Author: Nahapetian Lilit

FINAL STATEMENT OF 8TH SUMMIT OF TURKISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES

Turkish Press
Nov 20 2006

ANTALYA – A final statement of the 8th Summit of Heads of State of
Turkish-Speaking Countries (held in southern city of Antalya) was
released on Friday.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer of Turkey, President Nursultan Nazarbayev
of Kazakhstan, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President
Kurmanbek Bakiev of Kyrgyzstan signed the final statement.

The statement underlined the importance of boosting cooperation among
Turkish-Speaking countries and in Eurasia region.

It stressed that Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline were important projects at
the international platform.

"Improvement in international transportation between Turkey and
Turkish-Speaking countries will create new opportunities and contribute
to economy of regional countries," it noted.

The final statement indicated that the Upper Karabakh issue, which was
an obstruction to lasting stability in southern Caucasus and regional
cooperation, should be solved through peaceful means in conformity
with Azerbaijan`s independence and its territorial integrity.

It stated, "solution of the Upper Karabakh issue will boost peace,
stability and prosperity in Eurasia."

"Heads of state (of Turkish-Speaking countries) underlined the
importance of joint fight against terrorism, proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction, drug smuggling, weapon smuggling, human smuggling
and other organized crimes," it stated.

The final statement noted that a global response must be given to
terrorism which became a global threat, stressing that any kind of
terrorism could not be justified.

Referring to the developments that took place in Afghanistan, Iraq,
Palestine and Lebanon, the statement indicated that activities and
initiatives aiming to ensure lasting peace and tranquility should
be supported.

"Turkish-Speaking Countries should work hard to boost cooperation
in the areas of economy, industry, agriculture, transportation,
communication and tourism," the final statement underlined.

It said that Turkish-Speaking Countries should fully support activities
and initiatives that aimed to strengthen historic and cultural ties
among themselves.

Underlining the importance of Turkey`s EU accession process, the final
statement indicated that Turkey`s EU accession would contribute to
political, economic and social development in the region and strengthen
ties between the region and the EU.

It stressed that a comprehensive solution should be found to the
Cyprus issue under the roof of the UN, stating that heads of state
of Turkish-Speaking Countries assisted the UN`s initiatives in regard
to lifting of isolations imposed on Turkish Cypriot people.

"SERGE SARGSYAN IS A SMALL PERSON"

A1+
[06:02 pm] 15 November, 2006

"When we sacrificed out lives in the war, we could have never thought
that one day it would become subject for sale. Today some people want
to sell high ideas in order to solve personal problems. Everything is
distorted, even the concept of being Armenian", this was the statement
made by NGO "Brotherhood of Liberation War" today.

On behalf of the 57 commanders President of the NKR Yerkrapah Union
Arkadi Karapetyan called on everyone to join the movement "Civic
Disobedience". Why have the commanders decided to speak about it
today? Mr. Karapetyan said, "Many of us understand Turkish and follow
the Azeri Mass Media. They used to announce that one day they might
take back the lost territories. Now they claim they will do it soon".

According to Arkadi Karapetyan, the RA authorities do not hide their
readiness to give them territories.

"If Serge Sargsyan announces that Aghdam has never been an Armenian
land, what does it mean?" Mr.

Karapetyan said angrily. The journalists reminded him about another
announcement of Serge Sargsyan that when we took the disputable lands
in 1994 we knew that we would exchange them later. "Serge Sargsyan is
too small a person to say such a thing. When did he say that? Could
he dare to say the same in 1992 or 1994?

No soldier would fight if he knew that later someone would decide to
give the lands they liberate to the Azeris".

Arkadi Karapetyan is especially worried about the fact that
Robert Kocharyan and Serge Sargsyan spoilt the reputation of the
Karabakhians. "I was against his coming to Armenia. Robert Kocharyan
was not elected in Karabakh either. On June 2, 1992, the whole
government of Armenia came to Karabakh in order to make people elect
him President of the country, but we didn’t. So he was appointed
President of the Defense Committee, and his career began".

Arkadi Karapetyan assured that the people of Karabakh do not put
trust in either the NKR or the RA authorities when it comes to the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Arkadi Karapetyan also said he has his variant of mutual
compromise. "We have already compromised – we did not take
Baku". He especially underlined that they do not make militant
announcements. "Normal people do not want war. I have lost children,
friends and relatives. At this rate our nation will die without
any war".

The Council of Commanders of the "Brotherhood of Liberation War"
promised to represent 132 variants of the change of authorities. The
best variant adoring to them is the following, "Those people who have
seen war have only one variant: whatever he is not given he takes by
force. Those who want to give the liberated lands to the Azeris are
the same enemies to us who will have the same fate".

ARMENIA, EU SIGN NEW NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN

Regnum, Russia
Nov 14 2006

On November 14, Armenian-EU action program in framework of the
"new neighborhood" policy was approved and adopted at the seventh
Armenia-EU plenary session in Brussels, REGNUM correspondent reported.

Political issues, human rights’ protection, as well as energy problems
were discussed during the meeting. The Armenian side informed on the
efforts aimed at the diversification of energy sources in the country,
particularly, construction of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline. Following
the session, an official ceremony of adopting the Armenia-EU action
plan took place. At the ceremony, Armenian FM Vardan Oskanyan and the
Finland’s foreign trade minister signed a relevant document. Realizing
the program suggests an opportunity for Armenia to proceed from
cooperation with the EU to a higher level of integration, including
the possibility to enter the EU’s domestic market and become part of
the EU’s policies and programs. The action plan suggests establishing
intensive political, economic, and cultural tiesbetween Armenia and
the EU.

The signed document gives Armenia an opportunity to realize a
comprehensive package of reforms before signing a new agreement of a
still higher status. Realization of the program will make Armenia’s
social, political, and economical systems more compatible to the
European ones. Special attention in the action plan is paid to the
Armenia-EU economic cooperation, particularly, additional financial
assistance, developing trade and economic cooperation, harmonization of
economic legislation, constant reduction of trade tariff limitations,
which is supposed to boost investments, exports, and economic growth.

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NEW AMBASSADOR TO CZECH REPUBLIC
[06:06 pm] 10 November, 2006

RA Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to
Czech Republic Ashot Hovakimyan handed his credentials
to President Vaclav Klaus.

During the meeting of the President and the Ambassador
the sides highly appreciated the friendship between
the two countries and their people. Nevertheless, they
stated that there is still much to do in order to
stimulate cooperation in political, economic and
cultural fields.

The sides also referred to the cooperation within the
framework of the Individual partnership action plan of
the EU New neighborhood program.

At the end of the meeting President Klaus sent best
regards to his Armenian colleague and wished the newly
appointed Ambassador good luck in the fulfillment of
his diplomatic mission.

ARMAVIA PROSPERS AND IS NOT FOR SALE

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 8 2006

The owner of Armavia Airlines Mikhail Baghdasarov refuted the news
about the sale of Armavia on November 7. He said that the company has
overcome the crisis and will not be sold. Mikhail Baghdasarov even
suggests who could have spread these rumors. According to the owner,
these are the workers of the company who get a salary but instead
of working they spread rumors. Baghdasarov stated that these workers
will be fired soon. He says that the disaster of May 3 taught him a
lesson, and now he is likely to make major technical and structural
changes in Armavia. The owner is likely to lay off 90 out of the
490 emloyees of the company, and he thinks that a staff of 400 is
sufficient and optimal.

Instead, Mikhail Baghdasarov confirms that he has sold his 30 percent
of stocks of the former Armsavingsbank, presently VTB Armenia. He
is negotiating the sale of his share with the leadership of VTB,
and he says if VTB refuses to buy his share, he will sell it to
another buyer. He is sure to sell because Baghdasarov says he is
dissatisfied with the management of VTB. Particularly, Baghdasarov
disliked the decision of the VTB leadership to close down 40 branches
of VTB Armenia in the regions of Armenia.

WHAT HAPPENED TO 116-YEAR-OLD GRANDPA
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 6 2006

It remained unclear for the society why the leader of the United
Javakheti Alliance Vahagn Chakhalyan was arrested. There is only
one tangible thing about this arrest – the scandal. Perhaps it is
difficult to suggest that the Armenian government is fond of scandals,
or needs scandals. Therefore, one does not need a special abilities
to understand that the arrest had another, a tacit reason.

Certainly, the official reason should also be taken into account:
illegal crossing of the border of Armenia. But the fact that the
Armenian and Georgian border is still being defined makes this
reason definitely illogical, for it is impossible to cross, legally
or illegally, something that does not exist. This shows once again
that in order to understand Chakhalyan’s case it is necessary to
consider all the developments in turn.

First, before the local election in Javakheti the defense minister of
Armenia, the foreign minister of Armenia and the foreign minister of
Georgia Gela Bejuashvili visiting Armenia secretly had a dinner at
the Parvana Restaurant. The minister of defense Serge Sargsyan had
organized this dinner. It is interesting that the foreign minister
of Armenia was a guest. In other words, his participation was the
decision of Serge Sargsyan, in other words, he could have not invited
Vardan Oskanyan and could have dined with Bejuashvili alone.

Meanwhile, Serge Sargsyan invited him.

Serge Sargsyan could have not invited Vardan Oskanyan, and perhaps he
had better not invited him, because Vardan Oskanyan revealed the level
of engagement of Serge Sargsyan in the Armenian-Georgian relation on
the eve of the local election in Javakheti by revealing the information
on the dinner, and making this private meal the property of the public.

>>From the point of view of civil consciousness Oskanyan was right –
the behavior of government officials should be public except their
private life. However, most probably Vardan Oskanyan was thinking
about his own political fate rather than the civil society. His
revelation probably had two purposes. First, he needed to show that
the subordination is broken in Armenia, namely the defense minister
deals with the foreign minister of the neighboring country, when
the foreign ministry of his own country is an officially operating
agency with its separate line in the state budget. Besides, Oskanyan
was evidently likely to get rid of the status of a participant of a
confidential meeting. Definitely, Vardan Oskanyan was aware of the
things discussed at dinner if, of course, besides the dinner he also
participated in the talk. Consequently, by revealing this meeting
the minister of foreign affairs got rid of responsibility for any
arrangement made during this meeting, even in terms of participation.

The same is with Vardan Oskanyan’s further standpoint on Vahagn
Chakhalyan’s activities. In fact, a foreign citizen is arrested in
Armenia, who is Armenian, meanwhile the foreign minister announces
that he knows very little about this incident because "he was not in
the city". He might as well have said that the battery of his mobile
was low.

It is also interesting that the political force (the official name
is Armenian Revolutionary Federation), which would declare Javakheti
part of Armenia if it could, also kept silent when Chakhalyan was
arrested. It is amazing why this force did not stand up against
the arrest of a person which had merely gone from one part of
the homeland to the other. On the other hand, this can have its
explanation if we remember the young Republican Armen Ashotyan advise
the 116-year-old "grandpa" that the ARF Dashnaktsutyun had better
mind its own business. Although it is a revolutionary approach for
the traditional Armenian thought when a young men advises an elderly
gentlemen, the ARF took this advice with the revolutionarism typical
of it. Why should they care about Vahagn Chakhalyan if he got his 30
percent in Javakheti, whereas Dashnakstutyun is unable to settle the
problem of at least half of it, 15 percent in the next parliament in
the homeland? At first sight, these two questions may seem to have no
relation, and it seems possible to attend to their own 15 percent and
Chakhalyan’s question. But not only there is no love at first sight
but also politics. And Dashnaktsutyun has been watshing politics for
over a century now and surely knows some ways that it does not attend
to both questions at the same time.

Garnik Isagulyan, who had given a news conference only three days
before Chakhalyan was released, also knew something. The adviser
to Robert Kocharyan stated that Chakhalyan would be set free and
everyone would be happy. This is the case when the court of law is
to make a decision. Consequently, the decision had been made earlier
and on a quite different level. And if the decision on releasing
was made earlier and on a different, non-judicial level, it is quite
probable that the decision on arresting also had a formal relation to
the judicial system, in other words, it was made on a quite different
level. The problem is whether the decision on arresting and later the
decision on releasing were made on the same level. Only then can we
say whether these decisions were complementary or one made a knight’s
move, the other took away the rook.

BAKU: RUSSIA’S ROLE IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT BECAME CONSTRUCTIVE

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.11.2006 14:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov is
satisfied with Russia’s mediation in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement. "Russia’s role in the settlement process became
constructive.

Generally, Russian diplomats carry out a great deal of work and assist
in the process," Mammadyarov said. He also marked out Russia’s positive
role in the Prague process, which determined 8-9 main principles of the
conflict settlement. "Many of them have been already coordinated. There
are 1-2 questions left," the Azeri FM said, reports Interfax.

Russia’s VimpelCom to buy Armenian operator for $436 mln
19:42 | 03/ 11/ 2006

RIA Novosti, Russia
Nov 3 2006

MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s second-largest mobile
operator, VimpelCom [RTS: VIMPG], has signed a deal with Greece’s
Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (HTO) to acquire 90% in
Armenia’s leading phone company Armentel for 341.9 million euros
($436 million), the company said Friday.

HTO bought Armentel in 1997 for $142.5 million and invested a total
of $300 million in the company.

Today, the company accounts for 40% of the Armenian telecommunications
market, operating in the GSM 900 and CDMA standards. Its client
base comprises about 600,000 fixed-line and 400,000 mobile service
subscribers. The company’s earnings in 2005 stood at 110 million euros
($140 million).

VimpelCom, which outpaced the Russian mobile market leader MTS
[RTS: MTSS] at the tender, undertakes to pay the Armenian company’s
liabilities, which amount to about 40 million euros ($51 million).

The deal is expected to be completed late this year, if the government
of the Caucasus state, which owns 10% in Armentel, approves it,
and other issues are settled.

RA AND CHINA TO EXPAND BILATERAL COOPERATION

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Nov 3 2006

There is a stable atmosphere of political mutual confidence between
Armenia and Chinese People’s Republic (CPR); bilateral cooperation
is developing dynamically in all the spheres, in part, trade-economic
ties are expanding, efficient cooperation in the spheres of education,
science, culture and chemical industry is deepening, the Chinese FM
Li Zhaoxing stated November 2 in the course of a meeting with the
RA delegation headed by RA Deputy FM Armen Bayburdian, which is in
Beijing on an official visit.

According to the information DE FACTO got at the RA MFA Press Service,
the NKR FM highly estimated a progress in the Armenian-Chinese
bilateral relations made in the past years.

In his turn RA Deputy FM Armen Bayburdian noted the development of
the relations with China was one of the priorities of the RA foreign
policy. RA Deputy FM underscored the cooperation between RA and
CPR should be strengthened within the frames of the international
structures.

The same day the Armenian-Chinese interdepartmental consultations were
held, in the course of which the parties thoroughly discussed the whole
spectrum of the Armenian-Chinese relations and marked the long-term
directions for the development of the bilateral cooperation. RA
Ambassador to CPR V. Ghazaian also participated in the meeting.

AZERI OFFICIAL DISPLEASED WITH LACK OF WESTERN SUPPORT ON KARABAKH

ANS TV, Baku, in Azeri
31 Oct 2006

A senior presidential aide has hinted that Azerbaijan is disappointed
with the West, as the country has not got the help it expected from
Europe and the USA in the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

Novruz Mammadov, the head of the foreign relations department of the
Presidential Executive Staff, said that despite Azerbaijan’s role in
carrying Caspian oil to the world markets, the country had not got
the support it deserved.

"Since the early years of independence, Azerbaijan has combined all its
efforts – political, economic, energy, cultural, etc. – to integrate
into Euro-Atlantic structures as quickly as possible," Mammadov told
the "Point of View" programme on commercial ANS TV on 31 October.

"Azerbaijan made enormous efforts in carrying hydrocarbons to the
world markets. But what did we get in return? Did we not deserve
help in at least one of our most difficult problems?… Could they
[Europe and the USA] not say that Azerbaijan is right and that its
territories have been occupied [by Armenia]?" Mammadov asked.

However, he added that Azerbaijan had not changed its strategic choice
to integrate into Europe and Euro-Atlantic organizations.