Author: Toganian Liana

SARGSYAN ON NKR 18TH ANNIVERSARY

Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
Sept 2 2009
Armenia

"Any peaceful resolution of Karabakh conflict will be reached
primarily on consent and expression of free will by NKR people,"
RA President Serzh Sargsyan’s message on the 18th anniversary of NKR
independence reads.

"Today Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is an established state with its
structures, army and the foremost — citizens who independently
determine their destiny. Presently, we, like all international
community see a modern state, that puts into practice freedom,
sovereignty and democracy principles. Under all objective and
non-objective obstacles and facing hardships, it undergoes progress,
develops economy and culture, as well as maintains the peace," the
message says.

According to Sargsyan, Armenia and the whole Diaspora have always
been and always be the anchorage for Artsakh. "We owe this day to
those who belong to the ages, who made supreme sacrifices at the altar
of their motherland and liberty. I pay court to their tombs and once
again congratulate you with this bright holiday. I wish you wellbeing,
happiness and fortitude," Sargsyan concluded.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION WELCOMES THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY

2009/09/0 1 | 19:15

Statement by Commissioners Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Olli Rehn on
Turkey-Armenia relations

"The European Commission welcomes the agreement between Armenia and
Turkey to advance the process of normalisation of relations. The
European Commission attaches high importance to a rapid and steady
implementation of the protocols on the establishment of diplomatic
relations and on the development of bilateral relations. This agreement
should contribute to peace and stability in the South Caucasus."

ARMENIA RECEIVES $35M UNDER MILLENNIUM CHALLENGES CORPORATION PROGRAM

/ARKA/
September 2, 2009
YEREVAN

Armenia has already received $35 million under the Millennium
Challenges Corporation program this year, General Director of
Millennium Challenges – Armenia Fund state non-commercial organization
Ara Hovsepyan reported.

The quarterly application for October-December will be submitted to
the Corporation in mid September. The exact amount is not clear,
yet the application is supposed to be for a quite big amount as
major construction is to be started under the irrigation program,
Hovsepyan said.

The program of the U.S. Millennium Challenges Corporation started in
Armenia on September 29 2006. Under the agreement signed on March 27
2006 the Armenian Government is to receive a $235.65mln worth grant
during five years. The grant is to be used for reduction of rural
poverty in Armenia, rehabilitation of rural roads and irrigation
systems. $108 million will be allocated for rehabilitation of
irrigation systems alone. In 2008, the country received $28 million
from the Corporation.

All the projects under the Corporation programs, including Water to
Market activity, are currently underway, Hovsepyan said. Rural loans
for a total of $2.5 million have been allocated under the program as
loans to agriculture, he said.

The road construction program is lost, but the fund still has much
to do by September 2011, Hovsepyan said. He reported=2 0that the
suspended road construction program has been handed over to the
country’s Ministry of Transport and Communication for continuation.

Under the road construction program a total of 273 kilometres of
roads were to be repaired in Armenia (26.5 kilometres had been already
rehabilitated); the cost of the program was to total about $64 million.

On June 10 2009, Millennium Challenges Corporation decided to suspend
the financing of the rural road construction program in Armenia as
measures taken by Armenian government did not comply with democratic
governance standards.

EUROVISION VOTERS INTIMIDATED?
by Eric Pfanner

The International Herald Tribune
August 31, 2009 Monday
France

ABSTRACT The simmering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has
moved into a new theater: the Eurovision Song Contest.

FULL TEXT The simmering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has
entered a new theater: the Eurovision Song Contest.

The talent show, in which television audiences help select a winner
from among dozens of European national champions, is supposed to
be apolitical. Voters are barred from supporting their country’s
representatives in the competition, which is organized by the European
Broadcasting Union, a group of public television companies.

But some Azerbaijanis who took impartiality to impressive lengths,
voting for the Armenian entry in the 2009 final in May, reportedly
were called in to the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry.

"They were trying to put psychological pressure on me, saying things
like, ‘You have no sense of ethnic pride; how come you voted for
Armenia?"’ one of them, Rovshan Nasirli, told Radio Free Europe. "They
made me write out an explanation, and then they let me go."

Previously, the Armenians had raised tensions by slipping images of a
memorial in Nagorno-Karabakh, the enclave at the center of the dispute
between the countries, into the video presentation that introduced
their representative in a preliminary round.

Ictimai, the Azerbaijani public television company, said last week
that it had been assured that "no one was invited to or interrogated
at the Ministry of National Security with regard to the 2009 Eurovision
Song Contest."

"Therefore, all reports on this issue in the media are groundless
and continuing them does not follow any logic," Ictimai said in
a statement.

But the European Broadcasting Union said Friday that it would examine
the matter further at a meeting in September in Oslo. "Any breach of
privacy regarding voting, or interrogation of individuals, is totally
unacceptable," Jean Reveillon, director general of the broadcasting
union, said in a statement.

TURKISH MFA DOESN’T PLAN OPENING OF BORDER WITH ARMENIA PRESENTLY

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.09.2009 12:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had a
35-minute phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton on the eve of signing the joint statement on normalization
of bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey.

According to Hurriyet Daily, when commenting on the document, the
Minister said that Turkey doesn’t plan opening of the common border
with Armenia at the current stage of talks.

"We want to normalize our relations with Armenia, but we also want full
normalization of relations in the South Caucasus, including Nagorno
Karabakh," he said. "The protocol on normalization of relations
doesn’t mean that we renounce our principles on Karabakh conflict
resolution. And we are hopeful that the international community will
focus on the Karabakh problem henceforth."

ARMENIA NOT YET SEEN ANKARA FULFILL AGREEMENTS ACHIEVED

PanARMENIAN.Net
31.08.2009 12:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia holds on to its former stance, i.e. to
establish mutual relations with Turkey without preconditions, President
Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview to BBC. I will go to Turkey to
watch football match if the border is open or we are in the run-up to
achieving that. That’s to say, much depends on whether or not Turkey
will comply with our agreement. And we do have an agreement. I think
that the normal thing is when parties comply with their agreement,"
Armenian leader stated, adding that he has not so far seen great
desires by Turkish party to comply with agreement.

To the correspondent’s question whether Armenian President will go
to Turkey to watch return match between two country’s national teams,
Mr. Sargsyan said, "The question has two answers. The first – whether
I will go to Turkey – is essential. What I want to say is that we
cannot link football match to our relations with Turkey. Let’s take
two possible variants. We either freeze our relations with Turkey
and I go there to watch football match or we proceed with the talks,
but I don’t go there. Which is more important? If you ask the question
in the context of our negotiations with Turkey, my answer is that we
can reach certain results till October," President note

THE MEMBERS OF A DISSOLVED FACT-FINDING GROUP TO MAKE REPORTS

Aysor
Aug 27 2009
Armenia

Seda Safaryan and Andranik Kocharyan, the members of the already
dissolved fact-finding group investigating the events on 1-3 March,
today called a press conference to inform that on August 24 they had
already introduced their fourth report to the acting committee on
the events of March 1-2.

Besides, the speakers said that one of the reasons for calling the
conference was to express their concern about the "hastiness of the
acting committee on preparing the report".

A. Kocharyan declared that they got the right of making individual
speeches according to the PACE resolution1677. Then, making abrupt
jumps, he introduced the works conducted by the fact finding group
and facts from the reports, introduced to the NA acting committee.

After the 30 minute speech, "details", "instructions and persuasions",
the reporters got the chance to ask questions to A. Kocharyan. Below
find some information about the 4th report.

"The Armenian National Congress had information about the 950
uniforms disposed to famous people, oligarchs, authorities, people
under supervision by one of the reserves of Ministry of Defense", –
said A. Kocharyan and told how they had got the information, how he
had carried out the "acting plan", how he kept it as a secret from
the other members and how their actions were hindered.

The conclusions of these steps are included in the 4th report.

A. Kochartyan said that they are inclined to make the 5th report
covering "the events of the March 1 morning", "law regularities"
and other questions.

Serzh Sargsyan signed an order on June 6 to dissolve "the fact finding
experts group and its actions".

As concerned to the extra materials, Mr. Samvel Nikoyan, the Chairman
of the Ad-Hoc Inquiry Committee, on June 8 called on everybody to
provide materials that would help to hold the investigation of the
events occurred on March 1-2, 2008.

TWO AZERBAIJANI MINISTERS WILL VISIT ARMENIA

AZG DAILY
29-08-2009

Sport

To organize Azerbaijani judokas’ participation in the Youth European
Championships on judo to be held in Yerevan on Sept. 9-14, Youth
and Sports Minister, Azad Rahimov will visit Armenia before the
championship, the ministry said, according to Trend News.

During the visit, it is expected to sign an agreement providing for
the Azerbaijani sportsmen’s security in Armenia.

"The main issue that we worry about is to provide our judokas’
security in Yerevan. If the decision is made, either I personally or
my deputy will visit Yerevan to check the terms and security measures,"
Azerbaijani Youth and Sports Minister told journalists earlier.

Rahimov said a meeting will be held on the Azerbaijani judokas’
participation in the European Championship.

Together with Rahimov, Labor and Social Protection Minister Fuzuli
Alakbarov who is the president of the Azerbaijan Judo Federation will
pay an official visit to Armenia.

It is planned to sign a paper amongst the Azerbaijani Youth and Sports
Minister, the European Judo Federation, the European Committee for
Judo and the European Olympic Committee, as well as the relevant
organizations of Armenia.

INTENSE PRESSURE ON BAKU TO PROTECT ARRESTED AZERI BLOGGERS

Panorama.am
16:18 27/08/2009

Open-air concert will be performed in London, Great Britain on 2
September to protect the rights of Azerbaijani arrested bloggers
Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli, "Turan" agency reports.

The source says the concert has been organized by the British friends
of the arrested Azerbaijani bloggers. The concert is a special action
to express protest against the arrest of the bloggers.

It’s worth informing that the first sitting over the case of the
arrested Azeri is scheduled on 4 September.

Remind that Azerbaijani bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada,
arrested last month on charges of hooliganism, have also been charged
with assault.

"ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL LAW" INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE TO START IN BEIRUT SEPTEMBER 3

ARMENPRESS
Aug 25, 2009

YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS: International two-day conference on
"Armenian Genocide and the International Law" will start in Beirut
September 3 organized by Haykazyan University and ARF Armenian Cause
Middle East Office.

An official from the office told Armenpress that the participants of
the conference will discuss issues on denial of genocide, issues on its
recognition, elimination of consequences of the genocide, rights of the
Armenian people. Genocide scientists and specialists of international
right from Egypt, Switzerland, Turkey, Ireland, Lebanon, Armenia, Great
Britain and USA will take part in the conference. The materials of the
conference will be published in a separate book. After the conference
starting from September 8 public discussions will be conducted.