Author: Babken Chilingarian

LUFTHANSA ENTERS ARMENIA’S AVIATION MARKET
YEREVAN, JUNE 3. ARMINFO. The first flight Munich-Yerevan-Munich
(DLH 3256/3257) will be carried out by Lufthansa June 3.
Regional Director for Russia and CIS Gunter Ott sats that the flight
will be carried out three time a week – Monday, Wednesday and Sunday
by Eirbus A319-320.
Ott says that Lufthansa has “shared” the German market with Armenia’s
national air carrier Armavia who will fly to Frankfurt. He says
that Lufthansa entering the Armenian market is due to the dynamic
development of the Armenian economy. Armenia is a poor country but it
is showing a promising development rate, says Ott noting that Lufhansa
coming into Armenia is a political, step too as this project was
lobbied by Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and German Chancellor
Gerhard Schreuder.
This year Lufthansa will increase the number of flights to the CIS
to 16. June 5 the company is starting to fly from Muchin to Tbilisi.
It should be noted that flying to Europe from Armenia are Armavia,
Austrian Airlines and British Airways.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARTHUR AGHABEKYAN MET THE PEACE-KEEPERS
A1plus
| 12:38:50 | 01-06-2005 | Official |
RA Defense deputy Minister General-lieutenant Arthur Aghabekyan,
together with the US Kansas state General-mayor Todd Bunting, had
meetings with the whole group of Armenian peace-keepers on May 29-June
1 in Kosovo, in order to get acquainted with the everyday life and
the needs of the Armenian soldiers.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RELEASE OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDER TO BE FIRST STEP FOR REGULATING
BILATERAL RELATIONS: ARMENIA’s AMBASSADOR TO CE
YEREVAN, MAY 27. ARMINFO. Release of Armenian-Turkish border without
preconditions will become the first significant step for regulating
bilateral relations, stated the permanent representative, Armenia’s
ambassador to the Council of Europe Christian Ter-Stepanyan during a
meeting of the CE ministers’ representatives, May 25.
As ARMINFO was informed in the press-service of the State commission
on organization of actions dedicated to the 90th anniversary of
Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, Ter-Stepanyan in his speech
noted: “Words of Turkish Prime Minister Receip Tayyip Erdogan on
denial of the fact of Armenian Genocide in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey
prove on a long way Turkey should pass to form a democratic society”.
Ter-Stepanyan noted that the accusation of professors of Turkish
universities of treason for their attempt to organize a conference in
Istanbul dedicated to Armenian Genocide despondently proves it.
“It is wrong to think that parliaments of the CE 11 member-countries
recognized Genocide under the pressure”, he noted. In his words,
wishing to access to the EU Erdogan offers to create a commission of
historians when numerous evidences of both historians and diplomats
are quite enough to prove the fact of Genocide. “At the same time, we
think that no discord may justify the closed border and the absence of
diplomatic relations”, Ter-Stepanyan noted. -r-
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE MINSK GROUP COCHAIRMEN TO HOLD NEGOTIATIONS WITH FOREIGN MINISTER
OF AZERBAIJAN IN BAKU
YEREVAN, MAY 27. ARMINFO. Negotiations of Foreign Minister of
Azerbaijan Elmar Mamedyarov with the cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group for Nagorny Karabakh will meet in Baku, Friday.
As RIA Novosti informs with reference to the foreign ministry of
Azerbaijan, during the meeting the participants are to continue the
discussion of issues of settlement of the Karabakh conflict within the
framework of the Prague process. As ARMINFO was earlier informed in
Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign AFfairs, the data of the visit of the
cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group to Yerevan are being specified. The
cochairmen intend to meet in Yerevan with Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A!plus
| 19:17:12 | 25-05-2005 | Social |
AGAINST XENOPHOBIA WITH MASS MEDIA
Today the two-day conference organized by the South Caucasian countries,
Russia and UNESCO with the theme «For the sake of tolerance, against
discrimination and xenophobia in the context of combat against international
terrorism» finished in Yerevan. At the end of the day a joint declaration
was adopted which was read by the RA ombudsman Larissa Alaverdyan.
In the declaration a special place was given to the Mass Media, as according
to the lawyers from different countries, the combat against encroachments
against national minorities or xenophobia between nations will be efficient
only with proper work of the MM.
Ombudsman Larissa Alaverdyan was surprised at the highlighting of the
international conference. Her working group had informed almost all the MM
in Armenia, but for the past two days 2-3 journalists were present at the
event.
«I think this is surprising for our guests too. I expected more interest
towards our conference. Our authorities take active participation in all the
international events. In this connection the passiveness of the journalists
was surprising as it ought to have been vice versa», commented Alaverdyan to
«A1+».
Let us also remind you that a non-official representative of Azerbaijan was
also present at the conference. He had been in friendly relations with
Armenian colleagues, and to day conducted the event with fluent Russian.
At the end of the day Azeri Jiansha Omarov apologized to the Ombudsman’s
working group for refusing to visit Tsitsernakaberd with the other
participants of the conference «for a well-known reason».
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Queen’s Speech: ID election cards must be used to topple Blair’s agenda
Written by Noddy Bigears
The Spoof (satire), UK
May 17 2005
Many Britains Fear That They Will Lose Their Identity
The Queen’s speech today has damned the Blair Government for taking
the British people into the dark ages with corruption, disease in
hospitals and taxation levels that take away peoples identities and
leave them homeless. She announced today at the opening of the Houses
of Parliament that ID election cards will be introduced immediately
to avoid any further electoral fraud at which point she dissolved
parliament until a fair election can be arranged.
In the most disturbing case so far of a dramatic increase of so many
homeless people without identity, a man has been found wandering
in and out of the Thames in his clothes. The Inland Revenue have
claimed the man, accusing him of losing his identity to avoid the new
Blair-Brown-People-Buster tax regime. The poor man is being currently
held until the Inland Revenue experts can identify any personnel
assets or valuables to seize.
Millions of people have lost their identities in Britain due to the
catastrophic electoral postal fraud used by the Labourites to cling to
power and political domination. Another disturbing case involved now
homeless Mark Thatcher, as he complained from his bus stop shelter in
South Africa “I came home from work, parked the car in the drive but
my house key would not fit and when the front door did open, my house
turned out to be full of Armenians who promptly called the police and
had me arrested for stealing my own car.” However, Thames Valley police
denied his claim insisting, “The man known as Mark Thatcher can neither
prove his identity nor his ownership of the assets that he has claimed
and therefore, it was straight onto the first plane out of Heathrow.”
The Blair Government has consistently denied claims that over 22
million Armenians had been sneaked into the UK prior to the last
general election or that any immigrants would have had a postal vote.
In fact, a government electoral officer explained, “Of course they
would not have had a single postal vote; they would be entitled to
two postal votes, one for their UK address and another one for their
Armenian home address.”
Other individual tragedies included pensioner Michael Howard who
had put down a huge deposit on his new ‘off plan’ house in Downing
Street, only to find that on removal day when he arrived all excited
with expectation, the property was occupied with Iraqi squatters. He
too, was removed by the Thames Valley police but for deportation to
Uzbekistan as the currently lowest cost asylum destination. Once
again, the Thames valley police spokesman confirmed “The man who
claimed to be Michael Howard had no identity, are you thinking what
I am thinking? So of course we had to send him back somewhere.”
CEO, Jack Straw from the British Airports Authority confirmed record
numbers of departures in the last year but confirmed “No passenger is
allowed to board a plane travelling to the UK without a valid Labour
Party identity card, otherwise they would have nothing to vote for
when they got here.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse — English
May 9, 2005 Monday 10:47 AM GMT
Outtakes from Moscow WWII commemorations
MOSCOW
Herewith some of the not-so-scripted moments seen on the sidelines of
the highly choreographed Moscow ceremonies marking the 60th
anniversary of the end of World War II.
Putin offers to protect Bush from fresh Laura attack
MOSCOW: Security was ratchet-tight when Vladimir Putin hosted George
and Laura Bush to dinner in his country dacha — but the Russian
leader conceded that some attacks come under the radar: namely from
one’s wife.
The US president is still smarting from the US First Lady’s colourful
mauling of him at a US press event last week, when she notably chided
him for going to bed early, sarcastically calling him “Mr
Excitement.”
“I took a look at coverage of your meeting with the press and I could
see how Laura could attack you sometimes,” said Putin. “So I think we
shall have a good chance to protect you.”
Bush, who famously said he “looked into the soul” of Putin at their
first meeting five years ago, made light of his ordeal, which also
saw his wife compare herself to a “Desperate Housewife” from the hit
US television series.
“She is quite a comedian,” he said.
Russian communist hails ‘great leader’ Stalin
MOSCOW: Vladimir Putin may have been careful not to overly offend
Western political sensibilities at Monday’s World War II
commemorations — but his discretion was compensated for by Communist
Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.
“We won because the people defended Soviet power and because it was
ruled by its great leader, commander in chief Stalin,” he told a
group of communist sympathizers even as Putin hosted world leaders on
Moscow’s Red Square.
Speaking outside the Russian capital’s Belarus station — from where
Soviet forces back from the battlefronts returned 60 years ago — he
also defended the 1939 Ribbentrop-Molotov pact between Germany and
the Soviet authorities.
“Why does the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact produce such bitterness?” he
asked. “It’s thanks to this pact that Japan decided not to attack the
USSR and that Turkey decided not to take part in the war at all.”
Across town on Red Square, Putin was more circumspect, hailing the
Soviet role in defeating the Nazis, but also paying tribute to other
European countries in defeating Hitler. “We never divided victory
into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’.”
World leaders in display of reconciled unity — or not
MOSCOW: Over 50 world leaders were united Monday in hailing the
defeat of Nazi Germany 60 years ago, with Russian President Vladimir
Putin vowing to ensure such conflicts never again scar the face of
the earth.
But not everyone saw eye to eye on everything.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Robert
Kocharian, whose countries have been at war for years over the
disputed enclave of Nagorny Karabakh, were for example visibly
avoiding each other’s gazes.
Aliyev even boycotted a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent
States on the eve of Monday’s ceremony to avoid meeting Kocharian —
all the more so on May 8, the anniversary of the capture of the Azeri
town of Shousha by the Armenians.
At the other extreme, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev annoyed
press photographers while standing in their sight line as he waited
at length to talk with US President George W. Bush. In the end he was
granted a brief audience.
Bush, before taking his seat next to Putin to watch the spectacular
military parade, was also seen chatting for several minutes with
Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Russia’s air force wins epic battle – against the weather
MOSCOW: Specially equipped Russian Air Force planes won a
white-knuckle battle with the weather over Moscow on Monday and
managed to prevent rain from marring a Red Square military parade
attended by more than 50 world leaders.
Beginning at dawn, a fleet of 11 Ilyushin-18 and Antonov-12 planes
seeded chemical dispersal agents into bad weather upwind of Moscow,
Air Force Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky told the state-run ITAR-TASS
news agency.
Until the last minute, it appeared that their efforts, honed with
decades of experience dating back to the Soviet era, would fail.
Huge clouds gathered over Moscow and the Red Square parade ground
where thousands of troops were massing to commemorate victory over
Nazi Germany 60 years ago. Drizzle forced Russian President Vladimir
Putin to greet guests outside the Kremlin under umbrellas.
About 15 minutes before the parade, the rain stopped and patches of
blue sky appeared, announcing a dry spell that held for the duration
of the hour-long military extravaganza.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Winter Views
by Kathleen Rose Winter
Windy City Times
2005-04-27

Human Terri
When does a human being become a vegetable? Who decides when that
person slips from a human being into an item comparable to something
in a store’s produce section? Other human beings, and the government,
make this decision, and it is wrong. This whole question of deciding
the worth of a human being based on someone’s perception of that
individual’s quality of life is wrong. Letting Terri die of hunger and
thirst set a dangerous precedent for the extermination of people with
disabilities. It is cruel and unusual punishment for someonewho was
guilty of nothing.
Behind the whole question of the life of Terri Schiavo, her `quality
of life’ , is an ugly part of this society’s arrogant view of persons
with disabilities. Instead of the `right’ to die, could she not have
received the `right’ to live? As a person with a disability, who is
wheelchair mobile, I face this ugly truth each day. I want the right
to live. The right to healthcare, employment and housing. But what I
see instead is President Bush cutting housing for the disabled and the
courts upholding the torture of a human being.
When I saw the pictures of Terri smiling while her mother kissed her,
I could see the vitality and validity of her life-her soul. My life
and those of other disabled people is not different from Terri’s,
because we areresponsive, able to talk or express ourselves, and she
was not. We are all human. No one can judge the way a person expresses
themselves or what they feel inside. And government certainly should
not sanction the cruel and inhumane murder of someone based on the
perception of a society that does not value the worth, validity or
humanity of a disabled persons’ life.
The word `invalid’ says it all. Our society pronounces it with the
emphasis on the first syllable. Webster’s New Revised Dictionary
defines it as `A chronically sick or disabled person. Disabled by
disease or injury’. The other definition places the emphasis on the
second syllable, and is defined as`Not factually or legally valid
… unsound.’ The first definition is a word made up to suit the
perception of this society. Both pronunciations are close enough to
equate a person with a disability as not valid, void, empty of
humanity. Apparently this society feels the same way because they did
something to Terri that isn’t done to people sentenced to death. The
condemned prisoner gets a last meal, not the misfortune of being
legally denied food and water until death occurs.
Every day, several times a day, I experience the most demoralizing
comments, questions, and assumptions about my life and its
validity. People have cometo me and said, `Good morning! You sure are
a brave person. If I were you, I couldn’t handle it. I would kill
myself.’ When I ride the lift bus people comment openly about me as if
I am invisible. If I am with someone they askthat person if they are
my nurse or `helper’. People touch me inobscene, inappropriate,
aggressive ways without my permission, insisting they are helping
me. When I politely insist on my independence, I am viewed as mean or
bitter. It seems as if people are more comfortable with their
perception of me as not being a whole human being. Overall I am seen
as helpless with no humanity; invisible. Historically many
populations try to insist on their validity as human beings. Some
people understand the origin of the de-humanizing stereotypes and work
to dispel them. But what of the person with the disability?
Terri Schiavo had a severe disability. She was a human being with a
soul. I want everyone reading this to think about being starved to
death and dying of thirst. Try to make it six hours without eating and
drinking and you’ll probably say, `I’m starving to death’. How
innocentthose words seem when spoken with money and food available to
you. Now think of Terri starving to death and realize that she was
starving due to the opinions of other human beings andthe United
States government. She was there wondering why she felt so bad; why
she felt weak and sick-why her lips were cracked and why no one would
bring her a simple drink of water. She was there wondering why she was
dying. Yes, I can think for her to give her life, especially if others
disavow her humanity to give her death. The truth is she was being
murdered; when an autopsy is done, it will find that she died of
hunger and dehydration. As a human being she felt every bit of the
pain that a human experiences when he or she experiences that kind of
death. She was tortured to death. There are laws, international and
national, which prohibit this torture. Why does it not extend to
someone with a disability? No one has the legal or moral right to
decide on the quality of someone else’s life to the point that they
can end that person’s life with torture.
As a person with a disability, I am frightened. This country has a
track record of dehumanizing people. It is a historical fact that
Africans, Natives, and Jewish people were dehumanized, in order to
justify the enslaving and genocide of them as a whole population. In
America, the lack of human worthfor Africans and Natives was written
into law and thus justified genocide. The world sat by and watched the
genocide of three million Armenians in 1915 and six millions Jewish
people during World War II. Am I to wait for my turn as a person with
a disability?
I hope that this world comes to the realization that disability is a
natural part of life. People fear it to the point of denial. The most
drastic of denial is denying the existence and humanity of people with
disabilities tothe point of invisibility. If something that is
supposed to be invisible, attempts visibility, it is erased. I do not
want to be erased. Hopefully, as this country comes to realize that in
approximately 15 years, one half of its population is going to be
disabled in some way, the humanity and of people with disabilities
will be realized and respected.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Independent, democratic and strong Armenian and NKR….
Pan Armenian News
21.04.2005 04:02
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The brutal murder by an Azeri serviceman of his
Armenian colleague in Budapest that shook the whole of the civilized
world, was just the result of the Baku criminal policy,” Nagorno
Karabakh Republic President Arkady Ghukasian stated when addressing
Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge: Human Rights and Genocide
international conference. The statement of the NKR President notes,
“The response to this outrageous crime of the Azeri society, which
took the murderer as a national hero, demonstrated the grievous fruits
of the Armenian-hatred policy of the Baku authorities. That is why
until people directly responsible for organizing mass slaughter of
ethnic Armenians in their republic as well as in Nagorno Karabakh
hold power in Azerbaijan, it will be difficult to believe that a
mutually acceptable and civilized settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, subsequent peaceful coexistence and mutually favorable
cooperation of our peoples and states are possible. Where is the
way out? Which lesson we have learned from the tragic events taken
place 90 years ago and the relatively near past? How can we resist to
criminal intentions of our neighbors in the future and not admit the
repetition of the past? Unfortunately the contemporary practice of
international relations has not worked out efficient mechanisms for
preventing or at least operative suppression of mass annihilation
of people based on the national, racial or religious criteria. The
national liberation movement of the people of Artsakh has illustrated
that the most efficient way to counteract genocide threats is not
endlessly appealing to international institutions and expecting
their intervention, but the self-organization of the society, ready
to armed resistance to defend the right to live on the earth granted
to him by God. The highest form of self-organization of the Artsakh
people was the Karabakh statehood, which succeeded in fulfilling
the vital task of neutralization of external military threats to the
security of the Nagorno Karabakh people with the assistance of the
Armenians of the world. Independent, democratic and strong Armenia,
the independent, democratic and strong Nagorno Karabakh Republic –
these are the guarantors of the security of our nation.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 15:18:38 | 12-04-2005 | Politics |
WHY DON’T JOURNALISTS GO TO KARABAKH
How do the Armenian media influence the Karabakh problem settlement?
Expert of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies Alvard
Barkudaryan is concerned over the fact that some media publish interviews
with minor political figures «just to fill their pages with information»,
thus doing more harm than good. «Such publications give the impression that
Karabakh is still a part of Azerbaijan. There are no broadcasts about
Karabakh, journalists do not go there, and moreover, they lack the
perception of Karabakh and of people living there’, Ms. Barkhudaryan says.
According to her, it was more or less understandable why journalists avoid
visiting military zone; to date such behavior is at least incomprehensible.
She is also concerned over the lack of professional analysts and censures
the journalists, who do not pay homage to the internal policy. «The
information being spread by some media at present is neither favorable nor
pro-Armenian», she resumed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress