Author: Jagharian Tania

KUSTURICA PLANTS TREE OF PEACE IN YEREVAN

Blic
March 8 2010

Emir Kusturica and No Smoking Orchestra have held a magnificent concert
in Armenia, at the National Theatre in Yerevan. The Serbian film
director had arrived at the invitation of Khachatur Almazian, famous
Armenian violinist, best known for his Almazian’s Obsession orchestra.

Kusturica and Almazian were given an official reception by Armenia
president Serzh Sargsyan, chatting for 45 minutes in a warm and
friendly atmosphere in the president’s residence. Kusturica was then
seen by Karekin II, the current head of the Holy Armenian Apostolic
Church, who presented the filmmaker with a 1,700-year-old Holy Mother
Church plaquette.

Upon his arrival in Yerevan, Kusturica was welcomed by Armenia’s
Prime Minister, Tigran Sargsyan, after which they visited Yerevan’s
Armenian Genocide Museum, where Kusturica planted a tree of peace.

Following the visit to the museum-institute, Emir Kusturica, together
with the members of the No Smoking Orchestra, laid a wreath at the
location where seven Serbian pilots died in 1988, after delivering
humanitarian aid to the Armenian people, hit by that year’s devastating
earthquake.

No Smoking Orchestra continue their tour tomorrow night in Saint
Petersburg, which will be the band’s eighth concert in this Russian
city in the past year.

SteelGuru, India
March 7 2010

Iran to construct gas pipeline from Tabriz refinery to Armenia

Sunday, 07 Mar 2010It is reported that Iran is planning to construct a
pipeline from its Tabriz refinery to Armenia to increase gasoline and
gas exports to the country.

Mr Noureddin Shahnazi Zadeh deputy oil minister of Iran said that the
2 sides have agreed on a contract for the construction of 350
kilometers pipeline and terminal on the border shared by the 2
countries.

Mr Shahnazi Zadeh said that the construction of the joint pipeline
needs an investment of USD 350 million.

In 2007, Iran and Armenia reached a primary agreement on construction
of the pipeline from the Iranian northwestern city of Tabriz to the
border city of Mughri, Armenia.

(Sourced from Pipelines International)

M1NjQ3/Iran_to_construct_gas_pipeline_from_Tabriz_ refinery_to_Armenia.html

Today, Azerbaijan
March 6 2010

Azerbaijan’s ruling party sends protest letter to Russia’s
"Nezavisimaya Qazeta" on publication of pro-Armenian article

06 March 2010 [12:15] – Today.Az

The New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) sent a letter of protest to the
Russian `Nezavisimaya Gazeta’ newspaper on the article by a certain
Sergey Zvyagin dedicated to the Khojaly genocide (`Khojaly: the Truth
and Falsification’), and published in the March 5 issue of the
newspaper.

The author, without any serious investigation and analysis, tries to
blame Azerbaijan in the Khojaly events and openly backs the position
of Armenians, the letter says. Zvyagin attempts to characterize the
Sumgait events (1988) and the intrusion of the imperial troops to Baku
(1990) as the massacre against the Armenians. The `journalist’ goes
beyond, accusing Azerbaijan in misrepresentation of these events and
noisy propaganda campaign it allegedly carries out together with
Turkey.

The New Azerbaijan Party urges on `Nezavisimaya Gazeta’ to be unbiased
in writing such complicated materials on ethnic conflicts and not
distort the facts. Such position misleads the readers, harms
reputation of the newspaper and contradicts the fundamental principles
of journalism, the letter underlines.

/AzerTac/
URL:

YNet, Israel
March 5 2010

Turkey to press on with Armenia peace despite vote

Published: 03.05.10, 11:14 / Israel News

Turkey said on Friday it was determined to press ahead with efforts to
normalize ties with Armenia despite a US congressional panel vote
terming as genocide the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks.

"We are determined to press ahead with normalization of relations with
Armenia," Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news
conference. However, he said parliamentary ratification of peace
accords with Armenia were at risk. The US House of Representatives
Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday narrowly voted to approve the
nonbinding resolution, which calls on the president to ensure US
policy formally refers to the killings as genocide. (Reuters)

,7340 ,L-3858304,00.html

ANSAmed, Italy
March5 2010

TURKEY:ARMENIAN MASSACRES;USA,ANKARA NOT MINCING WORDS

(ANSAmed) – ANKARA – The vote of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
US House of Representatives on a non-binding resolution in which the
1915 and 1917 Armenian massacres that took place during the Ottoman
empire are defined as ”genocide” was expected in Ankara. So much so
that, with unusual speed in Turkey, as soon as it was discovered from
the website of the Turkish Cabinet Office that out of the 46 members
of the Committee, 23 against 22 voted in favour of the document, a
message of condemnation immediately appeared. Premier Tayyip Erdogan
expressed concern over the consequences of the vote and underlined
that the taking of a stance by the parliamentary body ”risks damaging
Turkish-American relations, as well as the process of normalisation
between Turkey and Armenia.” Shortly after, it was announced that the
Turkish Ambassador to the US, Namik Tan, has been immediately recalled
to Ankara ”for consultation”. Tan arrived in Washington just a few
weeks but is already an expert on America. That things were not
looking good for Ankara was already clear a few days ago, but events
have taken a turn for the worse in the last 48 hours. Turkey was
opposed to the approval of the document insomuch as it has always
denied that the number of Armenians killed during the massacres total
one and a half million (for Ankara there were ”only” 300,000) and
that they died as a result of a civil war and not due to genocide.
Thus yesterday morning Turkey had already raised not only the
possibility of withdrawing their Ambassador if the resolution were
approved, but also the potential of cancelling contracts worth 45
billion dollars with five large US defence companies. Furthermore,
Ankara has circulated – via the Turkish press – a so-called ‘Plan B’
to be implemented if the document is approved. This plan sets out,
amongst other things, that Turkey could potentially not ratify the
protocols of normalisation of relations signed in October in Zurich
with Armenia, considered to be important for the stability of the
Caucasus.

.XAM09443.html

COMMENTARY: LET THEM BURN COW DUNG!
Edik Baghdasaryan

yun/
2010/03/04 | 11:43

Humanity has existed from time immemorial and during the past
20,000-30,000 years gas was never burnt. Now look at what’s happening.

People in Armenia are all emotional; they want to burn gas. Go to
your homes and burn cow dung."

The above statement was made by RoA MP Vardan Postanjyan during a
press conference after it was declared that the price of gas would
be going up.

After years of serving in the Armenian National Assembly, it would
appear that MP Postanjyan, an economist by profession has hit upon
the winning formula – burn dung. He is one of the MP’s representing
those who are ready to burn dung.

If you voted for the man, then get ready to burn dung.

Tomorrow you just might hear him say – why do you need to eat meat?

Eat bread instead.

Or – it’s spring. There’s grass growing in the meadows. Eat grass.

The day after another MP might announce – Why do you need to wear
clothes. Cover your privates with a fig leaf and walk the streets.

The list of possible thing to do without is endless – the internet,
the telephone…

This is the advice given by our parliamentarians, today, tomorrow
and the day after.

For you see, they don’t have to work to earn a living and put food
on the table. They really don’t have a clue about how you and I and
average citizens in Armenia really live. They live on a different
plane entirely, removed from us mortals.

They have already started to embellish the gates of hell with gold
inlay, to tile the floors and to build jacuzzis there. Why? Because
they’ve already commanded all the lofty and valuable heights here,
in this world.

The minister of economy claimed last week that Armenia had weathered
the financial crisis with honor. I say that the crisis will strike the
heaviest blow against Armenia in three months. If the minister wants
to know why I’m convinced of this, I can give him my calculations.

But the minister believes we’ve survived the crisis and are pulling
free of its clutches. Why? Because he came across an article somewhere
on the internet, read it, and then made the assumption that we made
it through and with dignity. How convenient.

However, perhaps the time has come to pull our heads out of the
internet and plant our feet back in the real world.

We can only hope that the road ahead doesn’t lead us to another
dung heap.

US SNOWBOARDERS AMBER STACKHOUSE AND ERIN COMSTOCK TO SHOOT A FILM ON ARMENIA

Panorama.am
16:03 04/03/2010

Sport

US snowboarders Amber Stackhouse and Erin Comstock, who are in Armenia
in the frames of the Sports Envoys project, presented the route they
have taken, referred to the mission and plans of their visit to Armenia
at a meeting with reporters today. They told Panorama.am reporter
they would like to return to Armenia to shoot a film in the future.

"Yesterday we had a meeting with the cinema institute representatives
and learnt what films are most represented at film festivals in
Armenia. I am particularly interested in "All Women" film festival.

Sure, I would like to participate in that festival and return to
Armenia with a film in the future," Amber Stackhouse said.

In turn, Erin Comstock highlighted that he is working on internet
materials now which have a smaller format. "Of course, I would
like to shoot a film on Armenia, but still I have to talk to
ROXY representatives. I am intent to shoot the film Saturday in
Tsakhkadzor. One day I will return to Armenia with the representatives
of "Snowboarding" magazine because here the landscape is very good I’d
like to extend our activity here," he added highlighting that the film
on this visit will be available in the internet in the upcoming future.

PSRC ADMITS THE ARMRUSGAZARD AGGRESSIVE
Hrayr Manukyan

March 2, 2010

As it was expected, the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC)
has approved the price suggested by the ArmRusGazArd company with
minor changes.

The ArmRusGazArd company suggested to increase the price from 96
dram to 136 dram for the users consuming up to 10,000 cubic meters a
month, and the PSRC approved the rate at 132 dram per cubic meter. In
addition, for the users consuming more than 10,000 cubic meters of
gas the company suggested to increase the price from 215 dollars to
256 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, and the PSRC approved the price
at 243.13 dollars. The reason why the PSRC approved lower rate was
connected with the calculations of the ArmRusGazArd company. For
example, the plan submitted by the company writes that it has 5200
employees, but the PSRC finds that this company can work with 4500
employees as well. The company writes that the median wage was defined
at 130 thousand dram, but the commission finds that they can pay
100 thousand dram. Of course it does not mean that the company will
fire employees or will cut down salary expenses, but it means that
these expenses envisaged by the company will not be calculated in the
company’s incomes and will be covered by the company profits. During
yesterday’s session the representative of the ArmRusGazArd company
presented the reasons why the price should be increased, and such
reasons are the raised price of gas import, currency exchange rate
growth, investments in the gas sector and reduction of natural gas
use capacity. The representatives of non-governmental organizations
in charge of the protection of consumers’ rights, as well as some
members of the Public Chamber, in fact did not have objections about
the increase of the gas prices after the explanations given to them by
the board chairman of the ArmRusGazArd company Karen Karapetyan. They
were mostly speaking of the impacts resulting from the increase
of the price. In the end everyone thanked for such "open and public
discussion" and said they hoped the other upcoming sessions of the PSRC
would proceed in such transparent conditions as well. "The process of
the price increase during the recent years shows that this process has
not reached the final point. We don’t know how much it will be, but we
know for sure that the price is going to be increased in the future as
well. We understand that most of the reasons are objective, but the
economy does not grow in our country, salaries are not indexed even
in the state sector, and generally there is no social justice," said
the head of the Consumers’ Rights Protection NGO Abgar Yeghoyan. "Next
year the price of imported gas on the border will be 270-300 dollar,
and if the prices are calculated according to this methodology, the
price will be more than 400 dollars. This policy of the government is
crossing the permitted limits, after which there are issues connected
with national security. A little has remained till the collapse of
the economy and if it happens, it will be nonsense to speak of the
ArmRusGazArd’s incomes," said Hakob Gharabekyan, a representative of
another organization involved in protection of consumers’ rights. The
chairman of the PSRC Robert Nazaryan and Karen Karapetyan answered
journalists’ questions.

Robert Nazaryan assured that the price of electricity would not grow
because our country will produce electricity and will not export a
part of it to Iran but will use this electricity to meet the demands
of the society. Former prime minister Hrant Bagratyan has raised
this question too and he asks how is the price for citizens twice
more expensive than the import price. "The rate of 340 dollars is
the equivalent of the price in dollar for the citizens. The median
rate of the gas sold to citizens and large consumers is 283 dollars,
VAT included. If we deduct the VAT from this amount (47 USD) and the
losses and current costs during transportation and supply of gas, it
becomes 225. Accordingly, the margin that remains for the ArmRusGazArd
becomes 45 dollars (about the 16% of the selling price), which includes
the current and maintenance costs for the gas supply system, as well
as the amortization and profit," said Karen Karapetyan. In answer to
Hrant Bagratyan’s observation that in the entire world gas is provided
to citizens for cheaper prices than large consumers the head of the
PSRC and ArmRusAGazArd brought a contradiction together and said that
in all places businesses buy gas for cheaper prices. In answer to this
observation Karen Karapetyan said that ordinary consumers use only 38%
of the gas supply but for providing this supply the company spends 60%
of the gas supply expenses on them. In answer to the question when
the ArmRusGazArd will apply for the next raise in the gas prices
Karen Karapetyan said that it depends on the future changes in the
market. However, he said that in case of drastic devaluation of the
national currency they would not apply for price increase as they
did last year as a result of the exchange rate drastic changes. In
answer to the question whether he is sufficed with the price set by
the PSRC Karen Karapetyan said, "As a manager I have been very passive
on lobbying for and pushing forward the rate we want," said Karen
Karapetyan. We asked whether the owners of the company might think
that the chairman does not work well and decide to fire him. After
thinking for awhile he said, "Maybe".

MONITORING OF CONTACT LINE BETWEEN AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN TROOPS ENDS WITHOUT INCIDENT

APA
March 3 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. Under the mandate of the Personal Representative of the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the contact line of troops in 4 km west of
Tapgaragoyunlu village of Goranboy region of the Republic of Azerbaijan
has been monitored on March 3. Azerbaijan Defense Ministry’s press
service told APA that the monitoring had ended without incident.

Field assistants to Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Imre Palatinus, Vladimir Chountulov and Peter Key
conducted the monitoring on Azerbaijani side, field assistants to
Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Jiri Aberleh
and Jaslan Nurtazin conducted the monitoring on the opposite side
of the line of contact recognized as territory of Azerbaijan on the
international level.

‘AZERBAIJAN IS TRYING TO DISTORT IN SERIES THE ISSUE’S BEING’

Aysor
March 4 2010
Armenia

Azerbaijan and its administration are guilty of the fact that
Nagorno-Karabakh isn’t involved in the talks on Karabakh, said at the
press conference NKR Parliament Resident Representative for Foreign
Affairs, Vahram Atanesian.

He said that the NKR administration is ready to negotiate with
Azerbaijan and discuss all contentious issues only from a position
of an equal party, recognized by international community.

Vahram Atanesian said doesn’t think that the Karabakh talks have
entered into their final and decisive round.

"I think there haven’t been any key changes in the talks on settlement
to the Karabakh conflict, and one shouldn’t expect them in the near
future," he said.

There is some kind of break in the process, related to those various
falsifications and distortions that the Azerbaijani side makes to
the process of settlement and in relation to OCSE’s statements.

"Azerbaijan is trying to distort in series the issue’s being, process
of negotiations, and process of settlement. They consider all these
as part of ‘right of nations to self-determination’, as they it
repeatedly voiced," added Vahram Atanesian.