Author: Ekmekjian Janet

ARMENIA-EU NEGOTIATIONS SECOND ROUND TO BE HELD IN EARLY MAY IN
BRUSSELS AS PART OF ENLARGED EUROPE – NEW NEIGHBORS EU PROGRAM

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 20 2006

YEREVAN, April 20. /ARKA/. The second round of Armenia-EU negotiations
is to be held in the beginning of May in Brussels as part of Enlarged
Europe – New Neighbors EU Program, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan said at a news conference given Thursday after meeting with
his Austrian counterpart Hans Winkler in Yerevan.

In his words, the program will give a new impetus to cooperation
between Armenia and European Union and raise it to a new level. He
said the program will pay special attention to democratic reforms in
Armenia, especially taking into account parliamentary and Armenian
presidential elections expected in 2007 and 2008. Oskanyan stressed
that if the elections are conducted in wrong way, Armenia will loose
not only moral, but also financial support from European institutions.

Austrian Foreign Secretary Hans Winkler, in turn, noted that
the program adoption will lay proper groundwork for deepening
cooperation between the countries. He also expressed hope that
Armenian parliamentary and presidential elections will be up to
European standards.

EU Three delegation headed by Austrian Foreign Secretary Hans Winkler
arrived in Armenia on Thursday as part of his regional visit. The
delegation is made up of Austrian and Finnish Ambassadors to Armenia,
EU Special Envoy in South Caucasus as well as European Commission
and European Union representatives.

The delegation members are set to meet Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan and Armneian National Assembly Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan
in Yerevan. M.V. -0–

OBSERVERS JOINED MILITARY EXERCISE IN KARABAKH

Lragir.am
20 April 06

NKR President Arkady Ghukasyan, the Primate of Artsakh Diocese
Archbishop Parghev Martirosyan and Defense Minister of Armenia Serge
Sargsyan watched the military exercise of the armed forces of Karabakh
on April 19. In an interview during the exercise Arkady Ghukasyan
said the army has become more effective. NKR Defense Minister Seyran
Ohanyan said this exercise is particularly important because the
army was ready for action. “We laid special emphasis on cooperation
of types of troops and involvement of aviation,” said Seyran Ohanyan.

BAKU SPEAKS OF INTENTION TO FORM ‘AZERI AUTONOMY’ IN ARMENIA

Yerkir
19.04.2006 12:21

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Azerbaijan’s Way political movement has created an
initiative group to return “western Azeris, expelled from Armenia,
to their native lands and providing autonomy to them.”

Leader of the movement Ilgar Gasymov reported, ”in 1948-53 and 1988
over one million Azeris were expelled from Armenia.” ”We plan to
hold mass actions worldwide from April 24 to May 8. Turkish and Jewish
organizations will support the events,” he remarked.

Gasymov also reported that signatures will be collected and Azeri
representatives in the PACE will present those documents. Fazil
Gazanfaroglu and others considered “return of Azeris deported from
Armenia” as a demand of the day.

Gazanfaroglu reported he will submit the issue in the Milli Mejlis
agenda.

To note, the statement on ”return of western Azeris, deported from
Armenia, to their native lands and providing autonomy to them,”
drawn by Azerbaijan’s Way movement, is sent to the Azeri leader,
Speaker and FM, reports Trend.

–Boundary_(ID_1aQOz0g/Q5mbDyYXtj8zrQ)–

HAYK DEMOYAN: VERDICT ON AZERBAIJAN’S ANTI-ARMENIAN POLICY WAS PRONOUNCED IN BUDAPEST

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 18 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Armenian side
is satisfied with the verdict on the case of murder of officer of RA
Armed Forces Gurgen Margarian, according to which Azerbaijani officer
Ramil Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment without the right
of amnesty during the first 30 years. It is the strictest punishment
envisaged by the Hungarian legislation.

Lawyer Nazeli Vardanian representing the interests of the aggrieved
party declared this at the April 18 press conference. She considers
it unprobable that the verdict can change as a result of appealing
against it by the Azerbaijani side in the Appeal and Cassation Courts
as in Hungary the Appeal Court does not carry on new examination,
it only finds out violation of the material and judicial right, and
the Cassation Court examines newly-revealed circumstances but there
are no such circumstances in the case. The possibility of criminal’s
extradition is also excluded: the verdict envisages life imprisonment
without the right of pardon within 30 years and in case of pardoning
30 years later, according to the verdict, Safarov has no right to
visit Hungary for 10 years. The verdict envisages that all judicial
expenditures, about 10 thousand dollars, should be paid by Safarov. As
representative of RA Defence Ministry, historian Hayk Demoyan
characterized, in fact, the verdict was pronounced on Azerbaijan’s
anti-Armenian policy. This was the second serious reaction from Europe
after the response of the European Parliament to destruction of the
Armenian cultural monuments in Nakhichevan. Azerbaijan was warned that
solving issues by medieval methods is not acceptable for the world and,
in particular, for Europe. The European justice and human values won
in Hungary, H.Demoyan emphasized. The Prosecutor’s speech qualified
the murder as cruel and inhuman murder with numerous aggravating
circumstances. According to the Prosecutor, the premeditation is
conditioned by the fact that having a knife Safarov decided and bought
an axe 2 days before the murder, he grinded it and waited until 04:45
am, at first he decided to kill Gurgen Margarian who was stronger.

He intended to kill another Armenian serviceman, too but the murder
was prevented by the police. The circumstance that Gurgen Margarian
was killed only because of his national belonging was also among
the aggravating circumstances mentioned by the Prosecutor: Ramil
Safarov abused Hungary’s hospitality, as well as Gurgen Margarian’s
confidence that he was protected: he never closed the door before
going to bed. According to the press conference participants, the
court expressed a special gratitude to the Armenian side for being
reserved and mentioned with regard to the Azerbaijani side: “I do not
know a culture and a state where a murderer can be heroized”. The
participants of the press conference said that the claim of the
aggrieved party on compensation of the moral and material loss by Ramil
Safarov and Azerbaijani Defence Minister (according to the preliminary
calculations, this is 8-10 mln forints (about 500 thousand dollars)
was separated and will be examined by another judge. And on May 3,
the legal procedure on forcible actions of Ramil Safarov towards the
prison supervisors will start.

MINISTERS RATTLED BY GAZPROM’S ADVANCES

Lragir.am
17 April 06

The Financial Times published information April 16 that the UK
considered changing its merger control regime this year to block a
potential takeover of Centrica, the UK’s biggest gas supplier, by
Gazprom of Russia, a move that remains an option to thwart any bid
that threatens energy security. Alan Johnson, the trade and industry
secretary who has been a vocal critic of protectionism in the US and
Europe, was briefed with other ministers in February on the legal
changes required to allow them to block a rumoured bid by Gazprom
for Centrica, the Financial Times has learnt.

The problem was no policy had been formulated to deal with a move by
Gazprom into the UK market.

The standard policy on potential takeovers was clear – the government
removed itself from mergers in 2003, when the Enterprise Act came
into force, delegating decisions on almost all deals to independent
competition authorities.

The UK has made a virtue of this lack of political interference,
which has allowed several utilities to be taken over by European
Union companies with no political discussion and barely a murmur of
public dissent.

Alan Johnson, trade and industry secretary, used a speech to the
British Chambers of Commerce this month to boast of Britain’s open
energy market. “Downing Street’s electricity is supplied by a French
company, the water is supplied by a German company and there is
a choice of four gas suppliers, three of whom are foreign owned,”
he said.

But should this laissez faire approach to foreign takeovers extend to
Gazprom? A takeover of Centrica, which owns British Gas, or Scottish
Power, another rumoured potential target, could have competition
implications.

Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, warned this year that the UK’s
liberalised market was “not about creating a big oligopoly”. It would
look “a bit odd if, in a few years’ time, this market resembles a
monolithic oligopoly with a few companies state-owned but not by
Britain,” he told The Observer.

Ministers’ concern focused instead on the implications of a Gazprom
takeover for security of supply. The gas company’s decision earlier
this year temporarily to cut off supplies to Ukraine was seen by some
as politically motivated. The prospect – however seemingly remote
– of Russia using ownership of a UK gas supplier to try to exert
political influence rang alarm bells in Whitehall.

The UK’s increasing dependence on gas imports has moved such
geopolitical threats to energy supplies sharply up the political agenda
since 2003, when the government’s energy review largely ignored the
issue. The review of energy policy now under way has put security of
supply centre stage. Asked by MPs this year about central issues for
the review, Mr Johnson cited “this geopolitical question”. “Where are
the oil reserves? Where are the gas reserves? Can we be sanguine about
the future if…? A large amount of our gas will come from countries
which are perfectly stable … but these are issues which have grown
in importance,” he said.

P.S. It is the right moment to recall our reality. Our energy suppliers
are part by part taken over by Gazprom, and each time defining the
takeover as the century’s deal, the RA government did not even utter
a word about the energy security of Armenia. If a developed country
such as U.K. is cautious in relations with Gazprom, it is already a
forceful argument.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 15 2006

R&D expenditures in CIS countries 2-4 times lower than in 1991

MOSCOW, April 15 (Itar-Tass) — Current research and development
expenditures in CIS countries (except Russia and Ukraine) are 2-4
times lower than in 1991, panellists said at the 1st Forum of CIS
Scientific and Creative Intellectuals in Moscow on Saturday.

`R and D expenditures in CIS countries, except Russia and Ukraine,
have remained practically on the same level over the past several
years and have not exceeded 0.1-0.7 percent of GDP,’ the Forum’s
Science and Technology Section said.

The panelists noted that this is 2-4 times less than in 1991. The
situation is much better only Russia and Ukraine.

`In Russia, the proportion of R and D expenditures in the gross
domestic product has been growing steadily since 2000 and had reached
the 1991 level by 2004,’ they said.

According to an academician of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, the
director of the Research Institute of Biochemistry, Konstantin
Karagezyan, `The decisions made today should be brought to the
attention of the governments and presidents of the CIS countries so
that they could address the problems of science immediately and
without delay.’

He said `science is falling apart in CIS countries’ and stressed,
`Its humiliating treatment must be revised immediately.’

The panelists proposed to create a common electronic library of
Russian-language scientific and reference literature on the Internet
and introduce a system of training for so-called `science managers’

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
April 15 2006

PACE Encourages Conflict Settlement in South Caucasus

15/04/2006 09:49

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) encourages
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to continue their efforts to achieve
peaceful and permanent settlements of the various conflicts in the
region in order to enable the voluntary return of refugees and
internally displaced persons (IDPs), the CoE reported on April 13.

During its spring session on April 13 PACE discussed a draft
resolution on refugees and displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia.

The European parliamentarians also welcomed the steps taken by
Armenia and Azerbaijan and, to a lesser extent, Georgia, to begin
local integration of refugees and IDPs, while stressing that there
were still urgent humanitarian needs which would require
international aid.

Prime News Agency, Georgia
April 14 2006

Chairmen Of Georgian And Armenian Courts Sign Memorandum

Tbilisi, April 14 (Prime-News) – Kote Kublashvili, Chairman of the
Supreme Court of Georgia and his Armenian counterpart signed a
memorandum on cooperation in legal issues in Yerevan on Friday.

Kote Kublashvili has been visiting Armenia for two days, Prime-News
was told by the representatives of the Supreme Court of Georgia.

According to them, the visit aims at discussion and share of
experience in the ongoing court reforms in Georgia and Armenia.

Ovanes Manukian, Chairman of the Court of Appeal, Gagik Artunian,
Chairman of the Constitutional Court and Davit Artunian, Minister of
Justice of Armenia are also taking part in the working meetings.

The visit by Kote Kublashvili to Yerevan lasts through Saturday.

PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS ON MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE PROGRAM TO BE HELD

Noyan Tapan
Apr 12 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Speaker of the RA National Assembly
Artur Baghdasarian on April 12 received a delegation headed by Chairman
of External Program Subcommission of the US House of Representaives
Allocattion Commission Jim Colby and Chief Executive Director of
the Millennium Challenge Fund (MCF) Amb. John Danilovich. According
to the RA National Assembly PR Department, the US Ambassador to
Armenia John Evans was present at the meeting. Issues related to
the implementation of Millennium Challenge Fund’s Armenian program
were discussed during the meeting. The 235 mln-dollar program aims
to promote economic development and poverty reduction in Armenia and
envisages such measures as major repairs of irrigation infrastructures
and 943 km of rural roads, as well as provision of technical credits
and microcredits to Armenian farms. A. Baghdasarian underlined the
program’s importance from three points of view: development of Armenian
marzes (regions) and reduction of the disproportion in development
of Yerevan and the marzes, deepening of democracy and introduction
of public control mechanisms by civil society. In the opinion of
A. Baghdasarian, the program will greatly contribute to the development
of Armenian marzes and the reduction of rural poverty. Speaking about
democratic reforms and economic development of Armenia, J. Danilovich
and J. Cilby underlined the necessity of political will, political
freedoms, rule of the law, publicity of the program’s implementation
and holding of the next national elections in line with international
standards for further implementation of these reforms. These are
conditions, whose fulfilment will ensure the efficient operation of
the program. John Danilovish stated once again the willingness of
the US top political leadership and the Millennium Challenge Fund
to follow these main principles, which determine the assistance to
Armenia under the program. At the meeting, an agreement was reached
to hold parliamentary hearings with the participation of the sides
concerned, during which the program will be presented in detail,
as well as issues related to public control and efficiency of the
program’s implementation will be discussed.

TURKEY SETS THREE CONDITIONS TO ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.04.2006 23:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Without the fulfillment of Turkey’s three fundamental
demands by Armenia any development of ties between the two states is
out of the question, head of the Turkish delegation to the PACE Murat
Mercan stated in Strasbourg. According to the Turkish parliamentarian
the conditions are as follows: settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict admissible for both parties; Armenia’s positive reply to
Turkey’s proposal on the Armenian Genocide issue; recognition of
the present borders with Turkey on the basis of the Kars agreement
of 1921 by Yerevan. “Without fulfillment of these conditions it’s no
sense speaking of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations,”
Merjan said emphasizing the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border also
depends on the proper fulfillment of the above mentioned conditions,
reported Trend news agency.