Month: March 2007

SAFAROV TAKEN TO JAIL

ArmRadio.am
07.03.2007 12:36

Yesterday Ramil Safarov, sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering
Armenian Officer Gurgen Margaryan, was moved from the inquiry isolation
ward to a jail 170 km away from Budapest. Azeri Trend agency reports
that representative of Ramil Safarov’s family in the court Ikram
Shirinov declared that Safarov’ s Hungarian attorney Clara Fisher
intends to emeet with the prisoner this week. The verdict of the Court
of Appel on Ramikl Safarov has net bee presented to his attorneys
yet. After receiving it the attorneys intend to appeal the verdict
in the Supreme Court of Hungary.

ARMENIAN SPORTSMEN TO PARTAKE IN FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

ArmRadio.am
07.03.2007 12:50

Four Armenian sportsmen will participate in the FINA World
Championships to start on March 17 in Melbourne (Australia).

Armenpress was told at RA Swimming Federation that the Armenian
team will comprise swimmers Mikhael Koloyan, Harutyun Harutyunyan,
Aram Nazaryan and diver Hovhannes Avtandilyan. The Armenian sports
delegation is headed by the President of RA Swimming Federation
Igor Safaryan.

SWISS COURT TRIALS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIER

ArmRadio.am
07.03.2007 10:32

A Turkish nationalist leader has gone on trial in Switzerland for
denying that the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 amounted
to genocide.

Dogu Perincek, 65, is accused under Swiss law of racial discrimination.

The Swiss parliament, along with more than a dozen countries,
recognizes the killings as genocide.

The prosecutor in the city of Lausanne called for a six-month jail
sentence for genocide denial.

Dogu Perincek, head of the Turkish Workers’ Party, made the statements
in a public speech in Lausanne in 2005.

"I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide," he said
in court on Tuesday.

ARONYAN THE 4TH IN MORELIA-LINARES CHESS TOURNAMENT

ArmRadio.am
07.03.2007 13:47

Armenian Grand Master Levon Aronyan played a draw with Hungarian
Peter Leko and occupies the 4th position after the 11th round of
the Morelia-Linares Chess Tournament under way in the Spanish city
of Linares.

After the 11th round, leader of the tournament is Vishvanatan Anand
(7 points), the second is M. Karlsen with 6.5 points, the third is
V. Ivanchuk with 5.5 points, the fourth is Levon Aronyan with 5.5
points, P. Svidler is the fifth with 5.5 points, V. Topalov is the
sixth with 5 points, A. Morozevich is the seventh with 4.5 points
and P. Leko is the eighth with 4.5 points.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON WINEMAKING TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN

ArmRadio.am
07.03.2007 14:47

April 26-28 an international forum will be held in Yerevan, during
which the legal, production and sale issues of the wine market will
be discussed.

Chairman of the Union of Armenian Winemakers Avag Harutyunyan told
Mediamax that the forum will feature experts from Georgia, Russia,
Ukraine, Moldova, Israel, Turkey, US, Germany, Italy and France.

The forum is organized by the Union of Armenian Winemakers with the
assistance of a number of local and international organizations.

AZERI SOLDIER DOES NOT WANT TO GO HOME

ArmRadio.am
07.03.2007 14:33

Azeri soldier Samir Mamedov does not want to return to motherland,
head of the working group of the Armenian State Committee on Captives,
Prisoners and Missing Persons Armen Kaprielyan told ArmInfo.

In response to the reports of Azeri media on the possibility of sending
Samir Mamedov to a third country, Armen Kaprielyan underlined that
RA State Commission does not possess any such information.

Let us remind that Samir Mamedov voluntarily passed to the Armenian
side on December 24, 2006.

RUSSIA, UZBEKISTAN SIGN AGREEMENT ON COMBAT HELICOPTERS JV

RIA Novosti
12:57|07/ 03/ 2007

TASHKENT, March 7 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and Uzbekistan have signed an
agreement to establish a joint venture to repair combat helicopters
in the Central Asian country, the head of Russia’s Federal Industry
Agency said Wednesday.

As part of the agreement Russian companies will have a minimum 51%
share in the joint venture which is planned to start later in the year.

Boris Alyoshin said the new enterprise will mainly work in the military
interests of Uzbekistan and some other countries. Its main aim is
to repair Mi-8 Hip and Mi-24 Hind helicopters, their modifications,
as well as components and assembly parts for them.

Russia and Uzbekistan are both members of a regional security
organization, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which
also comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Uzbekistan is one of Russia’s key partners among the members of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose alliance of the
former Soviet republics. As a political dialogue between the two
countries has been actively developing with the Russian and Uzbek
presidents meeting nine times last year bilateral trade in 2006
increased by 30% to total $2.4 billion.

Representing the Russian side in the joint venture are Oboronprom
united industrial corporation and Rosoboronexport state arms export
monopoly; and Chkalov’s Tashkent Aircraft manufacturing enterprise
along with Uzmakhsusimpex state enterprise – from Uzbekistan.

U.S. SENATE DELAYED CONSIDERATION OF S.RES.65 CONDEMNING DINK’S MURDER

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.03.2007 14:07 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has
delayed consideration of the S.Res.65 condemning the murder of Hrant
Dink, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). "We
are troubled that Senator Lugar – apparently acting at the request of
the Administration – has delayed the U.S. Senate’s tribute to the life
and memory of Hrant Dink," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

"We look forward to the panel, at the next opportunity, rejecting
any efforts to block or water down this measure, and passing it in
the form it was introduced."

Following the delay, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Member
Chris Dodd (D-CT) stated that, "It is unfortunate that the committee
deferred action on this important resolution. I look forward to voting
in support of the resolution when the committee considers it at the
next business meeting."

"Hrant Dink spoke out for tolerance in an era when voices like his
need to be heard," stated Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. "His
assassination was a terrible crime which warrants the strong
condemnation of the Congress and the entire international community."

ARSHAK SADOYAN DOES NOT LOSE HOPE OF RECEIVING FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM THE US FOR CONDUCTING PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Noyan Tapan
Mar 07 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN. In response to the letter of the
"Union of National Democrats" (UND) Party, the US embassy in
Armenia replied that it cannot provide financial assistance for
using TV time. According to the embassy, this idea has no relation
to "our long-term programs on election assistance and democracy
development." Whereas, as the UND chairman, NA deputy Arshak Sadoyan
stated at the March 7 press conference, a number of embassies
and international organizations expressed their willingness to
provide financial assistance for holding free and fair elections in
Armenia. "We are not satisfied with the answer of the US embassy. In
this connection a question arises: Will the US provide the promised
6.5 mln dollars only to the authorities, thanks to which elections
are falsified each time?" A. Sadoyan said. He said that the UND will
again apply to the embassies of the US, Germany, Italy, Great Britain
and France, the Yerevan Offices of the UN and OSCE and the US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice. In the words of A. Sadoyan, if C. Rice does
answer their letter this time too, he will apply through famous mass
media outlets to US tax payers, informing them that their country’s
officials "make promises which they do not fulfil."

WASHINGTON POST CALLS ON TURKEY "NOT TO TAKE SERIOUSLY" ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.03.2007 14:17 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A recent article in The Washington Post newspaper
has called on Turkey not to take seriously the U.S. Congressional
vote on the non-binding resolution on the Armenian Genocide bill.

Post writer Jackson Diehl in the article titled "The House’s Ottoman
Agenda" asserts that Turkey’s behavior regarding the controversial
bill should be "like one of the Western democracies," and that Turkey
should simply "shrug its shoulders" and move on with regards to the
bill. Diehl also notes in his article that no one much will place
importance on the Armenian bill, pointing to another non-binding
resolution passed by the House of Representatives against the Iraqi
war as an example.

Dielh also uses his article to point to the estimated 70-80 ethnic
Armenian voters who live in U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff’s district,
a fact he asserts helped shaped Schiff’s heavy involvement in the
writing of the bill. Diehl also recalls that many other ethnically
Armenian voters live in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district; Pelosi has
reiterated her support for the bill many times.

At one point in his article, Diehl touches on what he portrays as the
lack of knowledge on the part of most House of Representatives members
to even decide on such a long past subject as the Armenian Genocide.

Says Diehl, "Just think, 435 members of the House of Representatives,
most of whom don’t even know the difference between a Sunni and a
Shiite, will decide on whether or not to approve of Adam Schiff’s
version of events which occurred 92 years ago in the northeast region
of Turkey."