Author: Antonian Lara

PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN VISITS "NAIRIT" FACTORY TO GET ACQUIANTED WITH THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ACCIDENT

ARMENPRESS
May 15, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS: President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
visited today "Nairit" factory accompanied by the Energy and Natural
Resources Minister, Health Minister, Emergency Situations Minister,
Yerevan Mayor and other officials.

The president walked in the burnt territory, got acquainted with the
circumstances of the accident. The president was informed that works
are being carried out to find out the causes of the explosion and
the fire broken out as a result of it. Serzh Sargsyan underscored
the necessity of finding out the causes of the accident to exclude
them in future.

The president also expressed his condolences to the families of
the victims.

TURKEY WILL NOT OPEN BORDERS WITH ARMENIA UNTIL ARMENIAN TROOPS WITHDRAWN FROM KARABAKH – PM

Interfax
May 13 2009
Russia

Turkey does not intend to open its borders with Armenia until Armenia
withdraws its troops from occupied territories of Azerbaijan, said
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We closed our borders after Nagorno-Karabakh’s occupation. As long as
the occupation continues, we will not open the borders," Erdogan said
following talks with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Wednesday.

GEAGEA: NO CRISIS WITH INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES AND NO VETO ON BOUEIZ

NaharNet
May 14 2009
Lebanon

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea denied Thursday reports of a crisis
between LF and independent candidates in the second Kesrouan list.

In an interview with al-Markazia News agency, he described the
relationship as "excellent" with some of the contenders, "acceptable"
with others and "normal" with candidates such as former MP Mansour
Ghanem al- Bon.

Geagea denied to asked independent candidate to join a Christian
gathering as a pre-condition for being part of the list. He also called
on all independent runners to check the veracity of such reports.

Regarding the delay in the formulation of the Kesrouan list, Geagea
said: "everybody waited for the closure of candidacy registration
door and for the formation of another Kesrouan list before starting
the actual work on a new ticket that includes independents and March
14 members."

"The Kesrouan list will be unveiled in a matter of days and not weeks,"
he added.

"There is no veto on anyone even former minister Fares Boueiz," the
LF leader said, denying "evil" rumors that Boueiz was conditioned to
join Geagea’s bloc before being endorsed in the ticket.

As for the Beirut 2 constituency and negotiations with MP Saad Hariri
over the Armenian-Orthodox seat, Geagea said that "negotiations with
Armenian parties are ongoing.

"The meetings so far held with MP Hariri focused on other matters as
well," he added.

As for the failure of the Cabinet to approve key administrative
appointments on Wednesday, Geagea said "this is the experience of
the veto power." He added: "I hope the Lebanese would stop at the
meaning of this concept."

Geagea commended security forces for uncovering Israeli spy rings
saying "the government and the official bodies were able to accomplish
an excellent work."

"The majority of these rings were uncovered in Hizbullah’s area of
operation," he added.

CONFLICT BETWEEN GEORGIA AND RUSSIA WAS UNAVOIDABLE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
14.05.2009 18:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Conflict between Georgia and Russia was unavoidable,
as the states support opposite positions. I believe, that no political
force would agree today to the existing status quo," Head of Caucasus
Studies at the French Institute of Anatolian Research, Tornike Gordadze
told at international conference entitled "South Caucasus security
reconsidered: regional conflicts, stability and transformation". "One
of Georgia’s goals is creation of a national state of European type,"
he noted.

"Here we’re up against a paradox. On one side, Russia is trying to
reconsider its role, but still create an empirelike state. Georgia
is trying to create a national state – two19 century categories,
still relevant in the region."

"There’s also a major ideological confrontation. After Russia
established itself as a strong power, upholding principles of
democracy, western democracy appeared like geographical and historical
property of Euro Atlantic territory. When a state located next to
Russia tries to base its policy on principles of western democracy,
Russia gets irritated," Tornike Gordadze concluded.

GREEK EMBASSY IN ARMENIA HOSTED GAGIK ALTUNYAN’S EXHIBITION

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
14.05.2009 21:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On May 13 Greek Embassy in Armenia hosted Gagik
Altunyan’s exhibition dedicated to victories of the Armenian
people. The exhibition was attended by representatives of Greek
government, Armenian clergy, entrepreneurs and representatives of
Armenian Diaspora in Greece.

Ambassador of Armenia to Greece, Vahram Kajoyan gave a high assessment
to artists’ works. Gagik Altunyan’s exhibition will last till May 22

TURKEY’S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE NOT INTERESTED IN OPENING BORDER WITH ARMENIA

ARKA
May 13, 2009

YEREVAN, May 13. /ARKA/. Turkey’s Chamber of Commerce is not interested
in opening of Armenian-Turkish border, representative of the Turkey’s
Chamber of Commerce Selcuk Yilmaz told journalists in Yerevan.

"We are not interested, personally our organization is not interested
in it," he said at the opening of the 15th meeting of the Union of Road
Transport Associations (URTA) in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
(BSEC) region.

Yilmaz pointed out that the opening of the border is a political
problem and should be solved by political means.

The opening of the border will be of advantage to Armenia, he said.

"Trade is above all. It will ensure peace between Armenia and
Turkey. It is international rules, and Turkish citizens will have to
obey the laws of their country," Turkish representative said.

No diplomatic relations exist between Armenia and Turkey, and the
Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 initiated by
official Ankara.

The first warming of the relations occurred on September 6 2008 when
Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrived in Yerevan for the first
time on the invitation of the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
for watching together the football match between the nationals of
Armenia and Turkey in the scope of the 2010 championship qualifying
games. During this visit, the t wo countries’ presidents discussed
possible normalization of the bilateral relations.

On April 22, foreign ministries of Armenia and Turkey, together
with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs made a joint
statement about normalization of relations. The statement reads
that the parties reached an agreement on a wide-ranged settlement of
bilateral relations. The sides also agreed on establishing a "road map"
for normalization of the relations.

IRAN STARTS SUPPLYING GAS TO ARMENIA IN EXCHANGE FOR ELECTRIC ENERGY

ArmInfo
2009-05-14 13:09:00

ArmInfo. Iran starts supplying gas to Armenia from May 14 in exchange
for electric energy, in accordance with the earlier signed agreement,
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia Armen Movsisyan
told ArmInfo on Thursday. He said a quadripartite agreement on the
beginning of the programme "Gas in exchange for electric energy" was
signed in Yerevan on May 13 by the Armenian Companies "Yerevan TPP"
and "HPP Vorotan Cascade" CJSC and the Iranian Companies "National
Iranian Gas Export Company" (NIGC) and "Tavanir".

According to the minister, the gas is still supplied to "Yerevan
TPP", where from it will be also delivered to other TPPs for power
generation. The minister added that the volumes of gas supply will
gradually grow. He also said it will hardly succeed to reach the
earlier announced volumes of supplies of 1,1 bln cub m of gas in
2009. A. Movsisyan preferred not to say on what basis Armenia will
pay for the Iranian gas. He assured that gas supplies in the agreed
volumes and regimes are advantageous for both Iran and Armenia. Gas
is received through Iran-Armenia gas pipeline which is considered
by Armenia as an alternative to the northern gas main "Northern
Caucasus-Transcaucasus", through which Armenia receives gas from
Russia through the territory of Georgia.

Earlier it was informed that Iran will supply 1,1 bln cub m of gas
to Armenia started 2009 in accordance with the agreement, and up to
2,3 bln cub m of gas per year started 2019.

AZERBAIJANI PREPARED ARMENIA’S REPRESENTATIVES FOR EUROVISION-2009

APA
May 12 2009
Azerbaijan

Moscow. Ulkar Gasimova – APA. Clothes, hairdo, makeup, choreographic
etudes and stage decoration of Armenia’s representatives in
Eurovision-2009 song contest Anush and Inga have been arranged by
Azerbaijani Aslan Ahmadov, APA reports quoting Novosti-Armenia.

Aslan Ahmadov is one of the founders of Fresh Art Company that arranged
the performance of Armenian representatives. Together with the other
founders David Gevorkov and Alexander Siradekyan he arranged special
composition for Anush and Inga. Founders of Fresh Art said they were
proud of preparing Armenia’s representatives for Eurovision-2009.

"We are proud that we have been commissioned to represent mighty and
ancient state Armenia with not simply a song, but an extraordinary
song reflecting ancient culture and ethnos."

Aslan Ahmadov, who arranged the performance of Armenian representatives
in Eurovision-2009, was born in Baku in 1973. He graduated from Art
University in Baku in 1994 and moved to St. Petersburg. Together with
Armenians David Gevorkov and Alexander Siradekyan he founded Fresh
Art Company. APA’s special correspondent covering Eurovision-2009 song
contest asked Aslan Ahmadov to comment on it, but he refused to do it.

THE NUMBER OF THE NKR VISITORS IS INCREASING

ARMENPRESS
May 7, 2009

STEPANAKERT, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS: According to the data of the NKR
Foreign Ministry’s Consular Service, the number of foreign citizens
who visited the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the first quarter of 2009
increased about twice, compared with the same span of 2008. NKR MFA
Press Service told Armenoress that prevailing are citizens of France,
Iran, Great Britain, Holland, Russia, Poland, and others.

According to the NKR MFA Consular Service, in spite of the world
financial crisis, a stable trend of increasing the number of foreign
citizens visiting our Republic is fixed. They are mainly tourists,
the peak of their visits to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic falling on
the period between May and September.

BERLIN CONTACTS ANKARA OVER CONSUL CONTROVERSY

Earthtimes.prg
May 7 2009

Berlin – Berlin has spoken to Ankara about controversial reported
remarks by a Turkish consul, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday
in Berlin, without disclosing what Germany asked for. There has been
outrage in Germany at reports that Consul General Hakan Kivanc, who
is based in Dusseldorf, claimed that Germans "would like to tattoo
the letter T" into the skins of immigrant Turks and "do the same to
them as was done to Jews under the Nazis."

Witnesses allege Kivanc made the remark at a private social event on
February 22. Kivanc denied making the remark and others like it.

"We are currently in contact with the Turkish side about it," the
German Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The conversation by telephone
took place between senior diplomats.

After two witnesses made sworn statements against Kivanc, centre-
right German political figures accused him of insulting Germans and
demanded Ankara remove him.

The allegations were not made public until the end of April by the Mor
Gabriel Initiative, a group representing people in Germany who belong
to the religious and ethnic minorities of Turkey, including Arameans,
Alawites, Armenians, Greeks and Kurds.

Ismail Coban, an artist who was among the six people who were dining
with Kivanc when the remarks were reportedly made, criticized the
publication of a private conversation as a breach of "our values."

He said Thursday the meeting had been a relaxed chat with drink and
food, where nobody had been writing down what was said.