Author: Babajanian Karo

ARMENIAN PM: ECONOMY NEEDS DIVERSIFICATION

CNN Business 360
June 15 2011

CNN business anchor, John Defterios

Armenian export was worth 20% of GDP in 2000 but it is only 12%
of GDP today; the trade balance is still negative.

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan says the Armenian economy
is not sufficiently diversified and he wants to boost the country’s
industrial base.

He says promoting export is still a primary concern and he also
discusses the country’s complex relationship with neighbor Turkey.

watch video at

ARMENIAN SCIENTISTS DISSATISFIED WITH MEDIA

news.am
June 15 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – The role of science in Armenia is not impressive and
media has an important role in its portrayal, co-chairman of Armenian
Astronomical Society (ArAS) Areg Mikaelyan told at press conference
on Wednesday.

According to ArAS co-chairman, journalists speak on sport ten times
more than on science and people value each other not on intellect
but money.

“Not only sport competitions but also trainings are covered,
while media pays no attention to important scientific events,” told
Mikaelyan. “Media can support science and the increase of scientist’s
authority by covering scientific achievements and important events.”

Mikaelyan believes that not only media but also the scientists should
deal with the issue. Out of numerous scientific institutions only
few have their PR services.

ARMENIA DIPLOMATICALLY ISOLATED AND DEPENDENT ON RUSSIA – EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

news.am
June 15 2011
Armenia

An article telling about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was posted on the
website of the European Parliament ahead of hearings at the Committee
on Foreign Affairs.

The article says “the conflict has left Armenia diplomatically isolated
and dependent on Russia. Since the closure of the border with Turkey,
the only overland transport options available to Armenia are Georgia
and Iran”.

“So pipelines from the Caspian Sea to Turkey have been built through
Georgia, not Armenia, while a rail link from Azerbaijan to Turkey
circumvents Armenia,” it reads.

Foreign Affairs Committee of European Parliament will hold hearing
about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday

TURKISH COMPANIES TO ORGANIZE PACKAGE TOURS TO ARMENIA

Hurriyet Daily News
June15 2011
Turkey

A joint enterprise between two Turkish-based tourism companies is
planning to organize special package tours from Turkey to Armenia in
August, even though the two countries’ borders have remained closed
since 1993.

The lack of recognition between the two peoples has resulted in
reservations about traveling to each other’s countries for both
Armenians and Turks, according to one company owner.

“Turkish tourists had been traveling to Armenia through Georgia until a
couple of years ago, but now the situation has changed,” Dikran Altun,
the owner of Tower Turizm, recently told the Hurriyet Daily News.

Altun’s Tower Turizm will be partnering with Tuten Turizm to launch
the package tours to Armenia, which are made possible by the regular
scheduled flights between the two companies.

Altun has managed to sustain continued flights between Turkey and
Armenia with a plane he procured from Atlas Jet, a private airliner,
in the aftermath of the Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and
Azerbaijan at the beginning of the 1990s.

“We struggled desperately to prevent the flights from being cancelled.

Otherwise, all contact [between Turkey and Armenia] would have been cut
off. Small problems did arise, but in the end, we were able to maintain
the flights by obtaining permission from the Foreign Ministry. It is
for this reason we can now implement these package tours,” Altun said.

‘Is it safe?’

“Unfortunately our people do not know each other – hence their
hesitation to travel,” Altun said, adding that Turkish and Armenian
tourists set to visit each others’ countries for the first time always
ask whether it is safe to travel.

Fifteen people have already made reservations for the tour, according
to Harutyan Demir, one of Tuten Turizm’s co-owners.

“I was not expecting a large burst of demand anyway; interest will
grow bit by bit,” Demir told the Daily News.

Aside from Istanbul Armenians, the company has also sent some Turkish
tourists to Yerevan in the past two years, though they were few in
number, according to Demir. This year’s all-inclusive package trip
will cost between 960 and 1,200 euros.

Passengers predominantly fly from Armenia to Turkey, but increasing
numbers of businesspeople, journalists and intellectuals have also
been taking the flight from Turkey to Armenia every year, he said. Two
flights operate between Istanbul and Yerevan each week, while there
are also weekly flights between Yerevan and the Mediterranean Turkish
cities of Antalya and Bodrum during the summer season.

“My greatest desire is to see the re-establishment of relations and
dialogue between the two countries. It is of great significance for
me to see Turkish Airlines starting flights to Yerevan,” Altun said.

WHO’S TO TAKE CARE OF INACTIVE CHURCHES IN ARMENIA?

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 15, 2011 – 13:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Know Your Country youth initiative members visited
the 10th century Gndevank Monastery complex in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor
province and cleared the monastery-adjacent territory of accumulated
waste.

According to the statement issued by the initiative members, Echmiadzin
is refusing to assume guardianship of thousands of inactive churches
in Armenia; while the Ministry of Culture, justifying its indifference
by lack of means, neglects its direct responsibilities – protection
of Christian historic monuments.

ONLY PEACE IN EXCHANGE FOR PEACE: KARABAKH REITERATES RETURN OF TERRITORIES IS UNACCEPTABLE
By Naira Hayrumyan

ArmeniaNow
15.06.11 | 10:48

The first phase of the Karabakh conflict settlement can be considered
completed only if not only Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will give their consent to the Basic
Principles, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan stressed
on Tuesday.

Enlarge Photo Bako Sahakyan

The second phase, said Nalbandyan, speaking at a joint press conference
with his visiting Swedish counterpart in Yerevan, involves the
development of an agreement on conflict settlement and Stepanakert
must definitely take part in those negotiations.

“The people of Nagorno-Karabakh are the masters of their destiny. This
is the cornerstone of a peaceful settlement for us,” stated Nalbandyan.

In fact, the Armenian foreign minister said that the outcome of the
meeting in the Russian city of Kazan of the presidents of Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Russia slated for June 25 as well as the signing of
the Basic Principles now depend on the opinion of Karabakh.

President Bako Sahakyan stated that there can be no return to the
past: the conflict with Azerbaijan can be resolved only one way – a
legal recognition at the international level of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic’s independent status.

“This is the view of both the people and the government of our
republic. There can be no talk about the return to the situation of
1988 either in terms of the status or territories,” said Sahakyan.

Authorities in Azerbaijan have repeatedly stated that they will
not agree on the independent status of Nagorno-Karabakh. However,
a referendum on Karabakh’s self-determination is one of the key
points in the basic principles on the conflict settlement developed
by the international mediators – the OSCE Minsk Group (co-headed by
the United States, France and Russia).

The Karabakh side has reservations regarding the OSCE-proposed
document, said Karabakh Parliament Speaker Ashot Ghulyan. “We have
reservations regarding the Madrid principles, but as this document
and its elements often change, now it is very difficult to say in
what state they are today and how far acceptable they are. Naturally,
our position has not changed, we continue to have our reservations,
but we also understand that currently on the table is a document that
is of interest to the parties,” said Ghulyan.

For his part, Chairman of the NKR Public Council on Security
and Foreign Policy Masis Mayilyan said that “perhaps some of the
proposals would have proved relevant and appealing to the people
of Karabakh 20 years ago.” “But after the full-scale war unleashed
by Azerbaijan against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, after
the death of thousands of people, ethnic cleansings, the armed
occupation and material damage, offering an unclear interim status
for Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenian sides with the vague “expression
of the will of its population” in return for a sharp decline in the
level of its security and sovereignty is at least, not serious,”
said Mayilyan.

Only peace can be offered in exchange for peace, and not territories,
emphasized Karabakh leader Sahakyan.

Still in 2009 the civil society of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
represented by leaders of nongovernmental organizations and public
experts stated that the declarations of the mediators regarding
a conflict settlement based on the so-called Madrid principles
fundamentally contradict the interests of Karabakh and Armenia. “We,
representatives of the NKR’s civil society, regard the imposed
settlement option as illegal, unjust, immoral and disastrous for the
entire South Caucasus region,” they said in their statement then.

ASHOT MANUCHARYAN: DIALOGUE BETWEEN ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT AND ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS WAS INITIATED AND SUSPENDED BY THE UNITED STATES

arminfo
Wednesday, June 15, 17:18

The dialogue between the Government of Armenia and the Armenian
National Congress might have caused serious improvements in the
country’s social-political life but for the moment it has been
suspended, member of the Karabakh committee, ex national security
advisor of the President of Armenia Ashot Manucharyan said during a
press-conference today.

He noted that the dialogue was initiated and suspended by the United
States.

“This process might be contrary to Russia’s interests and since the
Americans did not wish to deprive the Russians of their presence in
Armenia they decided to stop it,” Manucharyan said.

He still sees preconditions for reaching internal political consensus.

“Today, our existing parties are busy dividing the economic cake.

Their mentality is consumption. We need something different. Luckily,
we do have forces propagating new real values. I mean the Sardarapat
movement and some political groups inside the Armenian National
Congress. Today, we can see active debates in the internet and,
sooner or later, they may grow into a serious civil movement,”
Manucharyan said.

FASSIER: UNLESS BASIC PRINCIPLES ARE ACCEPTED OSCE MG WILL HAVE TO SUGGEST A NEW CONCEPT

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 15, 2011 – 19:49 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – At current stage of Karabakh conflict settlement,
the OSCE Minsk Group activities proved to be effective, OSCE MG U.S.
co-chair Robert Bradtke said.

“OSCE MG format is quite flexible and able to respond quickly to any
changes in the region,” Bradtke said speaking at a hearing Wednesday
in the European Parliament. According to him, in future, EU will
largely contribute to conflict settlement.

According to him, in their recent statement in Deauville, the leaders
of three countries of the OSCE Minsk Group urged the parties to make
“bold steps” to apply basic principles. Speaking about the performance
of the co-chairs, U.S. mediator said: “The main thing we have done
is to prevent a new war.”

According to the French co-chair Bernard Fassier, the EU’s role in
this conflict is decisive. “The lease EU’s done is the training of
civil society in both countries,” said Fassier. Also, the ambassador
said if the basic principles are not accepted soon, the co-chairs
will have to come up with a new concept.

According to Fassier, the co-chairs were hoping for a breakthrough
in 2009, which is why the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group for the
first time took the responsibility of publishing the basic principles
for a settlement.

“Thus, today we come to an end of the third cycle in Karabakh conflict
settlement,” Trend News quoted the ambassador as saying.

IS CARL BILDT AWARE OF WHERE KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT THRESHOLD IS?

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 15, 2011 – 21:30 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – We are on the threshold of finding a solution to
Karabakh conflict, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Wednesday
June 15 in Tbilisi at a joint briefing with his Georgian counterpart
Grigol Vashadze.

“We follow the course of conflict settlement with major attention and
hope that the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents will make a great
progress in the upcoming talks,” he said.

Bildt stressed that the issue was discussed today during a meeting
with Vashadze, which lasted over an hour, Trend News reported.

The presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are slated to
meet June 25 in the Russian city of Kazan, the next in a series of
trilateral meetings on the frozen conflict.

United States, French and Russian leaders called on Armenia and
Azerbaijan on May 26 to move toward a peaceful resolution of the
long-standing conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We…are convinced that it is time for the sides in the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh to take a decisive step toward a peaceful resolution
(of the conflict),” said a joint statement by Presidents Barack Obama,
Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev at the G8 summit in the French
resort of Deauville.

“We firmly call on the leaders of the sides to prepare their people
for peace, not war,” the statement said.

“We call on the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to demonstrate
political will and finalize…the basic principles (of a peace
agreement) during the forthcoming summit in June.”

$1B INVESTMENTS NEEDED TO IMPROVE DRINKING WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 15, 2011 – 13:31 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – $1 billion investments is needed to improve the
drinking water supply system in Armenia, according to Patrick Lorin,
Director General of Armenian Water and Sewerage Company (AWSC).

As he told journalists in Yerevan on June 15, some $100 million was
invested to modernization of the system by 2011, and the government,
which is the 100% owner, is expected to take a loan worth $100 million
for the coming 5 years, which will allow to achieve goals on providing
17-hour water supply in the country by 2017.

Presently the company is implementing a large investment project in
Hrazdan which will be completed by the end of the year. There also
are plenty of projects aimed to solve the problem of purification of
water by means of installing relative devices.

Mr. Lorin said that up to date the AWSC serves 37 cities and 300
communities, except for Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor and Armavir,
where average index of water supply duration makes 14 hrs. against
6 hrs. in 2004.

In 2004, the French SAUR S.A. became the manager of AWSC through a
tender; the contract was extended from 2004 to 2008, then from 2008
to 2010, and the last date of extension will expire in 2011. “We
negotiate on extending the contract term till 2013,” he said.

As regards the prices for water, according to the Director General,
the price for 1 cubic meter totals AMD 179,78, (effective from April 1,
2009). He also said that no increase of prices for water is expected.