Author: Harutyunian Christine

GEORGIAN PRIME MINISTER HOPES ARMENIA WILL NOT EXAGGERATE ISSUE OF NORASHEN CHURCH

TREND
Dec 9 2008
Azerbaijan

Georgia, Tbilisi, 9 Dec / Trend News corr N. Kirtzkhalia / The Georgian
Prime Minister hopes that the incident over the disputable church
"Norashen" in Tbilisi will be settled soon.

"A special commission was formed which will include representatives
of both churches, as well as common representatives of Georgian and
Armenian public, Georgian Prime Minister Grigol Mgaloblishvili said
in Tbilisi at the joint news conference with his Armenian counterpart
Tigran Sarkisyan.

"Our fraternal relations are based on centuries-old character
and I hope that this question will not be politically exaggerated"
Mgaloblishvili said. Sarkisyan preferred not to make any comments on
this issue.

Armenia again raised the question on re-owning the church Norashen
located in the center of Tbilisi. The students even held a protest
action in Yerevan demanding Georgia to return the sacred place to
Armenian nation.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HOLDS CONFERENCE ON FIGHTING CORRUPTION IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan

Dec 9, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. As U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary to RA Marie Yovanovitch affirmed, when society’s
confidence to the law enforcement system is low, society does not
fight corruption, but solves the problem by corruption means. The
Ambassador said that at the conference on the subject Efficient Means
of Corruption Crimes Investigation and Criminal Prosecution on Them
organized on December 9 by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In her interview to journalists the Ambassador said that high-ranking
American officials have been prosecuted and punished lately: it
requires great work and political will. "We have managed to record
progress in this sphere in the United States and it inspires me
with the hope that everybody in all countries is able to have such
progress," she said. The example of Chicago in 1920 shows that even one
person is able to change the situation, and it can also be in Armenia:
there was only one prosecutor in Chicago in 1920, who finally changed
the whole situation as he did his business consistently.

According to Armen Ashrafian, the Head of the Department on Corruption
and Cases of Organized Crime of the RA Prosecutor General’s Office,
active participation of society and NGOs is needed to efficiently
fight corruption.

In response to a journalist’s question of why there is no agreement on
mutual legal assistance with the U.S. so far, A. Ashrafian said that
Armenia’s law enforcement bodies, in particular, Prosecutor’s Office
cooperate very closely with the U.S., but it is done by a good will:
"such work is already being done on our initiative, and the problem
can be settled if not by interstate agreements, at least by memoranda,"
he said.

Two prosecutors and three high-ranking Police officials from the
U.S. took part in the conference. Prosecutors, investigators from
the Special Investigation Service, RA State Revenues Committee of RA
Police represented the Armenian side.

PROPERTY OF BJNI PLANT TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION

Noyan Tapan

Dec 9, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The property and property rights of
"Bjni" Mineral Water Plant CJSC will be sold by auction on December 19,
NT was informed by the Service for Compulsory Execution of Court Acts.

ARMENIAN JUDOISTS RETURNED WITH 1 BRONZE MEDAL

Panorama.am
18:52 08/12/2008

"Sunrise" cup championship is already finished in Tehran,
Iran. Armenian judoists managed to gain only one bronze medal from
the championship. Artak Abrahamyan (73kg) defeated his rivals and
got bronze medal.

According to Haykanush Aghsinyan of the Judo Federation of Armenia,
Pailak Vardazaryan (66kg) occupied fifth horizontal.

According to the source Armenian Judo Federation sportsmen will also
take part in World Cup Championship in Tbilisi.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA TO PAY A TWO-DAY OFFICIAL VISIT TO BULGARIA

armradio.am
09.12.2008 12:17

At the invitation of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, the
President of the Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, will leave for
Sofia on December 10 for a two-day official visit, President’s Press
Office reported.

The same day the Armenian President will meet his Bulgarian counterpart
Georgy Prvanov. The meeting will be followed by Armenian-Bulgarian
consultations in an extended format, after which the two Presidents
will sign documents and give a joint press conference.

Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Georgy Prvanov will adopt a joint
Communiqué on the results of the visit. They are expected to sign
a protocol of organizing and conducting Days of Bulgarian Culture
in Armenia in 2009 and Days of Armenian Culture in Bulgaria in 2010,
the working plan on the cooperation in the field of state governance
between 2009 and 2014, an agreement on cooperation in the sphere
of archiving, as well as a protocol on excluding double taxation of
income and property.

The Presidents of the two countries are expected to attend the opening
ceremony of the Armenian-Bulgarian Business Forum.

During the two-day official visit the Armenian President will have a
working dinner with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Sergey Stanishev,
will meet with the President of the National Assembly of Bulgaria,
Georgy Pirinsky and will lay a wreath to the memorial to the Unknown
Soldier.

At the National Gallery for Foreign Art Presidents Serzh Sargsyan
and Georgy Prvanov will be present at the opening of the exhibition
of Sergey Parajanov’s collages.

Mr. Sargsyan will also visit the Armenian Embassy in Bulgaria.

–Boundary_(ID_UsogE5QhwO4M5b7iNpgFIg)- –

NAGORNO KARABAKH DISPUTE TO BE DISCUSSED IN GERMANY

State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan
December 6, 2008 Saturday

On December 9 the Konrad Adenauer Foundation of Germany will host
round-table meeting to discuss Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement,
Center of Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan told
AzerTAc. Elkhan Nuriyev, Director of the Center of Strategic Studies
will make a keynote address on Models for solution of Karabakh
conflict.

Senior representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Amos Helms,
German political scientist, Professor Johannes Rau, Ambassador of
Azerbaijan to Germany Parviz Shahbazov, diplomatic corps and press
are expected to take part in the conference.

TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN EARTHQUAKE

BBC World Service
December 7, 2008

Tenth anniversary of Armenian earthquake

Armenia is marking the anniversary of the earthquake that killed more
than twenty-five thousand people ten years ago.

The country’s political leaders are due to attend ceremonies in the
worst affected areas in the north and west of the country.

Attention is expected to focus again on the two towns that suffered
the most serious casualities, now renamed Vanadzor and Gyumry, and
still bear the scars of the earthquaqe – ruined buildings and more
than twenty-thousand families homeless.

ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN PREMIERS TO DISCUSS ENERGY, NUCLEAR COOPERATION

Interfax
Dec 4 2008
Russia

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian will meet with his Russian
counterpart to discuss cooperation in the fuel and energy sector,
expanding cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and how to
overcome the negative effects of the global financial crisis on the
Russian and Armenian economies.

"Armenian Prime Minister Sargsian will be in Moscow on a working visit
on December 5, 2008, to hold talks with Russian head of government
Vladimir Putin," a source at the Russian government told Interfax.

"At the talks the two premiers are planning to discuss a broad range of
issues concerning Russian-Armenian relations with emphasis on trade,
economic and investment cooperation, as well as the implementation
of large joint projects on energy, processing industry, banking,
construction and transport," the source said.

The talks will focus, in particular, on "cooperation in the fuel
and energy sector," he said. "There are good prospects for expanding
cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including continuing to
ensure safe operation of the Armenian nuclear power plant and studying
the possibility of building a new nuclear power unit," the source said.

Russian companies are "interested in conducting a geological survey
and in joint industrial exploration of uranium fields in Armenia,"
he added.

"Also a number of regional and international issues are expected
to be discussed, including how to overcome the negative effect of
the global financial crisis on the Russian and Armenian economies,"
said the source in the Russian government.

ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN DECIDE TO WORK ON A LASTING PEACE DEAL: TURKISH FM

Hurriyet
Dec 5 2008
Turkey

Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers decided to work on a
lasting peace agreement in their trilateral meeting with Turkish
foreign minister on the sidelines of a OSCE summit. (UPDATED)

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan met Thursday his counterparts,
Edward Nalbandian of Armenia and Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan,
on the sidelines of the OSCE meeting in Helsinki.

"I see this decision as an important one made to solve the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute," he was quoted by Anatolian Agency as
telling reporters after he returned from Finland.

Babacan said representatives of five countries including Turkey,
Georgia, Azerbaijan Russia and Armenia that were expected to set up
the Caucasus Stability & Cooperation Platform, also met in Helsinki
and exchanged views on the goals, principles, and mechanisms of
the platform.

The Turkish foreign minister also said he debated general developments
in the Caucasus and Nagorno-Karabakh dispute during his visit to
Baku and Caucasian issues, Russia-NATO relationship, Georgia-Ukraine
committees, and the situation in Afghanistan and Kosovo in the NATO
meeting in Brussels.

AGREEMENT ON CONTINUATION OF MEETINGS

Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers agreed to continue such
contacts; while an official from the OSCE Minsk Group said the
border between two countries will open soon, media reports suggested
on Friday.

Babacan and Nalbandian agreed to continue such meetings, Public Radio
of Armenia and Russian Interfax news agency reported.

"The foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey met in Helsinki on
December 4. At their meeting, the parties continued negotiations
intended to help straighten out the Armenian-Turkish relationship,"
an Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman told Interfax.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations and their border
has been closed for more than a decade, as Armenia presses the
international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims
instead of accepting Turkey’s call to investigate the allegations,
and Armenia’s invasion of 20 percent territory of Azerbaijan.

A warmer period began in the relations when Turkish President Abdullah
Gul paid a landmark visit to Yerevan in September. Two countries have
been holding contacts on the minister level since.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Turkey believes the renewed dialogue with Armenia could contribute to
the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, an Azerbaijani under
the occupation of Armenia.

An official from the OSCE said 2008 was a good year in the sense of
the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"I have often recalled the so-called golden opportunity, and after
today’s meeting it seems to me that the work on the basic principles
will complete next spring and them it will be possible to work at
the agreement. But everything certainly depends on the will of the
parties", the special rapporteur of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
on South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh Goran Lennmarker was quoted as
saying by the Azerbaijani media.

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 on Armenian
territorial claims over Azerbaijan. Since 1992 Armenian Armed Forces
have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding districts.

Lennmarker added Turkey’s mediation on the conflict was a good
initiative and it is not good not only for Azerbaijan but also for
Armenia. He also voiced hope that the border between Armenia and
Turkey will open soon.

Turkey had offered Armenia to open the border on the condition of
the establishment of a joint commission to investigate the 1915
incidents. Armenia has been dragging its feet on accepting the
proposal.

TALKS GOING WELL

Babacan said earlier Friday that talks between Turkey and Armenia as
well as Azerbaijan and Armenia were going well.

"I can say that things are going well both in the process between
Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as between Turkey and Armenia and
I hope that the talks would yield the desired result, which is the
total normalization of relations," Babacan was quoted by Anatolian
Agency as telling reporters in Helsinki.

Babacan said the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was a complicated issue
with many levels, but added that both Azeri and Armenian presidents
had the political will to find a solution.

The Turkish foreign minister also held talks with co-chairs of the
Minsk Group dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in Helsinki.

He said the U.S., Russia and France also extended support for the
process between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"I have told all parts that they should not miss the opportunity for
a solution, and I hope these efforts will yield result to help create
a new atmosphere of peace, stability and security in the Caucasus,"
Babacan said.

TURKISH, ARMENIAN DIRECTORS TO SHOOT DOCUMENTARY FILM

Hurriyet
Dec 5 2008
Turkey

Two directors from Turkey and Armenia are set to shoot a documentary
in a bid to contribute to the rapprochement efforts between the
countries after Turkish president’s historic visit to Yerevan, the
Armenian capital.

Turkish director Eray Mert and his Armenian colleague Gevorg Nazarian
have been working on the project since October and they are scheduled
to start in December shooting the joint documentary film in Yerevan
which tells the story of a Turkish boy and an Armenian girl who fall
in love after meeting on the Internet.

The project for the documentary, titled Aras after the river that runs
along the Turkish-Armenian border, is sponsored by the U.S. Embassy
in Ankara.

The documentary will also feature stories told by older generations
in Turkey and Armenia.