Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

"IT IS NOT UPON NKR TO GIVE ASSESSMENTS"

A1+
[05:24 pm] 29 October, 2007

"It is not upon the Karabakh residents to assess Levon Ter-Petrossian’s
return to politics and interior developments in Armenia although
none of us can remain indifferent to the country’s political events
taking into account the high level of bilateral economic, political,
spiritual and cultural relations," said Vahram Atanesian, the Chairman
of the parliamentary Commission for Foreign Relations of Karabakh.

According to Vahram Atanesian, Levon Ter-Petrossian had done his utmost
for the Armenian people in 1994-1998, at the beginning of independence
proclamation and in 1995 during the adoption of the first constitution.

RA PRESIDENT, RF DEFENSE MINISTER APPRECIATE THE LEVEL OF MILITARY COOPERATION

armradio.am
30.10.2007 17:46

President Robert Kocharyan today received the Defense Minister of
the Russian Federation Anatoly Serdyukov here for an official visit,
President’s Press Office informs.

The parties discussed issues concerning the military-technical
cooperation, expressing appreciation for the level and quality of
cooperation in the sphere.

DEFENSE MINISTER OF RUSSIA TO VISIT ARMENIA

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 29 2007

Anatoly Serdyukov, Defense Minister of Russia will visit Armenia today,
APA reports in reference to Novosti Armenia.

During 2 day -visit A. Serdyukov will meet with Armenian President
Robert Kocharian, Prime Minister Serge Sarkisyan and his counterpart
Michael Arutunyan. Military relations between two countries will be
debated at the meeting. A. Serdyukov will visit Russian military base
which dislocated in Armenia.

KARABAKH MEDIATORS HOLD MORE TALKS IN YEREVAN, BAKU
By Ruben Meloyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 29 2007

International mediators continued to shuttle between Armenia and
Azerbaijan at the weekend in hopes of brokering what a senior
U.S. diplomat described as a "gentlemen’s agreement" on the main
principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement. The American,
French and Russian co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group arrived in
Yerevan and held fresh talks with President Robert Kocharian and
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian on Saturday before heading back to
Baku. They already visited the two capitals earlier last week. Speaking
to RFE/RL, the group’s U.S. co-chair, Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State Matthew Bryza, said the mediators remain in the conflict zone
to try to "build on some positive momentum." He said they will convey
to Armenian leaders an "important message" from Baku but refused
to disclose it. Bryza again insisted that Armenia and Azerbaijan
may still cut a framework peace deal before their presidential
elections due next year. "We can’t exclude the possibility that
we will reach a gentlemen’s agreement," he said. "But that would
be an oral statement. We are not talking about a written agreement
in the immediate future." Kocharian said earlier this month that no
Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements are likely to be reached before the
2008 elections. As always, his office did not release any details of
his talks with the mediating troika. "I can’t say there is anything
new at this point," Vladimir Karapetian, the Armenian Foreign
Ministry spokesman, told RFE/RL. "The process is continuing and we
expect that it will be possible to bring our positions closer to each
other." Official Azerbaijani sources said nothing about the mediators’
weekend talks with President Ilham Aliev and Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov. Mammadyarov was quoted by Azerbaijani media as saying
on Monday that the parties still disagree on some of the principles
of a Karabakh settlement proposed by the Minsk Group.

"The co-chairs believe that they will succeed in finding common ground
between the parties," he said. Baku and Yerevan are understood to
have already accepted the main points of the Minsk Group’s existing
peace plan. It calls for a gradual resolution of the conflict would
enable Karabakh’s predominantly Armenian population to decide the
disputed region’s status in a referendum years after the liberation
of surrounding Azerbaijani territories.

Diplomatic sources privy to the negotiating process say the parties
still disagree on practical modalities of the proposed referendum as
well as the timetable for Armenian withdrawal from those territories.

"We are so very close on just a few remaining technical issues,"
Bryza told RFE/RL in a separate interview last Wednesday. "It would
be a shame if we didn’t reach some sort of a gentlemen’s agreement
on this framework that’s on the table."

IMPORT OF NATURAL GAS FROM RUSSIA INTO ARMENIA INCREASES BY 22,9% OVER 9 MONTHS IN 2007

arminfo
2007-10-29 18:15:00

ArmInfo. Import of natural gas from Russia into Armenia increased by
22,9%, totaling 1392,238mln cub/m over 9 months in 2007 as against
the same period of 2006, ArmInfo was told at the press service of
"ArmRosgazprom" CJSC.

According to the source, sale of natural gas grew by 21,8% up to
1237,85 mln cub/m over the reporting period. The population consumed
355,29 mln cub/m gas against 255,14mln of the same period in 2006. The
share of industry made up 283,61mln cub/m against 234,3mln cub/m of
the previous year. In the sphere of power economy the volume of gas
consumption practically didn’t change and made up 303,8mln cub/m.

To recall, since January 1, 2006 Armenia has bought 1 000 cub/m gas
from Russia for $110. Armenian Russian "ArmRosgazprom" CJSC is a
monopoly supplier of natural gas in Armenia.

PUBLIC LECTURE ON "GENERATIONAL IMPACT OF MASS TRAUMA OF GENOCIDE"

armradio.am
29.10.2007 14:20

The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI) organizes Public Lecture
series. The main purpose of the seminar-lectures at the AGMI is the
establishment of the community of Genocide Studies scholars. Several
controversial historical, cultural, social issues will be discussed
during these lectures.

The attempted destruction of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Turkish
Government from 1895-1923 not only cost one-and-a-half million Armenian
lives but created massive trauma for many of those who survived. During
a public lecture on October 30 entitled "Generational Impact of
Mass Trauma of Genocide" Dr. Kalayjian will talk about the physical,
psychosocial, and spiritual impact of Genocide on the offspring of
survivors. The presentation will summarize several research studies
conducted in North America with the survivors of the Genocide as well
as with the offspring. When trauma is properly processed emotionally
there is a cathartic effect. Concomitantly, the presentation will
address therapeutic modalities used to process those feelings, and
transform it into healing.

Anie Kalayjian is an internationally recognized expert on the
psychological effects of trauma in disaster victims, and the author of
the authoritative handbook, Disaster & Mass Trauma: Global Perspectives
in Post Disaster Mental Health Management. She has worked extensively
with veterans of the Gulf and Vietnam wars, with survivors of the
Holocaust and Ottoman-Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, and with
survivors of earthquakes and hurricanes.

>From 1988 to 2006 she went to Armenia, California, Cyprus, Florida,
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Turkey to assist
health professionals treating trauma cases after natural and
human made disasters and to train psychiatrists, psychologists and
general practitioners in post-trauma therapeutic interventions. With
compassion, she has dared to confront the incomprehensible, giving us
hope that those who have been damaged can one day be made whole. More
important, her ultimate vision is that through peaceful resolution,
man’s injustice to man will be prevented altogether.

POSTPONEMENT OF H.RES.106 VOTE WAS PREDICTABLE

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.10.2007 14:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Postponement of vote on the Armenian Genocide
Resolution was predictable, Director of the Caucasus Media Institute,
Dr. Alexander Iskandaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

"Turkey grated on U.S. nerves and the result was predictable. However,
this story has one peculiarity.

No one denied that the massacre of 1.5 million of Armenians was
Genocide but political advisability dominated. Actually, the Armenian
Genocide was recognized," he underscored.

The four leading Democratic sponsors of the Armenian Genocide
Resolution (H.Res.106) have called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to
adopt a revised schedule for the consideration of this human rights
legislation by the House of Representatives.

In a letter sent to Speaker Pelosi, lead author Adam Schiff (D-CA),
Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and
Representatives Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) stressed
that, in asking for this delay, "we believe that a large majority of
our colleagues want to support a resolution recognizing the genocide
on the House floor and that they will do so, provided the timing is
more favorable."

October 10, with a vote 27 to 21 the U.S. House Committee on Foreign
Affairs adopted the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.106, which
was introduced by Representative Adam Schiff January 30, 2007.

DID THE ICE BREAK AT LAST?

Lragir, Armenia
Oct 25 2007

The television boycott of the press clubs of Yerevan for over a week
was partly lifted on October 25. Today news conferences were held
in two of them, the Friday Club and the Hayeli Club, the political
scientist Alexander Iskandaryan held a news conference at the Friday
Club, and the heads of the municipalities of three communities of
Yerevan held a news conference at the Hayeli Club. Yerkir Media and
ALM showed up at the news conference in Hayeli, H1 and Shant TV showed
up at the Friday Club.

The reporters were surprised. The point is that no TV reporter
had been seen at the press clubs since October 15 except Yerkir
Media which covered the news conferences of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
activists. They say the government instructed the TV channels boycott
the press clubs. Indeed, both the government and the TV channels
denied the information about compulsion, and offered other excuses.

Surprisingly, however, all the TV channels boycotted the press clubs
at the same time.

The two cameras in each club today make think that the boycott has been
stopped. However, it is early to state for sure because it is not known
yet why the TV channels went, why they came and did they really come?

NUCLEAR SPLIT EMERGES IN IRAN
Robert Tait in Tehran

The Guardian
Wednesday October 24, 2007

Signs of a split over nuclear policy at the heart of Iran’s leadership
emerged yesterday after MPs and an adviser to the country’s most
powerful political figure criticised the departure of its chief
negotiator, Ali Larijani.

Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to the supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised Mr Larijani and said his resignation
should not have happened. His comments coincided with a letter of
support for Mr Larijani signed by 200 MPs in Iran’s parliament. The
parliament’s foreign and national security committee wrote to President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, complaining that Mr Larijani’s departure "put
the country in danger".

Mr Larijani quit last Saturday after complaining that Mr Ahmadinejad
had undermined his negotiating strategy. The resignation was seen as
evidence that Mr Khamenei had handed greater control to the president,
who has declared the nuclear case "closed" and replaced Mr Larijani
with a close ally, Saeed Jalili.

However, that interpretation was cast in doubt by Mr Velayati’s
intervention.

Meanwhile a spokesman for the Armenian president, Robert Kocharyan,
yesterday said Mr Ahmadinejad had been forced to cut short a trip
there because of unspecified developments.

ARMENIA URGES UNESCO TO SEND OBSERVERS TO THE REGION

armradio.am
25.10.2007 17:02

UNESCO observers may visit Old Jugha (Nakhijevan) in the near future
to investigate the fact of destruction of Armenian monuments. RA
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian discussed the issue in Paris during
the 34th session of the UNESCO Conference. The Minister confirmed that
the visit will take place if Azerbaijan does not create new obstacles.

"The delegation cannot enter Nakhijevan without Azerbaijan’s
agreement. Armenia cannot do more than demand the delegation to arrive
as a member country of the Council of Europe. "Azerbaijan tries
to prevent these visits," Vartan Oskanian told a press conference
today. He assured there are no obstacles from the Armenian side
and to satisfy both parties UNESCO has asked for permission to
monitor the monuments on the territory of Armenia and visit Nagorno
Karabakh. Armenia has given a positive answer and has urged the
delegation to arrive.

Let us remind that on August 29 Azerbaijan prevented the visit of the
PACE delegation headed by British MP Edward O’Hara to Nakhijevan, where
they destroyed the Armenian cemetery in 2006 and built a firing range.