How do the Armenian media influence the Karabakh problem settlement? {BR} Expert of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies Alvard Barkudaryan is concerned over the fact that some media publish interviews with minor political figures «just to fill their pages with information», thus doing more harm than good. «Such publications give the impression that Karabakh is still a part...

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is arriving in Baku this Tuesday. Well known sources of information report that the head of Pentagon is arriving to discuss the deployment US military bases in Azerbaijan. Thus, Assistant News cites US Professor of International Relations Hakim Kaufman: «To date the US spreads out troops in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Iraq preparing for the war against Iran....

Chairman of National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan invited journalists to the building of the Central Bank of Armenia on occasion of the anniversary of the events taken place a year ago when a peaceful rally was dispersed by the police. However Mr. Hayrikyan has another important news to announce. {BR} He informed that the government is trying to deprive the union of the building located...

46.7% of experts and 50.6% of the Armenian citizens are discontent with the process of the Karabakh conflict settlement. The data was announced today by the Armenian Center of National and International Studies during the discussion dedicated to the Karabakh problem. {BR} The outcomes of the survey entitled “Karabakh conflict in the eyes of experts and society” were presented by expert...

The issue of the Armenian Genocide recognition will be submitted to the consideration of Bundestag April 21 or 22, President of the German-Caucasian parliamentary group Christoph Bergner stated. {BR} The first reading of the draft resolution will be held April 21 or 22 after what the issue will be discussed by the Committee on Foreign Policy. The parliament is expected to come to final decision till summer.

Today Arthur Baghdasaryan announced that no political agreement has been reached to discuss the Constitutional amendments, that’s why the issue will not be discussed in this 4-day session. Another question is what will be discussed if the discussion of the Constitutional amendments and the Electoral Code is postponed. {BR} A different question is how they will manage to carry out Constitutional...

Yesterday during the program «Parliamentary week» Galoust Sahakyan, leader of the Republican Party of Armenia, announced that the schools are being politicized, and even the headmasters of schools are appointed according to their party membership. And although headmasters belonging to the Republican party are not few, Galoust Sahakyan's remark was clearly directed to the Orinats Yerkir, the member...

Today the following session of the Justice bloc took place during which, according to Grigor Haroutyunyan, secretary of the People’s Party of Armenia, issues about the April 13 conference “For the Sake of Democracy” were discussed. The draft resolution to be adopted in the conference has been discussed. {BR} Everyone except Albert Bazeyan, leader of the Republican Party, took part in the session. We learned from Grigor Haroutyunyan that the...

For the coming 2 days the issues of cooperation with NATO will be discussed in Armenia. {BR} A seminar will be organized on April 12-14 to support the Republic of Armenia as it develops its NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP). An IPAP for a particular country outlines the general objectives and timelines for its future activities within the framework of cooperation with NATO. Scholars...

The events of thirteen years’ prescription in the village of Maragha of the NKR Martakert region occupy a special place by the depth of human tragedy, the level of cruelty, the number of people exposed to violence and captured. {BR} On April 10, 1992, as a result of the Azerbaijani regular army units’ attack the village was basically destroyed. According to various data, from 53 to 100 peaceful...

On April 11, 2005, the OSCE Mission held a regular monitoring of the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan armed forces’ contact-line to the west of the settlement of Verin Chaylu of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic occupied by Azerbaijan. {BR} From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring mission was led by Field Assistants of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office’s Personal Representative Miroslav...

«When did they implement force? They do so when people violate the order. But I have not been an immediate participant of the incident and I wish it did not happen», this was the answer of the Armenian Republican Party delegate Hamlet Haroutyunyan to our question about April 12. {BR} This was not the case for the President to resign from his post. «If the authorities do not do anything, they do...

Tomorrow the US Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld will arrive in Baku to hold negotiations about the allocation of the US movable groups of quick reaction. By the way, this is the third visit of the American official to Azerbaijan. This time Donald Rumsfeld will meet the Azerbaijani officials. {BR} It is anticipated that the main aim of the meeting is to make decisions about issues about which arrangements...

The discussion of the draft constitutions was expected to be included in the agenda of the NA 4-day session. But Rafik Petrosyan, head of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, had his own opinion about the agenda, according to which the discussion had to be postponed. {BR} The only delegate who was interested in the reason of postponing the discussion was Karen Karapetyan, head of...

As a matter of fact the constitutional amendments have become a purposeful event in Armenia their purpose being no the improvement of the legislation but the fulfillment of commitments to Europe. The constitutional amendments in multi-party Armenia are carried out by several political forces. The parliamentary and extraparliamentary forces affirm that the changes exercised by the authorities really...

It is obvious that the authorities of the republic intend to combine the referendum on constitutional amendments with the upcoming elections to the local self-government bodies in autumn. The Communities Association of Armenia, whose members initiated a draft of constitutional amendments still in 1998, considers such approach to be inadmissible. Board member of the Association, head of the Armenian...

Former head of Nor-Nork community, to date deputy Mkrtich Minasyan considers that the authorities of the local self-government bodies should be extended as the main principles of the state are formation of state system do not contrast. Mkrtich Minasyan says that the local community council should be given the authority to express distrust to the head of the community. Despite some attempts took place...

An article from Ayb-Fe newspaper. Representative of Group of Caucasian Communications, the new owner of the Dvin Hotel, Andreas Ghukasyan still in early autumn 2004 promised that he will provide the detailed information on the future plans and the mysterious owners of the hotel. Months passed by, but the Group of Caucasian Communications has nothing to report either to journalists or to the society....

Most European countries are following the European Charter as regards to the local self-government bodies. One of the principles of the Charter provides for guarantees for the local self-government to be fixed in the Constitution. Local self-government is not a European phenomenon only; it is widely spread all over the world. Many of the US states have their own charters where the authorities of...

The Mayor of Yerevan is appointed and dismissed by the President. Yerevan has the status of region. The draft of constitutional amendments provides for transforming the status the city to a community. “If Yerevan is a community it should be headed by an elective person independent of those who appointed him”, one of the Yerevan residents said when responding to our question whether the...

Today the Russian Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Armenia Anatoly Dryukov rendered his last press conference as ambassador. {BR} By the existing criteria Dryukov has been ambassador for quite a long time. Before leaving Armenia Anatoly Dryukov thanked all those with whom he had worked for keeping the Armenian-Russian relationships on a high level. “The Russian Federation considers...

In the course of spreading whispers about the coming change of authorities gossips are heard that the Armenian Republican Party, getting ready for special Presidential elections, already has its candidate. According to the information the candidate is RA Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan. The journalists tried to clear up the information from the Minister himself. {BR} «We have 3 more years. Why the...

Today RA Ombudsman Larissa Alaverdyan has sent a letter to Elmira Suleymanova, the Azerbaijani Human rights defender, the Red Cross International Committee, and the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Stepanakert delegations of the Committee. {BR} It is particularly mentioned in the letter that according to the information spread by the International working group about the issues of war prisoners Zohrab Tamayan...

51 issues, 7 international treaties and 16 supplementary issues have been included in the agenda of the April 11-14 4-day session of the NA. The Parliamentarians will possibly start to discuss the draft Constitutions and the amendments to the Electoral Code. But according to some sources, they will try to postpone the discussion of the last two issues. {BR}