Author: Chatinian Lara

BORDYUZHA: AGREEMENT ON CREATION OF CSTO CRDF TO BE FINALLY PREPARED FOR SIGNING BY PRESIDENTS ON JUNE 14

ArmInfo
2009-06-04 10:53:00

ArmInfo. ‘I am deeply sure we shall return to the issue of creation of
CSTO Collective Rapid Deployment Forces and will finally prepare an
agreement on creation of CRDF for signing by the presidents on June
14, just before the sitting of CSTO Collective Security Council’,
CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha said after the sitting of
CSTO Defense Ministerial Council, CSTO spokesman Vitaly Strugovets
told ArmInfo.

‘Some delay with execution of the agreement on creation of the
Collective Rapid Deployment Forces has been caused by special positions
of Uzbekistan and Armenia. The Ministerial Council has discussed a
package of documents which creates legal bases of CRDF activity. There
are some discrepancies among CSTO states and Uzbekistan regarding
the issues of CRDF functioning, while Armenia insists on setting
of more specific terms of readiness of these forces’, N. Bordyuzha
said. To recall, the Agreement on creation of CRDF was signed in
Moscow on February 4 upon the results of the meeting of Armenia,
Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Collective forces are created to rebuff the military aggression,
conduct special operations on fight against the international terrorism
and extremism, drug trafficking, as well as eliminate the consequences
of emergency situations.

To note, the chairmanship in CSTO passed from Kyrgyzstan to Armenia
in 2008.

Attempt of buying protocol recorded in May 31 Yerevan Council of Elders
elections

YEREVAN, MAY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. On May 31, at 14:10, at polling station N
9/28, Zharangutiun party’s district electoral commission member Daniel
Iohannisian made up a protocol on voting by a citizen not having a
right to vote at the mentioned electoral district. According to NA
Zharangutiun faction member Stepan Safarian, district electoral
commission deputy chairwoman Nare Ghazarian from the Orinats Yerkir
party being concerned with this fact offered to sell her the protocol
on violation leaving it to D. Iohannisian to suggest the price.
According to S. Safarian, the offer of "sale" was categorically
rejected by the Zharangutiun representative, after which the commission
tried to make up a protocol that D. Iohannisian does his duties badly
and hinders commission’s work.

EU ENVOY SAYS JUNE TALKS NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR GARABAGH

AssA-Irada
May 25 2009
Azerbaijan

A European Union official has voiced hope that talks between the
Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, due on the sidelines of a CIS
summit in the Russian city of St. Petersburg early in June, would
help to move forward the nearly two-decade-long conflict over Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh. The EU supports the work now being conducted by
the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The EU special representative shares the hope of the mediators that
the forthcoming Saint Petersburg meeting between the presidents will
be a new opportunity for the sides to bring their positions closer,
says the EU envoy for the South Caucasus Peter Semnebys statement on
the outcomes of his visit to Azerbaijan on May 19-20. According to the
statement, released by the European Commissions local representation,
as part of his regular consultations with the Azerbaijani authorities,
the EU representative met during his visit with President Ilham Aliyev
and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. Among the issues discussed
was the normalization process in Turkish-Armenian relations and
its implications for Azerbaijan. Semneby outlined the EU’s vision
of the South Caucasus, where the opening of all borders would
enhance regional security and permit the region to develop its
full economic potential. Further, Semneby welcomed the signing by
Azerbaijan of the Prague Southern Corridor Summit Declaration. In
particular, the declaration will create opportunities to move forward
the energy cooperation between the European Union and its Eastern
neighbors. Azerbaijan is playing a fundamental role in the EU’s energy
relations, not least for its efforts to diversify energy sources and
transport routes, the statement said. The Southern Corridor project
envisions building three pipelines to transport Caspian, Central Asian
and Iraqi gas to Europe Nabucco, White Stream and Interconnector. Also,
the EU official discussed with the Azerbaijani authorities the Eastern
Partnership program, signed by the EU and six countries of its Eastern
European Neighborhood on May 7 in Prague. He indicated that the Eastern
Partnership, which aims to boost cooperation between the 27-member bloc
and its ex-Soviet partners, will create opportunities for a stronger
bilateral relationship between the EU and with the participating
countries, in particular through the planned negotiation of association
agreements. It will also create opportunities for developing regional
cooperation through regional platforms for governance issues, economic
cooperation, energy issues, and people-to-people contacts.

MULLALY REACHES QUARTERS IN ARMENIA

RTE.ie
9/0527/iaba.html
May 27 2009
Ireland

Chris Mullally joined Joe Ward and Michael Reilly in the quarter-finals
of the AIBA World Junior Championships courtesy of an impressive 7-2
win over Turkey’s Ihsan Erdogan in Yerevan, Armenia yesterday.

However, St Michael’s Athy ace Christy Joyce was beaten 17-6 by
Russian featherweight Dmitry Kulakov.

Mullaly’s win ensures that three Irish boxers will be competing for
at least bronze medals at the Yerevan Sports Centre on Wednesday.

The Irish trio will face two Russian and one Israeli opponent.

Earlier in the day, Ward and Reilly won their last 16 match-ups.

But Newry bantamweight Ryan McKeown bowed out on a 12-9 verdict,
despite producing a top class performance against Belzhan Amantayev
of Kazakhstan.

Moate light-middleweight Ward stopped Denis Rybak of Kazakhstan in
the third round this morning – Ward was 7-0 up when the bout was
halted 45 seconds into the third frame.

That win arrived just before Reilly shaded a thrilling contest
with Manuel Osorio of Puerto Rico, winning the see saw light 66kg
showdown 5-4, the Drimnagh club-man snatching victory from the jaws
of a count-back with the final score in the last five seconds.

OPPOSITIONIST SHOULD BE ELECTED MAYOR OF YEREVAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
26.05.2009 22:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ After the elections to the city council,
Dashnaktsutyun intends to form a national opposition pole to
counterbalance the authorities.

"Our party knows what kind of Mayor Yerevan should have and what
kind of tasks he should perform," said Artsvik Minasyan, who heads
the party’s list.

The forthcoming elections are merely political, according
to him. "Although there is an impression that we will elect
the main garbage collector," Minasyan said, hinting at
numerous statements about the necessity ‘to clean Yerevan.’

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS RESTRAINS CREATION OF ALL-ARMENIAN BANK

ArmInfo
2009-05-27 10:01:00

The global financial crisis restrains the process of creation of a
global Armenian retail bank (All-Armenian Bank – editor), Armenia’s
minister of economy, Nerses Yeritsyan, tells bne business issue. The
government contributed $20m to the capital of the bank, which has
already been set up, but isn’t operational yet. The plan was to raise
another $80m from Armenians around the world. However, the crisis threw
a wrench into the plans, as most of the commitments – which came from
both large Armenian-owned businesses and private individuals – have
been put on hold after markets crashed around the world at the end of
last year. "We took the bank on a road show last year and found there
was a lot of support amongst the diaspora," says Yeritsyan. "However,
these commitments have been withdrawn for the moment while everyone is
assessing their position. But we are confident that they will return
and we can push ahead as planned with the bank", Yeristyan stressed.

"It is a global retail bank that will target Armenians living
overseas," he says. "Imagine: if only 1% of all Armenians take a
credit card from the new bank, then that will generate enough money
for us to say goodbye to [international financial institution] funding
forever." Creation of All-Armenian Bank will allow mobilising resources
and investing into targeted projects back in Armenia. "It is a way
for our diaspora to take a more active role in the development of
the country and at the same time earn a good return on that growth,"
says the minister.

As the author of the publication says, the inflow of remittances
is already worth billions of dollars a year, but this is only the
tip of the asset iceberg and a fraction of the personal wealth of
successful Armenians who live overseas, most of which is deposited in
local banks. The author comes to the conclusion that Armenia’s best
export is its people and the government is hoping to tap its wealthy
diaspora by setting up a global retail bank that can funnel some of
their money into projects back at home.

In the meantime, the government has hired head hunters to find a top
quality international CEO, as the tricky bit of making a global retail
bank work is that it will have to compete with high street banks in
the US and UK in terms of the quality of its service.

TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER STARTS HIS VISIT TO AZERBAIJAN

APA
May 26 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu arrived in
Azerbaijan for official visit on May 25, APA reports.

Davutoglu will have meetings with Azerbaijani officials today. He
will meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov, Prime
Minister Artur Rasizadeh, speaker of the parliament Ogtay Asadov and
President Ilham Aliyev.

The meetings will focus on bilateral relations, regional issues,
as well as the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Turkish Foreign Minister is visiting Azerbaijan at the invitation of
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. Ahmet Davutoglu was in Damascus
to attend the meeting of OIC Foreign Ministers. After the meeting he
left Damascus for Baku together with Elmar Mammadyarov.

ACCORDING TO DPA CHAIRMAN, KARABAKH’S RETURN TO NEGOTIATIONS TABLE IS UNEQUIVOCALLY NECESSARY

Noyan Tapan
May 26, 2009
Yerevan

In 2008 Armenia pinned its hopes on "football diplomacy," as it was
a new approach to Armenian-Turkish relations. As Democratic Party
of Armenia (DPA) Chairman Aram G. Sargsian said at the May 26 press
conference, "football diplomacy" was also necessary for Turkey for
some time for the European Union to weaken its pressure on that
country. And when the President of France declared inadmissibility
of involving Turkey in EU, the Turks changed their tactics to Armenia
and put forward preconditions on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

"The preconditions should have been put forward from the very start
for everybody to understand what question and demand one side has to
another," A. Sargsian said. According to him, in any case, it would
be clear what the Armenians want, what the Turks are against. The
DPA Chairman also said that Armenia should have proposed Turkey
implementing joint programs in various spheres, as well as creating a
free economic zone. Maybe those proposals would not be carried out,
however, according to A. Sargsian, the world would see that Armenia
strives for improving its relations with Turkey.

The DPA Chairman also touched upon the Nagorno Karabakh negotiations
saying that neither Madrid nor Key West principles are acceptable for
the Armenian side. According to A. Sargsian, if the Armenians agree
to the proposal of holding a referendum in Karabakh in some time,
the whole way Artsakh passed will be annihilated by that. In his
conviction, today it is unequivocally necessary to return Karabakh
to the negotiations table. As to the forthcoming meeting of the RA
and Azeri Presidents, according to A. Sargsian’s prediction, it will
not differ from the previous meetings.

BSEC MEMBER STATES’ WORKING GROUP CONVENED ITS SESSION IN SALONIKA

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
25.05.2009 18:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On May 20-22, BSEC member-states’ small and medium
enterprise representatives convened their session in Salonika. The
meeting was organized in collaboration with BSEC and EOMMEX Greek
organization. Armenian delegation was represented by Serob Badjanyan,
Advisor to RA Ambassador in Greece, and Gohar Gabrielyan, employee of
Small and Medium Enterprenuerhip Development National Centre. Parties
adopted a document which will, in the near future, be submitted to
the discussion of senior BSEC representatives.

HOVIK ABRAHAMIAN: CROATIA IS CLOSE TO ARMENIA WITH ITS HISTORY AND LOYALTY TO CHRISTIAN VALUES

Noyan Tapan
May 22, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamian at the May
22 meeting with President of Croatia Stjepan Mesic attached importance
to deepening and development of relations with Croatia in political
and economic spheres. He said that Croatia is close to Armenia with
its history and loyalty to Christian values.

According to the report of the RA NA Public Relations Department,
the interlocutors attached importance to parliamentary diplomacy’s
role in the issue of development of bilateral relations. The sides
also touched upon issues regarding development of trade and economic
relations between the two countries, discussed the influence of the
financial-economic crisis on the two countries.

H. Abrahamian and S. Mesic also discussed a number of issues regarding
cooperation between Armenia and Croatia at international organizations.