Russia-Armenia cooperation has a lot of reserves – Putin.

Itar-Tass, Russia
March 25 2005

YEREVAN, March 25 (Itar-Tass) – There are a lot of reserves for
Russian-Armenian cooperation, President Vladimir Putin said.

“At present, Russia and Armenia are equally interested in the deepening
of broad contacts and see their future in close integration with each
other,” he said at ceremony of opening a Year of Russia in Armenia
on Friday.

Putin said Russia is a main investor and trade partner for Armenia.

Russian investments play an important role in development of key
sectors of the Armenian economy, Putin said.

“On the whole, Armenia is a beneficial and promising partner for
Russian business in joint energy, infrastructure, transport and
other projects.”

“We should make it so that they are used to full capacity. We are to
look for effective models of cooperation, open new possibilities for
the free movement of capital, goods and services, including by using
the potential of the CIS and other associations,” Putin said.

Jordan Times, Jordan
March 25 2005

National football team leave for friendly in Cyprus
Jordan’s FIFA ranking drops to 42

By a staff reporter

AMMAN – The national football team left for Cyprus on Thursday ahead of
Saturday’s friendly match against the Cypriot national team in Larnaca.

The lineup for the Cyprus match will miss Faisali’s players, due to
their participation in the Arab and Asian championships, as well as
professional players Hassouneh Sheikh and Bashar Bani Yasin, both
playing in Bahrain.

Jordan will play Iraq on June 9 and Qatar on Nov. 16, while the Jordan
Football Association (JFA) also confirmed two matches against the
Armenian national team in Amman, on Aug. 17, and in Yerevan, Armenia,
on Oct. 6.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s FIFA world ranking dropped one place to 42nd
from the highest ever of 37th in August 2004, compared to 96th in
August 2002.

In the latest rankings, headed by Brazil, France and Argentina,
Jordan is still 5th among Arab countries in the rankings (behind Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia) and 5th in Asia (behind Japan,
Iran, South Korea and Saudi Arabia).

Jordan’s ranking shot up around 100 spots in two years after reaching
the 2004 Asian Cup finals for the first time in the event’s 49-year
history and maintaining a good showing in the first leg of the 2006
World Cup qualifiers.

The national team was revamped at the beginning of the year following
an assessment of Jordanian football in the past two years after
Jordan’s elimination from the first round of the World Cup qualifiers
as well as the finals of the Asian Cup in 2004.

The match in Cyprus will be the second one after head coach Mahmoud Al
Johary revamped the lineup, dropping well-known faces and replacing
them by younger players, mostly under 25 years of age with the hope
that they would have the consistency and competitive form when Jordan
next plays in the Asian Cup qualifiers early next year.

The revamped team held Norway to a goalless draw in a friendly match
in Amman, proceeds of which were donated by the JFA to support victims
of the Dec. 26 devastating tsunami that ravaged Southeast Asia killing
over 280,000.

Hoping for long-term results, Johary made clear that many well-known
names were dropped as they were no longer performing as expected,
including veterans who no longer displayed the fighting spirit,
and being replaced by not so well-known faces that made their mark
in the Premier League Championship.

Those dropped were team captain Abdullah Abu Zame’h, Mouayyad Salim,
Haitham Shboul, Rateb Awadat and Amer Deeb.

Johary told the press that the new lineup intended to have a median
age of 26 by 2007, adding that the list was by no means final.

“We will continue to assess and reassess and only the best will stay,”
Johary said, adding that the final lineup will be announced in December
prior to the Asian qualifiers in February 2006.

RUSSIAN, ARMENIAN FIRST LADIES OPEN RUSSIAN BOOK CENTER IN YEREVAN

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 25 2005

YEREVAN, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – The spouses of the Russian and
Armenian Presidents, Lyudmila Putin and Bella Kocharyan opened the
Russian Book Center in downtown Yerevan. It is located in a beautiful
mansion built in 1901.

For over 50 years this building has been the headquarters of the
Armenian Society for Cultural Links and Cooperation with Foreign
Countries (AOKS).

The Center contains a library, a video library and a reading hall.
The new establishment is expected to promote traditional friendly
Russian-Armenian relations in the humanitarian and spiritual spheres.

The Center will host presentations of new Russian editions, meetings
of writers, scholars and Russian language and literature experts,
anniversary celebrations of prominent Russian and Armenian culture
figures. It will also sell Russian books and periodicals.

According to the AOKS chairman, Armenian ambassador to Russia Armen
Sambatyan, the Center’s library has 3,000 Russian books, encyclopedias,
reference editions, dictionaries, fiction and children’s books. They
were purchased and sent to Yerevan by Oganes Oganyan, the chairman of
the Federation Council committee for economic policy, entrepreneurship
and property.

Analysis: Bakiyev takes power in Kyrgyzstan
By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst

Washington Times
March 25 2005

Washington, DC, Mar. 25 (UPI) — Moving with lightning speed, former
Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev proclaimed himself interim president
and prime minister of Kyrgyzstan Friday.

His move came only a day after protestors in the capital Bishkek
stormed the presidential compound and previous President Askar
Akayev fled the country. Akayev, who had ruled the country for 15
years — even before the disintegration of the Soviet Union — still
claimed to be president and tried to sound a defiant note Friday. “An
unconstitutional coup d’etat has been staged in Kyrgyzstan,” he said
in a statement. “My current stay outside the country is temporary.
Rumors of my resignation are deliberate, malicious lies.”

But Akayev’s claims appeared to be bravado. He appeared to have no
popular base left in the impoverished little landlocked former Soviet
republic of 5 million people in the heart of Central Asia and even
his own security forces melted away like snow on a summer’s day in
the Gobi Desert when they were supposed to defend his interests.
Akayev tried to explain that away in his statement by claiming,
“I firmly stated that I would not use force against my people,”
although I the past he had never hesitated to do so.

Akayev did not identify where he was. Russian and Kyrgyz opposition
leader said Friday that they were not sure yet of his location. An
Itar-Tass report Thursday said he had initially fled to neighboring
Kazakhstan.

Bakiyev is a former prime minister who served under Akayev and resigned
in 2002. He is credited with having a vastly superior grasp of economic
policy than Akayev, an important qualification as the popular protests
across southern Kyrgyzstan that led to the president’s ouster were
fanned by growing poverty and resentment.

And as leader of the People’s Movement of Kyrgyzstan, the 55-year-old
Bakiyev controls the largest and best organized opposition bloc,
though it is far from commanding the direct support of all opposition
factions, let alone the entire country. He already has a viable,
organized political movement at his command, and he was at the
forefront of the dramatic protests that toppled Akayev Thursday.

Bakiyev was quick to create at least the initial structure of a
functioning national government Thursday and Friday. He has already
appointed his own foreign minister, defense minister and finance
minister as well as governors for the Cho region in the north and
Jalal-Abad and Osh regions in the south.

Bakiyev told the Kyrgyz Parliament Friday he would present his new
interim government to the Kyrgyz Parliament for approval and it would
only rule for three months.

Interfax news agency reported him as saying, “Let me create an
executive body of power that will not last forever, but for about
three months.”

Born in 1949, Bakiyev served as a conscript in the Soviet Red Army
and was a professional engineer before rising in the state system of
independent Kyrgyzstan under Akayev. He was governor of the Cho region
from 1997 to 2000 and then served as Akayev’s prime minister for two
years. Ironically, he was forced to take responsibility and resign
after opposition protests were crushed by security forces with deadly
force in 2002 in southern cities, the very same locations where the
protests that toppled Akayev erupted this month.

Bakiyev then emerged as the most important opposition leader
challenging Akayev. He and his supporters claim that their Popular
Movement won the Feb. 27 and March 13 run-off parliamentary elections
but Akayev fixed the results. This scenario echoed the widespread anger
across Ukraine that drove the November-January Orange Revolution that
brought pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko to power.

However, although Kyrgyzstan is vastly smaller than Ukraine with
only around one-tenth the population, its “Tulip Revolution” already
presents Bakiyev with challenges that Yushchenko never had to face.

Unlike the entirely peaceful Georgian “Revolution of Roses” and the
events in Ukraine, the Kyrgyz protests have already turned violent,
with the flight of Akayev triggering what Felix Kulov, whom Bakiyev has
already appointed head of all Kyrgyzstan’s law enforcement agencies,
called an “orgy” of looting in downtown Bishkek At least three people
were killed in the disturbances Thursday night around 100 were injured
according to early opposition estimates..

“We have arrested many people, we are trying to do something,” Kulov
said. But, he added, “We physically lack people.”

Not having an effective security infrastructure threatens to become
the biggest problem Bakiyev, Kulov and their colleagues face in
establishing a functioning government and getting the country on a
stable footing again.

Russia has taken a cautious role in viewing the Kyrgyz events.
President Vladimir Putin did not want to risk backing an ineffectual
loser as happened when he openly supported then-Ukrainian Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych in his ultimately futile campaign against
Yushchenko. Still, the Russian leader was hardly supportive of the
new leaders in Bishkek Friday.

“It is unfortunate that yet again in the post-Soviet area political
problems are resolved illegally and are accompanied by pogroms and
human victims,” he said during a visit to Armenia.

Putin also welcomed early statements by the new Kyrgyz leaders seeking
to rebuild their ties with Russia. However, they appear more likely
to seek Georgian and Ukrainian advice first.

What is clear is that given Kyrgyzstan’s well-documented problems of
poverty, Islamic extremism and drug-smuggling as well as its lack of
any experience of constitutional democracy whatsoever, its hopeful
new leaders will need all the help they can get.

Armenian, Russian presidents hail ties

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
25 Mar 05

[Presenter] Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Armenia on a working
visit at President Kocharyan’s invitation. Vladimir Putin and Robert
Kocharyan held a one-to-one meeting at the residence after which the
two presidents held a news conference.

The Russian president today also visited the Holy See of Echmiadzin
and met Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II. The Kremlin leader’s
visit will mark the start of the Russian year in Armenia.

[Robert Kocharyan, captioned, in Russian with Armenian voice-over]
I am very glad to welcome the Russian president and delegation. I
would like to note that our meetings are being held in a friendly and
constructive atmosphere. Very serious potential has been established
for cooperation in the political, economic and cultural fields, and
for military cooperation. Now we are trying to develop cooperation
in the humanitarian sphere.

The beginning of the Russian year in Armenia is a very serious event
for which we are prepared. We hope that Armenian citizens in one year
can get more information about today’s Russia. We also discussed
economic issues. We talked about boosting Russian investment. The
Armenian side welcomes that and we shall create all the necessary
conditions to work productively.

We also exchanged opinions on international and regional issues.

[Vladimir Putin, captioned, in Russian with Armenian voice-over] We
had really very useful and productive talks regarding all the spheres
in bilateral relations, as well as international and regional issues.
We are proud that Armenian-Russian relations are developing in all
spheres. Cooperation is developing in the economic, political and
humanitarian fields. The best indicator of this is the beginning of
the Russian year in Armenia.

The main part of our meeting concerned cooperation between Armenia
and Azerbaijan within the framework of the CIS and other structures in
order to resolve with joint efforts common problems such as terrorism,
transnational crime, and arms and drug trafficking.

PUTIN SPEAKS UP FOR MORE RUSSIAN INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 25 2005

YEREVAN, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – Vladimir Putin has spoken up for
the growth of Russian investments in Armenia and welcomed Armenia’s
investments in Russia.

“We are observing a definite growth of Russian investments. So far,
it is not large but the perspective here is very significant”, the
Russian president told the press conference after talks with his
Armenian analog.

“We will also welcome Armenian investments in the Russian economy,
especially the sectors in which Armenia is interested. There are such
sectors – we have spoken about them today”, Putin said.

In turn, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan noted that the potential
of Armenian-Russian economic partnership by large exceeds the current
volume of cooperation.

He said that Armenian-Russian contacts are particularly developing
in capital construction, the banking and energy sectors.

“But it is only a small portion of what can be achieved. It is
a new quality of Armenian-Russian cooperation, which will be of
regional rather then bilateral significance”, Kocharyan told the
press conference after the talks with the president of the Russian
Federation.

“The transport component is a weighty part of the bilateral contacts.
It has always held back the development of Armenian-Russian cooperation
in the economic sphere”, Kocharyan noted.

In his opinion, this problem can largely be resolved with putting
into operation the Kavkaz-Poti ferry line.

“The ferry service has begun. I see it as the start for resolving
the serious problem of transport”, the Armenian president said.

The Russian and Armenian presidents also expressed regret that young
people in the two countries are not very much in association.

When asked by journalists whether there is a problem of the lack
of knowledge of each other’s life among young people in Russia and
Armenia, Kocharyan replied: “Yes, it is regretful but such is the
reality”.

In turn, Vladimir Putin said: “Such a problem exists but it is due
to the limitation of contacts in recent years”.

“It is not so much a political as economic factor”, Putin believes.

The two leaders continually discuss such questions in a bid to resolve
the problem, he said.

“All the integration associations are also concerned with it. The
more insistently we do it, the more effectively such problems are
resolved”, the Russian president said.

PRESIDENT PUTIN TO ASSIST IN SOLUTION OF KARABAKH ISSUE

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 25 2005

YEREVAN, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin
hopes that Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents will hold a regular
bilateral meeting.

In the course of the press-conference in Yerevan the Russian President
said that he and the Armenian President discussed the settlement of
the Nagorny Karabakh issue, situation in the Transcaucasia and the
issues concerning the development of the transportation infrastructure.

Speaking about the perspectives for the settlement of the conflict in
Nagorny Karabakh (Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, which proclaimed
its independence from Baku) Putin assured that “Russia will render
all the necessary assistance to settle the conflict.”

The Russian President noted that at the talks they both seriously
considered the regional problems.

“Our countries are interested in the stabilization of the situation
in the Transcaucasia, formation of the trustworthy atmosphere and the
formation of relations, which will contribute to the development of
the social and economic spheres,” Putin said.

Moreover, the Presidents closely considered the issue concerning the
development of the transportation infrastructure. Putin reminded that
the first ferry from the Russian port Kavkaz (situated on the left bank
of the Kerch strait, which divides Ukrainian Crimea and the Russian
Taman peninsula) came to Poti port with cargo for Georgia. “I hope that
in the future this ferry route will be used for deliveries of cargo for
Armenia and other countries in the region,” the Russian President said.

“These steps will open broad opportunities for business, serve for the
creation of new jobs, intensify the economic life of the region and
provide for the enhancement of the integration processes,” President
Putin said.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
March 25 2005

STATEMENT OF THE CENTER OF PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE MINISTRY OF
NATIONAL SECURITY
[March 25, 2005, 20:50:37]

On March 28, employees of the Ministry of National Security will mark
their professional holiday, 86th anniversary of establishment of
security bodies. Before this date, with a view of increase of the
efficiency of public relations and more full informing of the society
on bodies of national security, there has been created official
website of the Ministry of National Security – .

The Internet-site of the Ministry is provided with catalogues on the
corresponding areas, useful information resources and links. On the
site with use of arguments is widely covered the history of
establishment of the security bodies of Azerbaijan and the
autobiographical data concerning various directions of their
activity, and also the persons supervised the security bodies, the
legislative base making ground for activity of bodies of special
service, the steps undertaken in the field of combat against
international terrorism and various displays of the organized crime,
the international cooperation in this sphere, the selflessness shown
by employees of the Ministry of National Security in fights for
independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, its history,
legal aspects, consequences of the Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the political line pursued at the
present stage on the way of settlement of the conflict, essence of
the policy carried out by Armenia against our country and the
Armenian state terrorism. Users can familiarize with the information
interesting them in the following sections: public relations,
library, Academy of MNS, a museum, a picture album. Besides, for
maintenance of efficiency of public relations on official site of
MNS, are stipulated special addresses of contacts.

Since March 28, of this year users of the official website of the
Ministry of National Security can receive the objective and unbiased
information on activity of the Ministry from the primary source.

PRESS RELEASE
March 24, 2005
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected]; Web:

Farewell Reception for Ambassador Arman Kirakossian Held at the
Embassy of Armenia

Hundreds of well-wishers came to the Embassy of Armenia from as
far away as Massachusetts, Michigan, and Indiana to bid farewell
to Armenia’s Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Arman Kirakossian
at a special reception on March 18, 2005. Ambassador Kirakossian’s
more than 5-years-long tenure as Armenia’s top envoy in Washington,
DC has come to an end, and he will soon depart for Yerevan to continue
his diplomatic service at the Foreign Ministry.

Among the guests were Ambassador’s senior counterparts from U.S. State
Department and other U.S. government agencies, including Chief of
Protocol Ambassador Donald Ensenat and State Department’s Special
Coordinator for NIS Assistance, Co-Chair of U.S.-Armenia Task Force
Thomas Adams, Ambassador Kirakossian’s personal friends among the
Chiefs of Missions and other representatives of Washington-based
foreign diplomatic corps, prominent Armenian-Americans, including
Prelate Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Diocesan Legate Bishop Vicken
Aykazian, Connecticut State Representative John C. Geragosian,
Majority Caucus Chair of the Connecticut General Assembly,
representatives of the Armenian-American political, cultural, and
educational organizations, and members of the Armenian community of
Greater Washington.

PUTIN VISITS ECHMIADZIN

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 25 2005

ECHMIADZIN (ARMENIA), March 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President
Vladimir Putin arrived at Echmiadzin, the See of the Armenian Apostolic
Church located in Vagarshapat, Yerevan’s suburb.

Putin is to meet with Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II and
attend his residence and the Echmiadzin Cathedral.

The Echmiadzin monastery is the administrative and spiritual center of
the Armenian Apostolic Church. In the II-V centuries AD Echmiadzin was
the capital of Armenia named after its founding father, King Vagarshak.

The Echmiadzin Cathedral was built in Vagarshafas following Armenia’s
adoption of Christianity in 301. This is one of the first Christian
cathedrals in the world. Echmiadzin is the Catholicos’ See, residence
and treasury.

The name Echmiadzin derives from the legend, which says that Jesus
descended from Heaven to show the first Catholicos where the cathedral
should be built. There are many stones in the shape of a cross on
the Cathedral’s territory.

The Cathedral dates back to the V century AD. In the XVII century
it was seriously damaged when Armenians were forced to settle in
Persia and Shakh Abbas wanted to remove the Cathedral to Nor Djugha.
However, the most significant parts of the Cathedral were taken away.
Restoration works began in the XVIII century but were completed
in 1955-1967.

The Echmiadzin treasury founded in 1955 contains art relics brought
from various Armenian centers, Ani, Constantinople, Van, etc.