Author: Tambiyan Samvel

SITUATION AT THE BORDER IS CALMER

Lragir.am
12 April 06

Tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani front line are exaggerated,
stated Serge Sargsyan, Minister of Defense of Armenia, on April 11.

“There are always gunshots, you know there are gunshots today, but
there is no difference between today and three months or five months
ago. Even if there is difference, it is more of an easing of tensions,”
announced Serge Sargsyan. For the frequent visits of the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs to the region and the possibility of settlement of
the conflict over Karabakh by 2007, the defense minister of Armenia
says it is both possible and impossible.

“There are two answers to this question: yes and no. I cannot see
that the state of things today essentially differs from the state of
things two years ago,” says Serge Sargsyan, adding that as a minister
of defense he is prepared in case war starts.

“I have announced a number of times and now I state that the defense
minister of any country, and especially the minister of defense of
Armenia, should assume that the military actions may start tomorrow
or in two days,” says Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan.

Turkish writers report

The World (from Public Radio International)
April 10, 2006

Correspondent Rhoda Metcalfe reports on the trial of five Turkish
writers who are charged with criticizing judges who tried to suppress a
public debate on the Armenian genocide. Behind the trial is a struggle
in Turkey — between reformers who want to join the European Union, and
nationalists who don’t.

(5:00 minutes)

WEB LINK: .shtml
AUDIO LINK:

AIR FRANCE TO LEAVE ROOM FOR ARMAVIA

Lragir.am
10 April 06

Air France representatives stated April 10 that their presence
in the Armenian market will not inflict losses on Armavia, the
national transporter of Armenia. Moreover, Air France and Armavia
signed an agreement, which needs to be ratified by the government,
on joint commercial activity. “We will leave some room for Armavia,”
joked French Ambassador Henry Cuny. The representative of Air France
gave a more serious explanation; the principle of their company is
to reach an arrangement with the national transporter of the country
when their planes start flying to a country. Hence, the French say
they will sign a mutually favorable agreement with Armavia. The
French declined to speak about other airlines operating in Armenia,
saying that the last word belongs to the Armenian passenger.

PM REMINDS ABOUT CONSTITUTIONAL RESTRICTION ON REELECTION

Lragir.am
10 April 06

During the meeting of the presidium of the NAS Academician Emil
Gabrielyan, member of the presidium of the National Academy of
Sciences, proposed that the right of the president of the NAS for
reelection to be restricted.

“The head of state can be reelected once, but there is not such a
restriction for the president of the NAS,” says Emil Gabrielyan,
proposing two five-year terms of office for the president of the NAS.

Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan approved this proposal. It is
especially notable that Andranik Margaryan reminded about the
corresponding article of the constitution referring to government
offices only. “Under the Constitution the right of members of
parliament and members of community councils for reelection is not
restricted, there is restriction on all the others,” Andranik Margaryan
considered it necessary to remind.

Russia to control Armenia’s gas

BBC NEWS:
ss/4888012.stm

2006/04/07 14:21:58 GMT

Russia’s Gazprom is to take control of Armenian pipelines and a power
station in exchange for setting gas prices at half of European levels
until 2009.

The move is part of wider plans by the Russian monopoly to seize
access to gas supplies among former Soviet republics.

Russia said it would raise gas prices to $110 per 1,000 cubic metres,
almost double what is it now, but far cheaper than European rates.

Armenia relies on Russia for gas but wants to import gas from
elsewhere.

‘Market monopolised’

Gazprom would be able to control part of a 40km (25 mile) long
pipeline, bringing gas from Iran to Armenia, following this new
arrangement.

The agreement would also allow Russia to export electricity from the
Razdan-5 gas fired power plant.

Armenia is strategically important to Russia in the Caucasus and hosts
a Russian military base there.

Some critics say Russia is using its energy position an economic and
political tool.

“Without any doubt, having the energy market monopolised by one owner
is bad for any economy” said economist Alexander Agadzhanov.

Regional hikes

Gazprom has been trying to raise prices among its neighbours but has
met with fierce opposition.

Attempts by Gazprom to hike gas prices from $50 to $230 per 1,000
cubic metres was rejected by Ukraine.

Gazprom subsequently cut supplies to Ukraine on 1 January 2006 due to
the failure to reach an agreement, worsening relations with the
country.

More recently Gazprom said Belarus, must pay three times more for its
gas supplies in the future.

A close ally of Russia, Belarus was the only ex-Soviet republic not to
experience Russian gas prices last year.

Russia aims to charge $250 per 1,000 cubic metres to all its former
Soviet neighbours in the longer term, matching European levels.

But such a move is likely to cripple countries whose economies rely
heavily on cheap gas prices.

EX-DEFENCE MINISTER OF RA SEES NO CONNECTION BETWEEN INCREASE OF AZERBAIJAN’S MILITARY BUDGET AND IMPROVEMENT OF ITS ARMY’S FIGHTING EFFICIENCY

Noyan Tapan
Apr 06 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 6, NOYAN TAPAN. Azerbaijan’s statements about increase
of its military budget up to 600 mln USD are made for the purpose of
exerting pressure upon the Armenian leadership in order to compel it
to make concessions in the issue of Karabakh settlement. Vagharshak
Haroutiunian, member of the National Rebirth party’s political board,
Ex-Defence Minister of Armenia, declared this in his interview to
Noyan Tapan correspondent. In his opinion, there are many factors in
the issue, how much the increase of Azerbaijan’s military budget can
influence the fighting efficiency of its army. Thus, according to the
Ex-Defence Minister, we should take into consideration the fact that
the navy is also included in the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. And this
type of troops requires considerable expenditures from the military
budget. “While, it is quite obvious that the Azerbaijani navy does
not pose any danger for Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh,” Vagharshak
Haroutiunian declared. Another important factor in the issue of
impact of the military budget on the fighting efficiency is the
international commitments, in particular, the “Agreement on Limitation
of Conventional Armaments in Europe” envisaging limitations in the
main types of armaments without exceeding which, in the opinion of the
Ex-Defence Minister, Azerbaijan cannot achieve military superiority
over Armenia. “These are unsubstantiated and senseless statements. The
Armenian Armed Forces are able to defend Armenia and the Armed Forces
of Artsakh to defend Artsakh. And it is Azerbaijan’s military budget
that will not permit it to gain a victory thanks to blitzkrieg in
the coming years,” Vagharshak Haroutiunian declared.

GEORGIA TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CONFERENCE ON STRUGGLE AGAINST CORRUPTION

Prime News Agency, Georgia
April 6 2006

Tbilisi. April 06 (Prime-News) – Georgia will take part in the
international conference on struggle against corruption, which will
be opened in Yerevan on Thursday and closed on Friday.

Arthur Bagdasaryan, the chairman of Armenia Parliament told journalists
that as a result of conference Armenia will become a member of the
international organization of parliamentarians against corruption
(GOPAC).

In conference will also take part representative of USA, Great
Britain, Germany, Poland, Canada, Ukraine, Secretary General of
GOPAC. Organizations of conference are Armenia parliament, OSCE,
UNDP, Eurasia foundation and USAID.

ARMENIA CHOSE STRATEGIC PARTNER IN RUSSIA’S GAZPROM
05.04.2006, 23.50

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 6 2006

YEREVAN, April 5 (Itar-Tass) — Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan
holds that Armenia has made the right choice selecting Russia’s Gazprom
as its strategic partner. He made this statement on Wednesday during
the visit to the joint Russian-Armenian company ArmRosgazprom that is
the exclusive supplier of Russian natural gas to Armenia. The Armenian
government and Rosgazprom each own 45 percent of ArmRosgazprom shares,
while Itera energy group owns ten percent of the shares.

The Armenian government is interested in ArmRosgazprom being
profitable and having an effective management, Kocharyan, specifically,
said. He believes life in Armenia will improve remarkably with the
implementation of the adopted programmes.

ArmRosgazprom intends to complete the restoration of gas service in
the republic by the beginning of next year, said Karen Karapetyan,
the company’s board chairman and director-general. He said 360,600
customers presently use gas in the republic, and this index will grow
by 80,000-100,000 by the end of the year.

Armenia imported 1.68 billion cubic metres of gas last year, an
increase by one quarter on 2004, Karapetyan said. Work to perfect the
Abovyan underground gas storage is underway, and the gas pipeline
to Armenia from Iran is being built alongside the installation of
gas service and the increase of gas consumption in the republic,
Karapetyan noted.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR GOOD PERFORMANCE

Panorama.am
13:07 05/04/06

Today PM Andranik Margaryan encouraged gymnastics trainer
H. Serobyan and gymnasts H. Merdinyan and V. Stepanyan with letters
of acknowledgement, Panorama.am has been informed from Government
Press Service.

To remind, during the World Cup Tournament held in Iranian capital
Tehran from March 2-6 our gymnasts finally were a success after 20
years of “break”.

Anyway, the head of federation, live legend of Armenian sport, Olympic
champion Albert Azaryan not only managed to solve the problem of
fetching modern sports equipment for gymnastics school but also draw
the country’s Government’s attention to the problems of this kind of
sport with good traditions in Armenia.

And the Government regulated the heating problem of the school.

The results, as we see, didn’t make us wait long.

WANT TO KILL ANDRE?

Panorama.am
17:57 04/04/06

Azeri “fans” of singer Andre threatened to kill him, announced the
singer at the press conference saying that he has received offensive
and threatening letters on his e-mail, moreover Azeri hackers managed
to “break into” the singer’s site one of these days.

Yet, as Andre assured, he no longer takes such threatening as
serious. The singer also doesn’t give importance to the criticism
towards him and his song “Without your love” to be performed
during song contest “Eurovision” as they are simply “good and free
advertisement” and nothing else. “At present I try not to pay attention
to various opinions because my opinion is most important for me. I like
the song and those who don’t can simply not listen to it,” advised the
singer and reminded that he was criticized for performing Armenian,
national song.

Thus, if many people say the song is not a good one because it
contains Western tunes, then what were the tunes of the song “Anca,
gnaci” by bard Shahen.

Besides, Andre notices that he has performed the “Horovel” in more
than 8 international contests, yet “Eurovision” is not a contest to
perform a national song.