OSCE OFFICE PRESENTS PUBLICATION ON ARMENIAN ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION

Armenpress
Aug 31, 2005

YEREVAN, AUGUST 31, ARMENPRESS: The OSCE Office in Yerevan and the NGO
Environmental Public Advocacy Center (EPAC) presented a publication
on the existing Armenian environmental legislation.

“This publication will contribute to a greater awareness of
legislation amongst the population, which is key for its effective
implementation”, said Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, Head of the OSCE
Office in Yerevan. The book, entitled “Environmental Law of the
Republic of Armenia”, which is a compilation of existing Armenian
environmental legislation, fills the present information gap. It
is primarily intended to serve as a resource book for legislators,
judges, lawyers and government staff — the decision-makers in the
fields of environmental protection and human rights.

The book can also be used by all members of the general public with
an interest in environmental legislation.

Aida Iskoyan, President of EPAC and editor of the book, emphasized
that the publication will contribute to the implementation of the
main principles of the Aarhus Convention in Armenia, such as access
to information, public participation in decision-making and access
to justice in environmental matters. Around 30 representatives from
the National Assembly, Government, Prosecutor’s Office, Constitutional
Court, and civil society participated in the discussion, following the
book presentation and underlined the importance of such a publication
in their daily work.

Implementation of the Aarhus Convention is a priority of the OSCE
Office in Yerevan. One of the immediate steps after ratification by
Armenia in 2001 was to establish a Public Environmental Information
Center (known as the Aarhus Center) in 2002, supported by the OSCE
Office, the Ministry of Nature Protection, civil society and the
international community. The Office intends to open regional Aarhus
Centers in coming months.

NEW RAILWAY TO PROLONG ARMENIA’S BLOCKADE
By Tatoul Hakobian

AZG Armenian Daily #155, 01/09/2005

Region

Yerevan Concerned With Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi Railway Construction

Official Yerevan is concerned with another project that bypasses
Armenia – constriction of Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway. If only
a few weeks ago Armenian authorities considered the construction of
the railroad the inner affair of three neighboring states – Georgia,
Azerbaijan and Turkey – (PM Andranik Margarian said so during his
Javakhk visit) then today they have obviously shifted the accent.

Foreign affairs minister stated in his last press conference that
Georgia and Azerbaijan have no moral right to build that railway,
even if it is subsidized not by donor organizations but by the
state budgets themselves. “We have Kars-Gyumri railway which does
not function because of Turkey’s wrong policy. We think that every
investment in the construction of the railway that is bypassing the
already existing railway is pointless. We will struggle against it”,
Vartan Oskanian said emphasizing that Armenia will try to prove all
interested states that Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway is meaningless.

Construction of the railway is apparently highly probable otherwise
Armenian minister would not express concern. The new railway will in
fact throw old Kars-Gyumri railway into oblivion, which is hardly to
function as long as Turkey’s blockade of Armenia continues.

Official Tbilisi’s views on would-be Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway
differ from those of Armenia, which sees it as an unfriendly step from
Georgia contributing to longer isolation of Armenia. For instance,
Davit Bakradze, chairman of a committee on Euro-Atlantic integration,
expressed an opinion that the new railway will not isolate Armenia
but instead will bring economic benefits. “If Georgia helps Armenia
connect with Turkey and Europe via its territory then it’s a successful
venture for Armenia itself”, he said.

Georgian foreign minister, Salome Zurabishvili, told journalists
recently that Armenia disapproves of the project, and Tbilisi is
ready to discuss other routes but, on the other hand, Georgian
authorities will not tolerate other states, including Armenia, to
stymie the project, more so if it is done through the USA. In July,
co-chairs Frank Pallone, Joe Knollenberg and George Radanovich of US
Congressional Caucus on Armenian issues submitted a bill to the House
of Representatives banning the US assistance to Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi
railway. The congressmen underscored that depriving Armenia of economic
and commercial rights will harm US long-term regional interests.

But no lobbyism is powerful enough to keep US away from realizing
important projects if it is in best interests of the only super power
of the world. The US government keeps silent so far as to Washington’s
political and financial support to the railway construction. It’s
worth reminding of the Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act denying
US aid to Azerbaijan as long as it maintains blockade on Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh. But the Section 907 was called off once US needed
Baku’s assistance in anti-terror fight.

Armenia and Russia were slow to believe in mid-1990s that the project
of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum gas
pipeline will come into existence some day. But the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipeline is already piping oil to Turkey today and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum
gas pipeline will be functioning in a couple of years. Those projects
were directed against Russia’s oil interests.

America’s decision to support or not in Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi
railway construction will help us understand US policy in regard to
Armenia. This project cannot be pointed against Russia, as it does
not limit its influence in Caucasus in essence. Therefore, the United
State’s assistance to Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway construction will
mean, as in case of the Caspian oil pipeline, that Armenia’s isolation
does not bother the Americans by the highest standards. Moreover,
cut off Armenia will have no other choice but remain stuck to Russia,
something that the US seemed not to approve.

Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway connecting Turkey with Azerbaijan
will stretch 98 kms (Akhalkalak is already linked with Tbilisi with
rails and Tbilisi is linked with Azerbaijan, so they need only build
Kars-Akhalkalak section and repair separate parts of Akhalkalak-Tbilisi
section). 68 kms of rails will lie in Turkey, 30 in Georgia. The
price of the project fluctuates between $500 to $800 million.

ANDRANIK MIHRANIAN: MEETING IN KAZAN WAS DOOMED TO FAILURE

AZG Armenian Daily #155, 01/09/2005

Opinion

According to the Azeri Trend agency, Andranik Mihranian, political
expert from Moscow, said that the meeting of Kocharian and Aliyev was
doomed to failure, as that would be very difficult to agree something
on the eve of the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. Aliyev
and Kocharian also realize that. Mihranian believes that the sides
‘can’t do anything” to achieve the settlement.

“The settlement may be imposed either by the international community
or the status quo will be preserved, in the given case. This situation
will continue until one of the sides feels confident and strong enough
to settle the conflict by means of a war,” the political expert
stated. Reminding of the militant statements made by Ilham Aliyev,
Mihranian didn’t exclude that Azerbaijan will try to gain revenge.

Unless the super powers didn’t force the sides in conflict “the
decision of mutual concessions,” “that would be very difficult for
the authorities or Armenia and Azerbaijan to explain to their voters
why they make such unhelpful concessions.” As for Russia’s part,
Mihranian said that Russia has very limited financial, economical
and military-political opportunities. “Today the Russian potential
doesn’t allow doing more than they already do. They stopped consider
Russia a key country for the settlement of the conflict,” he said.

ISSUE OF REFERENDUM SHOULD NOT BE OBSERVED SEPARATELY FROM OTHER ELEMENTS OF CONFLICT

AZG Armenian Daily #155, 01/09/2005

Karabakh issue

Liberty Radio stated that Elmar Mamediarov, Azeri foreign minister
refused to answer the question put by journalists concerning
the probability of holding a referendum for defining the status
of Nagorno Karabakh. He stated that the issue of the referendum
shouldn’t be discussed separately from the other elements of the
conflict settlement. “About 7-9 elements are being discussed within the
framework of the Prague Process. There is some progress looming over
some of the elements. The issues of returning the occupied territories
and the refugees, as well as restoration of the communication between
Azerbaijan and Nakhijevan is on the agenda of the negotiations,”
Elmar Mamediarov said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

STATE BUDGET 2004 UNDER CONSIDERATION
Srbuhi Vanian.

Azat Artsakh Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
31 Aug 05

On August 29 the joint meeting of standing committees of the National
Assembly took place. The meeting was conducted by Vice Speaker Rudik
Hyusnunts.

Representatives of the government were invited to the meeting of
the standing committees. The report on the state budget of 2004
was presented at the meeting, which should have been discussed by
the previous parliament. The last meeting of the National Assembly
failed because there was no quorum. The NKR minister of economy and
finance presented in brief the performance of the state budget. He
mentioned that the budget receipts in 2004 were in surplus, totaling
4590191.2 thousand drams; the surplus was 990191.2 thousand drams. The
applications for financing expenditure were covered 100 per cent. GDP
totaled 42800000 thousand drams, increasing since the previous year
by 18.2 per cent. The social insurance tax collections were 95.2 per
cent. The return on tax was low for the part of land lease and rents
(63.1 per cent), and the total return on tax was 89.5 per cent. The
minister of finance informed that the plan of financing state budget
deficit was not implemented by 25 per cent and resulted in the failure
of the plan of deficit. By January 1st of the current year arrears
totaled 396188.3 thousand drams, increasing by 18.6 per cent since
the previous year. 98.9 per cent of the reserve funds were spent. The
chairman of the standing committee of finance, budget and economic
management Arayik Harutyunian gave a good evaluation of the budget
performance and mentioned that in future, apart from the report,
it will be necessary to present to the parliament a reference or
statement on the results of the social and economic programme. He
made observations on the scarcity of financial means directed at the
development of the economy, and mentioned that there is need for
greater investments in this sphere. A. Harutyunian also mentioned
that the government did not implement the agricultural programmes
adequately. “The state policy for irrigation systems needs to be
changed. It is necessary to supply money for implementation of definite
programmes instead of projections,” said the member of parliament in
answer to the minister of town planning B. Alakhverdian’ s comment on
the implementation of the programmes of improvement of the irrigation
systems. S. Tevossian said that the government is ready to provide
the parliament with additional information if necessary and discuss
their proposals and observations on different levels.

FOUR EX-SOVIET REPUBLICS HOLD JOINT ANTI-TERROR AIR DEFENSE EXERCISES IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA

The Associated Press
08/30/05 07:14 EDT

1/4tMOSCOW (AP) – Four ex-Soviet republics held joint anti-terror
air defense exercises in southern Russia on Tuesday, news agencies
reported. 1/4tMore than 40 aircraft and 2,000 personnel from Russia,
Armenia, Belarus and Tajikistan were expected to take part in the
maneuvers near the southern Russian city of Astrakhan, the ITAR-Tass
news agency reported, citing Gen. Vladimir Mikhailov, commander of the
Russian Air Force. 1/4tThey will practice counter-terrorist attacks
and maneuvers, ITAR-Tass said. 1/4tRussian Defense Minister Sergei
Ivanov, attending the exercises, said that Russia had recently agreed
to deliver S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Belarus, news reports
said. The S-300 series can be used against airplanes, cruise missiles
and ballistic missiles, at a maximum range of about 90 kilometers
(55 miles). 1/4tIvanov also said Russia continued to be in favor of
creating a pan-European missile defense system, report said. 1/4tRussia
first raised the idea of a European missile defense system in 2000
amid the dispute over the United States’ intention to abandon the
Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. However, the proposal attracted little
interest. 1/4tThe proposal did not foresee establishing a unified
system per se, but as a mechanism for coordinating the missile defense
commands of various countries.

FIVE AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS LAUNCH HUNGER STRIKE

The Associated Press
08/31/05 16:11 EDT

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Five Azerbaijani opposition activists launched
a hunger strike Wednesday to demand the release of their jailed leader.

“We will conduct this action until the authorities fulfill our
demands,” Said Nuriyev, deputy head of the Yeni Fikir youth party,
told journalists.

Party leader Ruslan Bashirli was detained in early August, after a
fellow party member accused him of taking part in a secret July meeting
with agents from Azerbaijan’s rival, Armenia, aimed at organizing an
uprising by pro-democracy forces in Azerbaijan.

Tensions are high in Azerbaijan ahead of Nov. 6 parliamentary
elections. Opposition parties have rallied almost weekly amid fears
that the government of President Ilham Aliev could try to rig the
voting.

Visiting U.S. Senator Richard Lugar expressed hope for fair elections,
saying: “I sense in Azerbaijan a yearning for building strong
democratic institutions.”

“I believe that the elections can be free and fair, and I was impressed
by the preparations made by the elections commission,” Lugar told
a news conference during a visit. Lugar, an Indiana Republican who
is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was touring
several former Soviet republics with Democratic colleague Barack Obama,
of Illinois.

Azerbaijan’s October 2003 presidential election, in which Aliev
succeeded his ailing father who died after the vote, was widely
alleged to have been fraudulent and the outcome triggered violent
clashes between police and demonstrators.

COMMENTS OF THE SPEAKER OF ARMENIA’S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

08/31/05 16:08 EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) – The speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly said
Wednesday he supports neighboring Turkey’s application to join the
European Union and suggested the eventual accession to the EU of
other countries in the south Caucasus region.

“What’s wrong with having a neighboring country a member of the
EU?” Artur Baghdasaryan replied when asked about Turkey’s possible
entry into the 25-nation organization. Baghdasaryan, leader of
the center-right Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) party in Armenia’s
governing coalition, said that if Turkey can comply with EU standards
and join the EU, then other countries of the region should seek
accession.

“I see the future of our region in an expanded EU,” he said at
a meeting of the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
a policy research group.

Baghdasaryan was in Washington for talks with State Department
officials, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the
Millennium Challenge Account, a Bush administration aid program for
which Armenia was among the first group of qualifying countries.

He also said Turkey and Armenia, which do not have diplomatic
relations, should “not set barriers to cooperation but sit down and
talk, not avoiding past problems but moving forward with constant
dialogue.”

The Turks and Armenians have been at odds for decades over the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the time of World War I.
Armenians say the Ottoman Turks caused the deaths of 1.5 million
Armenians in a planned genocide and have demanded that Turkey recognize
the killings as genocide.

Turkey says the death toll is wildly inflated. Many Turks fear that
Armenia is pressing for recognition of the killings as genocide as
a step toward making territorial claims against Turkey.

“The slaughter cannot be forgotten,” Baghdasaryan said. “That would
not be correct.” He contended that the Holocaust occurred because
Adolf Hitler reasoned the international community had ignored the
genocide of the Armenians.

On another foreign policy issue, he welcomed weekend talks between the
presidents of Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan over the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. Baghdasaryan said a resolution to the
decade-old dispute would open the way to increased regional cooperation
with the objective of turning the south Caucasus into a unified market.
“There has to be compromise on both sides and a solution acceptable
to both sides,” he said.

Tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains high more than
a decade after a 1994 cease-fire ended a six-year war that left
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan,
in Armenian hands.

Some 30,000 people were killed and a million displaced, and the
lack of resolution of the enclave’s status has impeded the region’s
development.

SOCCER-ARMENIA NAME SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

Reuters
Aug 29, 2005

YEREVAN, Aug 29 (Reuters) – Armenia’s Dutch coach Henk Wisman named the
following 25-man squad for World Cup, European Group One qualifiers at
home to the Netherlands on September 3 and away to the Czech Republic
four days later:

Goalkeepers: Roman Berezovsky (Dynamo Moscow, Russia), Edela Bete
(Pyunik Yerevan), Gevorg Kasparov (Mika Ashtarak)

Defenders: Arutyun Vardanyan (FC Zurich, Switzerland), Karen Dokhoyan
(Krylya Sovietov Samara, Russia), Sarkis Hovsepyan, Alexander
Tadevosyan, Agvan Mkrtychyan, Rafael Nazaryan, Valery Aleksanyan and
Robert Arzumanyan (all Pyunik Yerevan), Egishe Melikyan (Metalurg
Donetsk, Ukraine)

Midfielders: Karen Aleksanyan and David Grigoryan (both Pyunik
Yerevan), Ararat Arakelyan and Samvel Melkonyan (both Banants Yerevan),
Romik Khachatryan (OFI Crete, Greece), Aram Voskanyan (Esil-Bogatyr
Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan), Hamlet Mkhitaryan (MTZ-RIPO Minsk, Belarus)

Forwards: Edgar Manucharyan (Ajax Amsterdam, Netherlands), Armen
Shakhgeldyan (Pyunik Yerevan), Nshan Erzrumyan (Kilikia Yerevan),
Aram Akopyan (Banants Yerevan), Ara Akopyan (Stal Alchevsk, Ukraine),
Galust Petrosyan (Zimbru Chisinau, Moldova).

CIS EXPERTS TO MONITOR ELECTIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN AND AZERBAIJAN

RIA Novosti
16:22 | 31/ 08/ 2005

MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) – Experts from the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS), the loose union of countries that succeeded
the Soviet Union, will monitor presidential elections in the Central
Asian republic of Kazakhstan and parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan,
in the Caucasus.

Elections in Azerbaijan will take place on November 6, Vladimir
Rushailo, CIS Executive Committee chairman and Russian Emergencies
Minister, said Wednesday. The Executive Committee will start forming
a mission shortly. “We intend to monitor election campaigns in all 125
of the constituencies in Azerbaijan,” he said. “We expect MPs, members
of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, members of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Russian-Belarusian Union, and officials from the
Central Election Commissions to take part in the monitoring,” he said.

Rushailo said the Armenian parliament was expected to set the date
for a referendum on amendments to the constitution and to invite CIS
experts to monitor it.

Presidential elections in Kazakhstan will take place in December.