Author: Chilingarian Babken

PRESS RELEASE
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia
Contact: Information Desk
Tel: (374-10) 52-35-31
Email: [email protected]
Web:

Minister Oskanian in Brussels for Armenia-EU Cooperation Council and
Karabakh Talks

Minister Oskanian is in Brussels to participate in the 7th session
of the Armenia-EU Partnership and Cooperation Council. Together with
the foreign ministers of Georgia and Azerbaijan, Minister Oskanian
met with the EU leadership — the Foreign Minister of Finland, which
holds the EU Presidency, the Secretary of State of Germany which will
hold the Presidency in the first half of 2007 as well as EU High
Representative, Javier Solana, and External Relations Commissioner
Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

During the first day’s dinner meeting, the participants discussed
developments in the region, including Caucasus states’ relations
with neighbors, and also prospects for regional cooperation. Regional
conflicts, especially Nagorno Karabakh, were the focus of much of the
discussion, particularly in light of the upcoming meeting between the
foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The dinner meeting was
followed by a press conference, during which Minister Oskanian thanked
the EU for its persistence in concluding the Action Plan process.

He also noted that "this year’s meeting of the Partnership
and Cooperation Council will be particularly memorable because
it represents the beginning of a new chapter – for each of us
individually, for our relations with the EU, and for the EU itself."

The meeting was followed by a Press Conference. On November 14,
during the formal Council meeting the European Neighborhood Policy
Action Plan will be adopted.

SOME 380,000 TOURISTS EXPECTED TO VISIT ARMENIA IN 2006

Armenpress
Nov 08 2006

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS: Deputy trade and economic development
minister Ara Petrosian said yesterday $400,000 released by the
government to pay the CNN for advertising Armenia would be recompensed
if the reels prompted some 400 more tourists to come to Armenia as
an average foreign tourist spends around $1000 to come to Armenia
and spend here a week.

The deputy minister said the efficiency of Armenia’s advertisement
on CNN could be assessed clearly only in 1-3 years. Petrosian said
approximate estimates put the number of tourists who will have visited
Armenia this year at 380,000.

In a related development owners of Armenian hotels convened yesterday
to set up the Union of Armenian Hotels. Hakob Hakobian, the chairman
of the Union, said they hope to join efforts to seek solutions to a
set of problems Armenian hotels still face. He said the focus will
be on training skilled personnel and advertising Armenian hotels
beyond Armenia.

Eurasia Daily Monitor
Thursday, November 9, 2006 — Volume 3, Issue 208

GAZPROM’S `PURE COMMERCE` IN GEORGIA

by Vladimir Socor

Gazprom’s deputy chairman and head of Gazexport, Aleksandr Medvedev,
confirmed on November 7 the price hike to $230 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas
to Georgia in 2007, up from $110 in 2006. Gazprom will stop deliveries to
Georgia on January 1, 2007, unless the new contract is signed before that
date, Medvedev warned. At the same time, he proposed that Georgia pay the
higher price by handing national assets over to Gazprom. `This is pure
commerce,’ he told a Moscow news conference (Itar-Tass, Interfax, November
7).

Moscow had first informed Tbilisi of this move on October 31, the day
when Minister of Foreign Affairs Gela Bezhuashvili was arriving in Moscow
for yet another Georgian effort to defuse tensions. Thus, Gazprom’s initial
announcement of an extortionate $230 price was timed to actually increase
the tensions. A hike of such magnitude adds a further dimension to Russia’s
economic blockade and political assault against Georgia.

Gazprom’s stated new price for Georgia is an arbitrary decision in a
monopolized `market.’ It equals the average price for Russian gas in Western
Europe and is more than double the $110 price currently charged to Georgia’s
neighbors, Armenia and Azerbaijan, per 1,000 cubic meters of
Russian-delivered gas. It is also far higher for Georgia than the price set
for Ukraine at $130 for 2007 or the prices now being demanded from Belarus
and Moldova at $140 and $160 or $170, respectively, for 2007. Those
ostensible discounts are explained in part by Gazprom’s takeovers of
controlling stakes in Armenia’s and Moldova’s gas transport and distribution
systems and its expectation to achieve similar results in Belarus and with a
Russia-leaning Ukrainian government.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told an international
conference in France on November 3 that Moscow’s extortionate price hike to
Georgia and overall political use of energy is a `bad precedent for
everyone. Energy should not become a political tool’ (AP, November 3). On
the same day, however, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told
the media, `We believe that market forces should determine the price levels.
So Georgia and Gazprom are going to work out a price. Our general take on
this is that Russia should be a good partner for its clients [sic] and a
reliable supplier of energy.’ The statement inadvertently implied that
Russia and Georgia are negotiating as equivalent actors in normal market
circumstances — an implication all the more disconcerting as the spokesman
had sought official guidance before giving this answer to a press query from
the previous day (state.gov, November 3).

Top Georgian officials including Bezhuashvili, Prime Minister Zurab
Noghaideli, and Parliamentary Chair Nino Burjanadze are publicly asking
Moscow to explain the commercial formula it is using to arrive at such a
price. These and other Georgian officials describe that price as politically
motivated and amounting to blackmail — an interpretation substantiated by
Gazprom’s refusal to explain it, against the backdrop of Russia’s blockade
measures and political campaign against Georgia.

Gazprom has not officially identified the Georgian national assets it
seeks to take over. Clearly, its primary target remains Georgia’s gas
transport and distribution system, as was the case in 2005. Georgian
officials unanimously rule out the idea of transferring assets to Russia in
return for price restraint on energy. State Minister for Economic Reforms
Kakha Bendukidze had in 2005 and early 2006 favored selling to Gazprom the
gas transit pipeline that runs via Georgia to Armenia. However, Bendukidze
was speaking of a straight commercial sale for cash, not in payment for gas,
not linked to the annual negotiations over the gas price, and in any case to
be carried out at a time chosen by Georgia. In common with the other
Georgian officials, Bendukidze rules out any non-commercial sale of assets
in return for gas and `under blackmail.’

Tbilisi regards the Gazprom-named price as not final and is prepared
to negotiate it down. However, officials assert in consensus that Georgia
would not accept a Gazprom price that could not be justified commercially.

Georgia has some limited but real options to de-monopolize gas imports
this coming winter through arrangements with Azerbaijan and Iran.
Ministerial-level negotiations have been under way since October with Baku
and Tehran, in anticipation of a possible emergency similar to that of
January 2006. At that time, never-explained sabotage blasts on three energy
lines running to Georgia on Russian territory in the North Caucasus stopped
gas and electricity deliveries for several weeks. Georgia survived last
winter amid great hardship, on meager volumes of energy imported from
Azerbaijan and Iran.

This coming winter will be the last one in which Georgia may be forced
to survive without Russian gas after January 1. With its current annual
requirement estimated at some 1.6 to 1.7 billion cubic meters, the country
needs some 300 to 400 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan and Iran
in January-February to tide Georgia over on an emergency basis. Stable
deliveries of Azerbaijani gas from Shah-Deniz beginning next year should
finally emancipate Georgia from Gazprom’s monopoly.

(Interfax, 24 Saati, Imedi and Rustavi-2 televisions, November 3-8)

–Vladimir Socor

KAZAKHSTAN’S AMBASSADOR: KAZAKHSTAN’S POSITION TOWARD AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY REMAINS UNCHANGED
Author: A. Ismayilova

TREND, Azerbaijan
Nov 8 2006

"Kazakhstan acknowledges the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan",
Andar Shukputov, Kazakhstan Ambassador to Azerbaijan, has told
journalists today, commenting the information spread by some media
sources concerning Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s alleged
statements concerning his highly appreciation of Armenia’s policy
and his alleged support to Kazakhstan’s entrepreneurs’ involvement to
precious metal mining on the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh
during the official visit of Armenian President Robert Kocharyan,
Trend reports.

According to the Kazakhstan Ambassador, the information was
misrepresented by those media sources who handed over it.

"That concerned the work of Kazakhstan’s entrepreneurs on the territory
of Armenia. Kazakhstan’s position toward the territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan remains unchanged", stated the Kazakhstan diplomat.

A REASON FOR JOY

A1+
[05:31 pm] 06 November, 2006

Former Prime Minister of Armenia, rector of the Armenian-Russian
University Armen Darbinyan expressed his joy today, "I’m very glad
that a Russian company has become the owner of the telecommunication
operator in Armenia". Last week Russian "Vympelcom" announced about
the purchase of 90% of the shares of "ArmenTel".

Armen Darbinyan said he is sorry that in 1998 when the company was
being sold there were no Russian companies among the potential buyers.

BRUSSELS SET TO GIVE TURKEY MORE TIME ON CYPRUS
By Mark Beunderman

EU Observer, Belgium
Nov 7 2006

The European Commission is unlikely to recommend a partial suspension
of Turkey’s EU membership talks over the Cyprus issue in a key report
on Wednesday, with individual commissioners reportedly divided over
the matter.

The Financial Times wrote on Tuesday (7 November) that Brussels is
set to postpone a recommendation on whether or not to freeze the
talks until a later date ahead of an EU leaders summit in December.

The commission had been considering whether to already make this
recommendation in Wednesday’s progress report on Turkey, according
to the UK daily.

But a draft report endorsed by chiefs of the commissioners in a
meeting on Monday merely says that "The commission will make relevant
recommendations ahead of the December European Council."

The paper writes that the commission itself is divided over the
strategy towards Turkey, which launched EU accession talks last year,
but still refuses to open its ports and airports to trade from Cyprus.

The Cypriot, Greek and French commissioners – whose countries are
among the most sceptical about Turkish membership – have argued
Brussels should already on Wednesday propose concrete consequences
for Ankara’s defiant stance.

But other members of the EU executive – including commission chief Jose
Manuel Barroso and enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn – reportedly
want to give more space for the Finnish EU presidency to broker a
deal between Turkey and Cyprus before the December summit.

The draft still needs to be rubber-stamped by commissioners on
Wednesday.

Debate in Germany, Italy The divisions within the commission reflect
a similar rift within the German ruling coalition which is being
highlighted by German media.

Edmund Stoiber, the leader of the Bavarian conservatives and a staunch
opponent of Turkish EU membership, has urged a halt to the talks,
but social democrat members of the German government – notably foreign
minister Frank Walter Steinmeier – have said that "everything" needs
to be done to find a compromise before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Italian prime minister Romano Prodi has warned against
stopping the negotiations with Turkey altogether, telling the Financial
Times that the process will take time but "certainly you must not
stop it."

"There is an idea in some parts of Europe to stop it all," he said.

"But I think this is a great historical challenge."

Free speech concession In another development, the European Commission
on Monday cautiously welcomed a fresh concession by Turkish prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on freedom of expression – an issue
which is set to be one of the main concerns in Wednesday’s progress
report along with the Cyprus issue.

Mr Erdogan over the weekend said his government is willing to revise or
lift the notorious article 301 of Turkey’s penal code, which penalises
insults against "Turkishness".

"We expect this stated intention to be followed by concrete deeds and
we are thus waiting for concrete decisions," a commission spokeswoman
said.

On the basis of article 301, charges were brought against several
journalists and novelists who raised the Kurdish issue or the Armenian
genocide including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk.

Turkish NGOs have in the past few weeks pressed the government to
reform the article.

VIMPELCOM SNAPS UP ARMENTEL

St. Petersburg Times, Russia
Nov 7 2006

MOSCOW – VimpelCom, Russia’s second-largest cellular company, said
Friday it agreed to buy 90 percent of an Armenian phone company for
341.9 million euros ($434.2 million), as it looks to expand beyond
the saturated Russian market.VimpelCom has signed an agreement with
Greece’s Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA, the Moscow-based
company said Friday in a PRNewswire statement. The company will also
assume about 40 million euros in net debt and obligations.

"With approximately 40 percent of the mobile market share, Armentel
occupies a strong position in the Armenian market and we will work to
enhance this position," VimpelCom Chief Executive Officer Alexander
Izosimov said in the statement.

VimpelCom, and its domestic competitors Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s
biggest cellular operator, and MegaFon, the third-largest wireless
company, are looking to expand beyond Russia, a country with 143
million people and more than 146 million mobile phones. Buying Armentel
will make Armenia the sixth former Soviet country aside from Russia
where VimpelCom will have operations.

Armentel has about 600,000 fixed-line subscribers and 400,000 GSM
subscribers, the statement said.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 3 2006

Azerbaijan National Security Ministry Received Deputy Director of
Canadian Security and Investigation Service

Source: Trend
Author: E.Javadova

03.11.2006

On November 3, the Azerbaijani Minister of National Security,
Lieutenant-General Eldar Mahmudov received the Deputy Director of the
Canadian Security and Investigation Service Jack Chuner who is in
Baku on an official visit, Trend reports with reference to the Public
Relations Center of the Azerbaijani Ministry of National Secutiry.

During the meeting, Mahmudov assessed the first meeting with the
representative of Special Service Body of Canada as a significant
step in establishing co-operation between the relevant bodies of the
two countries.

Mahmudov informed the guest about the processes happening in the
region, as well as Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
its effects. The minister said that the strengthening of the
international terrorism, illegal turnover of drugs, illegal migration
and other kinds of the transnational organized criminalities imposes
serious concerns all over the world. In addition, information was
presented regarding the relevant measures held by the National
Security Ministry against new threats and their concrete results.

In his turn, Chuner underlined that he is satisfied with the visit to
Baku, including results of discussions regarding actual questions in
the sphere of ensuring the security interests of Azerbaijan and
Canada. In addition, during the meeting, the sides exchanged views on
other issues of mutual interest.

10% of ArmenTel Shares Passed to Management of Minister Communication of Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.11.2006 15:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During a session yesterday the Armenian Government
passed the authorities on management of 10% of shares of ArmenTel
telecommunication company, held by the Government, to Minister of
Transport and Communication Andranik Manukyan, reports the Press
Office of the Government.

The decision is adopted by the Armenian Government in compliance with
the Law on Joint-Stock Companies.

ArmenTel is the major telecommunication company of Armenia. 90% of
its shares are held by OTE Greek company, while the Government has
10%. This year OTE announced a tender to sell its shares. 16 companies
took part in it. Russian VimpelCom and MTC, as well as ETISALAT
(Emirates Telecommunications Corporation/Istithmar ETV -Emergent
Telecom Ventures) VTEL Holdings/Knightsbridge Associates passed to the
second round of the tender, the results of which are not announced yet.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918 Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PRESS RELEASE +++ PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: Thursday, November 2, 2006

Contact: Lerna Kayserian

Tel: (818) 500-1918

MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA SPECIAL GUEST AT ANCA-WR BANQUET

-Federal, State, and Local Legislators to Attend Gala Event

-Community Leaders to be Honored for Lifetime Activism

Glendale, California – The Armenian National Committee of America –
Western Region (ANCA-WR) is pleased to announce the attendance of
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a distinguished list
of elected officials at the ANCA-WR Annual Banquet on November 12,
2006 at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown, Los Angeles.

The 2006 Annual Banquet awards ceremony will be emceed by French
Armenian actor Simon Abkarian, who is starring in the next James Bond
movie "Casino Royal" to be released later this month.

Bob Collins, Chief Instructional Officer for Secondary Education
for the Los Angeles Unified School District, will receive the Man
of the Year Award for his leading role in implementing the Armenian
Genocide curriculum in the Los Angeles Unified School District and
providing human rights and genocide education to thousands of high
school students in Los Angeles.

ANCA-WR Activists Khajag Sarkissian and Serge Samoniantz will be
honored with the Vahan Cardashian Award for their years of hard work in
advancing the Armenian Cause. Vahan Cardashian, after whom the award
was named, was the pioneer for American Armenian political action
during the early twentieth century and founded the American Committee
for an Independent Armenia (ACIA), the predecessor to the ANCA.

Attendees of the 2006 Annual Banquet will enjoy the presence of Mayor
Villaraigosa, who will deliver special remarks during the evening’s
program.

Among other elected officials who have confirmed their attendance
are Congressman Adam Schiff, California State Assembly members Cindy
Montanez and Carol Liu, Los Angeles City Councilmember Alex Padilla,
Los Angeles Unified School Board Members Jon Lauritzen, Mike Lansing,
and Julie Korenstein, Glendale City Mayor Rafi Manoukian, Glendale
Unified School District Board member Greg Krikorian, Burbank Unified
School District Board member and Democratic candidate for the 43rd
California Assembly District Paul Krekorian, and retired California
Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian.

Additional state and local officials will be announced shortly.

"The Annual Banquet will highlight the contributions made towards the
advancement of the Armenian cause throughout the year. We are excited
to honor those who have made 2006 a successful year for Hai Tahd,"
commented Banquet Chairwoman Aida Dimejian.

The ANCA-WR Annual Banquet will be held at the Downtown Marriott Hotel
located on 333 S. Figueroa St. in Los Angeles, California. The banquet
will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a cocktail hour and silent auction,
with the formal program beginning at 7:00 p.m. Tickets for the event
are almost sold out.

Community members should reserve their tickets immediately if they are
interested in attending this special event. For more information or
to reserve tickets, please call the ANCA-WR office at (818) 500-1918.

The ANCA is the largest and most influential Armenian American
grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a
network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the United
States and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA actively
advances the concerns of the Armenian-American community on a broad
range of issues.