Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

CSTO FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET IN HELSINKI

armradio.am
05.12.2008 10:17

In the morning of December 4th Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian,
the President of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers, initiated
a meeting of the heads of foreign agencies of the member states of
the Collective Security Treaty Organization, featuring the Foreign
Ministers of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan. Opening the meeting, Minister Nalbandian noted that the
meetings of CSTO Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of international
forums provide an opportunity to reinforce the collaboration between
foreign agencies and coordination of activity.

The Ministers discussed the OSCE reformation and issues related to
the security system of Europe, exchanged views on the agenda issues
of the 16th sitting of the OSCE Ministerial Council.

BAKO SAHAKYAN DISCUSSES WORKS CARRIED OUT IN ARTSAKH AND INVESTMENT PROGRAMS

ARMENPRESS
Dec 1, 2008

STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS On 29 November President of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan arrived in Geneva where on
30 November he met with entrepreneur Vardan Sermakes.

Central information department of the office of NKR president told
Armenpress that a wide range of issues related to activities currently
being carried out in Artsakh and prospects of new investment projects
were discussed at the meeting. Special attention was paid to the
development of banking and sports spheres.

NKR finance minister Spartak Tevosyan, executive director of Artsakh
Bank closed joint stock company Kamo Nersesyan and other officials
also took part in the meeting.

KAREN KARAPETYAN: ARMENIA MUST BECOME ONE OF THE ENERGY CENTERS OF THE REGION

ArmInfo
2008-12-01 21:05:00

ArmInfo. Armenia must become one of the energy centers of the region,
the chairman of the board-director general of ArmRosgazprom CJSC
Karen Karapetyan said during the welding of the last joint of the
Kajaran-Ararat section of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline.

ArmRosgazprom’s stable development can help Armenia in the matter.

"I would like to thank the leaders of our country, particularly,
the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, for their support,"
Karapetyan said.

He pointed out that the cooperation between Armenia and Gazprom
was an example of effective partnership that made possible the most
ambitious projects. The idea to build Iran-Armenia gas pipeline arose
in the mid 1990s. The project was launched in 2007 after signing of
a contract between the Government of Armenia and Gazprom OJSC and has
been completed very quickly. The strategic goal of ArmRosgazprom is to
make Armenia one of the energy centers of the region by implementing
lots of big and important projects. "This means that you will see
more such ceremonies in the future," Karapetyan said.

To remind, Gazprom owns 75.55% of shares of ArmRosgazprom, 20% belong
to the Government of Armenia, 4.44% to Itera. The total capital of
the company is almost $580mln

Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Nov 29 2008

Armenians are golden

Deen Hergott, Citizen Special
Published: Saturday, November 29, 2008

In a dramatic last round, a determined team from Armenia retained
their gold medal from the 2006 Olympiad in Turin, Italy, finishing in
clear first with 19 match points from 22 — an impressive nine wins,
one draw and one loss.

A surprisingly solid and powerful performance from the Israeli team
gave them the silver medal with 18 points — eight wins, two draws and
one loss. The United States came on strong in the second half, capped
by a pivotal win in the final round over Ukraine to take the bronze
medal on tiebreak with 17 match points, eight wins and one draw.

In the women’s event, with the lead changing places many times, the
team from Georgia emerged victorious on tiebreak over Ukraine — both
teams scored 18/22. Once again, a bronze medal for the U.S. as the
women’s team edged out Russia and Poland on tiebreak, all with 17/22
scores.

How did the Canadian teams fare? A strong finish saw Canada finish in
28th place on tiebreak with 14 matchpoints from 22. Their original
ranking was 48th, so on paper this was a success story. In actuality,
Canada faced several weaker teams, but nonetheless the players netted
a small gain on international rating. Only Grandmaster Mark
Bluvshtein, on Board 1, lost a few points.

The Canadian women’s team started well, but struggled in the second
half, to finish in 65th place with 10/22 matchpoints. They were ranked
53rd at the beginning of the event. The best performance on the team
went to Board 2’s Yuan Yuanling of North York with a 6.5/10 score.

As always, there is a plethora of noteworthy games from such an event;
the following brilliant piece of opening preparation propelled the
Armenians on their way to their second gold medal in as many
Olympiads:

GM Vladimir Akopian (Armenia)-

GM Maxime Vachier Lagrave (France): Sicilian, Najdorf

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.Be2 Qc7 8.a4
b6 9.f4 Bb7 10.Bf3 Nbd7 11.Qe2 g6 12.0-0 e5 13.Rad1!!

A superb piece of preparation, based on the young French GM’s
predilection for this particular line in the Sicilian. Vachier Lagrave
has scored well in praxis against the more typical 13.Nb3 or 13.fxe5,
but the text was a spectacular bombshell from which Black never
recovered.

13…Be7

13…exd4 14.Bxd4, intending the thematic e4-e5, is simply too strong,
so Black must complete development, hence the text. It should be
noted that although the game continuation proved ultimately
unsatisfactory, the try 13…Bg7 runs into the very strong
14.Ndb5!, exploiting the presence of White’s Rook on d1. Indeed
Black may be forced to abandon this line completely if nothing
better can be found at this point.

14.fxe5 Nxe5 15.Bh6 Bf8 16.Bxf8 Kxf8 17.Qe3 h6

An innocuous looking move, with the clear point of denying White’s
Queen access to h6. But look what happens to the g6-square
now. 17…Kg7! looks much tougher, with the point that 18.Qg5!? can be
answered strongly by the pin 18…Qc5!

18.Bh5!!

Fantastic preparation. It would not surprise me to learn that the
Armenian squad had worked this possibility out in advance of the
game. The pressure along the f-file and against the Black K-side is
tremendous.

18…Qe7

Relatively best is 18…Kg7 19.Bxg6! Kxg6 20.Qg3+ Nfg4 21.h3, though
White still has a clear advantage here.

19.Bxg6! Nxg6 20.Nf5 Qe5 21.Qxb6

This blow from a second direction leaves Black’s camp completely
disorganized.

21…Bxe4?! 22.Qxd6+ Qxd6 23.Nxd6 Bxc2 24.Rxf6! Ra7

White intends 25.Rxf7+ Kg8 and the N/c3 will hop to f6 with an
attractive mating net. For this reason, the d1-Rook is taboo from
capture.

25.Rd2 Kg7 26.Rf3! Black Resigns

After 26…Bb3, White has many strong continuations, but the simplest
is 27.Nf5+ Kh7 28.Ne4!, threatening 29.Nf6 mate as well as the
b3-bishop.

E-mail: [email protected] .

deout/story.html?id=5d90f777-c311-4384-a4e9-c8df66 b9b9e2

PanARMENIAN.Net

Aliyev’s statements meant to exert pressure on Armenia
28.11.2008 15:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statements can
be explained by the world crisis, which certainly affected
Azerbaijan’s economy and also by a new trend of the Karabakh conflict,
which emerged after adoption of the Moscow declaration, according to a
Russian expert.

In an interview with RAI International Italian language channel, Ilham
Aliyev stated that the declaration `doesn’t contain a provision
reading that Azerbaijan obliges to refrain from a military resolution
of the conflict and therefore, any kind of measures, including use of
force and admissible.’

`The world crisis did affect Azerbaijan and under the circumstances,
unsettlement of the Karabakh conflict can be used as a tool
distracting the population from urgent issues,’ Andrey Areshev, expert
at the Strategic Culture Foundation, commented to a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter.

`After adoption of the Moscow declaration, the OSCE MG co-chairs
showed inclination to include Nagorno Karabakh in talks. They also
seemed to share Armenia and NKR’s concerns that their security will be
jeoparadized in case of unilateral concessions on their part. At that
same time, Azerbaijan could cherish illusions that Moscow compels
Armenia to unilateral concessions. In this context, Aliyev’s
statements look like extra psychological pressure on
Armenia. Incorrect interpretation of the international law and ongoing
threats nullify the outcomes of Moscow talks,’ he said.

`Besides, Aliyev did not take into account that he gave his interview
in Italy, a leading EU state which is extremely interested in peaceful
resolution of regional conflicts in the Caucasus,’ Areshev said.

EUROPEAN AZERBAIJAN SOCIETY CREATED IN LONDON

Trend
Nov 26 2008
Azerbaijan

UK, London, 26 November /Trend News corr. G.Ahmadova/ The main purpose
of the newly created European Azerbaijan Society will be to popularize
Azerbaijan in Europe, Chairman of the Society Taleh Heydarov said to
Trend News in London.

"Our main purpose is to inform Europeans of the culture, history,
and economic potential of Azerbaijan," said Heydarov.

According to the Chairman, one of the key challenges facing the
Society is to inform the public of the truth about Nagorno-Karabakh.

"We prepare various publications and they are spread over
Europe. Visions of Azerbaijan magazine which is published in the
Azerbaijani language informs the readers of the culture and history
of Azerbaijan," he said.

The European Azerbaijan Society is going to issue a new newspaper in
English to inform foreigners of news about Azerbaijan, Heydarov said.

Heydarov spoke about the book "Azerbaijan: 100 questions answered". "We
prepared Russian and English versions of the book and will try
to distribute them in England and other European countries," said
Heydarov. He said a new film about mugham (a musical tradition of
Azerbaijan), the culture of Azerbaijan and Garabag is being made
in English with the assistance of the Society. "The film will be
broadcast on a European TV channel in near months," he said.

The European Azerbaijan Society formerly functioned under the title
London Azerbaijan Society.

MEMORANDUM ON CO-OPERATION TO BE SIGNED BETWEEN THE OSCE AND THE ARMENIAN POLICE

armradio.am
26.11.2008 10:20

A memorandum on co-operation between the OSCE Office in Yerevan and the
Armenian Police will be signed tomorrow, 27 November in the building
of the Police.

The memorandum envisages establishment of working groups to strengthen
police public partnership and improvement of the police educational
system, as well as, enhanced co-operation in the field of public
order management.

The Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan Ambassador Sergey Kapinos and
Head of the Armenian Police, General-Major Alik Sargsyan will sign
the memorandum.

AZERBAIJAN CUTS MILITARY SPENDING BY 10%

ArmInfo
2008-11-25 17:32:00

ArmInfo. Azerbaijani Milli Majlis has approved the 2009 state budget
in which defense and security spending is fixed at AZN 1 205.520 mln,
which is by 10.3% lower than the index of 2008.

As APA-Economics reports, of this AZN 1 115.948 million will go to
defense forces, AZN 84.561 million to national security, AZN 2.633
million to applied research and AZN 2.379 million to other expenses.

In the category of Defense Expenditures, the year-over-year decline
was 19% for defense forces, 12% for national security, 31% for other
subcategories and 2% for applied research. In general, on November 25
the Azerbaijani parliament approved the 2009 state budget. Revenues
make up AZN 12 177 mln, expenditures – AZN 12 355 mln. These indices
are by 16,1% and 11,7% respectively higher than those of 2008.

MIATSUM MOVEMENT WARNS ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ABOUT THE KARABAKH ISSUE

Today.Az
49154.html
Nov 21 2008
Azerbaijan

The Miatsum movement, which organized a protest in front of the
Foreign Ministry, has submitted a notification to Armenian Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandyan.

The notification warns Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan
that the proposed ceding of any "liberated land" of Armenia is a
grave state crime, aimed to destroy bases of Armenian statehood and
aggression against the Armenian citizens.

Any attempt to cede the liberated land of Armenia will lead to the
historical, moral and legal responsibility of those taking decisions
and executing them, as a "betrayal against all Armenians".

Miatsum national initiative demands the immediate negotiation policy,
leading to concessions, terminating the state and adopt firm steps
for resettlement of the liberated lands, as well as restoration
of self-government on the whole constitutional territory of "NKR",
says the initiative.

ROMANIA INTENDS TO DEEPEN BILATERAL RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan

Nov 17, 2008

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Receiving Foreign Minister of
Romania Lazar Comanescu on November 15, RA Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian expressed satisfaction with the traditional friendship
of the Armenian and Romanian peoples and dynamic development of
Armenian-Romanian relations.

Emphasizing the necessity to deepen the political dialogue, he
expressed the hope that the European direction can become a new
format of cooperation. E. Nalbandian attached a special importance
to cooperation with Romania within the framework of the European
Neighborhood Policy Actions Plan. He emphasized the necessity to
undertake concrete steps to further make active cooperation in
various spheres.

L. Comanescu also highly evaluated the friendly relations of Armenia
and Romania expressing his country’s intention to further deepen
them. He attached importance to the role of the Armenian community
in the process of development of bilateral relations. In the context
of regional cooperation the Foreign Minister of Romania attached
importance to the EU Black Sea Confederalization Program, as well as
implementation of cooperation between the two countries in the period
of Armenia’s chairmanship in BSEC.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Foreign Ministry Press and
Information Department, the Ministers touched upon the necessity to
expand the bilateral economic cooperation attaching importance to
the complete use of the Armenian-Romanian trade and economic potential.