Author: Karagyozian Lena

IN HIS TALK TO D. MEDVEDEV S. SARGSYAN REITERATES READINESS TO LOOK FOR SOLUTION TO NAGORNO KARABAKH PROBLEM ON BASIS OF MADRID PRINCIPLES

Noyan Tapan
Oct 21, 2008

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 21, NOYAN TAPAN. Russia will continue making a
contribution to finding a mutually acceptable solution to the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, RF President Dmitry Medvedev stated at the October
21 joint press conference expressing satisfaction with the results
of his official visit to Armenia.

His meeting with the RA President, according to him, continued the
good tradition of high-level eventful meetings, confirmed the allied
nature of bilateral relations. The RF President expressed satisfaction
that Russia is the leader among Armenia’s economic partners: according
to the data of eight months, commodity circulation between the two
countries has increased, and the current year will end with rather
successful indices.

Among the primary directions of cooperation between the two countries
D. Medvedev mentioned spheres of fuel and energy, industry, transport,
banking, information technologies, in the future there is also an
intention to develop industrial cooperation between the two countries,
to promote mutual investments, to expand interregional contacts. The
RF President highly evaluated the work of the Armenian-Russian
Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, which, according
to him, has done "efficient, full-value, and large work."

According to the RF President, Armenian-Russian humanitarian contacts
also become strong: the two countries work in this sphere within the
framework of projects of CIS Council of Humanitarian Cooperation,
Interstate Foundation of Humanitarian Cooperation: "Armenia is one
of our closest and most active partners," the RF President said.

In the tete-a-tete talk with Serzh Sargsyan the two countries’
Presidents also discussed the international agenda, in particular,
cooperation within the framework of CIS, Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO). "We are ready for a deeper cooperation with
Armenia," the RF President said. The two Presidents, as D. Medvedev
classed it, also spoke about the situation formed in the Trans-Caucasus
"after Georgia’s aggression in South Ossetia:" "The two countries
consistently support the positions of strengthening peace and stability
in the region. All issues should be solved exclusively by peace and on
the basis of norms of the international law," the RF President stated.

RA President Serzh Sargsyan, in his turn, characterized the
strategic and allied relations between the two countries as
dynamically developing, the firm basis of which is the Agreement on
Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. The RA President
attached importance to the fact that the activity of political
dialogue constantly grows, both sides expressed readiness to continue
exerting efforts in the direction of coordinating the foreign political
activity. Readiness was expressed to promote raising of efficiency of
trade and economic cooperation. The RA President expressed satisfaction
with the fact that most of the agreements reached before have been
already fulfilled, including the agreement on import of energy carriers
to Armenia, which will give a possibility to provide further stable
growth of Armenia’s economy. The two states are also no less interested
in cooperation of economic entities and regions.

The pivotal issues of international politics, including ensuring
global regional stability, prospects of joint cooperation to resist new
challenges and threats were also duscussed during the two Presidents’
private talk. The RA President said that Armenia attaches much
importance to development of cooperation within the frameworkm of
CSTO, CIS, and other international structures, the two countries’
common interest to use the possibilities of these institutions more
efficiently by developing new ways of cooperation.

"We are going to continue joint work in the direction of strengthening
security, stability, and cooperation in the South Caucasus," the
RA President said. He emphasized that Armenia positively estimates
Russia’s mediation mission within the framework of OSCE Minsk Group
in the Nagorno Karabakh settlement, where the latter in cooperation
with the U.S. and French Co-chairs assists the process of Nagorno
Karabakh peaceful settlement. Armenia reiterated its readiness to
look for ways of solution on the basis of Madrid principles.

Cooperation in the humanitarian sphere, bilateral contacts in
the spheres of science, culture, education, youth are also very
important. According to the RA President, the activity of the
Russian-Armenian Slavonic University and Kultura TV channel’s
broadcasting are a specially successful examples in this sphere. The
two Presidents’ tete-a-tete talk "as always proceeded in the spirit
of friendship and mutual understanding and was very meaningful,
practically all aspects of bilateral relations were touched upon,"
the RA President said.

In the issue of deepening bilateral cooperation, including cooperation
at the regional level the two Presidents attached importance to the
documents signed in Yerevan, On Cooperation between the Republic
of Armenia Government and Russian Federation Sverdlovsk Region in
Trade and Economic, Scientific-Technical, and Cultural Spheres, On
Cooperation between Republic of Armenia Armavir Regional Administration
and Russian Federation Yaroslav Regional Government in Trade and
Economic, Scientific-Technical, and Cultural Spheres, the Program
of Interdepartmentanl Consultations between the Republic of Armenia
Foreign Ministry and Russian Federation Foreign Ministry in 2009-2010.

IT IS INTERESTING CITIZENS OF WHICH COUNTRY THE CHILDREN OF THE MASS WEDDING WILL BE
James Hakobyan

Lragir.am
12:10:41 – 23/10/2008

If the society of Armenia cares about the future of the state and
namely the Karabakh issue which has a crucial importance to this
future, it should now be highly embarrassed or at least on the verge
of it. The society should worry whether Karabakh is really sold,
who sells, for what price, part by part or the whole at once, and to
whom. For instance, the leader of the opposition Levon Ter-Petrosyan
says that Serge Sargsyan sells, and the buyer is the West. It seems
unambiguous that nobody else except the government can sell Karabakh
or any other territory of the country. In that sense, if they sell,
nobody else but Serge Sargsyan can sell it for the simple reason that
Serge Sargsyan is the head of state. But does he sell, if he sells
of course, to the West, as Levon Ter-Petrosyan analyzed in the rally
of October 17?

Maybe he knows something which is not known to the society, and
therefore he assures that the government sells Karabakh to the
West. Certainly, Ter-Petrosyan does not use the word "sell", he uses
the word "concede". But perhaps the difference is not big in terms
of meaning, tendencies of the situation, especially when it is said
that Serge Sargsyan concedes in return for the recognition of his
legitimacy. It means he gives Karabakh, he gets loyalty, hence we
deal with trade, sale and purchase, a deal.

Unlike Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s analysis, the analyses in the Russian and
Azerbaijani media prompt that the Armenian government sells Karabakh
to Russia rather than the West. In addition, these analyses seem
to be confirmed by the circumstance that in the negotiations Russia
tries to assume a leading role and undertakes a three-party meeting
of the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.

It is possible that while America and Russia will be fighting for
Armenia and Karabakh, the Armenian government will silently and
without any fuss sell Karabakh to Europe, especially that it may
be helpful to getting a favorable conclusion and resolution during
the discussion of the issue of Armenia in the winter session of the
PACE. The United States and Russia will certainly be upset but it
will be too late, and if they have questions, they will have to let
the Armenian government go and turn to Europe.

Although there are no analyses about it, the sale of Karabakh to
Asia or Africa should not be ruled out. It is also possible that
Australia, Latin America and even Antarctica appear among the buyer,
although the buying capacity of the penguins does not promise great
prospects to the government of Armenia. However, in any case, it
is highly important to have more buyers for a successful deal. It
would increase competition and raise the value of Karabakh. Moreover,
the buyers may even start fighting one other and forget about both
us and Karabakh, which would be the best way out for the government
of Armenia. However, this is just a hypothetical option.

Unfortunately, our product mostly interests the United States, Russia
and Europe.

However, these three, plus Turkey, are enough for the society of
Armenia to get entangled in the flow of information and be unable
to understand what is happening about the Karabakh issue. It may
proceed from the interests of the partners in trade to have the society
entangled in its perceptions, and until it realizes what is happening,
everything will be over. That would be convenient for the government
because the society will not hinder the deal, and the opposition will
perhaps say that before the society could understand his words and
move, Karabakh was sold, and the money was spent on buying special
police equipment to disperse popular movements without victims,
that is through modern technology.

Meanwhile, Karabakh is waiting calmly to see citizens of which country
the children born after the mass wedding will be.

ALEXANDER ISKANDARYAN: OLD SOUTH CAUCASUS VANISHED AFTER FIVE-DAY WAR

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.10.2008 18:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to
Armenia was unusual, because it was a visit to a new South Caucasus,
an Armenian political scientist said.

"The old South Caucasus vanished after five-day war. Presently,
Russia and other states should interact with the region which entered
a new stage of development. Medvedev’s visit was an attempt to sound
the situation. I think that the Armenian-Russian relations should be
further built in the context of recent Georgian events," director of
Caucasus Institute, political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan said,
adding that Armenia values relations with Russia, U.S. and Georgia.

Touching on the regional conflicts, he noted that the tendency of
"non-resolution of conflicts" prevailed in the region during the past
17 years. "I do not have optimistic expectations, despite officials’
statements," he said.

"The Moscow-Washington rivalry has become more vivid. Armenia has to
take it for granted," Iskandaryan resumed.

TURKISH MINISTER EXPECTS OBJECTIVE EU PROGRESS REPORT ON TURKEY

Anatolia news agency
Oct 21 2008
Turkey

Ankara, 21 October: The Turkish foreign minister expressed his
expectation for an objective and fair progress report on Tuesday
[21 October].

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said that he expected that
the European Commission would prepare an objective and fair progress
report on Turkey.

The commission is to make public the report on Turkey’s progress on
the road to European Union (EU) membership in November.

"This year’s report should objectively and fairly show where Turkey
is, what it is doing and what it has to do," Babacan told the private
NTV channel.

Babacan said Turkey would make reforms according to its own schedule
and priorities.

Also, Babacan said that Turkey would maintain its busy diplomacy
traffic with Armenia and told the private channel that he might meet
his Armenian counterpart in a meeting of the foreign ministers of
Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) countries in Tirana, Albania.

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul paid one-day visit to the Armenian
capital of Yerevan to watch a 2010 World Cup qualifier between Turkish
and Armenian national soccer teams on 6 September 2008.

Gul met his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan during this visit.

PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA AND RUSSIA TAKE PART IN STARTING OPERATION OF WIMAX NATIONAL NET

ArmInfo
2008-10-21 15:35:00

ArmInfo. Today Presidents of Armenia and Russia Serzh Sargsyan and
Dmitriy Medvedev took part in the starting operation of WiMax mobile
national net.

The net was started operation by COMSTAR – United TeleSystems company
which is the biggest operator of the integrated telecommunication
services in Russia and the CIS. CJSC Cornet-AM , which is its
subsidiary, will exploit the net in Armenia. Armenian and Russian
presidents were given modems to joint WiMAX net as a gift.

MEDVEDEV IN VISITA IN ARMENIA TENTA MEDIAZIONE SUL NAGORNO KARABAKH

euronews
21/10 13:49 CET
France

Armenia

La sicurezza nell’area del Caucaso e la cooperazione economica. Sono
questi i temi principali della visita del presidente russo Dmitry
Medvedev in Armenia, uno dei più solidi alleati di Mosca nella
regione.

Il capo del Cremlino ha deposto una corona di fiori davanti al
monumento in memoria delle vittime del genocidio armeno del 1915-17
ad opera degli ottomani, un punto che ancora divide Armenia e Turchia.

E ha partecipato alla cerimonia per l’inaugurazione della Piazza di
Russia, nel centro della capitale Erevan. Un riconoscimento del forte
legame che unisce i due paesi.

Ma al di la dei gesti simbolici e delle reciproche attestazioni
di amicizia, la visita di Medvedev ha lo scopo di facilitare una
soluzione diplomatica per il conflitto territoriale tra Armenia e
Azerbaijan sul Nagorno Karabakh, una provincia separatista azera
controllata dagli armeni.

Questo contenzioso, che si trascina dal 1988, è uno dei tanti nodi
irrisolti lasciati dalla dissoluzione dell’Unione sovietica, insieme
a quello tra la Georgia e le due province separatiste dell’Ossezia
del Sud e dell’Abkhazia.

–Boundary_(ID_mDAIlIfOHpYXHvGAdQC Ufw)–

COUNTRIES WITH NO ACCESS TO THE SEA SHOULD HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY OF FREE TRANSIT

armradio.am
22.10.2008 17:22

On October 22 RA Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham Gharibjanyan received
Cheick Sidi Diarra, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative
for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries
and Small Island Developing States.

During the meeting the parties discussed issues connected with how
the countries, which have no access to the sea, can ensure stable
communication with the outer world. The interlocutors noted that
such countries should have an opportunity of free transit, and in
this context emphasized the regional cooperation, involvement of
all countries and participation of transit countries in solving the
problems of the states having no access to the sea.

Mr. Gharibjanyan underlined that very often Armenia faces a situation,
when deriving from political motives, the economically vital and
politically prospective programs are substituted with programs
contributing to drawing dividing lines in the region, thus hindering
the implementation of international development programs, including
those worked out within the framework of the UN. Such behavior should
not enjoy the support of international organizations, particularly the
UN. He expressed hope that the UN and Mr. Diarra will contribute to
the development and diversification of Armenia’s communication routes.

TURKISH DAILY NEWS: ARMENIA ONLY ALTERNATIVE FOR TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.10.2008 16:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It could be argued that the latest developments
will damage Turkey and Turkey’s Caucasus and Central Asia policies
as much as it did Georgia. In addition to the economic problems,
Turkey’s political course of action/vision and infrastructure,
which have been developed over the last decade with huge effort and
occasionally ambiguously, are under threat of collapse, analyst Mitat
Celikpala wrote in an editorial in the Turkish Daily News.

"Turkey’s connection with Azerbaijan and Central Asia is weakening
and there is a possibility that its policy to form a secure line might
collapse. Georgia’s instability and civil war is more of a threat to
Turkey than a Georgia without territorial integrity. Georgia-centered
instability and disorder will force Turkey to choose between different
alternatives, though clearly there are few to choose from. The
possibility of diversifying relations with Iran is seriously limited
by the U.S., and to a certain extent by Iran’s policy choices and
attitudes.

The only alternative that remains is Armenia. The acceleration
of secret and indirect negotiations with Armenia to overcome the
problems and progress in the resolution of problems between Armenia and
Azerbaijan could be expected. The Armenian Diaspora and relations with
Russia will be the major roadblocks in this process. In this context,
the policies towards Azerbaijan will be another restriction. It must be
stressed that Georgian leader Saakashvili has led himself, his country,
Turkey and his allies onto a problematic path. The negotiations,
which will be the result of the interaction of multiple unknowns,
will result in a different Georgia and Caucasus. This process, in
which the EU and USA will have an influential role, is filled with
questions about the situation of Abkhazians and Ossetians, as well
as Georgians. Turkey certainly needs to find its place at the table;
Turkey’s regional interests are too important to be left to even
its closest allies to defend. Providing decision-makers with daily,
reliable and constructive alternatives is just as important as swift
and correct decision-making," the article says.

"KNOWLEDGE IS IMPORTANT FOR LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES"

A1+
[06:06 pm] 22 October, 2008

President Serzh Sargsyan today received Cheick Sidi Diarra,
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed
Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing
States. The Under-Secretary-General has arrived in Yerevan to
participate in the global innovation conference on educational issues.

The president appreciated the assistance the UN structures provide
to Armenia. Noting that ever since joining the UN Armenia has been
actively participating in the organisation’s activity, Serzh Sargsyan
said without the direct assistance of corresponding UN bodies it would
be extremely difficult to work out and implement effective programmes
in a number of spheres.

"Our objective is to create a stably developing society," the leader of
the country said, noting that the Government has declared information
technologies as a priority direction. On the way of creation of an
information society, the state especially encourages the activeness
and involvement of youth.

Welcoming Armenia’s resoluteness to develop information technologies
and telecommunication, the high UN official said it will allow
investing the knowledge in the potential of the country’s development,
which is especially important for landlocked countries like Armenia.

The parties agreed that the economy based on knowledge provides an
opportunity to the country to be much more competitive.

The interlocutors spoke about the alternative routes of communication
and emphasised their necessity.

According to Sargsyan, the growth of communication opportunities can
considerably facilitate the development of information technologies.

MARGIT EYRAUD RESIGNS AS CEO OF MARANI BRANDS, BOARD NAMES ARA ZARTARIAN AS SUCCESSOR

Business Wire
October 7, 2008 Tuesday 12:03 AM GMT

Marani Brands, Inc. (OTCBB:MRIB) announced today that its President
and Chief Executive Officer, Margrit Eyraud, has resigned to pursue
other interests, effective immediately.Ms. Eyraud will remain as a
Director of the Company.

The Board has selected Ara Zartarian to succeed Ms. Eyraud as the
Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, also effective
immediately. Mr. Zartarian is currently the Company’s Chief Operating
Officer.

"I have enjoyed my time with the Company, and wish the best of luck
to my successor and Marani Brands," said Ms. Eyraud.

AboutMarani Brands, Inc.

Marani Brands, Inc. brands, markets and distributes fine wine and
spirit products in the United States. Its signature product, "Marani
Vodka," is a premium vodka manufactured exclusively for Marani in
Armenia. Marani Vodka is made from winter wheat harvested in Armenia,
distilled three times, aged in oak barrels lined with honey and skimmed
dried milk, then filtered twenty-five times. Marani Vodka was awarded
the gold medal in the International Spirit Competition, held in San
Francisco, California, in both 2004 and 2007, and the 5 Diamond Award
by the American Academy of Hospitality and Sciences in March 2008.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements made in this press release contain forward-looking
statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. This
forward-looking information is based on certain assumptions,
including, among others, presently known physical data concerning
size and character of reservoirs and economic recoverability. Some
of these expectations may be based upon assumptions or judgments that
prove to be incorrect. In addition, operations involve numerous risks
and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Marani Brands’ control,
which could result in expectations not being realized or otherwise
materially affect the financial condition, results of operation and
cash flows. Additional information regarding these and other risks
are contained in Marani Brands’ filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.