Author: Chakrian Hovsep

IRAN SEES NO OBSTACLES TO BROADER RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 19, 2007 Monday

Iran does not see any obstacles to an all-round expansion of relations
with Armenia, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a joint
press conference with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan on Monday.

"There are no obstacles to an expansion of ties with neighbouring
friendly Armenia," Ahmadinejad said after launching a gas pipeline
between the two countries.

The Iranian and Armenian presidents also discussed how to strengthen
relations in the fields of trade, energy, and transport.

"Today we witnessed the launch of an important project designed
to strengthen and expand relations between the two countries,"
Ahmadinejad said.

Kocharyan said the opening of a gas pipeline with Iran is a "historical
event" and "a new chapter" of Armenian-Iranian relations.

"Fifteen years ago in Megri, on the border with Iran, there were
only several rows of barbed wire on the state border of the Soviet
Union. Today the situation is totally different. Last year, 600,000
tonnes of cargoes were transported by the bridge built across the
border river Araks," the president said.

Ten years ago, the energy systems of the two countries were not
linked. Now they are planning to build a third high-voltage power
line and jointly build a hydropower plant on the Araks.

Kocharyan described the dynamics of bilateral relations as "exemplary".

"The two countries have agreed to refrain from steps that one of them
can consider unfriendly," the president said.

In his words, Armenia and Iran are trying to implement economic
projects that will establish solid links between their economies.

The total length of the gas pipeline is 141 kilometres (40 kilometres
running via Armenia) and its diameter is 700 millimetres. It will link
the two countries’ gas transportation systems. The pipeline runs from
Iranian Tebriz to the Armenian border and then from the Armenian border
settlement of Megri to the miners’ town of Kadzharan, where the pipe
will be connected to an operating line to Yerevan. Its throughput
capacity should be increased, to which end it will be necessary to
lay a new gas pipeline from southeast to central parts of the republic.

According to Armenian authorities, the gas pipeline is designed
exclusively for the republic’s internal needs and has no capacity
for transit gas supplies. "We are regarding this project as a serious
matter in enhancing Armenia’s energy security and diversifying natural
gas import routes," Kocharyan sated.

The trunk line will become an alternative to the trans-Caucasian gas
pipeline running from the North Caucasus to the Trans-Caucasus area
(Mozdok-Tbilisi-Yerevan) along which Russian natural gas is supplied
to Armenia via Georgia. Over the past 15 years, the pipeline has
been repeatedly blown up on the Georgian territory due to which gas
supplies to Armenia were interrupted, causing a crisis in the Armenian
energy system.

The intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the gas
pipeline was signed between Armenia and Iran in Yerevan on May 13,
2004 and the laying of the pipeline started simultaneously from the
two sides on November 30, 2004. The cost of the Armenian section of
the pipeline is 120 million U.S. dollars.

While at the initial stage the throughput capacity of the pipeline will
be 1.1 billion cubic metres of gas, it will grow to 2.3 billion cubic
metres of gas annually by 2019. To sustain this increase, it will be
necessary to lay 197 kilometres of a new pipeline from southeast closer
to the central part of Armenia at the Kadzharan-Sisian-Dzhemruk-Ararat
section.

Iranian gas will be supplied in exchange for Armenian electricity,
Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsesyan said.

Under the agreement, Iran will supply 36 billion cubic metres of gas
to Armenia in the next 20 years, getting electricity in exchange.

NEWS RELEASE
Armenian Bar Association
March 12, 2007:
Antranig Baronian, (610) 504-4856
[email protected]
Roger Ashodian, [email protected]
Executive Director Betty A. Jangotchian
P.O. Box 29111
Los Angeles, CA 90029
Tel: 323-666-6288
Fax: 323-666-6288
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

Raffi K. Hovannisian, First Foreign Minister of Armenia to Address
Philadelphia Community on March 21, 2007

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Armenian Bar Association announced that
Raffi K. Hovannisian, who as an Armenian American became the first
Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia when Armenia achieved
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, will address the
Philadelphia area Armenian community at Terhanian Hall, St. Gregory
the Illuminator Armenian Church, 8701 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA,
starting at 8:00 p.m. After serving as Foreign Minister,
Mr. Hovannisian founded independent Armenia’s first think tank in
1994, the Armenian Center for National and International Studies,
("ACNIS"; see ), headquartered in Yerevan, Armenia,
where he continues to serve as President. Mr. Hovannisian will
discuss the present activities of ACNIS and the challenges facing
Armenia and the Armenian people at the Terhanian Hall event, his first
public appearance in the Philadelphia area for more than a decade.
The event is free and open to the public, but tax-deductible donations
to ACNIS are welcome.

In founding ACNIS, which currently has a staff of 18 scholars
in a broad range of academic disciplines and support staff, Mr.
Hovannisian sought to provide the scholarly research to support
Armenia’s emergence as an independent nation with a viable economy and
strategic relationships in the community of nations. "Raffi
Hovannisian has been a leading light in Armenia’s struggle to make the
transition from an authoritarian Soviet regime to a truly democratic
society in which the rule of law is paramount," said Roger Ashodian,
one of the event’s organizers who first met Mr. Hovannisian in
graduate school. ACNIS, a leading independent strategic research
center in Yerevan, focuses in its research on a comprehensive agenda
of foreign and public policy issues, which are articulated
analytically in political and academic arenas around the world. The
Center also hosts conferences and other visits by scholars from
leading academic institutions around the world. In its most recent
initiative, on March 9th ACNIS convened the latest in its
international visitors series entitled "Elections and Democratic
Consolidation", a presentation and panel discussion on Armenia’s
upcoming parliamentary elections.

Mr. Hovannisian’s profession is international law. He is a
graduate of UCLA, with a major in history and near eastern studies,
has a masters degree in international relations and Soviet Affairs
from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and
obtained his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

The Armenian Bar Association was also the inspiration of
Raffi Hovannisian. The Armenian Bar Association was formed in 1989 to
provide an arena for lawyers of Armenian heritage and other interested
individuals to come together socially and professionally and to
address the legal concerns of the Armenian community. With the
creation of an independent Republic of Armenia, the Association
undertook the task of helping to build and encourage the growth of
democratic institutions in Armenia.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Chechelashvili: GUAM works at formation of peacekeeping party
16.03.2007 18:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The GUAM works at formation of peacekeeping party,
said Valeriy Chechelashvili, GUAM Secretary General, First Deputy
Foreign Minister of Georgia. The general staffs of the GUAM member
states are engaged in the work, he said adding that a GUAM police
contingent will be formed as well, reports Novosti Georgia.

Azeri private killed in shooting in Nagornyy Karabakh – agency

Azerbaijani news agency APA, Baku
15 Mar 07

15 March: An Azerbaijani army soldier has been killed in an Armenian
cease-fire violation, military sources have told APA.
Private Dilqam Sirinov died as a result of fire opened by Armenians from
their positions in the occupied village of Seyidli in Agdam District.
Sirinov was called up by the Ismayilli district military enlistment office in
July 2006. Attempts to get comments from the Defence Ministry have failed.

Armenia actively cooperating within CIS military treaty – official

Arminfo
15 Mar 07

Yerevan, 15 March: Armenia is an active member of the [CIS] Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and sees its security within the
activity of this organization. CSTO Secretary General Nikolay
Bordyuzha said this today during a meeting with students of Yerevan
State University.

Bordyuzha said that all government structures in Armenia have been
cooperating with the CSTO. He talked of the organization’s history and
said that the CSTO was established in a period when its member states
were only beginning to form their structures during the disintegration
of the USSR. [Passage omitted: more on history of CSTO]

The CSTO member states have also been against the proposal by the GUAM
(Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) to discuss the "frozen
conflicts" in the UN. Bordyuzha referred to Armenia’s participation in
the CSTO and said that the republic was able to purchase Russian arms
by Russian prices, and Armenian servicemen can study in Russian
military institutions for free.

"It is important for us to build a comprehensive security system. This
is why the cooperation develops in different directions," Bordyuzha
said. Joint work in the field of overcoming technical and natural
disasters will be a new direction of cooperation within the
CSTO. Peace-keeping will be another direction.

Bordyuzha said that a package of documents was being prepared within
the framework of the CSTO, on the basis of which peace-keeping forces
[presumably of the CIS] will be created. They will act with a UN
mandate, and not only in the CSTO member states, but also in other
countries.

Bordyuzha reminded that the CSTO member states have certain
responsibilities, including that they must not built bases belonging
to other countries on their own territory without consulting all the
members of the organization.

Comparing the CSTO with NATO, Bordyuzha said that the alliance was
created more than half a century ago and major efforts had been
invested to present its activity as positive. "We cannot carry out
similar awareness activity, but within our abilities we do carry out
certain awareness work about our activity," the CSTO Secretary General
said. "We do a lot to ensure common security," he added.

TWO BOOKS ON ARMENIAN THEMES AT ONCE PUBLISHED IN FRANCE

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Two works on
Armenian themes, Louis Carzou’s "The Eighth Hill" ("La Huitieme
Colline") novel and Laurence Ritter’s "Long Way of Armenians, History
and Present of Armenian Diaspora" ("La Longue Marche des Armeniens,
Histoire et Devenir d’une Diapors") research on Armenian themes, were
at once published in France. Armenian presentation of the books took
place on March 15 at the Caucasus Media Institute.

The "Eighth Hill" novel is the first fiction work of French Armenian
journalist, LCI editor-in-chief Louis Carzou. The author chose a
young, progressive Turk journalist as the main hero of the novel. The
Turk journalist accidentally got to know that his ancestors became
apostate after the Armenian Genocide. In the author’s words, he made
just this individual conflict and contradictory situation a mean to
again touch upon the Armenian Genocide issue. L. Carzou is sure that
every Turkish family has for years carried the consequence of the
Armenian Genocide as a stigma.

Sociologist Laurence Ritter living in Armenia mentioned that the "Long
Way of Armenians, History and Present of Armenian Diapora" research is
the result of his 5-year work. The research consists of three
parts. In the first part the author involved his researches about
Diasporan Armenians carried out in different colonies, their life way,
similarities and differences. The author’s researches about modern
Armenia and about what meaning it has for Diasporan Armenians were
involved in the second part of the book.

"The circumstance was especially important for me that the Armenian
people, being the victim of the genocide, today seems to already leave
the victim’s status, demanding from the international community to
respect its ancestors’ memory," Mr. Laurence emphasized.

TSEGHAKRON TEACHING OF NZHDEH CLOSE TO MEMBERS OF UNITY OF GEORGIAN ARMENIANS, ORGANIZATION’S CO-CHAIRMAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Mar 15 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The Unity of Georgian Armenians NGO
will support the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) at the forthcoming
parliamentary elections for several basic reasons. Tachat Vardapetian,
NGO’s Co-chairman, stated this at the March 15 press conference. The
first reason, in his words, is close cooperation with RPA from the
very first day of foundation of the organization and the circumstance
that RPA assisted with implementation of programs of school building
and restoration of cultural centers in Javakhk.

Besides, as T. Vardapetian mentioned, "the Tseghakron teaching of
Nzhdeh is close to the members of Unity of Georgian Armenians."

To recap, T. Vardapetian, member of Unity of Georgian Armenians Hayk
Sanosian and editor of Dzayn Virahayots newspaper Hakob Srapian are
included in RPA’s proportional list.

T. Vardapetian said that in case of appearing in National Assembly they
will consistently raise problems Georgian Armenians are anxious about
and will pursue their discussion at the level of Armenian-Georgian
interstate relations.

In response to the question, why instead of joining the Javakhk
Compatriotic Union and Hzor Hayrenik Party engaged in problems of
Armenians of Javakhk they support RPA, H. Sanosian said that uniting
with Javakhk is not excluded in the future.

TURKISH MFA DENIES STORIES ON YEREVAN – VAN DIRECT FLIGHTS

Turkish Press, MI
March 14 2007

ANKARA – Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) denied today the
news stories that directs flights would be allowed from Armenia to
eastern Turkish city of Van for the inaugural ceremony of the Akdamar
Armenian Church.

Technical preparations are underway, said MFA spokesman Levent Bilman
when commenting on the inauguration of the church.

On the other hand, the Armenian Church on Akdamar Island on Van Lake
will be opened on March 29th.

Akdamar Church was constructed by architect bishop Manuel between
915 and 921 A.D. under the supervision of King Gagik I.

Among the important pieces of Armenian architecture, the church draws
attraction with its stone workmanship and reliefs on its walls.

Turkish company Kartalkaya started renovation of the church in 2006.

Van Governor Niyazi Tanilir earlier said that an international
inauguration ceremony would be held.

"Culture ministers of several countries, members of national and
international media organizations, representatives of Armenian
community around the world, the head of Turkish Religious Affairs DG,
and head of several religious communities are expected to participate
in the ceremony," he added.

PRESIDENT KOCHARYAN HAD A FAREWELL MEETING WITH IMF CHIEF OF MISSION

ArmRadio.am
13.03.2007 14:45

President Robert Kocharyan today had a farewell meeting with Chief of
Mission of the International Monetary Fund in Armenia Hasan Al-Atrash.

The parties highly assessed the current level of cooperation, noting
that it proceeds in a normal and effective course.

The interlocutors dwelt on the programs already accomplished and to
be accomplished in future. In particular, reference was made to the
tax-custom reforms, development of the securities market, progress
of the banking and insurance systems.

CAR OF "UNITED JAVAKHK" CHAIRMANSHIP MEMBER KHACHIK SAHARIAN BLOWN UP: LATTER IS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 13 2007

YEKATERINBURG, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Lexus
car of Khachik Saharian, a member of the United Javakhk democratic
alliance chairmanship, businessman, was blown up in the city of
Yekaterinburg, Russia. Saharian was taken to one of the local
hospitals with different bodily injuries. As Javakhk-Info agency
states, Kh. Saharian was born in the village of Kumurdo, the region of
Akhalkalak, Samtskhe-Javakhk. It is not clear yet if the encroachment
was connected with his political or business activity. According to
the information of the "Bagin" information center, Khachik Saharian’s
relations were not "good-neighborly" with the heads of the "Virahayeri
Miasnutiun" (Unity of Georgian Armenians) organization settled in
Yerevan and the "Hzor Hayrenik" (Powerful Fatherland) party.