Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev warns against pomp on his 70th birthday.

ASTANA, March 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Kazakhstan's President Nursultan
Nazarbayev has warned all of the country's senior officials against any
pomp on the occasion of his forthcoming 70th birthday.

"There will be no formal celebrations on the occasion's of the
president's jubilee, no ceremonies across the nation. That's an order.
Remember that. Should anyone dare arrange for something special on the
occasion of my 70th birthday, he will get fired," Nazarbayev warned at
Friday's meeting with the heads of regional authorities and the
authorities of Astana and Almaty devoted to progress in implementing the
program for Kazakhstan's accelerated industrial and innovative development
till the year 2014. "And no gifts," the president said.
He also added that his birthday was just an ordinary day, in no way
different from any other.
Nazarbayev will turn 70 on July 6, 2010. Kazakhstan celebrates this
day as the day of the capital Astana. It is an official public holiday and
a day off.

.Armenia to ratify bilateral protocols after Turkey - speaker.

YEREVAN, March 13 (Itar-Tass) -- The Armenian parliament will ratify
the Armenian-Turkish protocols only after the Turkish parliament has done
that, the speaker of Armenia's National Assembly, Onik Abramian, said on
Friday, as he received visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations and on the
principles of bilateral relations have been submitted to the parliaments
of both countries for ratification. On January 12 the Constitutional Court
of Armenia recognized both documents as constitutional.
Armenia and Turkey share a 330-kilometer-long border, but have not
established diplomatic relations to this day. As a pre-condition for the
normalization of bilateral relations Ankara demanded that Yerevan should
give up steps to press for the international recognition of the very
instance of genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Also, it
wants Armenia to curtail support for Nagorno-Karabakh in its conflict with
Azerbaijan, as well as return to Azerbaijan the territories it occupies.
According to foreign economic experts, the closed border and indirect
cargo traffic cost Armenia 300-400-million-dollar losses a year.
When elected Armenia's president in 2008, Serzh Sargsyan came out with
the initiative of normalizing relations with Turkey. That policy earned
wide support form the international community. At the invitation of
Armenia's leadership Turkish President Abdullah Gul on September 6, 2008
paid a brief several-hours-long visit to Yerevan for a 2010 World Soccer
Cup qualifier. That was the first-ever visit by a Turkish head of state to
Armenia. On October 14 last year the city of Bursa, Turkey, hosted a
return match and Serzh Sargsyan went there for the event at President Gul'
s invitation. The exchange was promptly dubbed as "football diplomacy."
On October 12 last year the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey
gathered for a ceremony, attended by the foreign ministers of Russia and
France and the US Secretary of State, to put their signatures to
Armenian-Turkish protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations
and on the principles of bilateral relations.
"The international recognition of and condemnation of the genocide of
Armenians for the Armenian people and for the republic of Armenia is a
matter of historical justice," Sargsyan said. He believes that the process
of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations by no means signifies an
end to the efforts to press for the international genocide of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
The Armenian leader believes "today is the right time to display the
determination, to take a long stride forward in bilateral relations and to
let future generations inherit a stable and safe region."
The Armenian authorities' decision to normalize relations with Turkey
sparked a mixed response inside the country and the foreign diasporas,
which regard themselves as a result of the 1915 genocide. In protest
against this decision the Dashnaktsutyun party quit the government
coalition and declared it was going into opposition.

.Sudan authorities cooperate with mediators on election eve-Margelov.

KHARTOUM, March 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Sudan is cooperating extensively
with various international organizations and mediators in the run-up to
the forthcoming general elections in April, the chairman of the Russian
Federation Council's international affairs committee, special presidential
envoy for Sudan Mikhail Margelov, told Itar-Tass in an interview.
"One has the impression that the Sundanese authorities and political
forces can turn an attentive ear to what is being said to them by the
international mediators and the representatives of the five permanent
members of the UN Security Council. They can drop some stereotypes that
hindered their cooperation with the United Nations Organization in the
past and they are prepared to interact with various international
organizations," Margelov said, as he looked back on his four-day working
visit to Sudan. Margelov has held consultations with the Opposition and
the ruling National Congress Party, as well as with Sudanese ministers and
the heads of the United Nations mission in that country.
The Russian presidential envoy said that many international
organizations and mediators, such as the mission of the European Union,
Russian observers, the Carter Center, the US National Democratic
Institute, the African Union, the League of Arab States and the
Organization of the Islamic Conference had received a chance to monitor
the forthcoming elections.
Such cooperation, Margelov said, agrees well with the Sudanese
authorities' intention to ensure there should be honest, fair, free and
transparent elections and that the election returns should not arouse
anyone's doubts inside that country or elsewhere."
Alongside active political cooperation with international
organizations Sudan has displayed great interest in cooperation with
Russian companies. Margelov sees a number of reasons for that.
Firstly, the Sudanese know how to use Russian technologies and trust
them, and, secondly, many of them received education in Russia and now
they wish to work for Russian companies, which would like to access the
Sudanese market. Thirdly, an important role is played by the high level of
the political dialogue that there exists between Sudan and Russia.
"Russia is a country that local people like and respect. This good
attitude and respect must be converted into specific projects. This is
what Russian businesses should be doing here," Margelov said.
His next visit to Sudan is due at the end of 2010. Central to it will
be preparations for a referendum on South Sudan's independence, scheduled
for January 2011. By that time Russia will conduct "active consultations
with its partners in the UN Security Council and the European Union."

-0-str


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next