The Armenian National Assembly delegation headed by Deputy Speaker Ishkhan Zakaryan (Prosperous Armenia) will visit the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic July 18-21 to observe the NKR presidential election.

1. We, the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group find it necessary to give our assessment of the emerging situation in the settlement process for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in light of the recent meeting between the President of the Republic of Armenia R. KOCHARIAN and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan I. ALIYEV in St Petersburg.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, which represents a major advance in this field.

Lida Nanayan was appointed in the post of Shirak regional governor by the decision of the RA Government.

On July 10 RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian met with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Yuri Merzlyakov and Bernard Fassier in Paris. The meeting was attended by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk and representative of the US Department of State Elizabeth Rood.

On July 11 President Kocharian leaves for France on a three-day working visit. The Armenian delegation is comprised of Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan, RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France Edgard Nalbandyan and other top-level officials.

p>Ambassador Rudolf V. Perina arrived in Yerevan and assumed the duties of Chargé d’Affaires a.i. at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan as of July 10.

July 6 President Robert Kocharian received Tomas Kovach, the Prosecutor General of Hungary who is on a working visit in Armenia.

The Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic with a request to assist in organising a monitoring of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces contact line near Marzily settlement scheduled for July 10, 2007.

On July 5 Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian left for the USA to participate in a three-day conference and exhibition titled “ArmTech-2007,” The RA Foreign Ministry Press Service reports. The conference is dedicated to high-tech issues in Armenian and is due in San-Francisco.

Since the end of May of 2007, there have been periodical fires along the line of contact of the NKR and Azerbaijani armed forces. The NKR Rescue Service is engaged in localization and fire extinguishing. In case of necessity the servicemen of the NKR Defence Army, as well as the civilians come to assist the Rescue Service.

July 4, President Robert Kocharian received Bushra Halepota, the newly appointed representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Armenia.

René van der Linden, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), is to visit Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia from 4 to 10 July 2007. This will be his second visit to the three countries of the southern Caucasus during his mandate.

July 2 the Ago Group delegation of the Council of Europe Committee of Foreign Ministers are arriving in Armenia on a two-day visit. The delegation comprises Ambassadors of Sweden, Austria, France, Germany, Russia, Romania and Latvia to the Council of Europe and top officials of the Secretariat of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.

Yerevan—Today Raffi K. Hovannisian, Larisa Alaverdian, and Stepan Safarian represented the Heritage Party's parliamentary group in a meeting with a visiting delegation of Council of Europe ambassadors. They discussed the challenges of Armenia's democratic development, conflict resolution in the Caucasus and throughout Europe, as well as regional and geopolitical security.

On 28 June Ilham Aliev, the President of Azerbaijan, received a group of Azerbaijani and Armenian intellectuals who visited Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia on 28 June. Aliev presented Azerbaijan's stance on the Karabakh conflict resolution, day.az reports.

Under a June 28 decree of RA President Robert Kocharian, Ara Nazaryan was dismissed from the position of the member of the Civil Service Council and was appointed Deputy Defense Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

In compliance with an earlier agreement with the NKR authorities, the OSCE Mission carried out a monitoring of the contact line between the Armed Forces of NKR and Azerbaijan on Martakert-Tartar road.

On June 27, 2007 the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note to Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities Bernard Snoy expressing regret that the practical recommendation presented in the report of the OSCE-led Environmental Assessment Mission to fire affected territories along the contact line, prepared as a result of the 10-day monitoring (October, 2006) had not been realised.

RoA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan met with the Greek delegation at the head of President Karolos Papoulias who is in Armenia on a state visit.

Karolos Papoulias, the President of the Republic of Greece, arrived in Armenia with his spouse May Papoulias today, on the invitation of the RA President Robert Kocharyan.

On June 29th, 2007 the official delegation of the Slovak Republic headed by Mrs. Olga Algaerova, State Secretary, first Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic will arrive in Armenia.

Karolos Papoulias, the President of the Republic of Greece, will arrive in Armenia with his spouse June 26-28, on the invitation of RoA President Robert Kocharian.

RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan received Robert Simmons, the Special Representative of NATO Secretary General for the South Caucasus and Central Asia.