PACE MISSION TO MONITOR CULTURE MONUMENTS
corr Trend S.Agayeva
Trend News Agency
Aug 22 2007
Azerbaijan

A Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) mission to
monitor the state of cultural monuments in the South Caucasus led
by the British MP Edward O'Hara will tour the region at the end of
August, Armenia.ru reports.

The mission will begin its visit from Azerbaijan on 29 August and
later travel to Armenia.

According to initial reports, the mission will tour the Nakhchivan
Autonomous Republic and the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.

"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) mission
to monitor the state of cultural monuments in the South Caucasus is
not due to any problems. The issue was discussed at the ministries
of both countries and definite progress was observed at the level of
the Ministries," earlier O'Hara told Trend.

ROBERT KOCHARIAN: ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN RELATIONS DEVELOP IN ALL DIRECTIONS
Noyan Tapan
Aug 24, 2007

SOCHI, AUGUST 24, NOYAN TAPAN. A meeting of the Armenian and Russian
presidents took place in the Russian president's residence "Bocharov
Ruchey" in Sochi on August 23.

"Our meetings have become traditional. However, today's meeting is
of special character because the 10th anniversary of our fundamental
document - the Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation is marked
now," the president of Russia said when receiving the Armenian
president. Vladimir Putin expressed satisfaction over the fact that
the relations between the two countries are developing successfully,
commodity turnover is growing, and allied cooperation has been
established in the political sphere.

Robert Kocharian in his turn noted that Armenian-Russian relations
are developing in all directions: investments, commodity turnover,
as well as technical military and political cooperation. The Armenian
president pointed out that there is a dynamic progress in bilateral
relations. He stated the willingness of the Armenian side to promote
this process at the highest level.

Then the presidents of Armenia and Russia discussed a wide range
of issues related to bilateral relations, including the development
prospects of bilateral relations, the implementation of large-scale
joint projects in Armenia, as well as some international and regional
problems.

Armenian Telecom Sector Further Liberalized
By Anna Saghabalian

The national telephone company, ArmenTel, will abandon its remaining
exclusive rights to telecommunication services in Armenia under an
agreement with state regulators that was unveiled on Friday.

The deal, which should lead to greater competition in the country's
underdeveloped telecom sector, came after weeks of negotiations between
the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) and ArmenTel.

The latter will, in particular, cease to have a legal monopoly on
fixed-line telephony. Still, officials admitted that this will change
little in practice as there will hardly be local or foreign investors
willing to spend huge sums on building a second fixed-line network in
Armenia.

Far more important is the fact that ArmenTel agreed to give up its grip
on external phone connection provided over the Internet. Many Armenians
use the so-called IP telephony service to make phone calls abroad at
prices that are much lower than those charged by ArmenTel for regular
phone connection.

As recently as last January, the PSRC reaffirmed ArmenTel's monopoly on
the lucrative service and allowed it to force scores of small Internet
phone providers out of the business. The move sparked street protests by
hundreds of owners and employees of those firms.

ArmenTel was controversially granted 15-year exclusive rights to all
forms of telecommunication when it was acquired by the Greek telecom
giant OTE in 1998. The company was forced by the Armenian government to
abandon its monopoly on mobile telephony in late 2004 after failing to
develop its wireless network and meet growing demand for the service.

Another key monopoly, relating to Armenia's Internet access to the
outside world, was scrapped late last year shortly after ArmenTel's $500
million takeover by the Russian mobile operator VimpelCom. The monopoly
had long been blamed for the poor quality and high cost of Internet
connection in the country. Many hope that its abolition will spur the
development of information technology, one of the most promising sectors
of the Armenian economy.

Officials also said on Friday that ArmenTel will not seek to
significantly raise its fixed-line phone fees at least until next April.
This means that they will remain unchanged before a presidential
election due early next year.

ArmenTel formally asked the PSRC to allow such a price rise in May. The
regulatory body rejected the request as unfounded.

ArmenTel's Russian chief executive, Oleg Bliznyuk, indicated that the
telecom operator will again seek higher phone charges later in 2008.
`It's important that the market be not only free but civilized,' he told
journalists. `We will take one year to gauge the real work and
investments of new companies entering the market as well as the quality
of services provided by them.'

`Oligarchs' Deny Violent Clash
By Ruzanna Khachatrian

Two wealthy businessman close to the Armenian government on Friday
flatly denied reports about a mass brawl between their bodyguards in a
café in downtown in Yerevan.

Newspaper reports said two groups of well-built men, some of them
brandishing guns, quarreled and came to blows as they spent time there
on Wednesday. According to the daily `Aravot,' they were bodyguards of
tycoon Gagik Tsarukian and Ashot Aghababian, a businessman and senior
member of the governing Republican Party (HHK). The paper claimed that
the chief of President Robert Kocharian's security service personally
intervened to stop the fight.

Close associates of both government-connected individuals were quick to
refute the information.

`I don't know what happened at that café -- it's law-enforcers who must
deal with that -- but Gagik Tsarukian certainly had nothing to do with
the clash,' said Naira Zohrabian, a senior member of Tsarukian's
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), a junior partner in the HHK-led
governing coalition.

Zohrabian ruled out the possibility that Tsarukian's bodyguards,
notorious for their intimidating and occasionally violent behavior, may
have acted without his knowledge. `I assure you that Mr. Tsarukian knows
what his bodyguards and other staff are up to,' she told RFE/RL.

Galust Sahakian, a prominent HHK figure who is Aghababian's
brother-in-law, dismissed the reports as `provocative rumors.' He argued
that Aghababian, who owns one of Yerevan's largest clothing markets, has
not been in Armenia for the past ten days.

According to the Armenian police, a violent dispute took place outside
the café and involved only several teenagers. Sayad Shirinian, a police
spokesman, said Tsarukian's and Aghababian's men had no part in the
incident.

However, the `Aravot' editor Aram Abrahamian insisted on the credibility
of his newspaper's report, suggesting that the police and the two
government-connected businessmen agreed to hush up the incident. `I
think the information is correct,' he said. `It's natural that the
oligarchs do not want to see such reports about them and managed to
reach agreement with police circles.'

Staff at the café in question, called Triumph, refused to talk about the
incident when approached by RFE/RL. But a young man, who works nearby,
said he saw angry men quarrelling with each other as he walked past the
place on Wednesday.

`They didn't look like bodyguards, but there were quite a few expensive
cars parked around them,' said Karen Khachatrian. `They were definitely
not teenagers,' he added.

Triumph is reportedly popular with government officials, businessmen and
other wealthy individuals and their family members. It was the scene of
an infamous 2004 shootout between two groups of young men, including a
son of then Culture Minister Ara Aramian. Aramian was forced to step
down shortly after the incident.

AFRICAN SWINE FEVER HITS PIGS IN ARMENIA
ARMENPRESS
Aug 23, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 23, ARMENPRESS: Armenian agricultural authorities
have confirmed today reports that several rural communities in the
northeastern provinces of Lori and Tavush are affected by a devastating
disease known as African Swine Fever (ASF).

Reports from the villages of Vahagnadzor, Vahagni, Pambak and Dsekh
say pigs died there in mass. The ministry said it has ordered swift
preventive measures to ward off spread of the disease.

In some areas of both provinces the ban on pig movements and marketing
was enforced. Pig owners were told to burn the carcasses of dead
pigs and also strict entry and exit controls between all infected
and free areas have been enforced, all vehicles and people entering
and leaving farms must undergo strict disinfection procedures.

Grisha Baghian, head of food safety and veterinary medicine department
of the ministry, said the infectious disease has in all likelihood
penetrated from the neighboring Georgia, where it has killed already
tens of thousands of pigs.

Meantime veterinary officials from the Georgian ministry of agriculture
were to meet today with their Abkhaz and Russian colleagues to discuss
the outbreak of the devastating ASF in the breakaway region. The
meeting was to take place in Gali, in the breakaway region.

The outbreak of ASF was first reported in Georgia in early June;
more than 30,000 pigs died and a total of 22,000 pigs were culled
by mid-June.

Abkhaz officials have accused Georgia of not properly handling the
crisis. Some Abkhaz officials have even accused the Georgian side
of deliberately throwing dead, diseased pigs into the Kodori river
running from the Tbilisi-controlled upper Kodori Gorge down to
Abkhaz-controlled territories.

The chief veterinarian of the breakaway region, Erik Anshba, said
it amounted to "biological terrorism." The Georgian ministry of
agriculture has, however, dismissed the allegation as "absurd."

African Swine Fever, which is highly contagious among pigs, results
in high pig mortality, as there is no vaccine against the disease. It
does not, however, affect humans.