Author: Takmazian

POLITICAL SCIENTIST BELIEVES THAT THE ARMENIAN ELECTORS "FOR THE FIRST TIME VOTED RATIONALLY"

Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
May 22 2007

Yerevan, May 22. /Mediamax/. Political scientist, Director of the
Caucasian Media Institute Aleksandr Iskandarian stated today that from
the point of view of the international community, the parliamentary
elections in Armenia were "a serious step in the direction of electoral
development".

Mediamax reports that the political scientist noted that the
international observers gave a quite high assessment to the elections
in Armenia, and this is of serious importance for the formation of a
positive image of the country. Aleksandr Iskandarian noted that the
given assessment was "especially jealously perceived by Azerbaijan".

According to the political scientist, "it would be possible to cheat
the international observers if they were assessing the political
culture of Armenia, but they were assessing the technologies of the
electoral process, and they were not cheated from this point of view".

Aleksandr Iskandarian also stressed that "a serious step in the
direction of development of the political system became the fact that
the voting process of Armenian electors for the first time was not
of mass emotional character, but a rational one".

PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE IS ENGAGED IN BALLOT RE-COUNT

A1+
[06:29 pm] 21 May, 2007

The People’s Party of Armenia (PPA) submitted an application to the
RoA General Prosecutor’s Office on irregularities at Precinct 9/11. The
inaccuracies refer to Building 73, Israelyan Street. Eventually, there
isn’t such a building in that street, a PPA representative states.

On the other hand, Building 37 was partly involved in the voter list,
i.e. over 500 voters were deprived of the right to vote.

The prosecutor’s office employees are currently studying the material
though re-count is beyond their competence.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Yuri Merzlyakov and Bernard Fassier arriving in Yerevan today
21.05.2007 15:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuri Merzlyakov
(Russia) and Bernard Fassier (France) are arriving in Yerevan May 21
evening, RA MFA Acting Spokesman Vladimir Karapetian told a
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. The mediators will also pay a call to
Azerbaijan.

A trip to Stepanakert is not excluded, Amb. Merzlyakov said.

The purpose of the visit is to prepare for the presidential meeting
scheduled for June 10 in Saint Petersburg, the Russian Co-chair said.

A BRIEF HISTORY

The Observer – United Kingdom
Published: May 20, 2007

334 BC Alexander the Great conquers Anatolia.

324 AD Emperor Constantine selects Byzantium as the new capital of the
Roman empire. Renamed Constantinople.

5th century Becomes the capital of the new Byzantine Empire.

10th century Turks arrive in Anatolia from central Asia.

1453 Mehmet the Conqueror seizes Constantinople, renamed Istanbul.

1915-17 An estimated 1 million Christian Armenians are killed in
ethnic strife during the reign of the Young Turks. Seen by many as the
first genocide of the 20th century.

1918 The Ottoman Empire collapses at the end of the First World War.

1923 Mustafa Kemal Pasha defeats Greek occupying army, founds the new
Republic of Turkey, and moves the capital to Ankara.

1934 Mustafa Kemal becomes Ataturk – father of the Turks. He dies in
1938.

1952 Turkey joins Nato.

1960 Military coup.

1971 Military coup.

1973 Bosphorus Bridge is completed, linking Europe and Asia.

1980 Military coup.

1984 War with separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) costs an
estimated 37,000 lives.

1990-1999 37 journalists murdered.

1997 ‘Postmodern’ military coup. Islamist PM Necmettin Erbakan forced
to resign.

2002 The Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) win election.

2006 Orhan Pamuk (left) wins Nobel Prize for literature.

January 2007 Armenian journalist Hrant Dink murdered.

April 2007 Military issues a warning on its website after Abdullah Gul
is nominated as president. Dubbed the ‘e-coup’.

May 2007 3-4 million Turks take to streets in defence of secularism.

CRIMINAL CASE ON FACT OF ATTEMPTED ELECTORAL BRIBE IN ARMAVIR MARZ SENT TO COURT

Noyan Tapan
May 18 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The Aravir investigation department of
the RA police has completed the investigation into the criminal case
opened on the fact of preventing some voters from free exercising of
their will. The case has been sent to the court of first instance of
Armavir marz.

The investigation substantiated that Yeghishe Sargsian, resident
of the city of Armavir, offered a 10,000-dram bribe to each of the
following citizens – B. Grigorian, A. Khachatrian and G. Kirakosian
in return for their voting for Alexan Petrosian, canidate nominated
at electoral district No 21, at the May 12 parliamentary elections.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Azeri planes arrested in Turkey
19.05.2007 14:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Following the suit issued by Eurasia
Turkish company the 16th executive court of Ankara
decreed to arrest Azeri jets. Eurasia accuses the
Azerbaijani government of non-payment of $200
thousand. All planes belonging to AZAL state concern
were arrested in the Istanbul Ataturk airport.

The Azeri Cabinet doesn’t comment on the situation.
AZAL denies any information of the arrest and claims
unawareness of the Turkish court’s decision, APA
reports.

NKR GOVERNMENT ADOPTED BILLS

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
May 16 2007

Several issues were considered in the course of the Nagorno-Karabagh
government’s sitting held today.

The NKR Ministry for Territorial Governance and Development of
Industrial Infrastructures presented over 20 bills referring to
adjusting transport sphere. The alternations and additions made in a
law "On NKR’s Administrative and Territorial Subdivision" envisages
granting the status of community to the village of Tonashen situated
in the Martakert region.

A considerable part of issues and bills referred to the amendments
of education system. All the bills considered will be sent to the
NKR National Assembly to be approved.

–Boundary_(ID_cbQuTZGIuVwAxD4x08d8eg)
Content-type: message/rfc822; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-description:

From: "Katia M. Peltekian" <[email protected]>
Subject: NKR Government Adopted Bills
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
May 16 2007

NKR GOVERNMENT ADOPTED BILLS

Several issues were considered in the course of the Nagorno-Karabagh
government?s sitting held today.
The NKR Ministry for Territorial Governance and Development of
Industrial Infrastructures presented over 20 bills referring to
adjusting transport sphere. The alternations and additions made in a
law ??On NKR?s Administrative and Territorial Subdivision?? envisages
granting the status of community to the village of Tonashen situated
in the Martakert region.
A considerable part of issues and bills referred to the amendments of
education system. All the bills considered will be sent to the NKR
National Assembly to be approved.

_________________________________________________ ___________________________________Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV’s
Comedy with an Edge to see what’s on, when.

–Boundary_( ID_cbQuTZGIuVwAxD4x08d8eg)–

DEMOCRATIC PATH IS DEFEATED FOR NOT HAVING RESOURCES AND WORKING BADLY, CANDIDATE NOMINATED BY PROPORTIONAL ELECTORAL LIST OF PARTY FINDS

Noyan Tapan
May 16 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The loss of the Zhoghovrdavarakan
Ughi (Democratic Path) party at the May 12 parliamentary elections
is explained by the fact that the party had no necessary resources
and worked badly during the pre-electoral period. Edvard Aghajanov,
a non-partisan candidate nominated by the proportional list of the
Democratic Path party, the author of the party program stated about
it at the May 16 press conference.

"I do not intend to accuse the authorities," he mentioned, adding
that the Democratic Path got votes with the number corresponding to
the made efforts.

E. Aghajanov considers "normal" the Democratic Path party’s loss for
the reason that the party was founded only in August of 2005.

Characterizing the staff of the newly-elected parliament, E. Aghajanov
mentioned that "a rather incomprehensible mess arose in the
professional sense."

In his words, only 1-2 deputies at the National Assembly of the 4th
convocation are ready for work at the parliament.

SOLANA CONGRATULATES ARMENIA ON RELATIVELY FAIR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
May 14 2007

EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier
Solana, praised the Armenian people for showing political maturity
through the relatively fair elections held on Saturday.

"I congratulate the people of Armenia on the improvements in the
conduct of the parliamentary elections yesterday, which were conducted
largely in accordance with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments,
and I encourage the Armenian government to rapidly address the
shortcomings identified by international observers," said Solana in
a statement Monday.

"This is good news for EU-Armenia relations, in particular as they
were the first elections after Armenia and the EU agreed last year
on a wide-reaching Action Plan."

"The Armenian people have demonstrated greater political maturity
through these elections. I am confident that Armenia and the EU will
continue to develop relations in a spirit of partnership. This will
also be a positive signal to other countries in the region," he added.

The Republican Party of Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian
won the most seats in parliamentary elections, according to results
announced Sunday. The party took 39.2 per cent in Saturday’s poll,
followed by the allied Prosperous Armenia Party with 14.7 per cent.

People’s Party of Armenia has been regularly discredited for many
years: Stepan Demirchyan

ArmInfo News Agency
2007-05-14 14:41:00

The authorities have been consistently discrediting People’s Party of
Armenia, the leader of the PPA Stepan Demirchyan said during a
press-conference today.

He said that TV channels and newspapers have been regularly spreading
rumors about PPA’s plots with the authorities and allegations about
split of the opposition. "For four years we have suffered from regular
criticism and misinformation. However, failure may cause both apathy
and mobilization. I think that we will not lose heart. We will draw
necessary conclusions from the past election. We have very many loyal
supporters but if anybody wants to leave us he is free to do that,"
Demirchyan said. He thinks that some of the party’s representatives to
electoral commissions might have betrayed the party. "As soon as we
prove that we will expel them from our party," Demirchyan said.