Author: Torgomian Varazdat

REGIONAL SECURITY, KARABAKH, ARMENIA’S FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES – MINISTER

Hayots Ashkarh, Yerevan
15 Apr 04

Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has listed economic development,
regional security, European integration and a Karabakh settlement as
Armenia’s foreign policy priorities. He told a seminar in Yerevan that
there were “numerous uncertainties” in the Karabakh settlement
process. He said that if Azerbaijan insisted on starting the talks
from scratch, Armenia would not take part and would ask the OSCE
mediators to hold talks instead between Azerbaijan and Nagornyy
Karabakh. Oskanyan said that Armenia should not be in a hurry to join
NATO, but should strengthen cooperation with it in parallel with
cooperation with the CIS Collective Security Treaty and with
Russia. The following is the text of Vahan Vardanyan’s report in
Armenian newspaper Hayots Ashkarh on 15 April headlined “There is no
need to play diplomacy”, subhead “There is only one solution on
Karabakh”; subheadings inserted editorially:

Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan made a report on Armenia’s current
foreign policy at a seminar in the Congress Hotel yesterday. Oskanyan
noted four main areas of foreign policy: maintaining and increasing
the level of economic development; ensuring a positive regional
security atmosphere; speeding up Armenia’s integration into European
structures; and settlement of the Karabakh issue.

In connection with prospects for an NKR (Nagornyy Karabakh Republic)
settlement, Oskanyan said: “At present I should say that there are
numerous uncertainties, there is no certainty in what direction these
processes will go. Tomorrow in Prague my first meeting will take place
with the newly appointed foreign minister of Azerbaijan. The OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairmen invited us. The goal of the meeting is to hold
discussions with the co-chairmen and to try to specify the parties’
positions and approaches to the development of the process.”

Touching on Armenia’s position on the settlement issue at present, the
foreign minister said in particular: “There are two approaches,
depending on developments. It is good if Azerbaijan agrees to continue
along the way that (former Azerbaijani President) Heydar Aliyev and
(Armenian President) Robert Kocharyan were going and to reach any
level. If they are ready to continue on this basis, Armenia is ready
to be involved in the talks at the level of the presidents of the
republics and to try to lead the process forward. But if Azerbaijan
insists on starting from scratch, in that case Armenia will not take
part in these talks and will ask the co-chairmen to hold talks between
the authorities of Azerbaijan and Nagornyy Karabakh.”

The foreign minister thinks that this position is justified, as the
dialogue between the presidents was mainly about a future status of
Nagornyy Karabakh that was directly connected with Armenia. “For this
reason the participation of our president without the NKR president,
but with his agreement, is fully justified. But if this content
changes today, it means that the rules of the game should also be
changed. If Azerbaijan insists that the problem of status should be
delayed, and they continue with the stage-by-stage option for the
return of territories and refugees, in that case only the NKR
authorities have the right to be involved in the talks if they
want. As before, Armenia will ensure its participation in the
framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, but it will not be the main party
in the talks.”

Oskanyan said that a “fair” and a “pro-Armenian solution” were
different. He said that talking about a fair solution, in fact means
saying nothing. “The Karabakh process has passed so many stages and
today the situation is such that we do not need to play diplomacy in
this problem. Today a pro-Armenian solution, acceptable for us, is
that Karabakh fully defines its position on joining Armenia, and the
world community, including Azerbaijan, recognizes this. Today this is
a solution for us,” Oskanyan said.

Touching on regional security problems, in particular on NATO
enlargement and its possible consequences, the foreign minister said
that Armenia should cooperate with NATO in the framework of its
national interests, but it should not be in a hurry to join NATO. He
said that it was necessary to strengthen in parallel Armenia’s role in
the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST) and Armenian-Russian
relations and this complementary policy would increase Armenia’s role
for the West, as well as for its strategic partner Russia.

Oskanyan thinks that dividing lines may be created in the region if
Georgia and Azerbaijan join NATO and Armenia does not. He said that
Georgia in particular is demonstrating a definite tendency in this
sense, but it is early to make radical predictions, as the diplomacy
of words and actions differ from each other. “During (former Georgian
President Eduard) Shevardnadze’s tenure there was the diplomacy of
words. Every other day Shevardnadze would say that Georgia was joining
NATO. In some sense (President Mikheil) Saakashvili is continuing this
diplomacy of words, but understands that action lags behind words.
Because the situation in his country and in the region is such that
NATO would not want to be involved in the country. Until the Abkhazia
problem is settled, until Georgia’s relations with Russia are
specified and Russian military bases are withdrawn, it is too early to
speak about Georgia’s joining NATO.”

So the foreign minister thinks that Armenia does not have a problem in
going ahead.

NATIONAL UNITY LEADER STATES OF OPPOSITION’S DETERMINATION TO PRESS FOR
CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP IN ARMENIA

14.04.2004 19:14

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The will of the opposition to change leadership in Armenia
was not subdued, moreover opposition intends to take more drastic measures
from now on, leader of National Unity opposition party Artashes Geghamian
stated today during the press conference in the parliament. In his words
“the struggle will not conflict with the Constitution and the tactics will
be worked out due to the development of the events”. At the same time
Geghamian did not specify what exactly opposition is going to undertake for
the achievement of the goal. According to him, the strategy of the further
struggle against the incumbent leadership will be defined during the
consultations between the representatives of the opposition. National Unity
leader stated that opposition is ready for the dialogue with the leadership
in the person of President Robert Kocharian and defense minister Serge
Sargsian, as, in his words, “the situation in Armenia depends on them but
not on the ruling political coalition”.

USING STATE MEANS EFFECTIVELY

Azat Artsakh–Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
14-04-2004

On March 22-29 at the NKR Writers Union, Artists Union and Journalists
Union the Audit Inspection Chamber conducted an audit to study the
effectiveness, legality and aim of the use of the means provided to
the mentioned organizations from the state budget. To sum up the
results of the audit in April the chairmen of the mentioned
organizations gathered at the regular meeting of the NA Audit
Inspection Chamber Council. The meeting was conducted by the chairman
of the AIC, NA member Arkady Soghomonian. After the meeting we talked
to A. Soghomonian. According to him, the audit inspection of the
mentioned organizations included the period 2002-2003. In 2002 17
million 47 thousand drams was provided to these public organizations,
and in 2003 14 million 410 thousand drams was provided. According to
the articles on expenses, during the audit inspection ungrounded
expenses were recorded, in certain cases even excessive
expenditure. In 2002 1 million 309 thousand drams was provided from
the state budget to the NKR Writers Union, and in 2003 2 million 77
thousand drams. Thus, in 2002 instead of the 18 thousand drams
provided for business trips 407 thousand drams were spent. The
excessive expenditure of the Writers Union totaled 390 thousand drams,
i.e. in average 34 thousand per month. In 2003 instead of the 28
thousand maintained by the articles about 94 thousand drams was spent
and excessive expenditure totaled 66 thousand drams. In 2002-2003
cases of breaking the law were reported at the NKR Writers Union. The
NKR law “On Minimum Salary” maintains the minimum salary in the
republic 10 thousand drams, whereas this organization paid 9
thousand. The articles of the law “On Accounting” the salary list
provided 31 thousand drams, after the payment of the withholding tax
the worker was paid 10 thousand drams. There were also problems with
the terms of the business trips. According to Arkady Soghomonian, the
official instruction of the Ministry of Finance and Economy maintains
that the business trips to Yerevan cannot last more than 7 days,
whereas at the Writers Union the duration of the business trip was
maintained even 10 days. In 2002 the total number of the business
trips totaled 140 days. According to the chairman of the Audit
Inspection Chamber, the NKR law “On Public Organizations” maintains
that the public organizations may have other sources of income. The
Audit Inspection Chamber is not authorized to conduct audit of the
extra-budgetary allotments. According to him, the audit inspection of
the Writers Union revealed also inefficient expenses of state
financial means. In 2002, instead of the provided 17 thousand drams
for electricity 50 thousand drams was transferred. In 2002 1 million
889 thousand drams was provided to the Artists Union, in 2003 the
budget remained unchanged. For the expenses on business trips 200
thousand drams were provided. In the mentioned year there was an
economical use of financial means on business trips – 168 thousand
drams was spent. According to the member of parliament, of the
mentioned three organizations only the Journalists Union did not break
the law. A. Soghomonian mentioned that the activity of the audit
inspection and checking commissions is on a low level. According to
the NKR law “On Public Organizations” part of the financial means of
the public organizations is acquired from membership fees, whereas in
some organizations the membership fees were not paid, which means that
the organization should be dissolved. The chairman of the Audit
Inspection Chamber proposes the government to work out a draft
decision for strengthening control over financial means of the public
organizations, and the checking commissions of the public
organizations will present a report to the Ministry of Finance and
Economy providing the transparency in the concerned questions. In
answer to the question whether the Audit Inspection Chamber has the
authority to suit an action in the mentioned cases of breaking the
law, Soghomonian mentioned that the sphere of activities of the Audit
Inspection Chamber is limited by the NKR law “On Audit Inspection
Chamber”. According to the acting legislation, the report and the
conclusion are confirmed at the meeting of the Audit Inspection
Chamber council, the findings are delivered to the NKR president, the
government and the NA speaker. The latter decides whether the
materials should be delivered to the public prosecution, or to discuss
at the annual report of the NA at the end of the year. “In my opinion,
the facts maintained in the result of the audit should be seriously
discussed at the consultations of the government as an agenda
point. During the discussion of the concerned question between the
Audit Inspection Chamber and the minister of finance and economy the
minister shared our anxiety and agrees to our suggestions. I am sure
that serious and responsible steps will be taken in this direction,”
said the chairman of the Audit Inspection Chamber.

NVARD OHANJANIAN.
14-04-2004

Armenian policemen break up rally, arrest opposition activists

Mediamax news agency
13 Apr 04

YEREVAN

The Armenian police broke up an opposition rally on Bagramyan Avenue
outside the buildings of the National Assembly and the US embassy in
the centre of Yerevan.

The police started a special operation to force the protesters out of
the avenue at about 0200 2100 gmt . The law-enforcement agencies
resorted to force immediately after the protesters refused to abandon
the road voluntarily. Water cannons and charges were used in
dispersing the rally. The operation to disperse the protesters took
about 10 to 15 minutes. The press service of the police has not yet
issued any reports on the dispersal of the rally.

According to the opposition newspaper Aykakan Zhamanak Armenian Times
, many protesters received bodily injures in clashes with the
police. The paper reported that after the dispersal of the rally, the
law-enforcement agencies carried out arrests at the headquarters of
the opposition Anrapetutyun Republic Party, the National Unity Party
and the People’s Party of Armenia.

Aykakan Zhamanak also reported that two of the paper’s correspondents
Ayk Gevorkyan and Avetis Babadzhyan, who were covering the night
events on Bagramyan Avenue, were badly beaten up by the police.

Passage omitted: reported details of the rally

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION MP PLANNED ACT OF TERROR, SAYS PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE

Mediamax news agency
12 Apr 04

YEREVAN

The Armenian Prosecutor-General’s Office today reported that “one of
the opposition deputies in the National Assembly and his supporters”
had organized an act of terrorism at the beginning of April.

Moscow residents Gevorg Mesropyan and Artur Mangasarov, who have
previous convictions, were arrested for illegally carrying weapons
during the rally organized by the Justice bloc and National Unity
Party on 9 April, the press service of the Prosecutor-General’s Office
told Mediamax today.

“For a large sum of money a criminal group recruited the two
terrorists, who were to have opened fire amongst the rally-goers at
1600 on 9 April in order to create panic and carry out a terrorist
act,” the statement from the Armenian Prosecutor-General’s Office
says.

“Gevorg Mesropyan and Artur Mangasarov have been arrested and have
confessed,” the press service of the Prosecutor-General’s Office told
Mediamax today.

Associated Press Worldstream
April 8, 2004 Thursday

Belgium: citing North America as site of worst genocide is not
anti-U.S. gesture

BRUSSELS, Belgium

A display praising the merits of peacekeeping that cited the
decimation of native North Americans as the world’s worst genocide
was based on a historical study and shouldn’t be considered a jab at
the United States, Belgian defense officials said Thursday.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gerard Vareng denied criticism that the
display carried an anti-American message.

The display, shown at the monument of the Unknown Soldier in Brussels
this week, was meant to honor Belgian soldiers who died in
humanitarian missions.

It included a panel listing “North America” as the continent of the
world’s worst genocide with a death toll of 15 million, starting with
Christopher Columbus’ 1492 arrival in the New World but giving no end
date.

The daily De Standaard called the display – that was also covered
extensively in a defense ministry publication – insulting to
Washington.

It said Defense Minister Andre Flahaut, who has tangled with U.S.
officials in recent months, effectively blamed the United States for
killing 15 million people “in a genocide that continues to this day.”

The newspaper complained about a “curious” list of genocides that
mentioned Nazi Germany, Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia and other countries
but ignored killings in the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin and
Europe’s colonial past in Africa, including Belgium’s role in the
Congo.

Vareng said “the peacekeeping display was the work of historical
experts. They took the list of genocides and the numbers of people
who died in them on the Encyclopedia of Genocide” by Israel W.
Charny, head of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in
Jerusalem.

He said the two-volume encyclopedia, published in 1999, is a “very
serious book that deals with all kinds of genocides.”

The ceremony this week at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier
coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in which
up to 1 million people died.

The Toronto Star
Apr. 1, 2004. 07:50 AM
Bayrakdarian soars with Mozart

GEOFF CHAPMAN
MUSIC CRITIC

The countess Adhle was bemoaning her lonely, loveless life to a
disguised hermit in the aria “En proie ` la tristesse” and hundreds of
panting, would-be suitors in Thomson Hall were instantly ready to
comfort her.

That countess was dazzling Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian,
singing the aria from Rossini’s comic opera Le Comte Ory, and the
Toronto Symphony under Sir Andrew Davis was in full musical sympathy
with her plight.

This wry declaration of melancholy was the occasion of some of the
best, high-flying coloratura you’ll hear for a while, full of blazing
moments that inevitably led to a big Standing O.

Our glamorous soprano, always on the verge of breaking out of barely
contained ecstasies, showed a faultlessly sustained command of colour
and dynamics.

Last night’s concert, the first of four, was one of charm and
imagination, with large helpings of Mozart finding the orchestra in
lively, bright-toned mode.

The composer’s lovely melodies are tailor-made for Bayrakdarian and
her emotional involvement was clear in two arias from the serenata Il
Re pastore, her soaring sweetness and exceptional breath control over
a cushion of strings evident in the love-struck “L’amero saro
costante” and “Alla selva, al prato, al fonte”. Fully engaged with the
text, the notes and her colleagues, she conquered an audience in a
state of reverent hush with the sheer beauty of her voice.

Her concert aria, words drawn from Mozart’s Idomeneo, was delivered
with zeal, expressive passion married to intelligent interpretation
and absolute attention paid to tonal nuance. Perhaps there were times
when low notes seemed to disappear but that was a tiny flaw.

The concert began with Stravinsky’s Symphonies Of Wind Instruments, a
work that originally was a chorale for recently expired composer
Debussy. Its 1947 incarnation featured brass and woodwinds and Russian
folk melodies in conjunction with modest sonorities. It was short, an
odd program choice to point to the imminent vocal glories.

Davis was himself featured on piano in Mozart’s concert rondo for
piano and orchestra, a very serviceable effort conducted from the
keyboard stool.

The TSO was in fine fettle for the evening closer, Beethoven’s eighth
symphony, its familiar strains masking the stop-and-start
eccentricities from the composer that are particularly noticeable in
the opening movement. The playing throughout was a bracing treat

The program can be heard again tonight at 8, on Saturday (sans the
Stravinsky) at 7.30 and on Sunday at 3 at the Weston Recital Hall.

Additional articles by Geoff Chapman

ArmenPress
April 1 2004

YEREVAN MAYOR SAYS NO ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL RALLIES COULD BE SANCTIONED

YEREVAN, APRIL 1, ARMENPRESS: Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakarian
joined today a cohort of government representatives to denounce the
opposition’s plans to stage mass protest rallies to push for
president Kocharian’s resignation, saying the municipality is
concerned over radical announcements, which he said would destabilize
the situation.
Speaking to a news conference, Zakarian said “the revolutionary
calls of the opposition are serious impediments to the municipality’s
plans to go on with a number of major projects aimed to improve the
overall conditions of the city.”
Zakarian argued that mass street protests may eventually lead to
disruption of Yerevan’s economy. “Yerevan municipality cannot remain
indifferent to the aftereffects of such actions, ” he said.
“The municipality has to ensure conditions for implementation of
its plans,… Yerevan needs today political stability and normal
conditions for economy functioning,” he said, adding that the
municipality could not sanction anti-constitutional rallies.

ARKA News Agency
April 1 2004

Secretary of Security Council, RA Defense Minister to travel to
Georgia with official visit today

Nothing threatens constitutional order of Armenia, PM confident

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SECRETARY OF SECURITY COUNCIL, RA DEFENSE MINISTER TO TRAVEL TO
GEORGIA WITH OFFICIAL VISIT TODAY

YEREVAN. April 1. /ARKA/. The Armenian delegation headed by Serge
Sargsyan, the Secretary of the National Security Council subject to
the RA President, RA Defense Minister is going to travel to Tbilisi
with official two-day visit today. As stated by the RA Foreign
Ministry during the course of the visit tge delegation to meet with
the Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian PM Zurab
Zhvania, the Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia
Ivane Merabishvili, the Chief of Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of
Georgia Major-General Givi Iukuridze. T.M.–0–

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NOTHING THREATENS CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER OF ARMENIA, PM CONFIDENT

YEREVAN. April 1. /ARKA/. Armenia lives a definite political tension,
but it is not so strong to threaten the constitutional order, as said
by RA PM Andranik Margarian commenting on oppositions’ intention to
achieve power change. `If any party or individual undertakes actions
aimed at braking the country’s stability, he will be punished within
frames of the law’, he stressed. Margarian also mentioned that the
coalition expressed its wish to enter a dialogue with the opposition,
but unfortunately, the latter puts precondition – `power change then
dialogue’. `We do not accept the idea of power change, but are ready
to negotiations on the issues related to the Government or coalition
parties’, added the PM. In his words, `the State must cautious so
that statements of the group of people not to contradict the
interests of the majority of people’. T.M. -0–

Armenian premier sacks deputy head of government department

Arminfo
26 Mar 04

YEREVAN

Under Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan’s decision, Mikael Melkymyan
was today relieved of the post of deputy head of the Department for
the Management of State Property under the Armenian government, the
press service of the Armenian government has informed Arminfo news
agency.