Author: Frangulian Shushan

Islamic Republic News Agency IRNA, Iran
March 13 2009

Iran: Mottaki: Common history, culture inspire better Iran-Armenia ties

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki pointed to the common
history and culture as the elements which inspire better ties between
Iran and Armenia.

In a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian in
Yerevan, Mottaki referred to the deep-rooted positive relations
between the two countries and said stability and security in the
Caucasus greatly affected development process in the region specially
in energy sector.

Outlining Iran’s Caucasian policies, he said the agreements made by
the Iran-Armenia joint commission should be earnestly followed up so
that during the visit of the Armenian president to Iran, which will
take place upon an invitation by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
in the future, new horizons for mutual cooperation will arise.

Stressing the long-term impact of implementation of energy and
transportation projects on the region, he said the good performance of
Iranian contractors in Armenia in construction sector will help build
more solid ties between the two nations.

Mottaki also voiced Iran’s readiness to mediate between conflicting
parties in Karabakh dispute.

Nalbandian referred to finalization of a power plant project on Aras
river which runs on Iran-Armenia border, a railway road and improving
banking cooperation as the future ventures to be carried out by Iran
and Armenia.

He also praised Iran’s position on Karabakh conflict for being a
balanced and constructive one.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 11 2009

US spokesman faces questioning on Obama skipping Greece

A US State Department spokesman struggled to explain why US President
Barack Obama has decided to visit Turkey and not its neighbor, Greece,
insisting at a press conference that the president is planning to
visit Turkey to discuss many issues of common concern.

"I think it’s quite significant that President Obama will be going to
Turkey. They’re working out the details of that visit," State
Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said at a daily press briefing
on Monday. "But Turkey is an important ally, and there’s a lot of
business to do with Turkey, and we think it is significant that the
president has decided to go."

The Greek media expressed resentment over Obama’s plan to visit Turkey
within the month — a short time after his secretary of state, Hillary
Clinton, traveled to Ankara for talks with Turkish leaders — rather
than next turning his attention to Greece, another NATO ally that has
had problematic ties with Turkey in the past.

In the past the US policy was to maintain a balance between its
relations with Turkey and Greece; US officials visiting Turkey also
visited Greece to show that the US equally valued both allies. The
Greek media lamented that the US no longer seems to be concerned about
maintaining such evenhandedness and reported that the upcoming Obama
visit to Turkey could strain relations with Greek diplomats.

Asked whether Obama is also planning to go to Greece, Wood said the
president is not scheduled for such a visit. Regarding Clinton’s
plans, Wood remarked, "I think, at some point, she will be going to
Greece," adding: "All I can tell you is that Greece is an important
ally of the United States. Foreign Minister [Dora] Bakoyannis was here
last week to meet with the secretary [of state], and we’ve got a lot
of business as well to do with the Greek government. And so I wouldn’t
— folks — I wouldn’t draw conclusions about this."

Wood was later questioned by the same journalist as to whether Clinton
discussed the Armenian claims of genocide at the hands of the late
Ottoman Empire, whether the Cyprus dispute that has put Greece and
Turkey at odds with each other for decades was also on the agenda and
how much money Clinton had proposed to give the Turks for a possible
withdrawal of US troops via Turkey.

11 March 2009, Wednesday
TODAY’S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL

Armenia’s national currency weakens against USD by 8.45 points after
strengthening on march 11, 2009

YEREVAN, March 11. /ARKA/. The national currency of Armenia weakened
against USD again after being strengthened in the period from March 3
to 9.

Average market exchange rate of Armenian dram against U.S. dollar
slipped 8.45 percentage points and came to 369.73 drams for $1 on March
11 on Armenia’s foreign exchange market, the Press Service of the
Central Bank of Armenia reported.

On March 3, CBA Chairman Arthur Javadyan officially stated that the
Central Bank had decided to abridge its interventions in the foreign
exchange market, returning to the policy of the floating exchange rate.
According to CBA experts, the average weighed AMD/USD exchange rate is
expected to range from AMD 360 to AMD 380 per $1. `0–

Azerbaijan Business Center , Azerbaijan
March 10 2009

Azerbaijani FM: issue of country’s readiness for EU membership should
be solved together with EU’s readiness to accept Azerbaijan

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. In an interview for TV channel Euronews foreign
affairs minister Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan clarified some issues
relating to discussion of European prospects of his country.

Mammadyarov stated that the matter of prospects of Azerbaijan’s
membership in the European Union consists of two parts ` Azerbaijan’s
readiness to enter the EU and readiness of the EU to accept it.

`Both issues should be solved in complex,’ the FM considers.

`Despite participation in programs of European Neighborhood Policy
(ENP) and Eastern Partnership, Azerbaijan has not submitted formal
request for membership in the EU.

`And the most difficult for Azerbaijan issue of Nagorno Garabagh
conflict with Armenia should be settled on the basis of European
standards ` no one of the EU states is occupying any other country and
does not conduct there ethnic cleansing,’ Mammadayrov said.

Armenia is occupying 20% of Azerbaijani territory and evicted 1
million people from its territory and occupied districts of
Azerbaijan.

Panorama.am
13:03 10/03/2009

`ONE SHOT, ONE MINUTE’ INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL LAUNCHED IN YEREVAN

On 17-24 May seventh international festival `One shot, one minute’
will be launched in Yerevan organized by Armenian Center for
Contemporary Experimental Art (NPAK), told Vahram Akimyan the
organizer of the festival to Panorama.am.
According to him one minute long films shot in one sequence will be
included into the festival. There are no limits on age, sex,
nationality for the participants and genre differentiations for the
films. Every year the organizers receive more applications for the
festival.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENPRESS

SPOKESMAN FOR ARMENIAN PRESIDENT COMMENTS ON THE STATEMENT OF GEORGIAN
PRESIDENT ABOUT `COLLAPSE’ OF ARMENIAN ECONOMY

YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS: Spokesman for the Armenian President
Samvel Farmanyan commented with the request of Mediamax on the recent
statement of Georgian president about the `collapse’ of the Armenian
economy.
`The assessments of the President of Georgia given to the Armenian
economy at the opening of an entertainment center are absolutely
ungrounded. On the other, hand I do not think that giving such
assessments is the best variant of diverting the attention of the own
people from the various issues existing in Georgia. The President of
Armenia was many times directed questions about inner-political and
social-economic situation in our neighboring countries and, as you
have noticed, the President of the Republic has never expressed
himself over such issues, no matter how attractive it will seem in
this or that situation, leaving the comments of these issues to
analysts or state and political figures of those countries. The
political correctness supposes this,’ the spokesman said.

ANKARA PREPARING TO HOST CLINTON

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.03.2009 18:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that
the scheduled visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to
Ankara would reaffirm the strategic partnership between Turkey and
the United States.

Burak O"zu"gergin, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
said on Friday that the Turkish government maintained its mutual
consultation and cooperation process with the new U.S. administration
on all levels.

"Mrs Clinton will pay a working visit to Ankara on Saturday upon an
invitation by Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. Following their
tete-a-tete meeting, Babacan and Clinton will also hold talks over
a luncheon. She will also be received by President Abdullah Gu"l and
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdog(an. Besides Turkey-the United States
bilateral relations, international issues will be high on agenda of
the secretary’s talks," O"zu"gergin said.

PAPAL HOLY LAND TRIP TO HAVE INTERRELIGIOUS FOCUS

Catholic.net
March 5 2009

JERUSALEM, MARCH 4, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will be taking
many steps to promote interreligious dialogue during his May trip
to the Holy Land, according to an unofficial itinerary. Jean-Marie
Allafort from "Un Echo d’Israel," a Christian newsletter in Israel,
spoke with ZENIT about the Pope’s unofficial schedule for the May
11-15 trip, though he said that "neither the Vatican nor the State
of Israel has published the official program," and some items are
still being discussed.

According to Allafort, the trip will include a visit to the Yad
Vashem Holocaust memorial, and a welcome from both the Israeli and
Palestinian Authority presidents.

Israeli President Shimon Peres is set to welcome the Holy Father on
May 11, and together they will visit the Yad Vashem, according to the
report. Later that evening, the Pontiff will attend an interreligious
meeting before proceeding to the apostolic nunciature where he will
reside during his stay,

On his second day in Israel, the Holy Father will meet with the mufti
of Jerusalem and then go to the Wailing Wall to take part in a ceremony
that will also be attended by the grand rabbis of Israel. Later that
morning, he will visit the rabbinate of Israel.

At noon, the Holy Father will pray in the Cenacle, where Jesus held his
Last Supper. And then he will visit the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem
to meet and lunch with the Catholic ordinaries of the Holy Land. That
evening he will visit Gethsemane and celebrate a solemn Mass.

On May 13, the unofficial itinerary has Benedict XVI visiting
Bethlehem, where he will be welcomed by the president of the
Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and other Palestinian
leaders. There he will visit the Basilica of the Nativity and
celebrate Mass.

In the afternoon, he is set to visit a refugee camp near Bethlehem,
as well as a work of charity, though this latter site has not been
determined.

The program for Thursday, May 14, is still being considered, but the
Holy Father is expected to celebrate Mass in the morning in Nazareth
and meet with religious leaders of Galilee.

On his last day, the Bishop of Rome will visit the Orthodox patriarch
of Jerusalem in the patriarchate. Then he will go to the Holy Sepulcher
where he will be received by the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land,
and where he will be spend time in prayer.

Later that morning, he will visit the Armenian neighborhood of the
Old City of Jerusalem and meet with the Armenian Orthodox patriarch.

He is scheduled to leave Israel around 2 p.m. that afternoon.

AMBASSADOR OF AUSTRIA IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

National Assembly of RA
March 4 2009
Armenia

On March 3 the RA NA President Mr Hovik Abrahamyan received the
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of
Austria to the Republic of Armenia Mr Marius Kaligaris.

Highly assessing the Armenian-Austrian relations the NA President Mr
Hovik Abrahamyan highlighted the development of bilateral relations and
the activation of inter-parliamentary cooperation and the cooperation
at the level of committees and MPs. Considering the European
integration as one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy Mr
Abrahamyan noted that the Action Plan of the European Neighbourhood
policy opened new perspectives of development in all directions and in
this context he highlighted the deepening of relations with Austria
as EU member. To his conviction, in this aspect there is big unused
potential of cooperation with Austria. Noting the visits of the past
years the NA President Mr Hovik Abrahamyan considered useful the visit
of the Austrian colleagues to the National Assembly and invited on an
official visit to Armenia the newly elected President of the Austrian
Parliament Mrs Barbara Prammer.

Reserving a special role to the parliament in the development of
the relations of the two countries the Ambassador Mr Marius Kaligaris
highlighted the deepening of the Armenian-Austrian relations within the
EU New Neighbourhood framework, too.The Ambassador noted that Austria
highlighted the deepening of relations with South Cuacasian region,
noting with satisfaction the current high level of cooperation. In
this context was highlighted the European Union-Eastern Neighbours
programme, where the three republics of the South Caucasus, Moldova,
Ukraine and Belarus were included.

Mr Kaligaris considered necessary the activation of the
inter-parliamentary relations, noting that in the newly elected
National Council of Austria the establishment of the committee on
Austria-South Caucasus-Middle Asia parliamentary cooperation was
envisaged, which would boost the inter-parliamentary relations and
make the cooperation full and constructive.

During the meeting the perspectives of the development of bilateral
relations, as well as other issues concerning the inner-political
situation of Armenia and of bilateral interest were also discussed.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT TO KEEP BACKING PROMISING ENTERPRISES

ARKA
March 5, 2009

YEREVAN, March 5. /ARKA/. Armenia’s government will keep supporting
promising and effective enterprises amid the global economic crisis,
RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said.

In the past months, the RA Government held meetings with private
entrepreneurs to discuss existing problems and hardships, Sargsyan
said Wednesday during his interview to local TV channels.

According to the premier, devaluation of the Armenian dram will create
favorable conditions for local producers and exporters and they will
start implementing new programs.

"We have discussed these programs in detail. Devaluation of the
national currency was not a surprise for them and they must resume
some of the frozen programs," Sargsyan was quoted saying.

If hardships, local companies can turn to the RA Government’s task
group and get state support, the prime minister said.

"We will give priority to those enterprises that are facing temporary
difficulties, but have large export capacities," Sargsyan said, adding
the government had backed many such enterprises. "Our allocations
will be under public control," the premier said, stressing strong
exporting enterprises with new employment opportunities would be in
the government’s focus.