largest by the number of
both participants and represented countries. Besides, unlike the
previous exhibition, production and service of the spheres of
construction, information technologies, service are also presented
this time.

According to Arsen Ghazarian, the Chairman of the Union of
Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia, “Armenia expo’s” holding for
the fifth time is the evidence of the fact that Armenia became a
center of coordination of regional economic ties.

“Industrial Armenia,” “Build expo,” “Trans expo,” “Comp expo,”
“Polygraph, Publishing, Advertising” and “Food and Drinks” pavilions
act at the exhibition. Within the framework of the “Armenia expo 2005”
exhibition, an Armenian-Russian business-meeting “Cooperation 2005”
will be held as well as days of “business” of the USA and China will
be organized.

The exhibition will be open till September 17.

Armentel Will Improve Mobile Phone Services in Coming Hours

ARMENTEL WILL IMPROVE ITS MOBILE PHONE COMMUNICATION SERVICES IN
COMING HOURS, RA MINISTER OF COMMUNICATION ASSURES

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The quality of the mobile phone
communication services provided by ArmenTel will improve early in the
morning of September 15. RA Minister of Transport and Communication
Andranik Manukian stated at the RA National Assembly on September 14
that, according to the company’s management, it will be achieved
thanks to the use of the new equipment brought to Armenia.

Andranik Manukian said that the Viva Cell company – the second
operator of mobile communication in Armenia – has already sold nearly
217 thousand cards, 7.5 thousand of which are user cards, while the
remaining are prepayment cards. He also noted that Viva Cell is
providing high-quality services, while ArmenTel has lost some of its
users due to low quality of its services.

According to the minister, ArmenTel was repeatedly warned by the
Ministry in connection with its low-quality services, which is
envisaged by the amended version of License No 60. He said that for
this reason the company paid a fine equivalent to 350 thousand US
dollars, and in case it does not rectify the situation, the respective
punishment will again be imposed on the company.