Author: Ekmekjian Janet

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: OSCE MINSK GROUP ONLY MEDIATOR IN KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

ARKA
Oct 27, 2008

YEREVAN, October 27. /ARKA/. OSCE Minsk Group is the only mediator in
Karabakh conflict settlement, there are no other mediators, Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview with Armenian Public
Television.

He said that Armenia has never asked any country to carry out
a mission.

The head of state said the OSCE-brokered talks are based on Madrid
principles and "attempts to create a mess can’t contribute to the
peace process".

The Armenian leader also said that Russia is one of the Minsk Group’s
co-chair states and "President, Dmitry Medvedev’s invitation and his
interest in this issue are very natural".

"What for comments on Abdullah Gul’s statement, I should first of
all say that I am not in the habit of commenting other politicians’
statements, especially if our press publishes fragments taken out of
the context", presidential press office quoted Sargsyan as saying in
his televised interview.

The president repeated that the only mediator is OSCE Minsk Group,
but expressed willingness to accept also other efforts to settle
the conflict.

"Yes, I am convinced that Turkey can contribute to the settlement of
Karabakh conflict and think it is contributing right now – President
Gul’s visit to Yerevan and continuation of Armenian-Turkish talks
set a good example of solutions to major problems", he said.

The Turkish leader visited Yerevan on September 6 at his Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sargsyan’s invitation to attend a 2010 World Cup
qualifier between Armenian and Turkish nationals.

After that, information about the Armenian president’s alleged proposal
to Turkey to mediate the conflict settlement emerged in Turkish and
Azerbaijani newspapers.

In his televised interview, Sargsyan also expressed confidence that
"if Turkey opens the border and establish diplomatic ties with Armenia,
this will contribute a great deal to settlement of Karabakh conflict".

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey and the
state border has been closed since 1993 on Ankara’s initiative.

Turkey has set a number of pre-conditions for improving bilateral
relations, namely, Armenia’s abandoning the policy of international
recognition of the Armenian Genocide and recognizing Turkey’s
present-day borders.

Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Artsakh, mainly populated
by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority
of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result,
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions
adjacent to it.

On May 12, 1994 Bishkek cease-fire agreement, put an end to the
military operations.

Since 1992, negotiations over the peaceful settlement of the conflict
have been carried out under the OSCE Minsk Group’s mediation. The
group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France.

Interfax News Agency, Russia
Oct 23 2008

Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan interested in resolution of Karabakh
conflict – Russian MP

MOSCOW Oct 23

The intended meeting of the Armenia, Azeri and Russian presidents on
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement will add further impetus to talks and
will contribute to easing tensions in the region, State Duma Defense
Committee Chairman Viktor Zavarzin said.

"I am certain that the intended meeting of the three presidents will
contribute to improving the situation and the negotiating process in
general; moreover the parties are interested in this," Zavarzin told
journalists in Moscow on Wednesday, commenting on Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev’s comment about the possibility of a meeting between
the three presidents.

Co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, which sponsors the Nagorno-
Karabakh settlement, "decided to activate ‘shuttle’ diplomacy in order
to try to finally agree on basic settlement principles and at least to
maintain the negotiating process, at the same trying to preserve all
positive achievements in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement secured in
the past few years and not to allow to ‘reset’ the already agreed upon
basic principles," said Zavarzin, who took part in work of the Minsk
Group.

"The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can only be resolved through agreements
with strict compliance with international principles, while all
parties concerned should be satisfied," the MP said.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT APPROVES ORDER OF CREATION OF FACT-FINDING GROUP AND ORGANIZATION OF ITS ACTIVITIES

Noyan Tapan
Oct 23, 2008

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
on October 23 signed an instruction on approval of the order of
the creation of a fact-finding group and the organization of its
activities.

THE ORDER OF CREATION OF A FACT-FINDING GROUP AND ORGANIZATION OF
ITS ACTIVITIES (extracts)

1. The fact-finding group of experts (henceforth the Group) carries
out the collection of facts for revealing the causes of of the
events that took place in Yerevan on March 1-2, 2008. The aim of
the activities of the Group to assist the ad hoc committee set up
under the RA National Assembly’s N-086-4 decision of June 16, 2008
(henceforth the Committee) with the performance of its tasks.

4. The purpose of the Group’s activities is to discover facts,
documents and information and to submit them to the Committee in
order to ensure:

1) the examination of the causes of the events that took place in
Yerevan on March 1-2, 2008,

2) the assessment of legality and adequacy of police decisions and
actions during the events,

3) the disclosure of the circumstances of the deaths of people during
those events.

5. In implementing its goals and tasks, the Group has the right:

1) to request and receive the necessary materials and documents on
the events, regardless of the form and type of the material object,
from any state or local self-government bodies or their officials,

2) to receive explanations on the events from state or local
self-government bodies or their officials and state servants, except
for courts and judges,

3) to receive documents and explanations from natural persons and
organizations, in case of their consent,

7) to involve specialists, including foreign experts, in the
fact-finding activity,

9) to apply to the mass media, radio and television companies with the
request to be provided information, including video and audio records
and other materials that may be related to the March 1-2 events.

6. The officials of state and local self-government bodies shall
present the required materials and documents concerning their
competence, as well as any information on the events without hindrance
and within a reasonable period.

9. The officials and employees of state or local self-government bodies
to be invited to the Group’s sittings must answer the questions of
the Group’s members and give explanations.

10. The natural persons or representatives of private organizations
to be invited to sittings have the right to answer questions and give
explanations. The Group’s members must keep secret the indentity of
the person who has provided explanations.

11. The group is composed of five members.

12. The members of the Group are proposed by the ruling political
coalition, "Heritage" party and the political force led by Levon
Ter-Petrosian: two members are proposed by the ruling political
coalition, one by "Heritage" party, and one by the political force
led by Levon Ter-Petrosian. One member of the Group is proposed by
the RA ombudsman.

14. A person who has authority and experience in jurisprudence and
does not hold a post in state or local self-government bodies may
be appointed a member of the Group. The Group’s member may not be a
deputy of the National Assembly, member of a party or political force.

19. The Group’s work throughout its activities is not subject to
coverage.

Closed-door sittings shall be held. By a decision of the Group,
qualified authoritative international expert(s) may be involved as
advisor(s) in the work of the Group.

As a result of implementation of its tasks, the Group presents a report
to the Committee. The report may contain a special opinion. The report
shall be published in order established by the Group.

CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA PUTS GOLDEN COIN "CAPRICORN" IN CIRCULATION

ARKA
Oct 21, 2008

YEREVAN, October 21. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia has put
a golden coin "Capricorn" in circulation. The coins are mint under
the Zodiacal Signs international numismatic program, the CBA Press
Service reported.

A total of 10,000 coins were mint – 10,000 Drams each. The coin is made
of gold of 900 standard, its diameter is 22 mm and its weight is 8.6g.

The coins were mint by the Polish Mint. The coin contours were designed
by Ursula Valezhak.

COMMITTEE ASKS FOR TIME

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
21 Oct 2008
Armenia

Within the frameworks of its regular four-day session, the National
Assembly yesterday started a discussion over the legislative initiative
on extending the term of the activities of the Interim Committee for
2 months. The legislative initiative was proposed by Samvel Nikoyan,
Artashes Shahbazyan, Artsvik Minasyan and Hovhannes Margaryan.

The authors of the initiative proposed that the deadline of the
activities of the "NA Interim Committee Investigating the March 1-2
Incidents and Their Causes" be extended till the 25th of December,
instead of the 25th of October, as decided previously.

The representatives of "Heritage" faction unanimously voted against
the proposal since they had had distrust in the committee’s impartial
work from the outset. And the reason of their distrust is that
the committee wasn’t set up in accordance with the "prescription"
proposed by faction. Below we present some pros and cons regarding
the subject matter of the discussion.

ARMEN MARTIROSYAN

"Heritage" faction

"Having no doubt as to the honest goals and motives of my colleagues,
I must say that society would have trusted the committee’s work if the
opposition had been represented there as well. But we passed a bill
of such a decision that didn’t give the opposition the opportunity
to have a full participation in those activities.

Second, trust in the committee depends not only upon the activities of
the individuals who are involved in the committe, but also upon those
people who are invited as specialists, experts or eye-witnesses with
the purpose of making certain clarifications. In this respect, what
was the value of the well-known ‘story of piglets’, as represented
by chief forensic doctor Shota Vardanyan"?

The committee does not have enough competences to really disclose
the full picture of what happened both in terms the cause-effect
relationship and the events proper. Neither is it competent enough to
take any measures to prevent their repetition. In such conditions,
Mr. Nokoyan cannot act beyond the framework of the competences
prescribed by the draft decision, no matter how much he may try to
work day and night. It is impossible to obtain the true picture of
the events with such limited competences.

ARTSVIK MINASYAN

ARFD faction

"The bill provides a solution to a very simple problem. That is, to
give the Interim Committee the opportunity to have a more detailed
discussion over the issues and find solutions to them. As well as
enable the radical opposition to participate in the activities of
the fact-finding group and introduce the available information. But
unfortunately, they are either reluctant to do so, or they introduce
that information par t by part.

Some of our colleagues accuse the National Assembly of imposing a
state of emergency. But could we have allowed the death of a couple
of hundreds of more people, so as society would have asked at the
end why the tragedy was not averted in time. Was this what was
necessary to do? Certainly not. After all, the people who resorted
to violence should be held accountable, no matter weather those acts
were directed against the police, the citizens or Armen Martirosyan,
our colleague. Whereas no one has so far given a testimony as to who
stabbed Armen Martirosyan with a knife.

EXTENSION OF ADC SPECIAL OFFER TERMS

Panorama.am
16:54 21/10/2008

It was reported by marketing department of Armenian Datacom Company
(ADC) to the reporter of Panorama.am that due to great interest in
its promotion program, ADC has decided to extend the terms of the
special offer until the 1st of November. The special offer is carried
out within the "Autumn Surprise" project and includes free of charge
connection to ADC Broadband Internet services.

>From October 3 to October 15, 2008 ADC offered free of charge
fiber-optic connection for any new subscriber to ADC’s Broadband
Internet Services.

ADC’s announcement of its "Autumn Surprise" project involves
interesting offers and features designed to benefit its users. Examples
are reduced service prices, new and attractive offers, short-term
special offers and other interesting events.

"Armenian Datacom Company" CJSC (ADC) is an Armenian-Norwegian joint
venture that provides to customers advanced corporate network solutions
and high-speed fiber-optic broadband Internet services.

ADC is the first company in Armenia to provide an independent and
redundant fiber-optic cable network with the use of modern IP/MPLS
technologies. The topology of the network is an interconnection of
ring-type backbones. ADC network completely corresponds to requirements
of 21st century requirements.

‘TIME CHECK’ BETWEEN USA AND RUSSIA IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS REGION

ArmInfo
2008-10-18 13:22:00

ArmInfo. "Time check" is taking place between the USA and Russia in the
South Caucasus region, director of Kavkaz institute, political expert
Aleksandr Iskandaryan told ArmInfo correspondent when commenting on
US assistant secretary of state Daniel Freed’s visit to Armenia and
Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev’s forthcoming visit to Armenia
on Monday.

‘Sharp changes have taken place and still continue in the region:
the five day war in South Ossetia, the world financial crisis, the
football diplomacy. These are the factors which cannot but be taken
into account’, – he said and added the efforts of Russian and western
diplomats are directed to resolving of these very important problems
and the Karabakh conflict is also a card in this context.

SITTING OF THE ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION LAUNCHES IN YEREVAN

armradio.am
20.10.2008 15:05

The sitting of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on
Issues of Economic Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and
the Russian Federation started at "Metropol" Hotel today. Before the
sitting would start, Co-Chairs of the Commission – Prime Minister of
Armenia Tigran Sargsyan and Transport Minister of Russia Igor Levitin
– had a face-to face meeting. Later the Co-Chairs participated in
the opening of the 10th plenary sitting of the Intergovernmental
Commission. In his speech Co-Chair of the Commission, RA Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan said, in part:

"The first sitting of the Commission that took place in Yerevan on
July 1st, 1997, marked a new stage of economic cooperation between
our countries.

The following years showed that we have an opportunity to both solve
the existing problems and issues, and determine the perspectives of
our long-term cooperation and discover new directions.

Today we can state with satisfaction that stable traditions of
activity of the Intergovernmental Commission have been shaped. The
Co-Chairs hold periodic meetings, which is important for coordinating
the activity of the Commission between the sittings.

I’m sure that today’s sitting will become the logical continuation
of the way passed over the past ten years and will provide an opport
unity to solve issues of reciprocal interest.

The current 10th sitting of the Commission is important also because
it takes place on the eve of the visit of the President of Russia
Dmirtry Medvedev to Armenia, and I hope that the results of our work
will be positively assessed by the leaders of our countries."

Co-Chairs of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental commission, Russian
Transport Minister Igor Levitin first thanked for warm welcome and
noted: "The economic cooperation between our countries continues
developing and it’s natural to hope that the bilateral commodity
turnover may reach $1 billion this year. It’s not the upper limit,
we have more ambitious programs in the long-term perspective, and I’d
like to say that the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission
fairly plays a great role in the cooperation of our economic and
business sectors.

I would like to thank experts of both Russian and Armenian sides for
the productive activity of our Commission, as well as representatives
of businesses, who help develop relations between our countries."

The participants of the sitting discussed and adopted decisions on
the process of accomplishment of the protocol of the 9th sitting
of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Issues of
Economic Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and the Russian
Federation held on September 14, 2007, the trade-economic relations
between the 0D two countries, the current state and perspectives of
the contractual-legal basis, cooperation in the fields of fuel and
energy system, transport and ecology.

At the end of the sitting Tigran Sargsyan and Igor Levitin signed
the Protocol of the 10th sitting of the Intergovernmental Commission,
following which the Co-Chairs gave a joint press conference.

Panorama.am

20:30 17/10/2008

DANIEL FREED: `TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY NOT THE ONLY PRINCIPLE’

`We think that the principle of territorial integrity is the major
principle of international law, but we’ve never said that this is the
only one. There are other norms of the international law, and one of
them is the right of self-determining and it is very difficult to
confront them,’ said Daniel Freed the Deputy of State Secretary of the
US. He added that Minsk group is working to confront those principle
norms and there are some improvements in this issue.

`We should try to solve the existing problems, and not dispute them,’
said Mr. Freed.

To the question whether it is logical that Nagorno Karabakh is kept
far from the negotiations on NKR conflict, Mr. Freed avoided to answer
it, but said that Minsk group’s goal is to regulate the conflict and
that they take active part both working in the frames of the Minsk
group and with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Source: Panorama.am

NO SERIOUS GROUNDS FOR ANXIETY
Armen Tsatouryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
16 Oct 2008
Armenia

The fate of Karabakh is in our hands

After the Russian-Georgian armed conflict, the discussions over the
Karabakh issue are beginning to find a stormy response in the internal
political life of Armenia.

The fact that our society displays certain anxiety over the prospects
of the speedy settlement of the Karabakh conflict is not only a
natural but also, to a certain extent, an encouraging signal. This
means that despite the big and small problems faced by the country,
our political forces and citizens have not ceased to be vigilant.

However, when attempts are being made to change such concerns into
mutual accusations and anxiety, the following question comes up:
who are we afraid of so much and why?

In this respect, we can point out three main reasons giving rise
to concerns;

The first reason consists in the far-reaching geo-political predictions
from the Russian-Georgian mutual cooperation, a tendency observed
in the south Caucasus, and the pessimistic approach of "calculating"
the possibility of "ceding" Karabakh to Azerbaijan.

The second is the myth on the continuous weakening of our country’s
positions on the international arena. The achievements continuously
voiced by Baku give way to far-reaching conclusions.

The third is our opposition’s anxiety over some se cret intrigues
allegedly prepared by the Armenian authorities with regard to the
solution of the Karabakh issue.

Let’s try to analyze the above-mentioned options one by one and discuss
the possibility of the impending dangers to our country and society.

The concerns over the existence of the first danger derive from the
theoretical possibility that Russia and Turkey’s current efforts
towards finding a united model of mutual cooperation in the South
Caucasus may have far-reaching strategic consequences. That is, Turkey
will renounce its mutual strategic cooperation with the United States,
quit its membership in NATO and become Russia’s ally.

Before all that, the strengthening of Turkey’s positions in the
South Caucuses will lead to NATO’s progress. Therefore, the mutual
cooperation between Russia and Turkey cannot contain serious threats
to Armenia unless the South Caucasian "bait" pointed to Turkey by
Russia leads to relevant "consequences".

Moreover, the use of unilateral pressures upon Armenia may also create
threats in terms of changing our country’s political vectors. After
all, not succeeding in its efforts to win round Turkey and to
strengthen its positions in Azerbaijan, Russia may lose Armenia as
well. After losing control over Georgia, this prospect becomes so
realistic for Russia that it will have to restrict itself only to
diplomatic pressures against Azerbaijan a nd Armenia until Turkey
clarifies its priorities in the sphere of foreign policy.

As regards the third danger, the rumors in this connection have been so
far based upon the calculations of the millions of oil dollars invested
by Azerbaijan in the military sphere. With those tremendous sums, which
last year increased to 1.85 billion US dollars, Baku mainly purchased
a large quantity of armament from Ukraine. It should be mentioned,
however, that it was obsolete armament produced in the Soviet times.

Having wasted huge amounts of money, Azerbaijan has now become faced
with the threat of cutting down its oil-gas programs. The reason is
that the country’s economy, which receives 70 percent of its income
from the oil business, has started suffering significant losses. Baku
will not manage to increase its oil export volumes and receive foreign
loans, considering the deep financial crisis on the global level. And
even the Azerbaijani experts themselves confess that.

So, the Azeri President’s dreams about having a 2.5 dollars’ military
budget in 2009 have already fallen flat.

Moreover, the obsolete armament, mainly purchased from Ukraine, has
become a calamity for the Azerbaijani army over the recent years. The
crash of the MIG-29 airplane in Baku was followed by the explosion of
the T-72 tank in Nakhichevan (on the 24th of September). And during
the recent military trainings organized not very far from the=2
0town of Shamkhor, there occurred the explosion of the infantry car,
depriving three more soldiers of their lives.

Considering the deadly nature of the armament with which the
Azerbaijani army is equipped now, it is hardly possible to expect
from it any serious threat.

As to the third variant, i.e. the so-called intrigues, it should be
noted that the opposition which pushes forward this issue forgets that
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic is an independent political-military
factor. The thing is that the state has temporarily ceded its
competences of conducting negotiations to Armenia but it hasn’t given
anyone the right to question its de facto independent status. Unless
the international community recognizes the independence of Nagorno
Karabakh, it will be impossible to impose on it any concessions.

So, the following question comes up: apart from the three options
mentioned above, are there any other reasons that may arouse concern
in our society.