Author: Nahapetian Lilit

Armenia: Opposition leaders sought Sh3b loan

Standard, Kenya
March 14 2006

Below is the written statement read by Artur Sargsyan.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My name is Artur Sargsyan. I have just arrived from Dubai. I was last
in Kenya on 25th February, 2006.

During the last few days I have been greatly troubled by reports
emanating from your local press to the effect that I am a mercenary
and that I was part of the gang that raided the Standard Group. These
accusations are entirely false hence the decision to come to Kenya
today.

The truth of the matter is as follows: My brother, Artur Margaryan
and I have vast business ventures in Dubai where we ordinarily
reside. We also have various investments in several other countries.

Late last year we came to Kenya to seek business investment in the
Hotel Industry and general trade. Upon arrival, we were introduced to
local politicians including Hon Raila Odinga and Hon Kalonzo Musyoka.
A request was made to us to finance an anticipated vote of No
Confidence against the President. The sum, which was requested, was
Sh3 billion. We declined to finance the exercise as we do not engage
in local politics in all the countries where we have investments.

I must nevertheless state that Hon Raila Odinga also requested a loan
of $1.5 million, which I advanced to him on the basis that he will
repay the debt by mid January, 2006. He has not repaid the debt to
date.

My uncle is the President of the Republic of Armenia and I am a
Presidential Candidate. I am appalled by the baseless accusations in
your Press.

Your political leaders should not be peddlers of falsehood and the
Press should not merely publish sensational but senseless stories
which can damage the reputation of persons whose only interest in
your country is to invest in legitimate trade. I have come to your
county today to clear my name and to demand my money that Hon Raila
Odinga owes me. I will also have an opportunity to discuss this
matter with my lawyers.

Signed by: Artur Sargsyan
JKIA, Nairobi
13th March, 2006′

ARMENIANS HAVE NO TERRITORIAL CLAIMS BEYOND THEIR RIGHTS, ARMENIAN FM SAID

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.03.2006 22:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Karabakh is an Armenian land. For millenniums only
Armenians lived there and preserved their sovereignty,” Armenian
FM Vartan Oskanian stated when answering questions of Azg Daily
readers. In his words, there are no doubts here: the territory has
never been part of Azerbaijan and it never will.

“Armenians have no territorial claims beyond their rights. Karabakh
has never been part of Azerbaijan, it cannot be and it was and will
remain Armenian. And what is more, Azerbaijan has no moral right to
have any claims regarding Nagorno Karabakh, as it lost Karabakh in 90s
when trying to put pressure upon it by force and event commit ethnic
cleansing of the Karabakh people. If Armenians had not resisted,
there would be no Karabakh today,” the Armenian FM emphasized.

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th St., NW Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:

PRESS RELEASE
March 8, 2006
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

PRESIDENT BUSH’S TRADE POLICY REPORT CITES
PROGRESS ON U.S.-ARMENIA ECONOMIC COOPERATION

WASHINGTON, DC – President Bush’s annual Trade Policy Report cites
progress across a broad range of areas of U.S.-Armenia economic
cooperation, reported the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA).

“We are gratified to see that the steady progress in U.S.-Armenia
economic relations is reflected in the President’s annual trade
report to Congress,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the
ANCA. “We look forward, in the weeks and months ahead, to building
on this momentum by encouraging the negotiation of both a treaty
eliminating double taxation and an agreement clarifying the Social
Security obligations and entitlements of those dividing either
their careers or their retirements between the U.S. and Armenia.”

The President’s annual trade report is submitted to Congress by the
United States Trade Representative (USTR). It details the benefits
of foreign trade for U.S. businesses, farmers and ranchers, service
providers and consumers, reviews the Administration’s
accomplishments of 2005 and lays out its agenda for 2006.
Additional information on this report can be found at:

The provisions of the report that deal specifically with Armenia
are as follows:

2) Normalization of U.S.-Armenia Trade Relations

“In 2004, Congress passed the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical
Corrections Act of 2004 which authorized the President to terminate
application of Jackson-Vanik to Armenia. On January 7, 2005, the
President signed a proclamation terminating application of Jackson-
Vanik to Armenia and granting Permanent Normal Trade Relations
(PNTR) tariff treatment to products of Armenia. Based on the
President’s proclamation granting products from Armenia PNTR
treatment, the United States and Armenia can apply the WTO between
them and have recourse to WTO dispute settlement procedures.”

2) Expansion of U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment

“The United States continues to actively support political and
economic reforms in Central Asia and the Caucasus, which includes
the former Soviet countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The United States has been striving to construct a framework for
the development of strong trade and investment links with this
region. This approach has been pursued both bilaterally and
multilaterally. . . The United States currently has Bilateral
Investment Treaties (BIT) in force with Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and has signed a BIT with
Uzbekistan, which has not yet entered into force.”

3) Cooperation on Intellectual Property Rights

“In 2003, due to improvements made to Armenia’s Intellectual
Property Rights (IPR) regime, the U.S. Government closed the review
of the IPR industry’s petition with respect to Armenia.”

4) Promotion of Economic Growth Through Duty-Free Exports

“Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan
participate in the GSP program. In 2004, Azerbaijan submitted an
application for designation as a beneficiary developing country
under the GSP program which is under consideration.” (The GSP is a
program to promote economic growth in the developing world by
providing preferential duty-free entry for more than 4,650 products
from 144 designated beneficiary countries and territories.)

#####

RA DEFENSE MINISTER: HARD TO IMAGINE MORE SUITABLE MEDIATION FORMAT THAN OSCE MG

Yerkir
07.03.2006 12:03

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The absence of the Armenian-Azeri relations is
conditioned by the unsettled Nagorno Karabakh conflict, says the report
titled ” Directions of National Security Strategy of the Republic of
Armenia” issued by Secretary at the National Security Council at the
RA President, Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan.

“The frozen Nagorno Karabakh conflict and Azerbaijani policy on
the issue jeopardize Armenia’s security. Azerbaijan’s militaristic
policy targeted at settlement of the conflict via achievement of
military advantage over Armenia is a direct threat for Armenia’s
security. Such policy is pregnant with destabilization in the region,”
the report notes.

Besides, it says, the existence of permanent military threat impedes
the conduction of reforms in the defense sector and forces to
armament race.

Moreover, Baku continually incites the Azeri people to hatred towards
Armenians.

Such conduct is inadmissible for a country forming a system of
European values and proves that these principles are proclaimed by
the Azerbaijani authorities for show only.

Thus the necessity of providing Armenia’s military security demands
high efficiency of the RA Armed forces, whose principal tasks are
security of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, inviolability of borders
and repulse of any aggression. The document says Azerbaijan’s attempts
to transfer the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict from the
framework of the OSCE Minsk Group to the UN, Council of Europe or
NATO also create a threat.

These threats are accompanied by misinforming activities carried
out by the Azerbaijani propaganda machine, which brings benefit to
Azerbaijan within the international organizations not familiarized
with the core of the problem.

The OSCE Minsk Group presented by Russia, the U.S. and France maximally
reflects the correlation on forces showing interest in the regional
processes.

Besides, the document says, these three co-chair states are the
permanent members of the UN Security Council and it’s hardly possible
to imagine a worthier format of mediation.

Armenia sees the settlement of the Karabakh problem within the OSCE
Minsk Group, via concessions and proceeding from the necessity of
physical guarantee of Armenians of Karabakh, international guarantees,
overland border with Armenia, non-resumption of war as well as creation
of conditions essential for its sustainable development. Armenia will
adopt the variants of settlement excluding Karabakh’s subordination
to Azerbaijan or enclave existence of Karabakh. All the possible
concessions should be made with maintenance of these principles.

ABKHAZ OFFICIALS QUESTION MOTIVES OF DETAINED GEORGIAN JOURNALISTS

Apsnypress, Sukhumi
6 Mar 06

Sukhumi, 6 March: The state security service of Abkhazia has opened
criminal cases against two citizens of Georgia and one Ukrainian
citizen who were arrested last week in Gulripshi District. The state
security service told Apsnypress that they had illegally crossed the
Georgian-Abkhaz border on the Inguri river.

One of those detained – Georgian citizen Tea Sharia – was born in
1980, grew up in Abkhazia’s Gali District and now lives in Tbilisi,
where she is a student at the history faculty of Tbilisi State
University. The second Georgian citizen, Tariel Sokhadze, was born
in 1966 and grew up in Tbilisi. When he was arrested he claimed
to be one Sarkis Minosyan from the town of Leninakan [in Armenia,
now known as Gyumri]. “Neither of them had documents confirming
their identities, except for a plastic card given to Sharia by the
authorities of the so-called Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia [the
pro-Georgian government-in-exile],” the security service said.

The third individual was Temur Eliava, who was born in 1973 and raised
in [Abkhazia’s] Tqvarcheli. Since 1992 he has lived in Ukraine and
is now a citizen of that country. Eliava was carrying documents.

Under questioning the prisoners told the state security service that
they had come to Abkhazia to film monasteries and churches. They said
that they had entered Abkhazia through lower Gali District bypassing
border checkpoints and had left their documents with relatives
in Zugdidi.

At the moment they were arrested they had already been to Gali,
Tqvarcheli, Sukhumi and the village of Myku [Georgian: Mokvi]. In
their photographic and video material there were clips of a chapel
in Tqvarcheli, road and railway bridges across the Kelasuri river in
Sukhumi, railway platforms at Gumskaya station in Sukhumi, panoramas
of Sukhumi and a range of footage of other buildings not related to
religious monuments. Today, 6 March, a representative of the UN human
rights office visited the prisoners.

Foreign minister Sergey Shamba said the illegal entry of the Georgian
journalists arrested on 1 March was an act of provocation. [Passage
omitted]

“It is naive to think that the footage of railway bridges and stations
which they filmed is related to religious monuments,” Shamba said. He
doubted that Georgian Patriarch Ilia II had blessed the trip as
claimed by the prisoners.

Shamba noted that “they undoubtedly knew about the rules for crossing
state borders and came to Abkhazia bypassing border checkpoints”.

“Every international organization working in Abkhazia and Georgia
knows how to enter Abkhazia legally,” the minister said.

“The aim justified the means. They succeeded in being provocative.

The Georgian television company Rustavi-2 loudly reported the arrest
of these so-called journalists, saying that ‘Abkhaz terrorists have
beaten them up’,” Shamba said.

According to Shamba, their presence and filming in Abkhazia had
no connection to Orthodox churches. “They had completely different
motives,” the minister said.

EX-SPANISH OFFICIAL URGES WEST TO SUPPORT AZERI FAIR CAUSE

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 14 2006

Baku, March 13, AssA-Irada
A former Spanish official has urged the West to support liberation
of the Azeri land from under Armenian occupation.

“Western countries should support an accord on settling the Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh conflict. Under the agreement, Armenia is to vacate
Azeri territories, while Upper Garabagh should be granted the status
of autonomy through a referendum,” former Spanish Foreign Minister
Anna Palacio told the Washington Post.

“Russia’s political and military influence on Upper Garabagh is
increasing, Therefore, the West should back a peace accord envisioning
liberation of Azeri territories, while Upper Garabagh should operate
as an autonomous entity until its status is determined,” she said.

With regard to the Russian military bases stationed in Armenia,
which earlier drew fire from Azeri officials, the former official
said it is essential for this country to withdraw them.

OSCE monitoring on Armenian-Azeri front line passes off without incidents

Mediamax news agency
10 Mar 06

Yerevan, 10 March: Today, an OSCE mission held routine monitoring on
the contact line between the armed forces of Nagornyy Karabakh and
Azerbaijan in the east of the Talis village of the Mardakert [Askaran]
District of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic (NKR).

The monitoring was held in accordance with a schedule, no cease-fire
violations were registered, the press service of the NKR foreign
ministry told Mediamax.

Civil Georgia, Georgia
March 10 2006

One Dies in Clash, Rising Tensions in Multiethnic Tsalka

A clash which resulted into death of one and injury of at least one
local resident in multiethnic town of Tsalka in Kvemo Kartli region
on March 9, triggered protest of local ethnic Armenians.

Police said that five suspects have already been arrested. But
protesters in Tsalka demanded lynching of suspects on March 10.

`The Interior Ministry will never allow actions of this kind,’ the
Georgian Interior Ministry stated on March 10.

The Interior Ministry said that only one local was injured, but
according to the ethnic minority advocacy group Multinational Georgia
four ethnic Armenians were wounded as a result of an attack.

According to this non-governmental organization about 500 residents
of Tsalka were demanding at the rally outside the local police
station on March 10 an immediate investigation and prosecution of
those who are guilty of this crime. The protest rally was `brutally
dispersed’ by the police, according to the Multinational Georgia.

Clashes between the locals erupt sporadically in recent years in
Tsalka district with population of 20 000. Ethnic Armenians comprise
57% of population, according to the Georgian department of
statistics. 4,500 ethnic Greeks, 2,500 ethnic Georgians and up to
2,000 Azerbaijanis also live there.

Prime News Agency, Georgia
March 10 2006

Georgian Ombudsman To Study Accident In Tsalka

Tbilisi. March 10 (Prime-News) – Sozar Subari, Ombudsman of Georgia
is to inquire the Friday accident in the town of Tsalka.

The representative of the Ombudsman’s Office arrived in the region to
meet the head of the local governmental unit, local police chief and
local residents.

24 years old man died and several were wounded in the drunken clash
in a local restaurant between the residents of Georgian and Armenian
origin on Friday.

400 local residents have been staging a protest rally at the local
governmental unit and demanded to be given the suspected detainees
for lynch.

The representative of the Ombudsman’s Office is to inquire the
situation at spot and find out whether there were ethnical grounds
for the clash.

Armenpress

WHO REPORTS ELEVEN SUSPECTED HUMAN BIRD FLU CASES IN AZERBAIJAN

GENEVA, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS: Eleven suspected
human cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu
virus, three of them fatal, are under investigation in
Azerbaijan, the World Health Organization said
Thursday. Maria Cheng, spokeswoman for the UN health
agency, was quoted by ÀFÐ as saying that the suspected
victims, including eight members of a single family,
all came from the same village near the Azerbaijani
capital Baku.
“It is possible that they caught H5N1, because we
already know that poultry were hit by the virus in
neighboring areas,” said Cheng. Flocks belonging to
the patients had also been infected, but experts had
yet to identify by what, she added. Samples from the
suspected human victims were being sent to a
WHO-accredited laboratory in London to establish
whether they had the H5N1 virus, Cheng said. The
results could be available in 24 hours or within two
weeks, depending on the sample quality, she noted.
On Sunday, Azerbaijani authorities said they were
investigating whether the deaths of two young children
in the republic were caused by bird flu. The two
children were part of a family whose six members had
been hospitalized with suspected pneumonia. Several
days earlier, Azerbaijani authorities had said that
the H5N1 virus had hit poultry flocks, and ordered the
slaughter of half a million birds. Since it resurfaced
in 2003, the virus has infected 175 people in seven
countries and killed 96 of them, according to the WHO.

H5N1 spreads from birds to people in close
proximity, but experts fear that it could mutate into
a form that transmits easily among humans, leading to
a global pandemic that could claim millions of lives.