Author: Babajanian Karo

ANY DECISION ON KARABAKH WILL BE WORSE THAN IN 1998, TER-PETROSSIAN SAYS

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 23, 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net – Karabakh conflict was about to be settled in 1998,
according to the first Armenian President, Armenian National Congress
(ANC) leader Levon Ter-Petrossian.

“What could be accomplished 13 years ago, is attempted now, at the
expense of great losses,” he said in an interview with Moscovskie
Novosti newspaper.

“Legal consequences of a referendum in Karabakh are not even
discussed. The development of events suggests a much tougher situation
than it used to be. Unfortunately, any decision taken now would be
worse than the one 13 years ago,” the first Armenian president said.

As Ter-Petrossian noted, there’s a probability for success in Karabakh
conflict settlement, while Russia is involved as a mediator, still,
“the war is possible if the process fails. Azerbaijan will simply run
out of patience.” “Armenia will never initiate a war. Azerbaijan will
be the one to start it. And the most dangerous thing is, no one can
hold it back,” he said.

AZERBAIJANI SIDE FAILS TO LEAD THE OSCE MISSION TO ITS FRONT POSITIONS

armradio.am
23.06.2011

On June 23, according to an earlier agreement with the authorities
of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission held scheduled
monitoring of the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno
Karabakh and Azerbaijan, near Kuropatkino village in NKR’s Martuni
region.

>>From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was
conductedby Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office William Prior (Great Britain), Antal Herdich
(Hungary), and Christo Christov (Bulgaria).

>>From the opposite side, the monitoring was conducted by Coordinator
of the OSCE Office Imre Palatinus (Hungary) and Field Assistant of
the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Marius
Puodziunas (Lithuania).

No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered during the
monitoring, but the Azerbaijani party didn’t lead the OSCE Mission
to its front line, or the earlier agreed point, as a result of which
the OSCE monitoring groups had to conduct the monitoring from a more
distant point.

>>From the Karabakh side, representatives of the NKR Ministries of
Foreign Affairs and Defense accompanied the monitoring mission.

OSKANIAN REACTS TO PRESIDENT’S STRASBOURG STATEMENT

Northern Ave
Foundation

In the President’s speech in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly, and especially in the questions and answers
that followed, there were many misrepresentations, but three in
particular must be disowned by the administration.

First, to claim that Armenia has not recognized the independence
of Karabakh because Armenia accepts the principle of territorial
integrity is to misrepresent Armenia’s position of the last 20 years,
including his own years.

For two decades, Armenia has not recognized the independence of
Karabakh specifically in order not to predetermine the outcome of
the negotiations process. If Azerbaijan were to pull out of those
negotiations, or attempt to use force, then the Republic of Armenia
would recognize the independence of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh.

That has been the policy of the Armenian Republic, through three
administrations. Thus, the President’s interpretation requires
retraction especially because nowhere else in his prepared remarks is
there anything that in any way presents the official position itself.

Second, the principles of non-use of force, territorial integrity
and self-determination, which the President listed as the Madrid
principles are in fact the principles of the Helsinki Final Act and
serve as the guiding philosophy for any conflict, including this one.

Over the years, principles, which number more than three and are
specific to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, have been
developed. They have come to be known as the Madrid principles. As
far as I know, even if the Madrid Document has been revised, the
principles remain the same. First among the Madrid principles has
been the right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination.

Third, after two military victories, Armenians have adhered to
the negotiation process, because we have believed that there is no
military solution to this conflict, and not because the Azerbaijani
side has an advantage.

A peaceful resolution remains Armenians’ goal — a resolution
that is based on solid, lasting principles. In the run-up to and
in Kazan, the Armenian position must be clearly and forcefully
rectified. This struggle was and continues to be about Karabakh’s
right to self-determination, first and foremost.

EU: RUSSIA, UKRAINE JOIN STRESS TESTS

The Associated Press
June 23, 2011

The European Union says that Russia and Ukraine are among seven nations
to join their nuclear stress test program to examine whether atomic
power plants can withstand accidents and disasters.

The European Union says that Russia and Ukraine are among seven nations
to join their nuclear stress test program to examine whether atomic
power plants can withstand accidents and disasters.

The 27 EU nations agreed on such a program last month and had called
on other countries to join the plan. Thursday’s announcement was a
first breakthrough to expand the program.

Under the tests, “experts from other countries will evaluate the
assessment carried out by their national experts,” the EU said in
a statement.

Armenia, Croatia, Switzerland, Turkey and Belarus were the other
nations joining the program.

STAKES HIGH AS MEDVEDEV SEEKS KARABAKH DEAL
By Nikolaus von Twickel

23 June 2011

The stakes are higher than ever before when President Dmitry Medvedev
hosts talks about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the presidents
of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Kazan on Friday.

Judging from a recent war of words in the South Caucasus, the risk
that a smoldering dispute over the Armenian enclave on Azeri territory
will erupt into open hostilities has risen to new heights.

Peace talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, led by Russia, France and the United States in the
so-called Minsk Group, have met little success since 1994, when
Armenian separatists secured much of Nagorno-Karabakh and some
surrounding territory. The conflict killed more than 30,000 people
and displaced more than 1 million.

The Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it hoped the Kazan talks would
provide a breakthrough. “This meeting will play a landmark role in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the ministry said in a statement.

Clashes have worsened since 2008 around the mountainous enclave,
and Baku, buoyed by surging oil profits – much of which has spent
modernizing its armed forces – has recently stepped up its rhetoric.

Deputy Azeri Prime Minister Ali Gasanov warned earlier this week
that if “Armenia continues to play games, Azerbaijan will free its
territories by force,” the news site Trend.az reported.

Baku is planning to hold a military parade on Sunday to “show the
whole world the might of its army,” Gasanov said.

Azeri officials have also threatened to shoot down any planes that
try to land at the newly reconstructed airport in Nagorno-Karabakh’s
capital, Stepanakert. The airport had been closed since 1992.

A growing number of people in Baku believe that the permanent loss of
Nagorno-Karabakh can only be averted by retaking the region through
military force, analysts said.

“While each side’s fundamental positions have not changed, the balance
of strength has. Azerbaijan has become stronger, while Armenia
is lagging behind,” said Svante Cornell, director of the Central
Asia-Caucasus Institute in Stockholm.

Despite the difficult circumstances, Medvedev has committed himself
to getting Presidents Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of
Azerbaijan to sign a “basic principles” agreement.

The agreement, forged by Russia, France and the United States
in discussions over the past four years, stipulates that
Nagorno-Karabakh’s status will be determined in a referendum, that
people who fled during the early 1990s hostilities will be allowed to
return and that an international peacekeeping force will be deployed.

Both sides have not moved an inch in the past, with Azerbaijan
insisting that Nagorno-Karabakh remain part of its territory, albeit
with broad autonomy, while Armenia says the area must never return
to Baku’s control.

To make the atmosphere for Friday’s talks as rewarding as possible,
the Kremlin has moved its annual presidential horserace from Moscow
to Kazan. If all goes well, the three leaders will join Tatarstan
President Rustam Minnikhanov at the Kazan hippodrome on Friday night
to watch a total of nine races, according to the hippodrome’s web site.

President Aliyev thanked the European Union for its support of the
OSCE Minsk Group during a visit to Brussels on Thursday.

“We want a solution to the conflict to be found as soon as possible
that will allow hundreds of thousands of Azeris to return home
after our lands are liberated from occupation,” he said at a news
conference alongside EU President Herman van Rompuy, Azerbaijan’s
APA news agency reported.

President Sargsyan also was shoring up EU support this week, telling
the Council of Europe on Wednesday: “I am going to Kazan in high
spirits and in anticipation of a constructive dialogue,” Armenian
news reports said.

Analysts said the reality is that no side wants to let the situation
get out of hand.

“Nobody is interested in a war, not Moscow, not the West, not Armenia
nor Azerbaijan,” said Alexander Krylov, a Caucasus expert at the
Institute of the World Economy and International Relations.

Krylov said that while Azerbaijan has built up its military forces,
it faces an incalculable risk in deploying them because Russia
would almost certainly support Armenia. Moscow and Yerevan are allied
in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a post-Soviet security
alliance, and Russia has a large military base in the Armenian town
of Gyumri.

Azerbaijan also could not expect any foreign support, not even from
Turkey, which has been the country’s closest ally in the past and
sided with Baku during the Nagorno-Karabakh hostilities in 1993.

Turkey wants stability in the region, and this is also Russia’s
interest, Krylov said, pointing out that Moscow faces enough trouble
in its restive North Caucasus.

The United States and Europe also have vested economic interests in
the energy-rich region. Washington, Brussels and Ankara have recently
stepped up support for the Nabucco pipeline, which is supposed to pump
Caspian gas, mainly from Azerbaijan, to Europe by 2017 by bypassing
Russia.

The biggest hindrance for progress might be that Baku and Yerevan
both expect Russia to exert pressure on the other side, Krylov said.

But paradoxically, a breakthrough at Friday’s talks might just as
well pose new dangers because any rapprochement is likely to be highly
unpopular in both countries.

“Peace talks can be destabilizing because they are being opposed all
across the political spectrum,” Cornell said.

Under these circumstances, some are pinning their hopes on a completely
new force in this long-standing conflict – music.

Despite the angry rhetoric emitting from Baku, anyone harboring any
plans for war has been forced to postpone them after Azerbaijan won
the Eurovision Song Contest in May, said Zurab Kananchev, an Azerbaijan
expert at the Academy of Sciences’ Oriental Institute. Baku will now
host the pan-European television fest next year, and this could well
influence the talks in Kazan, he said.

“The victory is a huge collateral for peace,” Kananchev said. “500
million TV viewers and tens of thousands of visiting fans – basically
all of Europe – will be coming to Baku.”

Some Armenians are not so convinced.

“Maybe this event has some significance for the domestic situation in
Azerbaijan, but it would be naive to think that it will make them stop
the blackmail over Karabakh,” Manvel Sargsyan, research director of
the Armenian Center for National and International Studies in Yerevan,
said in e-mailed comments.

TRANSITION TO NEW PENSION SYSTEM

NKR Government Information and
Public Relations Department
21.06.2011

At the session of the NKR Government

Today a regular session of the NKR Government chaired by Prime Minister
Ara Haroutunyan was held.

At the session the Executive spoke about some legislative initiations.

First the Government approved draft laws “On forage” and “On
bee-farming”. By interpretation of minister of agriculture A.

Tsatryan, further development of farm needs the usage of the like
laws, which will allow regulating economic relations in this sphere,
stipulate production and realization as well as define necessary
control. In the Republic there are special expectations from
bee-farming. As informed the minister of agriculture, last year more
than 210 tones of honey were produced in the Republic, while there
is a potential to bring this index to 500 tones. Prime Minister
Ara Haroutunyan told that the realization of the product would be
stimulated by the existing means, in order to increase its volume.

In the NKR will soon pass to new multistage system. These goal-oriented
necessary legislative drafts are already ready -approved by the
Government and will be submitted to the NA’s discussion. State pension
welfare, compulsory stocker and voluntary stocker pension parts will
be included in the NKR pension system. Prime Minister Ara Haroutunyan
assigned the social welfare ministry to give necessary explanations
to the population about the content and general provisions of the
new system, tell about advantages and appropriateness of the novelty.

The Executive approved draft law “On defining tax and other compulsory
payment benefits for organizations and private entrepreneurs. This
law will be enforceable for state and private enterprises.

Among the new law drafts approved by the Government are the laws
“On psychiatric aid” and “On non material cultural inheritance”.

The executive proposed amendments and additions in the NKR law “On
social protection in case of population’s employment and unemployment”.

By another resolution adopted by the Government during the session was
asserted the new order of compensating the employee who was injured
or obtained occupational desease during the implementation of his
labour duties.

The executive proposed amendments and additions in the laws “On social
welfare of servicemen and members of their families”, “On NKR Rescue
Service”, “On diplomatic service”, “On service in Police”. All the
mentioned law drafts will be submitted to the discussion of National
Assembly.

The Government adopted a number of resolutions for regulating the
activity of different spheres.

By one of the resolutions has been affirmed licensing orders and
license forms of realizing educational programme in NKR.

The Government approved the order of placing advertisement in transport
means. It is defined that the advertisement must not be placed in
the front and back parts of transport means and on those transport
means which move dangerous burdens. Headlights of the cars can not
be used because of the advertisements .

At the session the executive made a number of amendments in temporary
schemes of land area using which belong to Askeran’s urban and rural
communities of Khnkavan of the region Martakert.

ARMENIAN NPP’S OPERATION DOES NOT POSE GREAT RISKS FOR PEOPLE IN REGION- ARMENIAN PRESIDENT

news.am
June 22 2011
Armenia

The Armenian Government’s view is not enough to assess the condition
of the Armenian nuclear power plant, President of Armenia Serzh
Sargsyan stated at a summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE) on June 22.

“Two weeks ago IAEA OSART mission arrived in Armenia and conducted a
safety test at Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). We did considerable
work to ensure safety of the Armenian nuclear power plant. The
Armenian NPP’s operation does not pose great risks to the people
in our region. Super-profits from other energy resources which
ramp up military spendings pose a threat to the region. Armenia’s
Government will go on pursing its policy developing nuclear energy
under supervision of international agencies,” Sargsyan concluded.

STATEMENT ISSUED BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH REPUBLIC

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 22:26:09 – 22/06/2011

Reaffirming our previous statements on the Fundamental Principles
put forth by Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,

We hereby state that we will be considering null and void any document
endorsing these principles and signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

It is evident to us that no interstate agreement can have legal
force if:

1) it limits fundamental human rights; 2) it is signed under the
threat of use of force and economic coercion; and 3) it humiliates
the dignity of the people that has won in the national-liberation
struggle and deprives it of the results of its own victory.

We remain firmly convinced that the only way to establish peace between
Azerbaijan and NKR is the unreserved international recognition of our
state and, in this regard, we consider the announcements made by the
Government of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in favor of this position of
the Artsakh public to be a positive circumstance.

Hence, we call on the Presidents of the three states meeting in
the city of Kazan on June 26 of this year to take account of this
political fact and demonstrate political will to adopt a new format
for peaceful negotiations. Peaceful and free development of the region
is possible to ensure only through universal respect for human rights.

A format of negotiations anchored on this principle will lead to
pacific settlement of disputes.

NUMBER OF REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS IN ARMENIA GROWS TO 16,600

/ ARKA /
June 22, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, June 22. /ARKA/. The number of real estate transactions in
Armenia reached 16,600 by late May 2011 after growing 2% since the
previous month, and 23.1% compared with the same month a year earlier,
the Armenian State Real Estate Cadastre says in its reports.

The greatest number of deals was registered in Yerevan – 32.3% of
the total number of transactions effected in May, and the smallest
number were recorded in Vayots Dzor – 2.1%.

Kotayk province accounted for 15% of the total number of the real
estate transactions registered in Armenia in May 2011, Gegharkunik
for 7.5%, Lori 8.2%, Armavir 5.9%, Ararat 5.9%, Shirak 7%, Syunik 5%,
Aragatsotn 7.4% and Tavush 3.8%.

According to the report, immovable property alienation transactions
made up 24.4% of the total number of real estate transactions effected
in May, primary registrations 15.9%, mortgage deals 15.5%, immovable
property succession 12.1% and real estate leasing 4.7%.

Remarkable is that not a single case of privatization was recorded
in Armneia in May 2011.

Average market prices for apartments rose 0.1% in May, compared with
April, everywhere in Armneia but Yerevan.

GOVERNOR SIGNS GENOCIDE EDUCATION BILL

Providence Eyewitness News

June 22 2011
RI

Curriculum materials will be posted online

PROVIDENCE, RI (WPRI) – Governor Lincoln Chafee signed legislation
Wednesday instructing the Department Of Education to aid local schools
teach students about genocides as part of civic education.

This legislation, which was passed by the General Assembly earlier this
month, directs the state Department Of Education to post materials on
it’s website about genocides. These materials cover the topics of the
Holocaust and genocides in Armenia, Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, and Darfur.

Sponsors of the bill stated that they recognize that schools are
struggling for funding and that teachers are pressed for time. By
making the curriculum available online, they believe the information
would be accessible to students.

The bill was sponsored by Senator Joshua Miller (D-Dist. 28, Cranston,
Warwick) and Representative Anastasia P. Williams (D-Dist. 9,
Providence).