Author: Nahapetian Lilit

THE CO-CHAIRMEN ARRIVE IN YEREVAN

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
15 Nov 08
Armenia

And They Have Proposals

The OSCE Co-Chairmen arrived in Yerevan, yesterday evening.

Bernard Facieses, Yuri Merzlyakov, and Mathew Braise arrived in Yerevan
from Baku, where they had meetings with the Azerbaijani leadership
including President Ilham Aliev. During his meeting with the
journalists in Baku American Co-Chairman Mathew Braise particularly
announced that: `We hope that the occupied Azerbaijani territories,
will be returned to that country. The Azerbaijani and Armenian
Presidents must find common language regarding that issue.’

He also announced that the Co-Chairmen have proposals regarding the
settlement of Karabakh issue and at the moment they are working on
these proposals.

ANKARA WANTS TO ORGANIZE MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENTS OF AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA

Trend News Agency
Nov 14 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 14 November / TrendNews corr. B.Hasanov / Official
Ankara wants to organize a meeting between leaders of Azerbaijan and
Armenia in Turkey, Turkish Premier Receb Tayyip Erdogan said at a news
conference in the Colombian University, the Turkish media reported.

Speaking about the last meeting between the Presidents of Azerbaijan
and Armenia in Moscow, the Turkish Premier said that heads of these
countries have taken considerable steps in direction of settlement
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

A meeting took place between Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia
Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan at Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev’s
initiative and resulted in signing the Moscow deceleration.

Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan decided to make joint
efforts to normalize the situation in Caucasus and requested Foreign
Ministers to make efforts to solve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The
declaration calls for the settlement of the conflict in line with the
principles and norms of international law and decisions and documents
adopted in this respect which will create favorable conditions for
economic development and comprehensive cooperation in the region.

Turkey, as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, is
prepared to assist in acceleration of realization of the UN resolutions
on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Turkey is a non-permanent member
of the UN Security Council since October.

The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988
due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has
occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these
territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time
the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
(Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

VISIT OF CE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS TO ARMENIA MAY BE POSTPONED: OMBUDSMAN

TREND
Nov 13 2008
Azerbaijan

The visit of the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights
Thomas Hammarberg to Armenia may be postponed, Armenian Ombudsman
Armen Harutiunian said to journalists on 13 November.

According to Harutiunian, Hammarbarg’s visit was scheduled for
20-22 November. However, it may be postponed because he is currently
inspecting the situation in Georgia.

"But the visit will definitely take place. And it is not important
whether the Commissioner will visit Armenia in November or December,"
he said.

Hammarbarg arrived in Georgia to inspect implementation of the
Medvedev-Sarkozy peace plan, Novosti-Armenia said.

DEFENSE MINISTER SEYRAN OHANYAN VISITED TBILISI

armradio.am
13.11.2008 10:33

On November 11 the delegation headed by the Defense Minister of Armenia
Seyran Ohanyan left for Georgia for a two-day official visit at the
invitation of the Defense Minister of Georgia David Kezerashvili.

Within the framework of the visit the delegation had meetings with
the Prime Minister of Georgia Grigol Mgaloblishvili, Defense Minister
David Kezerashvili and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Tkeshelashvili.

Issues related to bilateral cooperation and questions related to
regional security were discussed during the meetings.

The delegation headed by Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan returned to
Armenia today.

PRESIDENT’S WORKING DINNER WITH AMBASSADORS OF EU MEMBER STATES

armradio.am
13.11.2008 15:26

Today the President of the Republic of Armenia, Mr. Serzh Sargsyan,
had a working dinner with the heads of diplomatic representations of
member states of the European Union accredited in Armenia, President’s
Press Office reported.

IRANIAN MINISTER BOASTS ABOUT WINNING INTERNATIONAL ENERGY PROJECT TENDERS

Mehr news agency
Nov 8 2008
Tehran

Muscat, 8 November: Iran is not only self-sufficient in designing,
building and operating dams and power plants, but also is the country
that has won some international tenders in competition with foreign
firms, the energy minister said during his visit to Muscat refinery
on Saturday [8 November].

Constructing wind power plants and repairing some refineries in Armenia
and Syria, implementing the 6-km-long Halab tunnel, building dams
in Tajikistan, inking contracts for building dams and power plants
in Iraq, Bangladesh and Mali are some of examples of the country’s
technical and engineering services exports, IRIB quoted Parviz Fattah
as saying.

An Iranian company won an international bid to construct two 40 MW
units in Muscat refinery at the cost of 90m dollars in 2006. The units
are 68 per cents complete now which shows a suitable trend of progress,
he explained.

ARMENIAN COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER WELCOMES THIRD MOBILE OPERATOR, PESSIMISTIC ABOUT INTERNET DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS
by Michael Lacquiere

World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
November 6, 2008

Transport and Communications Minister Guren Sargsyan has indicated
that he has high hopes for the mobile sector, following the award
of the third licence to France Telecom’s Orange (see Armenia: 8
October 2008: ). In an interview with ARKA, he asserted that Orange’s
entrance would increase competition and accordingly cause a reduction
in prices, improvement of quality, and widening of service range. He
pointed to the improvement in the mobile sector brought about by the
second player, VivaCell, back in 2005, as evidence of the benefit of
a new entrant.

Since breaking Armentel’s monopoly, VivaCell has gone on to become the
leading player. Sargsyan noted, however, that more investment in base
stations will be needed to improve mobile quality. His assessment of
the internet sector was less positive: access is primarily provided
by two fibre-optic cable lines running through Georgia, with another
cable being laid. Fixed-line incumbent Armentel is also connected to
an alternative channel running through Iran, and although further
channels would be welcomed to improve speed and quality and reduce
prices, Sargsyan accepted that Armenia is hard to reach and therefore
internet access provision is limited. Moreover, there is limited
access to services for those living in regions beyond the capital
Yerevan. A government development programme is under way, aiming to
roll out fibre-based networks by 2012. Wireless broadband provision,
via WiMAX and Wi-Fi, would be welcomed, but satellite services are
deemed somewhat unreliable, as well as expensive.

CTS 2008 ANNUAL TOURISM FAIR WILL BE HELD IN MOSCOW CINEMA (YEREVAN)

RIA OREANDA
Nov 6 2008
Russia

Yerevan. OREANDA-NEWS On 06 November was announced, that the 8th
CTS’2008 ("Country of Talking Stones") Annual International Tourism
Fair will be held on 7-8 November, 2008, in Moscow Cinema, 2nd floor,
Yerevan, Armenia. CTS’2008 is a prominent event being organized
this year again by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA)
Armenian Chapter and Armenian Association of Travel Agents (AATA)
under the patronage of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of
Armenia, with the support of The United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) funded Competitive Armenian Private Sector Project
(CAPS). Copyright (c) 1997-2008 "OREANDA-NEWS"

RA PRESIDENT: EP SUPPORTED RIGHT OF KARABAKH PEOPLE TO SELF-DETERMINATION IN 1988

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.11.2008 17:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met in Brussels
with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering to discuss the
process of Armenia’s integration into European structures, regional
developments and the process of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations.

In the light of the recent events in the Caucasus, they stressed the
necessity of peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

"Back in 1988, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in support
of Karabakh people’s right to self-determination," the Armenian
President reminded.

The officials made special mention of Armenia’s progress in
implementation of the ENP action plan.

PROSECUTOR GENERAL GETS ANOTHER LETTER

A1+
[08:07 pm] 07 November, 2008

Today the Office of Prosecutor General got the 30th letter titled
"Free Political Prisoners!" The authors of the letters, the wives of
political prisoners, have been conducting protest actions with the
same demand every Friday since April 7.

"We demand freedom for political prisoners and the whole country,"
the protesters said to A1+.

"We demand that the orgnisers of the March 1 carnage stand trail and
political prisoners be released. We reiterate that the carnage and
arrests followed the rigged presidential election of February 19,"
said Sona Muradyan.

HHSh board member Aram Manukyan, Karapet Rubinyan and Zhirayr Sefilyan
had come to support the women protesters.

"I expressed support for the action from the very beginning," said
Commander of a Shushi special battalion Zhirayr Sefilyan.

To note, the protesters have got no answer to their question up
to nowadays.