Month: June 2005

RA GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS TRAFFICKING
A1plus
| 21:23:03 | 17-06-2005 | Social |
“Armenia is a source country from where women and girls are trafficked
mainly to the Arabian Emirates and Turkey with the aim of sexual
exploitation”, said US State secretary chief advisor, head of the
Human Trafficking Combat and Monitoring office, Ambassador John Miller
during today’s interactive TV-press conference organized by the US
Embassy to Armenia.
According to Mr. Miller, the basis of the office report were the
calculations of the UN according to which in the Arabian Emirates
and Turkey there are about 1000 Armenian prostitutes. The majority
of them are victims of trafficking.
By the way, According to the calculations of the Armenian Investigating
Journalists Association President Edik Baghdasaryan, in the Arabian
Emirates and Turkey there are not 1000 but about 5000 Armenian
prostitutes. Mr. Miller was greatly surprised by the facts and
demanded proof on what was said.
According to the report of the US State secretary chief advisor,
The problem of trafficking is so serious in Armenia that is has
been included in the special control list, “The RA Government did
not represent sufficient proof that the efforts directed to the
combat against trafficking have been enhanced. The Government has
not carries out investigation of the Prosecution which was accused
of supporting the traffickers. The Prosecution bodies have supported
those organizing trafficking, and the border-guards, taking bribes,
have secured the free transportation abroad.”
Stating that the RA Government does not fully correspond to the
criteria combating trafficking, Mr. Miller mentioned that in our
country the punishments for this kind of deeds are too mild. Besides
accusations, John Miller was not able to represent names of victims of
trafficking or clear-cut cases, but he tried to explain the difference
between those who take up prostitution on their own initiative and
the victims of trafficking.
Try as he did, we did not manage to find out the proportion of the
trafficking victims in the number of one thousand prostitutes. In
the end we asked Mr. Miller how much money was spent by the office to
prepare the report without any facts and full of accusations. “Hundreds
of thousands. 8 people worked on the report”, answered Mr. Miller.

NO DETAILS
A1plus
| 20:47:44 | 17-06-2005 | Official |
On June 17 in Paris RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan met the Azeri
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov. The OSCR Minsk group co-heads
also took part in the meeting held within the framework of the
Prague process.
The Foreign Minister of the two countries discussed issues referring
to the present phase of settling the Karabakh conflict.

CAVES CAN BE DANGEROUS
A1plus
| 20:44:26 | 17-06-2005 | Social |
There are numerous interesting and exclusive caves in Armenia. One
of the most interesting peculiarities of them is the basalt doors
which is a unique phenomenon in the world.
Today in the Armenian National Architectural Museum the presentation
of the work of Samvel Shahinyan, head of the Armenian Speleological
Center, took place. According to Samvel Shahinyan, the book was
published with great difficulty, as the sum allotted by the state
was only 600 000 drams.
According to him, the caves of Armenia are of great interest for
the investigators, but when it comes to nature and culture, people
sometimes do not even refer to the caves.
“There are caves in Armenia which are greatly dangerous for people,
as the entrance is free and everyone can enter there not having any
idea of how they will get out”, says Shahinyan. He is convinced that
only specialists must investigate the caves.
Mr. Shahinyan mentioned that one of the unique caves is the underground
cave of Ani, “After investigating the cave a Turkish specialist sent
us a letter saying that Ani is really the treasure of the Armenian
nation”.

CAUCASIAN PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY
A1plus
| 20:34:01 | 17-06-2005 | Official |
According to the memorandum signed in Tbilisi, since January 1,
2007 the South Caucasian Parliamentary Assembly will function.
On June 16 in Tbilisi the session of the Southern Caucasus
Parliamentary Initiative Presidium took place, in which the future
development of the Initiative was discussed. As a result of the
discussions it was decided that the activity of the Initiative will
continue with another phase where each country will preside for
6 months.
In the memorandum signed by the countries it was stated that the
delegations of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia will spare no efforts
to make the South Caucasian Initiative a more active structure. All
the necessary steps will be taken to turn the Parliamentary Initiative
into the South Caucasian Parliamentary Assembly on January 1, 2007.
The secretariat of the Parliamentary Initiative has been ordered to
represent to the Presidium for the coming 18 months draft documents
which will regulate the authorizations and the activity of the
Parliamentary Assembly.
The Memorandum has been signed by the heads of the delegations
of the three countries. The Armenian delegation to the Presidium
session was represented by RA NA deputy speaker Tigran Torosyan and
Mher Shahgeldyan.

8 ARMENIAN CHESS PLAYERS IN THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
A1plus
| 20:00:11 | 17-06-2005 | Politics |
Today in Warsaw the Chess European individual Championship will
start. 8 Armenian chess players will take part in it – Levon Aronyan,
Artashes Minasyan, Smbat Lputyan, Ashot Anastasyan, Karen Asryan,
Gabriel Sargsyan, Tigran L. Petrosyan, and Levon Babujyan.
Vladimir Hakobyan and Rafael Vahanyan are factually the only leading
Armenian players who will not participate in the championship. Before
leaving for Poland the RA Defense Minister and President of the Chess
Federation Serge Sargsyan received the players.
The first round of the championship will be held tomorrow. The winner
will be awarded with 20 thousand Euros, the player winning the second
place will get 16 thousand, and the third place – 12 thousand. Besides,
the European championship will reveal many participants of the World
Championship.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: GERMANY AND TURKEY REBUKE EACH OTHER
Pan Armenian News
18.06.2005 05:06
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made
a negative statement over the adoption of the Armenian Genocide
Resolution by the German Bundestag, reported France Presse Agency. «I
suppose it is incorrect from the political point of view. Moreover it
is mean that the German Parliament sacrificed the question in favor
of the Armenian lobby without discussion,» Erdogan said. He blamed
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for not preventing adoption of the
resolution. In its turn the Federal Government criticized Erdogan’s
statement. As remarked by assistant of German Government’s official
representative Thomas Steg, «it is a balanced resolution.» Steg also
rebuked Erdogan’s statement over the attitude to Federal Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder. «Germans are exactly those, who know that not
carrying out the historical duty and readiness to reconciliation and
forgiveness are indispensable for forming good and peaceful future
of peoples,» he said.
–Boundary_(ID_kBZM4KVpC2cxes/fbIOQrQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US ARMY EUROPEAN COMMAND WORKED OUT PLAN TO SOLVE KARABAKH ISSUE
Pan Armenian News
18.06.2005 03:29
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On the instructions of Pentagon the US European
Command has worked out plan for settlement of the conflict in Nagorno
Karabakh. The document provides for inclusion of mobile forces,
which can be situated in the territory of the South Caucasus, in the
solution of the problem. A range of talks between military experts
have been held in the Azeri capital of Baku over the plan.” This was
stated by President of the American Center for Strategic Studies Marco
Pren. In his words, one of the scripts of using US mobile forces in the
South Caucasus is their involvement in the Karabakh settlement. Though
Mr. Pren does not know who have authored the plan, he hopes that “the
initiative belongs to more mature representative of Pentagon.” Thus,
the implementation of the plan is the duty of the US Armed Forces in
Europe. Simultaneously, referring to Pentagon sources, M. Pren noted,
“US desire is not to locate mobile forces in the territory of the
South Caucasus by all means. Pentagon does not advocate dramatization
of the Karabakh issue and does not work for forming a base in the
mentioned region.
The important thing is the determination of the mandate of the
aforementioned forces.” The Press Service of the Foreign Ministry of
Azerbaijan reported it considered participation of US mobile forces
in the conflict settlement impossible. However, Azeri Deputy FM Araz
Azimov noted that, in his opinion, at a certain stage of resolution of
the Karabakh problem participation of foreign troops in the security
process in Karabakh is unavoidable. At the same time Azeri Parliament
Vice-Speaker Ziyafet Askerov said speaking of deployment of NATO
peacekeepers in the conflict zone was premature. In his words, the
issue is not subject to discussion at the talks of the Armenian and
Azeri leaders. “There is a large probability that after the meeting
of Armenian and Azeri FMs in Paris the Presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan will also have a meeting. It is known that the talks will
be held over the withdrawn of Armenian military units from the 7 seized
Azeri regions around Karabakh. Only after those meetings the matter may
concern the discussion of other issues,” Z. Askerov said. He reported
that the venue and date of the recurrent meeting of the Presidents
will depend on the talks of the FMs, the Caucasian Knot reported.

ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA VISITED RUSSIAN SARATOV REGION
Pan Armenian News
18.06.2005 03:19
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Within the framework of an unofficial visit Armenian
Ambassador to Russia Armen Smbatyan visited Saratov Friday. The
diplomat met with Saratov region Governor Pavel Ipatov, Bishop of
Saratov and Volsk Longin and representatives of the local Armenian
community. The Ambassador also planted a tree in the National Village
Armenian yard of the local ethnographic museum under open sky. “The
foreign policy of our state lies in building relations exactly with
Russian provinces,” A. Smbatyan commented on the goal of his visit to
Saratov. In his words, “the Saratov region is one of the closest and
most interesting regions to Armenia.” “The Governor was changed here
lately and I considered necessary to come here to get acquainted with
Pavel Ipatov, invite him to Armenia with an official call and adjust
the framework and the terms of the signing of a large agreement on
cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and the Saratov region
of Russia that will include the economic, cultural and educational
blocks,” the Ambassador explained. “We are interested in increasing
the volume of commodity turnover between Armenia and the Saratov
region, especially in the military industry and tourism,” the Armenian
diplomat said.

BAKU DEMANDS THAT PACE DENOUNCE ELECTION IN KARABAKH
Pan Armenian News
18.06.2005 03:10
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Parliament of Azerbaijan has passed a statement
addressed to the PACE, defining the parliamentary election to be held
in Nagorno Karabakh July 19 as «political sabotage by Armenians,»
reported Mediamax. The Azeri Parliament demands that the PACE denounce
the parliamentary election in Nagorno Karabakh. «Unfortunately,
representatives of some Council of Europe member states, MPs will take
part in the election as observers. Such actions by CoE members are at
least a demonstration of public disrespect of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty
and territorial integrity. We consider presence of representatives of
CoE member states at the election inadmissible due to running counter
to the principles of that organization,» the statement says.
–Boundary_(ID_eswvCPFwkjq33Exd/w7ryA)–

IMPATIENT
A1plus
| 21:48:12 | 17-06-2005 | Official |
Today Robert Kocharyan appointed NKR NA President Oleg Yesayan
President of the RA Share Committee.
Let us remind you that NKR Parliamentary elections will take place in
two days, that is – on June 19. Oleg Yesayan has announced beforehand
that he will not put forward his candidacy.