Month: November 2006

IRAN DEMANDS TO CHANGE RESOLUTION OF UN SECURITY COUNCIL
By Petros Keshishian
AZG Armenian Daily
14/11/2006
Alin Larijani, higher consultant of National Security Council of
Iran, arrived in Moscow, to negotiate around the nuclear program of
Iran. According to him, the relevant formula on the nuclear program
adopted by the UN Security Council should be changed taking into
account the amendments made by the Russian side. Other vice, Iran is
going to reconsider its relations with MAGATE, Larijani stated.
The resolution submitted by the UN Security Council (the Great Britain,
France, Germany) envisages anti-Iranian measures, as the Iranians do
not give up concentrating uranium.
Larijani emphasized in Moscow that Russia is the natural ally of
Iran. According to RIA agency, Larijani said that Iran continues
negotiating with Russia for establishing joint enterprise for
concentrating uranium in the territory of Russia.
Russia is against the Anti-Iranian punishment measures. Sergey Lavrov,
Foreign Minister of Russia, stated that these punishment measures
would fully isolate Iran. At the same time, the Russia side agrees
to allow importing technologies for concentration of uranium to Iran.

SOME GEORGIAN: INTELLECTUALS AIM TO HAVE ANTI-ARMENIAN POSITION
By Aghavni Haroutiunian
AZG Armenian Daily
14/11/2006
60 representatives of the Georgian science and “intelligentsia” turned
to the Georgian President, demanding to “recognize the genocide of
the Georgian carried out by the Armenians in the war in Abkhazia.”
The information is spread by the Azeri mass media sources. Meanwhile,
we failed to find any cases of confirmation of the information in
any of the Georgian web sites or thanks to our sources in Georgia.
According to “Azg,” there are so called “intelligentsia members”
who gather auditorium by making anti-Armenian statements or holding
anti-Armenian speeches. In some cases, some people who oddly
consider themselves scholars publish works on the topics close to
the abovementioned statement.
In response to the relevant question of Azg,” Revaz Gachechialadze,
Ambassador of Georgia to Armenia, stated that he was unaware of
the given statement. He added that even if the information is not
false, he would like to know the names of the people who signed
the statement. “Anyway, the Georgian Government doesn’t have such a
position,” the Ambassador underscored.

200 TERRORIST GROUPS FUNCTIONING IN GREAT BRITAIN
By Petros Keshishian
AZG Armenian Daily
14/11/2006
Elisa Manningham-Buller, head of the British MI 5 counterespionage
service, informed that there are at least 200 terrorist groups that
consist of over 1600 members. According to the France Press, she said
that recently, they received information about 30 terrorist act that
were in the preparation stage. The terrorist acts were directed to
murdering people or making huge economic damage.
Mrs. Manninhgam-Buller stated that the threat of terrorist constantly
exists in the country and will always threat to several generation
of the British citizens. At present, the terrorist use self-made
explosive materials, but very soon they may enrich their armory by
purchasing dangerous chemical, bacterial or radioactive materials.

NEW BILL UNACCEPTABLE ON PROPERTY
By Ruzan Poghosian
AZG Armenian Daily
14/11/2006
Recently, “Against Legal Arbitrariness” and “Victims of State Needs”
NGOs made a statement, according to which they find the bill “On
property estrangement for public and state needs” adopted by RA
National Assembly unacceptable.
“After public hearings, not a single change was made to the initial
version, except for a slight change in the last article. The bill
includes several anti-constitutional articles that in case of
being adopted impart the legal acts recognized as illegal by the
constitutional court by legal power. Till now, there had been no
practical steps taken for restoring the rights of people that were
violated as a result of anti-constitutional acts. Besides, the citizens
didn’t receive the 10% of profit tax accumulated from them during
the real estate purchase and sale processes,” the statement runs.
The heads of the abovementioned organizations, Larisa Alaverdian
and Sedrak Baghdasarian believe that some of the bill’s articles are
dangerous for development of free market relations and for defense
of an individual’s right for property that serve as important grounds
for building democratic society.

ARMENIAN LIEUTENANT HAS BEEN TAKEN TO GERMANY
A1+
[03:46 pm] 13 November, 2006
Armenian senior lieutenant Georgi Nalbandyan who was injured
as a result of a terrorist act in Iraq on November 11 is out of
danger. Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan informed today that the
officer has been taken to Germany and after recovering will return
to Armenia to continue his military service.
Let us remind you that the leg of the senior lieutenant has been
amputated. “I would like to support his family in these difficult
times. I am sure that we will need his experience and knowledge”,
Serge Sargsyan said.
Early in the morning the Defense Minister left for Iraq to get
acquainted with the life of the Armenian peace-keepers, as well as
to meet the Defense Minister of Iraq and the heads of the forces
fulfilling peace-keeping mission.
Let us remind you that in July the fourth shift of the Armenian
peace-keepers left for Iraq.
The Armenian peace-keepers have been leaving for Iraq since January
2005. Each shift consists of 46 soldiers.

“DAVID HAROUTYUNYAN IS INTERESTED”
A1+
[05:45 pm] 13 November, 2006
The deputies found it difficult to enter the Parliament building
today. The citizens of Yerevan whose houses or residential areas
have been alienated for the sake of state needs blocked their way not
allowing them to enter the building. The RA draft Law on “Alienation
of property for state and public needs” was to be voted after the
second reading.
The participants of the protest action claim that the RA government
has ordered the deputies to adopt the draft. According to head of
the NGO “Victims of State Needs” Sedrak Baghdasaryan, the draft has
never proceeded from the interests of the people, and Minister of
Justice David Haroutyunyan keeps representing it to the NA as “he
is interested”.
“Especially the 18th article of the Law which represents the
transitional provisions contradicts the interests of the people. And
instead of protecting the people David Haroutyunyan does the opposite”,
said Sedrak Baghdasaryan.
He also reminded that during the October 11 hearings the 9-page
pack of offers represented by a number of NGOs was ignored. “When we
raised that question, they said they did not have time to read it”,
Sedrak Baghdasaryan complained.
He also reminded that during the October 11 hearings the 9-page
pack of offers represented by a number of NGOs was ignored. “When we
raised that question, they said they did not have time to read it”,
Sedrak Baghdasaryan complained and drew a conclusion, “We live in a
totalitarian country where laws are made for several criminals only”.

EUROPE DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE INDEPENDENCE OF OSSETIA
A1+
[06:03 pm] 13 November, 2006
“The referendum in South Ossetia was unnecessary, unhelpful and
unfair”, declared Terry Davis in reaction to the voting in the
breakaway Georgian region on Sunday.
“The results will not be recognized by the international community,
the vote did nothing to bring forwards the search for a peaceful
political solution and the circumstances in which it has been carried
out, especially the fact that the ethnic Georgians were not given
the right to vote, makes it irrelevant even as an indicative poll”,
Terry Davis stressed.
By the way, the calculations are still under way, but the local
authorities claim that the people have voted for independence and
for the acting President Edward Kokoyt.
Nevertheless, the EU does not recognize the results of the referendum.

SOLANA SAYS AGREEMENT WITH EU WILL GIVE A LOT TO ARMENIANS
By Harry Tamrazian in Brussels
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep
Nov 15 2006
Below is an RFE/RL Armenian Service interview with EU High Commissioner
for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana.
Q.: What will the European Neighborhood Action Plan bring to the
people of Armenia and Azerbaijan?
A.: This is a plan of cooperation with the governments of Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia. It has an objective to bring the three
countries closer to the European Union with a mechanism that we have
used with countries that finally became members of the European
Union. The important part of it is that it is agreed between the
governments of the respective countries and the European Union. That
is, it is not the EU that will be governing your countries, but
you will govern yourselves and will receive help from the EU. If
the government is good, if it does things properly, it will receive
help accordingly.
Q.: And what if the government is not good?
A.: In that case the cooperation with the government will diminish.
If the government takes advantage of the help, the element of the
neighborhood policy is to keep on help and increase the cooperation.
If you do things better you’ll get more. If the government fails to do
sufficiently it will get less. This is the same political technology
that was applied to countries that later became EU members, sector
by sector, chapter by chapter in a very well-organized fashion that
we have tremendous experience in.
Q.: The Action Plan mentions something about frozen conflicts. How
is the EU planning to help the countries of the region to have
cooperation?
A.: These countries are close to the EU, the Black Sea and the Caspian
Sea, this is a very important region because it unites two parts of
the planet and therefore it may have a very important role.
But we would like those three countries also to work among themselves
and that is also the focus of the program. We want to work with you
as a region, and as a consequence of that the conflicts that exist in
the regions will be resolved, otherwise it will be very difficult to
construct a region if you have conflict among themselves. So we want
to have a region that works together, that can progress together, that
can take advantage of all the added value of working together, which
is accompanied by the resolution of what you call frozen conflicts. I
hope very much that we will be a catalyst for good in the matter of
peace and not the opposite.
Q.: Do the countries of the region really share European values? Do
you reward them because of values or because, as critics say, for
example, in Azerbaijan you need oil?
A.: The example you bring is very wrong. Most of the energy doesn’t
come from Azerbaijan, for us Azerbaijan is not a source of energy
as other countries are. We want Azerbaijan and Armenia to develop
because they are important countries.
The values that we share are the values of democracy and rule of law.
And we are establishing an action plan with you that requires
governments not only to do well in economy, but also properly guard
the democratic values that we and you defend.
Q.: Can you give hope that these countries can one day become members
of the EU?
A.: The EU is a group of countries with very good and solid relations
with the rest of the world and also the countries we have will be
closer to the EU from the geographical point of view and from the
viewpoint of shared values. But being close to the EU doesn’t mean
being part of it. We can sign very profound cooperation agreements
with countries, but membership is a different story… We never say no,
we always say let’s keep on moving, cooperating as much as possible.
Q.: What do you tell Turkey regarding its closed border with Armenia?
A.: I’ve always told them [Turkey] that this is necessary and good
for Turkey and Armenia to open their borders. We don’t defend in any
case closed borders, we defend open borders and movement of trade,
people, goods. This is very important in today’s global world where
you cannot be closed, you have to be open by definition. We would like
very much to see Armenia and Turkey cooperate. History is history,
we have to look into the future, not to the past.
Q. Can Kosovo create a precedent for other conflicts?
A.: No conflict is like the other. Conflicts normally have origin,
development and solution. And it is very unlikely that all the three
elements are the same in different conflicts. You can learn from some
conflict, but cannot apply the same model. There is no clone-ation.

8 MILLION USD TO THE RELATIVES OF THE VICTIMS OF THE GENOCIDE
A1+
[07:09 pm] 13 November, 2006
Insurance company “New York Life” started to make payments of
compensation to more than two thousand heirs of the victims of the
Armenian Genocide.
“New York Life” has agreed to make payments to the heirs of those
Armenians who had insured their lives in the company and fell victims
to the Armenian Genocide.
According to advocate Vardges Eghiazaryan, the corresponding committee
of the insurance company accepted 2515 of the total 5692 letters and
started to send them the money last Sunday, Radio station “Azatutyun”
informed.
Vardges Eghiazaryan said that the people living outside Armenia will
get the cheques by mail. As for Armenia, the company has an agreement
with one of banks which will transfer the money.
3 million 600 thousand has been sent to Armenia where 1254 people
will get their shares. 2 million 700 thousand has been sent to the
USA for 896 people. The third is France and the forth is Canada. On
the whole, Armenians will get money is 26 countries.
The whole sum to be paid is 7 million 954 thousand USD. About 3
million USD will remain which will be sent to charity organizations.

ANOTHER VICTIM OF “VICTORY”
A1+
[08:23 pm] 13 November, 2006
On November 11 the Malatya department of the Police received
information about a man who had jumped from “Victory” bridge.
The group of policemen found the dead body of Gagik Virabyan (b. 1960)
in Hrazdan river.
The circumstances of the suicide are being revealed.