Armenian News

RFE/RL Report

Turkey's Erdogan Seeks Meeting With Sarkisian
Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
addresses the opening session of the Sarajevo Business Forum
conference in Sarajevo, 06Apr2010
07.04.2010

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked for a meeting with
President Serzh Sarkisian in the United States next week through a
high-ranking Turkish envoy who visited Yerevan on Wednesday. (UPDATED)


Feridun Sinirlioglu, the Turkish Foreign Ministry undersecretary, met
Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian to discuss the
current state of the stalled Turkish-Armenian normalization process
and ways of salvaging it.

Sarkisian's office said Sinirlioglu conveyed to the Armenian president
Erdogan's request for face-to-face talks on the sidelines of an
nuclear security summit that will take place in Washington on April
12-13. Both leaders are due to attend the summit.

A statement by the office did not specify whether Sarkisian accepted
the offer. It only cited him as saying that Armenia expects `practical
steps' from Turkey that would `guarantee a decisive movement in the
process of normalizing relations without preconditions.'


Armenia -- Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian (R) meets with Turkish
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu in Yerevan, 7
April 2010.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said Nalbandian likewise told the
visiting envoy that Ankara should move to unconditionally implement
the fence-mending protocols signed by the two governments last
October.

`The Turkish side assured us that they want the process of normalizing
Turkish-Armenian relations to continue,' Nalbandian told the Armenian
parliament later in the day. `The Armenian side reaffirmed its
position and approaches that are in tune with the expectations of the
international community, which expects from Turkey practical steps in
this direction.'

The presidential press office also said Sinirlioglu assured Sarkisian
that the Turkish government is committed to ensuring further progress
in the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. It gave no further details.

Speaking to reporters in Paris where he is on a one-day visit, Erdogan
said he sent a letter to Sarkisian through his envoy underlining his
government's commitment to see the normalization deal to fruition. `We
will always show our loyalty to the signatures that we put down [under
the deal.] It is out of the question for us to take a step back unless
there is an extraordinary situation,' Erdogan said in remarks
broadcast on Turkish television. `I hope [the reconciliation process]
will end positively.'

An unnamed senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official told AFP news
agency ahead of Sinirlioglu's visit that the envoy `will reassert
Turkey's commitment to the [reconciliation] process but will also
convey our concerns.' The official did not elaborate on those
concerns.

Erdogan and other Turkish leaders have made clear that the Turkish
parliament will not ratify the protocols until a breakthrough in
international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Yerevan has responded by threatening to walk away from the
agreements.

It remains unclear, however, just how long the Sarkisian
administration is ready to wait for Turkish ratification. According to
some Turkish newspapers, Ankara hopes that the United States will
press it not to scrap the agreements.

The Turkish official cited by AFP said Sinirligolu will also discuss
in Yerevan `steps that need to be taken to ensure that the process
moves forward.' The official also confirmed that Sinirlioglu will
prepare the ground for a meeting between the Turkish and Armenian
leaders in Washington.

ERDOGAN SENT LETTER TO SARGSYAN, WAITING FOR RESPONSE
Tert.am
17:26 ~U 07.04.10

During his Paris visit, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said that he will speak about the possible meeting with Armenia's
President Serzh Sargsyan next week during the Nuclear Security Summit
in Washington unless he receives a response from Yerevan to a letter
Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu was
supposed to deliver to Sargsyan.

"We have sent Mr. Sinirlioglu there. He has also taken with him my
letter. The topic of a meeting with the Armenian side is related to
some issues which, in turn, are dependent on the response expected
from Armenia," said Erdogan.

Later the RA president's office issued a release confirming that
the Turkish PM has indeed sent the president a letter, asking for a
meeting to be held during the Washington summit.

Earlier, some leading Turkish media sources reported that an agreement
had been reached for a possible Erdogan-Sargsyan meeting in Washington.


RFE/RL Report

Sarkisian To Meet Obama In Washington
U.S. -- President Barack Obama gives an unscheduled press briefing at
the White House in Washington, DC, 26Mar2010
07.04.2010
Ruzanna Stepanian

President Serzh Sarkisian will meet U.S. President Barack Obama during
his visit to Washington next week, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
said on Wednesday.


`We are confident that the upcoming meeting of the presidents of
Armenia and the United States will give new impetus, a new quality to
our bilateral relations,' he told journalists.

Sarkisian is among foreign leaders that will participate in a summit
on nuclear security in Washington scheduled for April
12-13. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited him to the
summit in a phone call last month.

With Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also due in
Washington next week, observers believe the U.S. administration will
use the forum for a last-ditch attempt to salvage the normalization
Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements signed last October.

Asked about the possibility of a meeting between Sarkisian and Erdogan
in the U.S. capital, Nalbandian said `no such agreement has been
reached as yet.' But he noted that a senior Turkish diplomat, Feridun
Sinirlioglu, is in currently Yerevan holding talks with Armenian
leaders.

Nalbandian denied opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian's claims that
Armenia's leadership is under growing international pressure to ensure
the liberation of at least five of the seven Azerbaijani districts
around Nagorno-Karabakh. He said that can not happen before an
agreement on Karabakh's future status.

`Not only Armenia but the three co-chairs [of the OSCE Minsk Group]
understand that the main issue in the conflict is Karabakh's status,
the recognition and realization of the Karabakh people's right to
self-determination,' he said. `Without solving this issue it will
hardly be possible to find solutions to other issues.'

AZERBAIJAN KEEPS ON CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS
ArmInfo
2010-04-07 11:34:00

ArmInfo. As the NKR Defense Ministry reports, ceasefire violations
by the Azerbaijani subdivisions were fixed in a number of sections
of the NKR and Azerbaijani armed forces'contact line on April 5 night
and throughout the day of April 6.

As ArmInfo correspondent in Stepanakert reports, according to the
NKR DM message, the Azerbaijani party fired at the Karabakh positions
from small arms, including sniper rifles, in the direction of Nuzger,
Levonarkh, Karmiravan and other settlements. "The enemy stopped firing
as a result of response actions by the NKR Defense Army servicemen",
the message says.


Russian Gas Price For Armenia To Rise Further
Armenia -- Workers at a natural gas distribution facility, undated.
07.04.2010
Sargis Harutyunyan

The price of Russian natural gas supplied to Armenia will rise further
in the coming years, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Armen
Movsisian confirmed on Wednesday.


Under an agreement with Russia's Gazprom monopoly, the ArmRosGazprom
national gas operator started paying $180 per thousand cubic meters of
Russian gas starting from April 1. The gas price already rose from
$110 to $154 per thousand cubic meters in April 2009.

A top Gazprom executive visiting Armenia was reported to say on
Tuesday that the existing price is still well below the current
international average of over $300 and that it will have to be
adjusted accordingly. Anatoly Podmyshalsky argued that even Belarus,
Russia's closest ally, is currently paying more than Armenia.

According to Movsisian, Armenia has no choice but to accept this
reality. He said that the Armenian government and ARG had planned to
buy Russian gas at international prices by 2012 but that the economic
crisis will slow the transition.

`Of course, switching to that regime will be tough,' Movsisian told
journalists. `But if gas has that price all over the region, what else
can we do?'

The minister said Yerevan has not yet discussed with the Russians the
time and scale of the next tariff rise. `But their approach is that
gas must eventually be sold at the same price both inside and outside
Russia,' he said.

The most recent tariff hike led ARG, 80 percent of which is owned by
the Russian giant, to raise the gas price for Armenian households by
37.5 percent. The price rise for corporate consumers was less drastic.

Armenia's dependence on Russian gas was supposed to ease with the
construction in late 2008 of a gas pipeline from neighboring Iran. ARG
began importing modest amounts of Iranian gas in May 2009.

The monetary cost of that gas is still not known. Armenia is paying
for it with electricity supplies to Iran. The volume of the
gas-electricity exchange is due to increase substantially in the next
few years.