NEW OPPOSITION BLOC TO BE FORMED IN ARMENIA

08.12.2004 14:29

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Within few days an announcement on the formation
of a new pro-west oriented opposition bloc will be made in Armenia,
Haykakan Zhamanak Armenian newspaper writes. It also reports that
with coming to power the union will strive for Armenia’s joining
the NATO and EU. Relations with Russia, in the opinion of the bloc
leaders, will be based on the “equality” principle. According to
the preliminary data, the declaration on the formation of the new
political alliance will be signed by Zharang party leader and first
Foreign Minister of independent Armenia Raffi Hovhanissian, Republic
party leader and former Prime Minister Aram Z. Sargsian (the brother
of Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsian killed in 1999) and leader of the
Liberal Progressive party Hovhannes Hovhanissian. It is not ruled out
that People’s Party and Justice bloc leader Stepan Demirchian will also
join the new union (it is still unclear, however). There are also some
questions connected with Aram Z. Sargsian and the members of his party,
who are considered to be Russia-oriented. Representatives of other
parties, the number of which is about 20, are possible to join the
bloc later. The prospects of ANM’s (Armenian National Movement, the
former ruling party) joining the bloc also remain vague. The newspaper
writes that with coming to power the new bloc representatives promise
“to solve the Karabakh problem with minimal losses”. The meaning of
such an indistinct wording is unknown.

TBILISI AND BAKU QUARREL OVER CARGOS

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Dec 8 2004

Georgian businessmen hit by a row over whether freight cars from
Azerbaijan are destined for Armenia

By Lela Iremashvili in Tbilisi and Rufat Abbasov in Baku

The Azerbaijani authorities have detained more than 900 freight
railcars travelling to Georgia in the past month, following suspicions
that they were actually en route to Baku’s long-standing enemy,
Armenia.

The row has not only cost Georgian businesses millions of US
dollars but has also damaged the traditionally good relations
between Baku and Tbilisi, which were recently cemented further by
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

Most of the freight containers, containing diesel oil, flour, liquefied
gas, grain and other items, had travelled by sea from Central Asia to
Baku, where they continued by rail. Many were heading for Georgia’s
Black Sea ports of Batumi and Poti and onwards to European markets.

While some of the freight cars were allowed to cross the frontier
last week, a significant number are still stuck at the Beyuk-Kasik
border crossing. Last month, only cargoes originating in Azerbaijan
were allowed to cross, without any explanation from Baku why the
others should be stopped.

However, Azerbaijani ambassador Ramiz Hasanov was invited to the
Georgian foreign ministry to discuss the issue, he told the media that
Baku suspected that freight was passing through Georgia to Armenia,
in contravention of an agreement his government signed with Tbilisi
in June forbidding the transit of goods to a third country “contrary
to their national interests”.

“Azerbaijan has its own national interests in connection with this
issue,” Hasanov said, referring to its bitter dispute with Armenia over
Nagorny Karabakh. “How would [Georgia] react if Azerbaijan delivered
fuel or other cargo to [the disputed territories] Abkhazia and South
Ossetia? That would damage the national interests of Georgia.”

Azerbaijani prime minister Artur Rasizade told IWPR that he had
evidence that several freight carriages transporting oil products
were indeed intended for Armenia.

Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania has tried to play down the
incident, telling journalists that he saw no reason to “dramatise”
the situation. “We are working with the Azerbaijani side and I am
sure that we won’t have any problems,” he said.

In an attempt to resolve the situation, Georgian Railways’ commercial
director Ramiz Giorgadze travelled to Baku, while officials from the
Azerbaijani customs committee visited Tbilisi and checked the freight
cars’ documentation. Those that were given the all clear by customs
officials were immediately allowed to cross into Georgia.

Georgian officials said that none of the detained freight cars were
travelling to Armenia, although David Onoprishvili, chairman of
Georgian Railways, conceded that this had happened before.

The Georgian customs department told IWPR that the issue had only
become relevant after the inter-governmental agreement signed by the
two nations came into force on November 22.

Customs officials have said that Georgia would no longer re-export
cargos to Armenia, in line with Azerbaijani requests.

However, Georgia’s deputy minister of economic development Geno
Muradian argued that there was no legal basis for stopping most of
the cars, even if they did proceed to Armenia.

“Wheat and oil are not military cargos, and cannot threaten the
security of a country. If they end up in Armenia, it won’t be a
tragedy,” he said.

“For a long time transit, cargos from Azerbaijan have not officially
been going to Armenia,” Muradian went on. “But business has its own
laws, and a businessman who receives goods in Georgia will find ways
to send them on to Armenia if he wants to.”

Officials in both countries are now debating what harm the row has
done to relations.

Georgian economic expert Giorgi Khukhasvili said, “Azerbaijan is our
strategic partner, our countries are fully integrated with regard to
transit shipments, and without Azerbaijan, Georgia’s transit functions
are worth nothing.”

However, Baku political analyst Rasmi Agayev argued in an article in
the Obozrevatel newspaper that the two nations’ strategic partnership
“is no more than a declaration”, and criticised Tbilisi for its “double
standards” in not supporting Azerbaijan over the Karabakh dispute.

Georgian businesses are being tight-lipped about what the dispute
has cost them, although losses are believed to run into millions
of dollars.

Vano Mtvraralashvili, head of the Union of Producers, Importers and
Consumers of Oil Products, said many Georgian importers whose products
had been delayed on the border for a month had asked him for help.

For example, said Mtvraralashvili, one firm was trying to import 1,200
tonnes of diesel oil from Turkmenistan, where prices were cheaper.
Despite having all the documentation to prove that the oil was intended
for Georgia’s domestic market, it was not being allowed through.

“If the Azerbaijanis had doubts about Georgian companies, then why
didn’t they stop the cargoes on the Turkmen-Azerbaijani border?”
complained Mtvraralashvili. “Now they’ve paid Baku fees for a transit
that they can’t complete.”

In any case, he said, Armenia would not be bereft of petroleum products
because it also used other transit routes.

Both governments now say they are confident that full freight traffic
will be restored in the next few days. But the deeper implications
of this row may have a much more lasting effect.

Lela Iremashvili is a correspondent with Black Sea Press news agency
in Tbilisi. Rufat Abbasov is a correspondent with Reuters in Baku.

ARMENIA’S ANTI-SMOKING LAW: PUFF OR PROGRESS?
By Karine Ter-Saakian in Yerevan

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Dec 8 2004

In this country, even the doctors and politicians who warn of the
evils of nicotine are smokers themselves.

Armenia is the smoking capital of Europe.

The World Health Organisation, WHO, estimates that 63.7 per cent of
Armenian men are smokers, which makes them the heaviest puffers in
Europe. While there are no reliable statistics for the smaller number
of women smokers, their number is growing every year.

In Yerevan, billboards every ten metres display cigarette
advertisements for both Armenian and well-known international brands.

“It’s a national disgrace,” Grant Vardanian told IWPR. That’s a
surprising comment, coming from a business tycoon with a monopoly on
Armenia’s tobacco industry. “That’s what I say, even me, and those are
my advertising billboards hanging there! Until now, our legislators
have failed to pass a law prohibiting cigarette advertisements in
public places.”

Nonetheless, it was Vardanian and a group of other businessmen directly
involved in the production and distribution of cigarettes who earlier
this year led opposition to an anti-smoking bill in parliament.

Another legislative attempt to fight Armenia’s smoking habit is
currently being considered by the National Assembly, and could become
law by the end of the year.

The problem is chronic. In the cafes and restaurants of Armenia you can
hardly make out people’s faces in the dense tobacco smoke. “How can you
drink a cup of coffee without a cigarette?” is the sort of remark that
regulars in Yerevan’s countless cafes make to a curious journalist.

True, smoking has recently been banned in some large offices, but
this has little effect on the general public.

“All my friends smoke, so am I any worse than they are?” asked Narine,
a regular visitor to the Poplavok café in central Yerevan. “I know it’s
bad for you, but so what? What difference does it make if you live five
years more or less. I could give up if I wanted to. There is a saying,
you know: someone who doesn’t smoke or drink is damaging his health.”

According to the WHO, 2,000 people between the ages of 35 and 70
die every year in Armenia from smoking-related diseases such as lung
cancer and heart attacks.

“They are not dying from smoking,” said cardiologist Tigran Haianian,
“but from stress. Smoking only aggravates and attacks the weak parts
of the body. But they should give up, of course.”

Somewhat undercutting his fine words, Haianian admits he has been
smoking since his student years and is not about to give up.

Alexander Bazarjian, co-ordinator of the public health ministry’s
anti-tobacco programme, argues that if Armenia were to sign up to the
WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control it could save millions
of lives, “The convention obliges everyone to fight against smoking,
and if we do not subscribe to it, then we are pronouncing an ultimatum
on our health.”

But this message does not seem to be getting through. After all,
health minister Norair Davidian is a smoker himself.

After doctors, it is of course journalists who smoke more than anyone
else. “Well, how can you write without a cigarette? Your head just
doesn’t work,” is a remark that typifies the attitude of three quarters
of Armenian journalists, regardless of gender.

On the days a newspaper goes to press, the smoke in editorial offices
is suffocating. “You may as well smoke yourself, at least fewer people
will hassle you about it,” said journalist Yelena Galoyan.

Legislation limiting the sale and consumption of tobacco products,
proposed by the permanent parliamentary commission for science,
education, culture and sport was adopted in a first hearing by
parliament in mid-November.

The campaign is already having some effect. Rumour has it that the
entire Armenian government gave up smoking simultaneously, but how long
they can keep it up is another matter. President Robert Kocharian does
not smoke, but the same cannot be said of his subordinates. True,
in the new Yerevan mayor’s office there is not a single ashtray and
no area for smokers.

Artur Bagdasarian, speaker of the National Assembly, laid down
something of a challenge when he declared triumphantly that he had
given up, prompting journalists to begin stalking him and other
deputies to see whether they could catch them out.

But there is another side to the coin. Cigarette production accounts
for 3.3 per cent of Armenia’s industrial output, and in 2001-03,
profits from both imported cigarettes and the sale of locally
manufactured product amounted to 42 million US dollars.

Last May, anti-smoking legislation failed in parliament because many
deputies had vested interests in the cigarette business.

The watered-down version reviewed by parliament last month now protects
the interests of cigarette manufacturers. As it stands now, smoking
will still be permitted in cafes and restaurants, and taxes and excise
duties on Armenian-made brands will remain low. Prices of cigarettes –
currently between 50 cents and a dollar for a packet – are set to rise.

If it is passed, the new law will impose restrictions on advertising,
the sale of cigarettes to minors, and smoking in public places.

Ordinary Armenians wonder how much difference it will make.

“Cigarette advertising is very attractive, with its courageous young
men and elegant models inviting you to take up smoking,” market trader
Grigor Khachatrian told IWPR. “Our young people are attracted by
beauty, they hardly think about the dangers. But banning it won’t work.
Smokers will smoke. The advertisements don’t work on me, though –
I’ve never smoked in my life.”

Economics expert Eduard Agajanov argues that “a ban on advertising
local products leads to buyers preferring attractive foreign goods”.

“If this law becomes government policy, then of course I will obey it,”
said parliamentary deputy Shavarsh Kocharian.

“And if we ban advertising, well so what? People will smoke all
the same.”

Kocharian should know – he’s not planning to give up.

Karine Ter-Saakian is a freelance journalist based in Yerevan.

–Boundary_(ID_Pzv9Uh7xYuhPmCodYdu0qQ)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Erdogan lauds tolerance as ‘Garden of Religions’ opens in Turkey

Agence France Presse
Dec 8 2004

BELEK, Turkey, Dec 8 (AFP) – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
pledged Wednesday that his government would remove any remaining
obstacles to religious freedoms in Turkey as he opened a complex of
Muslim, Christian and Jewish worship sites.

The “Garden of Religions” in the Mediterranean resort of Belek,
which contains a mosque, a church and a synagogue, was inaugurated
to underscore inter-cultural tolerance at a time when Turkey is
under fire from the EU for failing to fully respect the rights of
its non-Muslim minorities.

Speaking at the ceremony, Erdogan said that religious tolerance was
a heritage of the Ottoman Empire and quoted edicts by Mehmet the
Conqueror, the sultan who took Istanbul in 1453, ordering respect
for non-Muslims.

“Owing to this great historical experience, Turkey is today the
guarantor of peace and brotherhood in its region,” he said.

“Of course, we still have deficiencies and we are expending efforts
to overcome them in the shortest possible time,” he added.

Visiting Dutch European Affairs Minister Atzo Nikolai, whose country
currently holds the EU presidency, members of the diplomatic community
in Ankara as well as religious leaders of Turkey’s Greek, Armenian
and Jewish minorities attended the ceremony.

“People will be able to freely practice their religions in this
center. This is a very important message,” Nikolai said, quoted by
Anatolia news agency.

Belek is a major touristic center on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast,
which attracts millions of foreign holiday-makers each year.

“The EU will continue to encourage reforms in Turkey,” Nikolai said.
“There could be frictions sometimes, but the reforms Turkey has
undertaken are encouraging.”

The Dutch minister was in Turkey for consultaions with Turkish
leaders in the run-up to an EU summit on December 16-17, at which
Ankara is expected to be invited to begin membership talks, though
under tough conditions.

Leaders of Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities hailed the inauguration
of the “Garden of Religions,” but not without some barbed remarks on
legal snags restricting their activities.

“Catholics are able to practice their religion in Turkey but do not
have (property) rights over churches. I hope they will have that right
one day,” Father Alphonse Sammut, a representative of the Catholic
community said, according to Anatolia.

Armenian Orthodox Patriarch Mesrob II, for his part, said that
non-Muslim places of worship should be opened in all major Turkish
cities.

“This should be done either by rennovating historical sites or by
building new ones as the one here,” he said.

Pope condemns attacks on churches in Iraq

Reuters
Dec 8 2004

VATICAN CITY, Dec 8 (Reuters) Pope John Paul today condemned the
bombing of two churches in Iraq, the latest in a series of attacks
against the Christian community.

“I ask the Lord for the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin, so that
dear Iraqi people can finally come to know a time of reconciliation
and peace,” the 84-year-old Pope told thousands of pilgrims packed
into St Peter’s Square.

Gunmen attacked two churches in the tense northern Iraqi city of
Mosul yesterday, in the latest violence directed against one of Iraq’s
several religious and ethnic groups.

Members of the churches, one Armenian, the other Chaldean, said gunmen
burst in, forced people to leave and set off explosions inside the
buildings. No one was hurt in the attacks.

Iraq’s 650,000 Christians — mostly Chaldeans, Assyrians and Catholics
— comprise about 3 percent of the population. Many have left Iraq
and the Vatican fears more will go if the attacks go on.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY FOR PEACE THAT SATISFIES AZERBAIJAN
[December 08, 2004, 21:18:55]

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Dec 8 2004

Chairman of Milli Majlis (Parliament) of the Azerbaijan Republic Murtuz
Alaskarov on 8 December has received the newly appointed ambassador
extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Turkey to Azerbaijan Turan Morali.

Congratulating the Ambassador on his mission and wishing success in
his activity, Speaker of Azerbaijan Parliament said the friendly and
fraternal relations between two the countries have ancient history,
nevertheless, after return of the national leader of Azerbaijan
Heydar Aliyev to power a new phase opened in development of the
Azerbaijan-Turkey relations. At present, President Ilham Aliyev
successfully pursues this course. Large-scale projects realized in
the region bring closer our brotherly countries and peoples.

Then, Murtuz Alaskarov updated the Ambassador on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict, stressed fair position
of Azerbaijan related to the issue. Speaker of Azerbaijan Parliament
expressed gratitude for position of Turkey in the mentioned problem.

Ambassador Turan Morali thanked for sincere reception and said he
would make every effort to promote development of bilateral relations
between two countries. As to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, Turkey
will support the peace that will satisfy Azerbaijan and his country
would render any possible assistance in settlement of the conflict.

There are forces in Turkey who are interested in establishment of
economic and political links with Armenia, the diplomat said. “But
this is not official position of Turkey. Turkey will neither open
the borders, nor establish diplomatic links with Armenia until the
Nagorny Karabakh conflict found its fair solution and the refugees
and IDPs return to their homelands”, Mr. Turan Morali emphasized.

In the meeting, also were exchanged views on a number of other
questions representing mutual interest.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia offers Gazprom role in Iran pipeline project

Interfax
Dec 8 2004

Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenia’s government and Gazprom are discussing
a role for the Russian gas giant in the construction of the Kadjaran –
Ararat section of the gas pipeline between Armenia and Iran.

An Armenian government source told Interfax that Gazprom might
be invited to build and renovate 200 km of pipeline at a cost of
approximately $90 million.

Gazprom might receive the incomplete No. 5 generating unit at the
Razdan power plant, in which Gazprom has shown an interest, to
reimburse its costs.

Razdan is Armenia’s biggest heat and power plant, producing 20% of
the country’s electricity. It has capacity of 1,100 megawatts and
operating capacity of 800 megawatts.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1994 provided
a loan worth $61.5 million to build the fifth block at the Razdan
plant. Work on the unit was halted in 1996 after $60 million had been
spent on it. Another $60 million or so will be needed to complete
the unit. Armenia is spending $500,000 in budgeted funds each year
to keep the unit in mothballs.

Russia and Armenia signed a protocol at the start of this year to
transfer the existing four units of the Razdan plant to Russia in
payment for Armenia’s state debt. ZAO Inter RAO UES assumed management
of the plant. The fifth unit will be a separate legal entity.

Work on the Armenian stretch of the pipeline began at the end of
November. Construction of Iran’s 100-km stretch began in July. The
Iranian Export and Development Bank set aside $30 million to finance
the Armenian stretch.

Iran signed a deal to supply Armenia with 36 billion cubic meters
(bcm) of gas per year over 20 years with the possibility of extending
this by five years and gas supplies to 47 bcm in May this year.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OFFICIALS, IRANIAN GOVERNOR DISCUSS COOPERATION

ArmenPress
Dec 8 2004

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS: Armenian territorial minister Hovik
Abrahamian and the governor of Iranian province of Ardabil, Meyyed
Javad Negarandei, discussed today in Yerevan the available potential
for stepping up cooperation between administrative regions of the
two countries. Abrahamian was quoted by the government’s press office
as saying that cooperation between Ardabil and Armenian province of
Syunik, bordering Iran is of strategic importance.

The two men singled out cooperation in plant cultivation, exchange of
seeds and siblings, introduction of the Iranian technology of potato
processing, import of water pipelines.

The Iranian governor suggested that a joint office be established
within the frameworks of the two countries’ commerce chambers to
promote and coordinate bilateral collaboration. He said tens of
businessmen who are visiting Armenia together with him are negotiating
with Armenian counterparts on starting joint businesses.

At the end of the meeting Abrahamian pledged the government’s support
to the governor’s office of Ardabil for implementation of any joint
project..

The Iranian governor was also received today by the chief of
presidential staff, Artashes Tumanian, who is also the Armenian
cochairman of a bilateral commission for economic development.

The business of supporting Yushchenko

The Irish Times
December 8, 2004

UKRAINE: If anyone was likely to raise the hackles of the ex-KGB
man in the Kremlin, it was the burly former shipyard worker with the
walrus moustache and taste for revolution, writes Dan McLaughlin

When Lech Walesa clambered onstage alongside Viktor Yushchenko in
Kiev, he conjured both the spirit of Poland’s anti-Soviet Solidarity
movement and the centuries-old ties linking Ukraine to its Western
neighbour. Mr Walesa’s political star has long-since waned in Poland,
but he was greeted as a hero by thousands of Ukrainians for whom
he still embodies a nation’s escape from the grip of Moscow and the
heady start of its journey into the European Union and NATO.

As President Vladimir Putin’s aides in the Kremlin muttered darkly
about Western meddling in Russia’s “sphere of influence”, the
high-profile role played by Polish politicians in Ukraine was a
reminder of the country’s schizophrenic past and present.

While the Russian language and Orthodox Church prevail in industrial
south-east Ukraine, where Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich is
strongest, the largely agricultural west of the country has much
stronger links with Poland and is dominated by the Ukrainian language
and Catholicism.

Poland ruled this region until the second World War and, along with
Lithuania, controlled most of present-day Ukraine until the 17th
century, when tsarist Russia took over.

It has irked Moscow greatly that the two Baltic neighbours – both
former Soviet satellites and new EU members – have taken key roles
in talks to end the Ukrainian crisis.

Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski and his Lithuanian counterpart,
Mr Valdas Adamkus, have been ever-present at negotiations in Kiev,
with Warsaw particularly keen to become the middle man between Brussels
and the old Soviet Union.

While Russia still calls the likes of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and
Armenia its “near-abroad”, the EU has made its interest in them plain
by declaring them part of its own “common neighbourhood”.

After Georgia slipped Moscow’s leash last year in the so-called rose
revolution, which brought a young, West-leaning leader to power, the
“loss” of Ukraine would be a bitter blow to Mr Putin, who presents
himself as a man capable of restoring global prestige to a fallen
superpower.

He has already been humiliated by having to withdraw the
congratulations he sent to Mr Yanukovich on his “victory”, and is
seen as having badly overplayed his hand by twice visiting Ukraine
to back his favoured candidate before the vote.

“That was an unprecedented move,” said Mr Kwasniewski. “It wouldn’t
have carried any risk if the result had been clear, but in the face
of deep divisions such as those in Ukraine there should have been
greater restraint.”

Poland’s press and public have strongly backed Mr Kwasniewski’s
efforts in Ukraine, inspired equally by memories of Solidarity’s
success and the chance to give Moscow a bloody nose while enjoying
EU and US protection.

“This is a huge defeat which the Kremlin has brought upon itself,”
wrote Poland’s influential Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper after the election
results were annulled.

“There’s no stopping freedom,” the newspaper proclaimed, amid something
of a pro-Yushchenko frenzy that saw it giving away copies with free
orange ribbons, the emblem of Ukraine’s opposition movement.

Historically torn apart and parcelled out by Germany and Russia,
Poland’s only worry now lies to the east, where pro-Kremlin Belarus and
Ukraine have offered no real buffer from Russia’s perceived antipathy
since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

“We have the feeling of sharing a common destiny with Ukrainians,”
said former Polish defence minister Mr Bronislaw Komorowski. “Our
past experiences show that we have every reason to fear Moscow.”

But that fear would diminish significantly should Ukraine become, as
appears possible should Mr Yushchenko win the St Stephen’s Day election
re-run, a stable democracy with a strong civil society and growing
economy boosted by Western investment. Ukraine’s 50 million-strong
consumer market would be hugely attractive to Polish business, as
would the opportunity for increased leverage in talks with Russia on
vital gas and oil imports that arrive through Ukraine’s pipelines.

A Westward shift in Ukraine would also benefit the economies of
its other EU neighbours, Hungary and Slovakia, provided it wasn’t
accompanied by violence that prompted a surge in asylum-seekers at
unprepared border crossings.

In most former Eastern Bloc states, a defeat for the Kremlin and its
allies is still often hailed as an automatic triumph for the nation.

A Yushchenko victory, therefore, would be welcomed throughout the
region, except by Moscow-backed regimes like those in Belarus and
Moldova, upon whom pressure would undoubtedly increase.

For men like Mr Walesa, addressing the orange-clad masses in Kiev,
the final battles of the Cold War are only now being decided.
“Twenty-four years ago, I was in the same situation as you are now,”
he told the cheering crowd. “I opposed the Soviet Union and I opposed
communism, and I came out victorious. Now Ukraine has a chance, too.”

FC ratifies 2 protocols expanding Russia-CSTO military coop

ITAR-TASS News Agency
December 8, 2004 Wednesday 9:02 AM Eastern Time

MOSCOW, December 8 — The Federation Council ratified two protocols
that expand military-technical cooperation between Russia and the
member-countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO)
on Wednesday.

In particular, the protocol on introducing amendments in the
Russian-Armenian agreement on the Russian military base in Armenia
was ratified. It was noted at a Federation Council session that the
goal of the protocol is to bring the earlier reached agreements on the
Russian military base in compliance with “a higher level of military
and political cooperation of the countries” on the bilateral basis
and within the CSTO framework.

The agreement on the military base was signed in March 1995, and
the protocol on November 11, 2003 in Yerevan. The Armenian side has
already ratified the agreement in April this year that supplements
the bilateral agreement.

The Federation Council also ratified the protocol on
introducing amendments in the agreement on the main principles of
military-technical cooperation among the CSTO states. The CSTO prime
ministers signed the protocol on September 19, 2003 in Yalta.

The parliaments of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have
already ratified the document. The document enlarges the field of
applying benefits on arms supplies for the armed forces of the CSTO
states and does not allow their supplies to third countries without
the written accord of a supplier.