Author: Zakarian Garnik

REFUSING TO LISTEN TO EYEWITNESSES

A1+
08:35 pm | May 26, 2009

Politics

Eyewitness of NA Deputy Hakob Hakobyan’s trial Mushegh Antonyan went
to court today from the "Chorort Ishkhanutyun" newspaper edition.

He was accompanied by NA Deputy Armen Martirosyan. The eyewitness had
spent the night at the newspaper edition because he was afraid that
he might be abducted by police officers. Let us remind that there
was one case of abduction yesterday.

At the courtroom, eyewitness Mushegh Antonyan denied the testimonies
given during the preliminary inquiry, saying that he had simply
signed them.

After the eyewitness’s prosecution, judge Gagik Avetisyan released
the appeal of the Police Chief of the Malatia Police Headquarters by
which he informs the judge that the police weren’t able to arrest the
eyewitness due to the interference of NA Deputy Armen Martirosyan,
leader of the "New Times" party Aram Karapetyan and others.

Prosecutor Hovsep Sargsyan refused to prosecute the remaining
eyewitnesses and the judge went on to the next stage of investigating
the materials of the criminal case. The next trial will be held
tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.

The trials of NA Deputy Myasnik Malkhasyan and former mayor of Abovyan
Grigor Voskerchyan were in progress today at other courtrooms at
different hours.

Grigor Voskerchyan’s advocate Mushegh Shushanyan said that the
prosecutor wanted to release the testimonies of people who were out of
the country, but refused to prosecute those who were in the building
at that time. According to the advocate, there were two eyewitnesses
one of which was pivotal.

According to the materials, it was head of the Abovyan pre-electoral
headquarters and a large part of the actions were implemented through
the eyewitness. When judge Gagik Poghosyan decided to approve the
petition of prosecutor Ashot Nadoyan, Voskerchyan said that there was
no sign of respect towards the court and the audience began to applaud.

During Myasnik Malkhasyan’s trial, prosecutor Harutyun Harutyunyan
also intermediated to not prosecute the remaining eyewitnesses because
the other prosecutors were satisfied with the testimonies.

SOFAZ HAS NOT YET ALLOCATED SUMS FOR BAKU-KARS RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
27.05.2009 11:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ This year, the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan
(SOFAZ) has not yet allocated considerable sums for the construction
of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad, SOFAZ Executive Director Shahmar
Movsumov said.

According to him, the allocated sums were envisaged for the maintenance
of the office responsible for project implementation. "This year,
SOFAZ plans to spend $100 million within the railroad construction
project framework," Movsumov said.

Azerbaijan plans to allocate $200 million from SOFAZ resources
for the construction of the Georgian part of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
railroad. Additional sum of over $280 has been allocated for the
maintenance of "Marabda-Kars Railroads" LLC. The money will be spent
for paying salaries and covering other office expenses, Trend Capital
reports.

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project also envisages the construction of a new
branch line with a length of 105 km., with 76 km. passing across
Turkey’s territory and 29 km. passing across Georgia, Besides,
Akhakalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi section of the railroad (183 km.) will
be reconstructed in Georgia for increasing the throughput capacity
to 15 million per year. It is also planned to construct a railway
transit point in Akhaltsakhe to match the Georgian rails with European
railroad system.

STEPANAKERT AIRPORT TO BEGIN OPERATING IN 2010

t-airport-to-begin-operating-in-2010/
May 26th, 2009

STEPANAKERT-The Stepanakert Airport will begin operating in October
of 2010, the construction company contracted to rebuild the airport
said on Monday, Armepress reported.

Horizon-95, the firm contracted with reconstructing the airport has
finished the initial phase of reconstruction on the airport and its
passenger complex, according to Gagik Galstian, who heads the company.

The company is also currently building a laboratory of agricultural
food in Stepanakert and a courthouse in Shushi.

DASHNAKTSUTYUN MOBILIZES REGIONAL RESOURCES

LRAGIR.AM
14:59:31 – 26/05/2009

The representative of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Supreme Body, Armen
Rustamyan, on May 26, speaking about the electoral campaign of the
Yerevan Mayor election, stated that there has not been any serious
debate in this connection. He stated that it could be understandable,
as this is the first time, and not only the Yerevan residents but
also the political forces did not understand well the significance
of the elections. Armen Rustamyan stated that there had to be debates
on the new law on forming the Yerevan administration.

Armen Rustamyan stated that nevertheless there is possibility to hold
free and fair elections. Armen Rustamyan stated that this time, the
Dashnaktsutyun did not appeal to control the election in a united way,
because this step has always been considered as propaganda. But the
Dashnaktsutyun representative assures that they are going to control
the election with all their resources.

Armen Rustamyan stated that they have enough potential not to let
breaches take place. He stated that the party is going to use its
regional resources too. They will have 2-3 representatives at all
the 439 headquarters. Rustamyan stated that from this point of view
their team is ready.

According to Armen Rustamyan, it will be seen at the election what
each of the political forces has done to control them.

GRAND MASTER GABRIEL SARGSIAN WINS CHICAGO OPEN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
May 25, 2009

CHICAGO, MAY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The Chicago Open International Chess
Tournament was held on May 22-26 in the U.S. Gabriel Sargsian
(Armenia) gained 5.5 out of 7 possible points and shared the 1-2nd
places with Jean Elvest (U.S.). G. Sargsian was recognized the first
with his coefficients.

And another Armenian grandmaster, Tigran Petrosian, took the ninth
place with 4.5 points.

800 chess players performed in the tournament.

HEAD OF ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES GENERAL STAFF: ESTABLISHMENT OF DIRECT CONTACTS OF FIELD COMMANDERS ON ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN CONTACT-LINE WOULD REDUCE CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS

ArmInfo
2009-05-25 17:00:00

ArmInfo. Establishment of direct contacts of field commanders on
Armenia-Azerbaijan armed forces contact-line would reduce ceasefire
violations, Yuri Khachaturov, Colonel General Head of Armenian Armed
Forces General Staff, told ArmInfo.

He highlighted the section in the area of Nakhijevan as an
example of such contacts. ‘However, there are no such contacts on
the line Tavush-Gazakh’, he said. Y. Khachaturov welcomed such
contacts. Nevertheless, he said, if Azerbaijan does not want to
establish contact, the Armenian party is not going to ask Azerbaijan
for it. Since the beginning of the year, Azerbaijan has violated
ceasefire for 1.5 thousand times. As a result, 3 were killed (1
civilian), 12 were wounded (1 civilian). Asked about border roads,
Y. Khachaturov said the works on improvement of strategically important
border roads is continued.

Tigran Karapetyan is confident of victory of People’s Party
23.05.2009 14:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Political parties in office, or those who have in
office, do not do anything. Moreover, they conquered the authority and
do not allow other forces to move forward,’ told a news conference
Tigran Karapetyan, the leader of the People’s Party of
Armenia. According to him, authorities always manage to have people to
give votes to them, despite a plenty of problems in the social sphere.
`We all are aware, who orders all those public opinion polls. I don’t
believe in their results and nobody can say, who will win elections, ‘
the leader of the People’s Party of Armenia said.
Tigran Karapetyan believes, that the people this time will not allow
to repeat scenarios of last-year elections. He also expressed
confidence that in the case of fair elections his party will win
elections. `We don’t have competitors in this struggle, they can
appear only when any party would decide to act honestly,’ he said.

NAIRI PETROSYAN SAYS ONLY PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA HAS RIGHT TO FORWARD AMNESTY PROPOSAL

ARMENPRESS
May 22, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS: A number of mass media ascribed to
the Armenian National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan statement
on possible amnesty of the March 1 arrestees. Spokesman for the
Armenian NA speaker Nairi Petrosyan, commenting on the statement
with the request of Armenpress, stated that "While speaking to
the reporters Hovik Abrahamyan did not exclude the possibility of
amnesty, expressing his good will. According to the Constitution of
the Republic of Armenia, only President of the Republic has a right
to make suggestion of amnesty and only after it the National Assembly
may announce it."

RA POLICE CALLS FOR CAUTION ON SCHOOL GRADUATION DAY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.05.2009 13:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Police called for caution on school
graduation day celebrated on May 23 this year.

"We must protect our children from car accidents on this day," said
Hayk Sargsyan, head of planning and analysis department of the RA
Police "Minors should not drive. Violators will be taken to police
stations," he said.

RA PM TO ATTEND CIS HEADS OF GOVERNMENT MEETING

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
20.05.2009 20:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan will be in
Astana, Kazakhstan, on a two-day working visit to attend a meeting
of CIS heads of government.

The Armenian delegation will include head of the governmental community
Davit Sargsyan, Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan, Deputy Foreign
Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan and other officials.

Heads of government are planning to discuss economic, humanitarian
and security issues in Astana.

Delegations from 11 CIS countries will be participating. Georgia will
not send a delegation.