Month: April 2007

GEORGIAN POLICEMAN KILLS ARMENIAN YOUNG MAN IN AKHALTSKHA

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 03 2007

AKHALTSKHA, APRIL 3, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On April 2,
at 15:30 by local time, in Samtskhe-Javakhk’s Akhaltskha region, on
Atsghor-Akhaltskha road sector, Georgian employee of regional patrol
police during his service killed 28-year-old resident of Akhaltskha
Misha Kirakosian with fire-arms. As Javakhk-Info agency informed,
Misha Kirakosian was a member of Akhaltskha bikers’ hobby group. When
he was coming back from Akhaltskha region’s village of Atsghor to
the regional center, the Georgian policeman tried to stop him and
shot as if for Kirakosian’s not stopping. But as eye-witnesses say,
M. Kirakosian did not make any traffic violations and it is possible
that he did not notice the policeman’s sign of stopping him due to
having a helmet on his head.

Misha Kirakosian was married and had two children.

RPA OFFERED SERZH SARGSYAN’S CANDIDATURE FOR THE RA PRIME MINISTER POST

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2007 13:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On April 2 late at night at the session of the
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) President Robert Kocharian was
offered candidature of Serzh Sargsyan, RA Acting Defense Minister
and Chairman of RPA Council, for the post of Prime Minister. The
RPA Press Office informed the PanARMENIAN.Net journalist that 66 of
69 RPA Council members were present at the session, who unanimously
supported Serzh Sargsyan. According to the Constitution of Armenia
on April 4 the president must confirm S. Sargsyan’s appointment as
the Prime Minister of Armenia.

V. OSKANIAN: ARMENIA GIVES GREAT IMPORTANCE TO RUSSIAN FM’S VISIT TO ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2007 13:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia gives great importance to Russian FM Sergey
Lavrov’s visit, RA Acting Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated
at the interview to RIA "Novosti". He said, meetings on such a high
level are necessary to keep the rates of bilateral relations.

"The importance of the visit for Armenia is conditioned with our wish
to know Russia’s stance on regional and global problems. I am sure
that the exchange of views concerning the situation around Iran,
Kosovo problem, Russian-Georgian relations, as well as reforms on
the way in international organizations and other important issues
will be productive," the RA Acting FM stressed.

The head of Armenian MFA also noticed that Sergey Lavrov’s visit
coincides with the 15th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties
between the RF and RA.

"The visit will allow us to appreciate the way we’ve passed and fix
programs for future," Vartan Oskanian underlined.

"Indeed, currently Armenian-Russian relations are actively developing
in all spheres, the agenda of the meeting is rather extensive. During
the visit all questions will be discussed, but we will accentuate the
cooperation in security issues, transport communications and energy
sphere. Also the issue of peaceful settlement to Nagorno Karabakh
conflict will be discussed," Vartan Oskanian said, the RA MFA Press
Office reports.

MOSCOW EXPECTS DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2007 13:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia expects that parliamentarian elections in
Armenia will be held in accordance with democratic norms, official
representative of Russian MFA Mikhail Kaminin stated. He said Moscow
expects that parliamentarian elections in Armenia will be held on a
high organizational level. "We wish to hear estimation of the situation
in the current electoral campaign of Armenia. Russia will assist the
process of elections by sending to Yerevan Russian observers from
CIS and OSCE," the Russian diplomat stressed, RIA "Novosti" reports.

"KAVKAZ-POTI" TRAIN-FERRY TO BE TESTED APRIL 5

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2007 14:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ First test works in port "Kavkaz" (Russia)-Poti
(Georgia) direction will be fulfilled during the coming two days. It
is expected that the train-ferry will arrive in Poti from port Kavkaz
late at night of April 5-in the morning of April 6. Main tests are
connected with docking of the ferry with the bridge in Poti. In case
if everything is successful, the ferry will be fully enabled next week.

The opening of train-ferry was scheduled for mid March, however
because of technical problems it was postponed. In mid February
owner of the train-ferry Chairman of "Rezerv Capital Corporation"
Hakim Matchanov stated in Yerevan that the ferry would be floated
March 1 and its exploitation will start March 15, IA Regnum reports.

Two train-ferries will be launched in the "Kavkaz-Poti-Kavkaz"
direction, which will run two times a week. The volume capacity
makes 50 train carriages, also 340 containers or 86 trucks can
be loaded. Loading duration of these one-deck ferries, which is 150
meters in length and 22 meters wide, makes only an hour, while loading
of other ferries lasts from 8 to 12 hours. It is expected that during
the current year these two train-ferries will ferry over 120 000 tones
of goods imported by Armenia and 12 000 tones from Armenia’s export.

FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR PENALIZING NEGATION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2007 14:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Segolene Royal, candidate to the election for
the French Republic’s presidency, indicated to be favorable to the
penalizing negation of the Armenian Genocide, specifying that "it will
be the position" of her Foreign Minister if she is elected, independent
French journalist Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net. "Negationnism
is an attitude, a perversion of the spirit which makes me horror
personally. And this, whatever the circumstance, whatever the
genocide," she explained in an interview to the French review Nouvelles
d’ Armenie Magazine.

Last year French National Assembly adopted a bill, which penalizes
negation of the Armenian Genocide.

Currently, this clause is on standby to be endorsed by Senat. On
the other hand, Ms Royal declared to be favorable to entry of Turkey
in the European Union, contrary to the other principal candidates:
Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Bayrou and Jean-Marie Lepen.

BRITISH ARMENIAN GROUP IS THE LARGEST LOBBY ORGANIZATION IN BRITISH PARLIAMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2007 15:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 114 British parliamentarians are for recognizing
the Armenian Genocide by the United Kingdom, Co-Founder and honorary
Secretary of the British Armenian Group Odette Bazil stated to a news
conference in Yerevan on Tuesday. She said, in order to include the
resolution in the agenda one third of signatures of the 665-member
parliament are necessary.

"For this purpose the British Armenian Group cooperates with other
organizations, which protects rights of victims of other genocides,"
she said adding that it is difficult to deal with pro-Armenian lobby
in the United Kingdom, since very influential Turkish and Azeri lobby
organizations work there.

O. Bazil also said that from the moment of establishing the group the
organization has rather enlarged and reached certain success. "When
the group was established only 6 parliamentarians were included in it,
and now their number has reached 106. This is the largest lobby group
in the British Parliament," she noticed.

O. Bazil informed the British Armenian Group also cooperates with
extraparliamentary organizations of the Armenian community in Great
Britain, particularly with "Armenian Solidarity" and "Nor Serund"
(New Generation), "Novosti Armenia" reports.

INDIAN JOURNALIST: WAR IN KARABAKH WAS SKILLFULLY DIRECTED FROM OVERSEAS

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.04.2007 15:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The war in Nagorno Karabakh was skillfully directed
from overseas, in order to speed up USSR’s unavoidable collapse – an
empire, which could not manage to blow out conflicts in its boundless
territories, Indian journalist Alok Shekhar writes. Moreover,
in his opinion, "directors were well aware which side Russia will
support in this conflict, and tried to push away Muslim allies from
Russians, which with USSR’s support aimed at showing their character
and incompliance". Lives of others have no meaning for imperialists,
if even they are killed by thousands.

"Taking into account the current situation it is not difficult to guess
further progress of events in this region. When military operation
against Iran approaches more and more near, the world satrap wants to
draw away the attention of the world community from his real intentions
and unleash local wars between other countries. That’s why Azerbaijan
desires to revenge for his victims, saying that peaceful efforts
to settle territorial disputes with Armenia do not give practical
results. And undoubtedly in this new conflict the United States
will give all possible support to Azerbaijan. It is not difficult
to predict results of new bloody massacre; thousands of people will
lose their homes and lives in order to please US’s imperial ambitions
and weaken Russia’s influence in this region, which in future may
result in his full exclusion from Caucasus," Alok Shekhar writes,
"CenterAsia" reports.

ARMENIAN PARTIES CHOOSE THEIR ELECTION SLOGANS

ARMENPRESS
Apr 03 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 3, ARMENPRESS: Armenian parties, which will contest
the May 12 parliamentary elections have already chosen their slogans
to promote their election campaigns. Thus, the Republican Party will
be electioneering with the slogan "For You Armenia."

Galust Sahakian, head of the party’s parliamentary faction, said the
party is prepared to launch its campaign on April 8, when the Central
Election Commission will give it the official start.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s (ARF) slogan is "ARF is our
old friend." An official of the party’s central office said the party
will make use of both free and paid airtime on TV to advertise its
manifesto and its programs.

The Prosperous Armenia party’s main slogan is "Let us build a
prosperous Armenia together,’ but according to Baghdasar Mherian, a
senior official of the party, this is just one of about three dozens
of the party’s slogans. Others sound like ‘The powerful must be just
and the weak must be protected,’ "Care and respect to senior citizens,’
"Live a decent and worthy life,’ and so on.

The opposition Nor Zhamanakner (New Times) will contest the polls
with the slogan "We speak by the language of facts." The slogan of the
Dashink (Alliance) party is "Strength and Unity," while the People’s
Party of Armenia has chosen the slogan of ‘Principle and Dignity."

REPUBLICAN PARTY SPOKESMAN DENIES MEDIA REPORTS ABOUT VERBAL SQUABBLE BETWEEN TWO MINISTERS

ARMENPRESS
Apr 03 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 3, ARMENPRESS: A spokesman for the governing Republican
Party has denied today media reports claiming that a verbal scuffle
occurred yesterday between defense minister Serzh Sarkisian, who
is chairman of the Republican Party’s Council and territorial and
infrastructure minister Hovik Abrahamian.

A local daily Haykakan Zhamanak claimed today that defense minister
Serzh Sarkisian told yesterday the influential territorial and
infrastructure minister Hovik Abrahamian, who had been appointed
earlier to steer the Republican Party’s election campaign, to quit
the party before April 5 when he is back from Brussels.

The daily claimed the scuffle occurred after the party’s Council’s
meeting and was sparked by defense minister’s anger at Abrahamian whom
he accused of covert cooperation with the Prosperous Armenia party
of a millionaire businessman Gagik Tsarukian, which is seen as the
main rival of the Republican Party in May 12 parliamentary elections.

The press secretary of the Republican Party, Eduard Sharmazanov,
described these media reports as ‘absurd." He said no clash had ever
taken place between the two ministers, describing these reports as
part of a campaign designed to smear the Republican Party.

He also said the Republican Party will accept any ruling of a court
that is considering an appeal by the Prosperous Armenia party which is
protesting the outcome of a mayoral election in the town of Armavir
on March 25, in which the acting mayor from the Republican Party
defeated his rival from the Prosperous Armenia.