PRESS REVIEW, MAY 9, 2008

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The daily Hayastani Hanrapetutyun reports about festivities in Nagorno- Karabakh dedicated to the liberation of the town of Shushi, marked on May 8. The daily says President Serzh Sarkisian traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh to take part in these festivities. The daily Hayastani Hanrapetutyun says also Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian received yesterday congratulations from U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. The daily quotes from her message which says that Armenia and USA have a lot to do towards finding a lasting and peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. She also pledged the U.S. assistance to Armenia in improving its relations with neighboring countries. The daily Hayastani Hanrapetutyun says also Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said he will order government ministers to establish stricter discipline in their agencies. The daily says the government will double the amount of so-called ‘honor payment’ to participants of World War II. The move will come into effect from July 1. The daily Azg says there remain now some 5,600 World War II veterans. In another story the daily Azg says Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan, Hulus Kylc, reiterated that Turkey will not seek to normalize its relations with Armenia unless it drops its campaign for international recognition of the Armenian genocide and unless there is progress in the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The daily says this statement was made on the day when Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers were having their first meeting in Strasbourg. The daily Azg also quotes Colonel-General, Gurgen Dalibaltayan, as saying that if ‘our potential enemies try to test our defensive capacities they will get an adequate response.” He says Armenian armed forces are in a high state of efficiency and will rebuff any aggression no matter where it comes from. The daily Hayastani Hanrapetutyun says in an interview with Azerbaijani APA news agency the French cochairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Bernard Fassier, said that open borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Armenia and Turkey will become a strong development boost. He also says that despite the closed border between Armenia and Turkey thousands of Armenian citizens travel to Turkey and there is also a direct fight between Yerevan and Istanbul. The daily Hayots Ashkhar quotes a deputy chairman of the governing Republican Party, Galust Sahakian, as saying that by suggesting that the Armenian National Movement (ANM) and its satellite groups be united and renamed the Armenian National Congress ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian seeks to sink the ANM, which Armenians associate with their hardships, into oblivion. Galust Sahakian claims that by this Ter-Petrosian wants to belittle the consequences of what happened on March 1 which he blames on the ex-president. The daily Haykakan Zhamanak says that the management of ArmenTel telephone company said it is negotiating with the Public Services Regulatory Commission a possible revision of fixed telephone conversation tariffs, which have not been changed in the last 4 years. Company’s chief manager Alexander Birman is quoted as saying that this creates financial problems for it. The daily Aravot reports that security officers neutralized yesterday a makeshift explosive device that was discovered on central Mashtots avenue at 9.40 am. The daily Aravot also quotes Hrayr Karapetian of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation as saying that the post of a deputy parliament speaker should be given to it. It was previously held by Vahan Hovhanesian who resigned after the presidential election. He says the second deputy chairman is likely to be elected at the next parliament session.

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